Many a parent/babysitter/long-suffering Uncle/Aunt will have heard the plaintive cry from their little darlings, but now instead of telling them to count purple cars or try and recite the alphabet sideways, it is easy to both entertain and educate kids with the help of these top-rated apps:

Animal Sound Box

Cost: Free in the Marketplace (or $1.99 for the paid version)
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Moo and miaow your way to a happy child

Starting with the more recognisable sounds like cat and dog, this app can help you keep young ones entertained as they try and guess crocodile and hippopotamus. In his review on WP Central, George Ponder reckons it can be used both to educate younger children with the recorded not synthesised sounds, AND drive spouses and pets crazy.

Draw Free

Cost: Free in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Finger painting on your phone

I was intrigued by how this would be different to other drawing apps, so downloaded it and handed my Lumia 800 to my 7 year old alter ego (we all have a child inside us) to have a play. I have to say I was impressed as both a child and an adult with the ease of which I could draw freehand or use one of the option images to make my own (yes, I didn’t draw the pumpkin myself), and include photos from the camera roll. As Philstar.com says – ‘let their imagination come to life‘. Mine did.

Kinectimals

Cost: £2.29/$2.99 in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: They so cute

I’ve covered the Kinectimals before on these pages but they are well worth another mention for anyone new to the realm of gaming on the Nokia Lumia and the Xbox. As Jay so eloquently put it in his review it’s a ‘crowd pleaser across all ages’.

Funny Bounce

Cost: Free in the Marketplace
Availability: Everywhere
In a nutshell: Bounce your way to entertainment

One for the older children, perhaps, Funny Bounce is ‘an epic bounce journey’, although as Izzi demonstrates, it’s not as easy as it first looks.

And I can concur that the game play can be a little frustrating, but I’m sure youngsters will have no problem picking it up.

So which apps keep your youngsters entertained? Let us know on Twitter or in the comments. Also, time we’ll be featuring the best News + Weather apps, so if you have a favourite, let me know!