In the current information age, it is almost impossible to stop kids from accessing a phone, tablet, or computer. The best news is that you can decide what they can see and cannot, as IOS games have a minimum age rating.
For kids, the iPad is the ultimate entertainment system with numerous exciting games. These games range from critical thinking and creative problem-solving to having fun and passing the time.
So, if you have an iPad and are looking for ways to keep your kids entertained as they learn, you have come to the right place.
In this article, I feature some of the top free iPad games for 5-year-olds that will keep them busy while having fun.
Best Free iPad Games For 5-Year-Olds
1. Candy Crush Saga
Candy Crush Saga is a legendary puzzle game that mixes the typical connect-the-matching-symbol gameplay with your kid’s favorite pastime, eating candy. The game is loved by many and is one of the most popular mobile games.
This game can be exciting to 5-year olds, as by simply tapping on the screen, the game results in a lot of graphical fun.
The puzzles are also a great way to enjoy Candy Crush Saga. To solve the puzzles, children need to think quickly and make smart moves to be rewarded with tasty candy combos and delicious rainbow-colored cascades.
The game has features that will leave your kid craving more and keeps getting exciting, with more levels and puzzles added every two weeks. The sweet match three puzzle game has over a trillion plays; your kid can play it alone or with friends.
Candy Crush Saga features various game modes, including Target Score, Collect the Ingredients, and Clear the Jelly. The game levels range from easy to challenging and are accessible on the go offline and online.
It is also easy to sync Candy Crush Saga between devices to unlock the full game features when connected to the internet.
Candy Crush Saga is free to play, but offers in-app purchases for extra lives, boosters, and other in-game items.
2. Fruit Ninja 2
Fruit Ninja 2 is an old-school slicing and dicing fun game with a simple concept but enough challenge to keep kids hooked. The goal of this game is to slice as many fruits as you can but not slice through a bomb, as it will blow your virtual finger off.
The game has fantastic sound effects and graphics and many game modes to give you more play options. The fun of this game is also in the collecting and upgrading of blades and powerups with action-packed fun.
Fruit Ninja 2 has undergone a series of upgrades to meet a modern gamer’s needs. It is different from its previous version as it is more fun because now kids can play with each other and compare scores. Fruit Ninja 2 can be enjoyed by kids aged five and up.
Fruit Ninja 2 is free to play, with in-app purchases available.
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3. Kidoku- Kids Sudoku Puzzle
Kidoku makes the Sudoku game fun and interesting for kids. This game features some cute animals and beginner levels to help kids pick up the concept and enjoy the game easily. It is an excellent early learning game suitable for children’s development.
The game offers an experience that keeps kids entertained while boosting their cognitive skills, hand-eye coordination, and memory. Sudoku’s blocks solver matching game ensures that your kid learns the basics of match puzzles and even becomes sharp.
The traditional number puzzle keeps kids immersed in the animal puzzle experience that is equally challenging and fun.
The game has over 60 levels, and the faster your kid solves the Sudoku joy levels, the better they’ll perform at tile matching. Kidoku is ideal for children aged three and above.
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4. Readlax: Brain Games
Readlax is an all-in-one productivity platform that can help your kid develop problem-solving and thinking skills. This game comprises over 2,500 riddles, logic tasks, brainteasers, puzzles, math problems, and memory training games.
The game’s main features include brain training, speed reading, touch typing, smart notes, and the reader view. Brain training is a program of activities to help your kid maintain or improve their cognitive abilities, including working memory and executive function.
Speed reading involves making meaning out of print by identifying and understanding a set of words at once instead of individual comments. Touch typing trains your kid to practice typing using fingers without looking at the keys.
Smart note-taking is an effective note-taking tool that allows you to organize and store knowledge. Readlax’s reader view is a browser extension that removes distractions and ads to give your kid a seamless experience through texts and images only.
The Readlax app is appropriate for kids aged five and above.
5. BrainCraft
BrainCraft is a unique app that trains kids to take on challenges. It teaches kids how to employ different types of thinking.
It is comprised of over 100 math, cognitive skills, and language exercises compiled by international researchers who specialize in brain training.
BrainCraft features well-designed games with colorful graphics and can enrich your child’s educational activities at school.
The different challenges on BrainCraft are linked by a theme of how to survive on a desert island, and your kid can see how they have improved since they started using the app and compare themselves to their friends or siblings.
Its puzzles are based on numbers, mental flexibility, and logic.
The app records your kid’s performance with level details, including their strengths and weaknesses. It rates them against other players whom they nominate and provides a holistic challenge to encourage children to think about problems and solve them.
BrainCraft reads instructions aloud, so your child’s limited literacy skills won’t stop them from enjoying the game.
The games feature an intuitive interaction method; if you wish to check your child’s progress, you must log in using a different account. BrainCraft is ideal for kids aged five and up.
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6. Kokoro Kids
Kokoro Kids is an excellent educational free iPad game that allows kids between the ages of two and seven to learn while having fun with multiple games, stories, activities, and songs.
These games are grouped by skill, including positions, colors, addition, subtraction, and counting up to five.
Experts created Kokoro in neuropsychology and early childhood to help children with cognitive and emotional development through game-based learning. The skills and knowledge your child develops from this app can also apply to other aspects of their lives.
Kokoro’s one hundred games and activities provide a personalized experience for your child’s level. Kokoro can help your young one learn how to play instruments, solve problems, count, and express their creativity.
Kokoro Kids features tasks and concepts that complement preschool and school activities. Additionally, Kokoro Kids is made of resources for the early stimulation and development of multiple intelligences and basic cognitive skills.
The tool also helps kids to manage primary emotions such as anger, frustration, generosity, or empathy.
