Enough with just fitting!

Before the internet age, television was considered the number one medium. Even back then, many parents were uncomfortable with their children's media consumption because their offspring couldn't find the switch-off button and preferred to spend hours being bombarded with entertainment. Today, smartphones cause us similar worries when children and young people spend too much time passively surfing through Tiktok, Instagram or YouTube.

With the right apps for their smartphone or tablet, children and young people can actively, productively and creatively escape the consumer mindset.

However, there is one crucial difference: television is and remains a one-way media street - it can only broadcast. The right apps, on the other hand, allow children to be creative themselves. No device is as ideal for this as a smartphone or tablet. Both are multifunctional tools for recording, writing, painting, editing, presenting and sharing. Children and young people can use them to actively, productively and creatively escape the consumer mindset - they just need someone to show them how. Unfortunately, particularly good creative apps are still mainly developed for the iPad. That is why you will also find information on alternatives below, although they do not necessarily have the same functions.

Films: iMovie

Hardly any other video programme is as simple and self-explanatory as iMovie. Children and young people can easily cut and trim their own clips, add transitions, add music to moving images and much more. The trailer section is particularly recommended for initial playful practice. Here, ready-made construction kits with suitable music and genre-typical design - action, thriller, etc. - provide the perfect dramaturgical superstructure. All that remains is to add your own footage, and even here iMovie provides helpful step-by-step instructions. For example, you can record a family celebration or professionally spice up a school presentation. The trailers also motivate you to shoot and edit your own masterpieces.

Mac, iPhone, iPad, free of charge. Android alternative: Kinemaster (Kinemaster Corporation, free with in-app purchases).

Books: Book Creator

The Book Creator is already a classic. Children can use it to create their own e-books as soon as they can read and write. In a nutshell, the app works like a much simplified version of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Because there are basically only two buttons, operation is intuitive. Children can choose the size and colour of the font for a text according to their own preferences or insert photos. They can type in text or write it by hand. Each element can be rotated and moved to the desired position with the help of the grab points. The Book Creator is suitable for your own stories, school presentations, photo novels, instructions and much more.

iPad, Tools For School, 3 Fr. Alternative: Book Creator was also available for Android for a while, but no longer. Instead, the app can be usedfor school online(www.bookcreator.com), but so far only in English.

Drawing: Paper

Drawing on the computer has never been easy for children. Good sketching is simply not possible with a mouse, and a professional graphics tablet is rarely found in a child's room. Only the iPad has shown what is possible with a finger and now with the so-called Pencil. This pen has a fine tip and enables more precise drawing. The Paper app is just right for getting started. Young artists can choose from brushes, fountain pens, pencils and felt-tip pens in various sizes and widths. It is even possible to create simple geometric shapes. Errors can be corrected using the back function, while an eraser can be used to make spot corrections. The images can be saved in the device's image folder or exported. As it is quite simple to use, the more ambitious Procreate app (Savage Interactive, approx. 10 Fr.), which also works with layers, is recommended for young people.

iOS, Wetransfer BV, free (Pro version from 10.50 Fr.). Android alternative: Bamboo Paper (Wacom, free with in-app purchases).

Animated film: Flip Clip

Many children are fascinated by animated films. With Flip Clip, they can create their own animated moving pictures. The app is very easy to use. First, children draw a figure or an object, then they open the next page and colour over the first version, but change it in detail. The process continues step by step. However, the process is exhausting due to the constant overdrawing. Only the patient get good results, otherwise the clip is too short. The result is then shown in a video. If something goes wrong, the mistake can be corrected on the corresponding page. The app is free, but not ad-free. Alternatively, Folioscope (iOS, 1 button, free) is also highly recommended.

iOS, Jochen Falck, free of charge. Android alternative: Flip a Clip (Visual Blasters, free with in-app purchases).

Drawing on a computer has never been easy for children. Only the iPad has shown what is possible with a finger.

Talking pictures: ChatterPix

This app is funny because children use it to make objects talk. To do this, they take a photo of an object, for example a plum. They then draw a mouth with their finger and record a voice recording. When the recording is played back, the mouth on the plum starts to move in synchronisation with the recording. This is a wonderful way to make nonsense. However, it could also be used in lectures with presentations - in this way, the subject being discussed could provide verbal information about itself.

iOS, Android, Duck Duck Moose LLC, free of charge.

Animation: iStopMotion

iStopMotion is also one of the classics in the app sector. In a stop-motion film, objects, toys, heroes or clay figures come to life. However, every step and every change has to be painstakingly recorded individually. In contrast to animated drawings, this involves considerably more effort. This is because the camera on the tablet or mobile phone should be mounted using a tripod so that the viewing angle does not change. The scenario should ideally take place on a table that is well lit. With stop-motion films, entertaining clips are just as possible as animated additions to a presentation.

iOS, iStopMotion, Boinx Software, approx. 10 Fr. Android alternative: Stop Motion Studio (Cateater, free with in-app purchases).