Crayate iPad colouring app
We’re embarking on the (terrifyingly) long-haul trip to Australia in November, so I’m stocking up on anything and everything that might keep Alfie entertained. Unfortunately, (like all us BG ladies) I’m really picky and every colouring pad/sticker book/iPad app has to have a design element as well as being creative or educational. Which is why I was quick to download Crayate to my shiny new iPad (sorry, Kat!). Designed by Mr Booth, with drawings by Ben the Illustrator, whose cards I’ve often bought over at 1973, it’s a simple, but gorgeous-looking colouring app.
It’s easy to operate (Alfie, 2, is a whizz already) – just slide the animals along to pick the one you want to colour, then do the same with the backgrounds below. Then, finally, select your colours from the rainbow of crayons at the top. I love the crayon-like textured effect you achieve and Alfie loves looking back over pictures we have saved. You can even email finished artworks to grandparents or friends. All in all, a thing of beauty that – along with the fabulous Toca Boca apps - is definitely going to make that journey a bit easier. £1.99 from the App Store.
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About the Author (Author Profile)
Mum to Alfie (3), soon-to-be mama again and word nerd Lucy is a glossy magazine journalist who has substituted a serious shoe habit for an obsession with beautiful buys for little people.Subscribe
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Agree that the content and the finish the app achieves is great but, in all honesty, what’s wrong with real colouring-in?
Breaks my heart when my 18 month old son runs riot over a sheet of paper with his crayons and I’m left cold by the prospect of limiting his creativity with electronic substitutes.
LOL! Nothing at all wrong with real colouring in – when we’re at home we constantly have paints, glitter glue (bane of my life) and crafts out, but have you tried controlling crayons in an aeroplane environment? Not easy. We had tears when a beloved blue pencil couldn’t be found having rolled under a seat.
So, while I half agree with your point, I don’t think using an iPad limits children’s creativity. It would be lovely to think we could keep our children in a retro bubble but, in reality, once they’re at school, they’ll be using technology all the time, so apps like this are giving them a head start, without the need for unsuitable games or commercial nonsense.
I’ve had an iPad for a year and my kids use the apps on there and draw with paper and crayons all the time. I don’t think that my own creativity as a child was limited with Etch a Sketch or the like. It’s just an app.
Man, I am jealous…
I find my children will want to use my iphone or ipad. My daughter who is almost 4 loves drawing but having the novelty of drawing on Daddy’s computer seems like much more fun.