The Kokoro learning method also incorporates artificial intelligence to allocate appropriate content at the right time, increase difficulty in areas where the child stands out, and reinforce the less developed areas.
The tool adheres to security protocols that guarantee safety for your kid and filters out inappropriate content and ads.
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7. Dr. Panda Town Tales – iPad Game For 5 Year Olds and 6-Year-Olds
Dr. Panda is an exciting role-playing game that sets your kid on a wondrous adventure in Dr. Panda Town. The game features 40 action-packed locations and combines endless fun with learning most creatively.
The game allows your child to explore Panda Town with 35 fun and diverse characters alongside bright and colorful graphics.
You can personalize the gameplay for your kid by selecting a location that resembles a real-life scenario to let them experience things in a world without consequences.
The free game also allows you to create characters in the character creator feature. Your kid can choose from multiple hairstyles available, noses, eyes, and more. You can also role-play and develop stories to play out.
Dr. Panda records screen activities in the video maker mode, but don’t worry, as the recordings are only saved locally on your device and never shared by the app.
The tool is ideal for children aged five and up who’d love to explore the world using different characters combined with fun adventures along the way.
This game has a free version and it offers in-app purchases for additional content and features.
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8. Preschool & Kindergarten Games
Preschool & Kindergarten Games are free tools that allow kids to experience fun with 30 interactive educational games. This tool has curated great games and lessons used by millions of parents across the world to entertain and educate kids.
The app also helps children to become enthusiastic about crucial school subjects such as spelling and reading. Preschool & Kindergarten Games app features colorful graphics, fun sound effects, and helpful voice narrating.
The Preschool & Kindergarten Games tool is designed based on real kindergarten and preschool curriculums and follows the common core standards.
The reading lessons include learning letters using helpful pictures and voices, letter tracing, the alphabet, lower and upper cases, and phonics.
Math games include counting, addition, number tracing, missing numbers, counting down, and ordinal number, among others.
The app also has advanced features like lesson builders, multiple-user support, detailed progress reports, and avatars.
9. Way of the Turtle
Way of the Turtle is a charming adventure app that takes your kid on a journey to reunite two turtles stranded on a tropical island in a nowhere land.
The island does not look so innocent at first glance, as it is made of elements that transform into difficult obstacles and vicious monsters.
The best thing is that not everything will work against your kid who’s interested in having a good time on the app. Your child can be friends with the natives inhabiting the island to help them in their quest to get back home.
Way of the Turtle also immerses your young one in a breathtaking 3D world with modern rendering technology and cinematic cameras. It keeps them in control with its easy and smooth controls that enable simple touch gestures with no on-screen buttons to control your character.
The game is appropriate for kids aged four and above and is appropriately paced with fun sliding down parts.
10. Dodo Peak
Another exciting free iPad app game for 5-year-olds is Dodo Peak. Dodo Peak gets your kid to play as a dodo bird trying to save its eggs and find and rescue its lost babies from multiple dangerous peaks.
This game is a throwback to the classic arcade platforms but with a modern twist. The goal of the game is to maneuver back home while avoiding enemies and obstacles at all costs.
The player should collect coins, grab powerups for extra speed and super strength, dodge sneaky snakes, avoid monkeys, and reach for the best time across a breathtaking variety of crafted islands.
Your kid can also unlock new and faster dodos to tackle more challenging levels. The game has simple touch controls that five-year-olds can quickly learn and is an excellent tool for short play sessions on transit or long playtimes on the couch.
Dodo is exciting but not an easy endeavor. Your child is expected to overcome a series of obstacles that are after the eggs, and if they pass an obstacle, they earn coins.
Overall the game gives kids a mind-blowing interface, great graphics, simple controls, and various environments, including islands, hills, volcanoes, and leaderboards.
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11. Sago Mini World: Kids Games
Sago Mini World is a perfect iPad app for 5-year-olds who love to engage with thoughtfully-designed games that spark curiosity. This game is made of over 40 award-winning games that immerse your kid into hours of creative and interactive play.
The game allows your child to explore outer space to build a robot, meet dinosaur friends, become a superhero, or serve customers at a diner, among others. Additionally, there are a lot of Sago mini friends that your child can play with together with their custom characters.
Sago gives children the freedom to explore and play in their own ways. They can only be limited by their imagination. They can delight in activities that encourage empathy, self-confidence, and self-expression, which are crucial for your child’s developing mind.
Sago Mini World promises safe and positive screen time for your child, as it is Kid-Safe certified and has no ads. It is designed for intuitive gameplay and is more fun if you join your little one from time to time.
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12. LEGO DUPLO WORLD – Free iPad Game for 4 Year Olds & 5 Year Olds
Last on our list of the best free iPad games for 5-year-olds is LEGO DUPLO WORLD. The game is well aligned to meet the learning needs of 2- to 5-year-olds.
The game is packed with open-ended experiences featuring buildings, animals, trains, and exciting vehicles to inspire your child’s creativity and imagination through learning.
Each activity targets key learning elements for toddlers and preschoolers. It also has a parent center where you can read through the learning benefits of each game activity.
Your child can explore and discover how everything works independently and get a chance to build structures using the 3D bricks to stimulate their creativity.
The game supports multi-touch so that you can play together with your kid. The app is free to download and play but also has optional paid content.
Best Free iPad Games For 5 Year Olds – Final Words
Choosing the right tool ensures that your child is occupied while learning basic skills, so go ahead and pick kid-friendly games based on their interests.
However, make sure that you also limit their screen time and encourage them to play outdoors to enhance their overall well-being
I do not advocate for these games to completely replace their physical toys and activities, but there’s no doubt that the games will improve your kid’s essential, skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, hand-eye coordination, and cognitive abilities.
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