This Thanksgiving, you can complete your grocery shopping, and spend your day preparing dinner while your child plays with these festive apps. These apps will help reinstate the importance of the holiday, while letting them experience in the festivities. Over dinner, ask your child what they’ve learned; maybe you’ll learn something new, too.
The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks (iOS only)
The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks is a delightful story that addresses many conversations that happen around Thanksgiving. The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks is about their days leading up to Thanksgiving day, and includes the bear children learning about the first Thanksgiving.The familiar characters struggle to eat a familiar turkey, show great teamwork in creating a first Thanksgiving reenactment, and finally spend time together being thankful. This is a wonderful tale to share with the whole family. The book does include a coordinating bible verse at the end. The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks is a part of the Living Light Series by Oceanhouse Media.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (iOS only)
The app opens with the classic Peanuts music and each page has a hidden leaf for children to discover. The story has the options “Read to me” and “Read myself.” The words are highlighted as the narrator reads, and the characters on the page are animated like the classic Peanuts show. In the story, Charlie Brown is not feeling thankful. His friends invite themselves over for Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown is upset about preparing a meal. Woodstock and Snoopy save the day by helping Charlie Brown prepare a meal. The story includes nice interactive features on each page, but it is long and feels almost like you are watching a Peanuts movie while reading the story and turning the pages. This app is appropriate for children ages 4-6 and is $5.99.
Best Apps for Creativity for Ages 3-5