When DD5 is playing on her ipad she will do whatever is fastest to find the answer, rather than actually work out the answer. E.g. in a find-a-word she will just swipe her finger randomly along lines until a word is highlighted, in a maths question with multiple answers she will just tap quickly on all of them until she hits the right one, etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions for ipad apps for young kids, any subject area, that can't be gamed?

Most of the time, if DD5 has her ipad it's because I'm cooking or doing something else, so I'm not available to sit with her and make sure she does things the right way.

I think you can set up Sight Words Ninja. It has audio of a word and words float on the screen and the child slices/swipes the word tht matches the audio. You can control settings such as how many words are shown at a time.

Not an educational app, but still one that can't be gamed: Stack. My whole family likes it. From 3 year old to my husband. It is hand-eye coordination game. Also sneaks in counting and number recognition for kiddos who could use some practice but don't do it willingly. Might be too "young" for your daughter, but might be a game you can leave her that you don't have to supervise.

Thanks sanne, I'll look into Stack. I saw Sight Words Ninja in the app store when I was looking but from the preview pics it looked like the sort of game that DD5 would just tap her way through. Sigh.

Dreambox is a good math app that wouldn't lend itself to the click-through approach. IXL is another math app that does have multiple choice questions, but penalizes you for choosing the wrong answer and rewards you for choosing right.

Oh thanks emigee! I'll look for them