Our top five apps for kids in the back

An old-school game of ‘I spy’ or the licence-plate game will only last so long before mutiny occurs in the back seat, led by the battle cry “I’m boooored” – a classic that’s only beaten by the chart-topping “Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?”.

So for the sake of familial peace (and quiet), hand over your phone and/or tablet and avoid sibling squabbles using the superior distracting powers of technology. Here, in no particular order, are our top five hand-picked apps to occupy, entertain and stimulate the active minds of under-fives on your next long drive.

Our top pic of Toca Boca’s suite of apps for kids, Kitchen Monsters combines (relatively) healthy dietary habits with messy, gross-out good times. Curious cooks select their monster, and then decide what to feed them by choosing ingredients from the fridge – mushroom, tomato, lemon, broccoli, carrot, sausage, steak and a spiky blue mystery monster vegetable that turns green with polka dots when cooked. Cool! You can chop the ingredients up; stick them in a blender; and boil, fry or microwave them. Then the really fun stuff starts: feed your monster by tossing your culinary creation into their mouth, and then watch them munch away. We have to confess: we had fun playing around with this one.

“He has terrible tusks and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. He’s the Gruffalo! Gruffalo! Gruffalo! He’s the Gruffalo!” If reading these lyrics gets the song playing in your head, there’s a very good chance your child will love this app. Featuring all the favourite characters from the storybook The Gruffalo, Gruffalo: Games is a suite of six straightforward puzzle games to keep little ones entertained, including snap, noughts and crosses, and jigsaw puzzles. There’s also a matching game that encourages recognition of shapes, letters and numbers, so the app is educational as well as absorbing. Win, win!

Designed for four-year-olds, Forest Flyer encourages imagination through activities that allow kids to make up their own narratives while they explore a magical forest land. Full of weird and wonderful surprises – including a breakdance-inducing boombox and a main character who, for some reason, enjoys face-planting into a cupcake – this app is sure to elicit squeals of delight from young ones as they play. And the best part is that Sago Mini apps contain no in-app purchases, so you don’t need to worry about your kids inadvertently running up a huge bill on your credit card. We’re all for that!

Tinybop’s edutainment apps receive a big tick of approval from parents in the tech industry, but Everything Machine is perhaps the most versatile of the bunch due to its flexibility. The app utilises your phone’s in-built features (camera, mic, light, speaker) to turn the device into a range of virtual tools that kids can build themselves. Kids can play around and problem solve, learning what works and what doesn’t through experimentation, or they can deep-dive into building a more complex device. And when we say complicated, we mean it: there are downloadable manuals as well as video tutorials for more advanced or enthusiastic little techies. Either way, they’re sure to love playing around with the app’s fart sounds (even if it drives parents crazy).

Audio books. Obvious, right? Not necessarily – it’s far more common to associate apps with games than literature. Audible has almost 3,000 titles suitable for ages four and under, leaping up to over 11,000 for five- to seven-year-olds. And while Adam Mansbach’s Go the *#@! to Sleep, narrated by Samuel L Jackson (a role reprised by Play School host Noni Hazelhurst, uncensored on YouTube), is a favourite of sleep-deprived parents everywhere, we recommend going for decidedly more child-friendly literary classics. Timeless faves include Roald Dahl’s Matilda, narrated by Kate Winslet, and Fantastic Mr Fox and The Twits, narrated by The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd and Richard Ayoade respectively. Ranging in length from 57 minutes (The Twits) to 4 hours and 18 minutes (Matilda), there’s more than enough Dahl on Audible to see you across state lines. And trust us, you’ll want to connect the app to your car’s stereo system instead of sticking headphones on your kid – the way these actors bring the stories and characters to life is just as enjoyable for adults. Just make sure to keep your eyes on the road while you attempt to stifle inevitable fits of laughter.

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