“Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” — Ken Robinson

Faces iMake encourages creativity, experimenting, learning and expression in one magical app. The platform is easy to use and supports collaboration and discovery that children of all ages will enjoy! This app uses real life pictures of everyday objects which you can manipulate to create colorful and silly pictures. Each picture created can be easily saved and shared. Faces iMake was developed with artist, children’s book author, and educator Hanoch Piven. It is based on the highly acclaimed creative workshops he has conducted in schools and kindergartens all around the world. Priven thoughtfully added short and entertaining lessons in the app to help children learn how to use each tool and get lots of ideas. This is a feature not included in many creativity apps and is really helpful for kids and parents. You can try out the lite version for $.99 or buy the full version for $3.99.

Wreck this App, as the name implies, invites children to make a mess with the pages in this virtual journal. Each page gives the user a prompt in order to think as an artist or start into an artistic direction with their own thoughts and ideas. Wreck This App is based on the book Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. The app is intentionally created in black and white and has a simple interface that children ages 4 and up can easily use. The journal does not read the prompts to you, but younger children are able to navigate the tools once the prompts are read aloud to them. This would be an engaging app to take on a trip, to use while waiting in an airport, or on a rainy or snowy day inside. Some examples of the prompts included on the pages are: Add a photo of dirt, garbage or stains, trace your toes, or document a boring event in detail. This app makes your child think in many different directions and they can use words, photos, or drawing tools to express their answers. If your child doesn’t like the creation they’ve made, they can erase it and create another one. The app does have options for easily sharing to social media so parents will want to monitor their children when using the app or disable these features on their iPad. Wreck this App is available for $4.99 for iPhone and iPad and uses creative prompts and ideas to make a digital journal your child can enjoy coming back to again and again.

PlayArt makes you feel like you’ve stepped into an interactive Art Museum. Add a background of Monet’s and add artistic elements of Van Gogh and empower your child to take on the feeling of famous painters to create their own pieces. The app has an area where kids can save their masterpieces in the My Museum section. Within the app, children can decide which painter’s elements are their favorites and save them to their own personal pallet. Children can also add their own paint to the background of notorious painters or start with an empty canvas. The app includes 160 elements and 48 canvases from 8 famous painters. The app is completely kid safe and does have options for sharing to social media but they are locked. We wish that the app contained more information about the well-known artists themselves, so parents may have to supply the information once children are exposed to the painters. This app is sure to pique their interest in prominent painters work and enjoy the process of creating their own unique paintings.