The iPad’s value as an educational tool continues to increase every day, as new applications arrive for preschoolers, grade schoolers and college students alike. It really says something that the four ABC alphabet-teaching applications we’re looking at in today’s edition of iPad Gems are capable of being featured in such a narrowly-focused roundup; just for fun, we’ve also included a number-teaching application from one of the same developers, as well. Some of the apps here are solely for the iPad, while others are universal and thus work on the iPhone and iPod touch, as well.

All of the titles in this roundup merited at least a B+ strong general recommendation. We were especially fond of Interactive Alphabet for iPad – ABC Flash Cards and Little Explorers: ABC Wildlife, but each title is certainly worthy of its low asking price. Read on for all the details.

ABC Song

To be clear, we love the song, found the art and fun animations to be charming, and know from testing with kids that this will be an extremely popular title for repeated plays—at the $1 asking price, it’s all but impossible to complain about any shortcomings it might have. That said, the two-letter-per-page and fast-paced song design has led to some word choices for letters that are sometimes a little less than intuitive: B is for “big” rather than “balloon” so it can rhyme with “dig” on the next set of pages, with E for “elephant” and then F for “flat” so the elephant can jump into a cart and flatten its tires. Will kids know or understand “flat?” Maybe, but it’s more likely that a parent may have to explain it to them, along with a few others that move by at a very brisk pace. Ideally, this app’s small rough edges could be tweaked, but otherwise, this is a wonderfully amusing app for kids, and we’d recommend it with special enthusiasm because of the low price.