I am very fond of programming apps. I’ve mentioned before the benefits I see to learning the basic concepts of programming. There is a good chance that your child will work with a programmer in some capacity in the future; it is helpful to have a foundational understanding of that world. Programming forces you to think in a logical manner. It requires forethought as one seeks to accomplish a desired task through a series of steps that are dependant upon previous steps working in a certain way. Plus, it’s just a whole lot of fun!!
Two more programming apps that my kids use are Move the Turtle and Robot School. Both have a fun interface and introduce basic concepts of programming. The level of difficulty of Robot School seems to exceed that of Move the Turtle and the other programs I have previously mentioned in a fun challenging way. It gets into the concept of loops and if-then statements as you move the robot through a series of obstacles to reach the target. Even as an adult, I find these apps wonderfully addictive, and Robot School especially, wonderfully challenging.
Click on the links and check them out.