If you’re over 30 you probably didn’t have your own camera until you were at least a teenager and you were probably even older when you were allowed to even touch a movie camera.

Boy, how things have changed. These days the average toddler probably has at least three different devices in their toy box that take photos or make movies. The Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) should start receiving film entries from toddlers any day now.

Although a lot of parents might worry about the amount of time a child spends playing games like Candy Crush Saga on their iPod or iPad, these devices actually offer a lot of opportunities for creative exploration.

With spring break upon, or, about to be upon, many families, and the weather not looking so great, now might be the time to explore some of the creative apps for children available for download, usually for free or for a small price such as $1.99.

Maybe you don’t want them playing with a device for the entire break, but it’s nice to have something to occupy them when you have to drag them out on errands, or need them to sit quietly for a few minutes.

Always be sure to turn off in app purchases though, and turn on your download password, before giving a child one of these devices.

My six-year-old daughter spends a lot of time using our iPod to photograph the ceiling or her feet. The dog features heavily in her snaps. The phrase ‘snaps’ is used generously, what she actually does is more like rapid fire on a machine gun. I have at least 50 pictures she took of the dog sleeping with his tongue hanging out, only one of them barely in focus. Still, she has fun and it doesn’t cost any money to take one or 50. I spend a lot of time erasing photos to save memory though. Thankfully, she never seems to wonder where the 200 pictures she took of that My Little Pony episode went. The Photobooth app that comes with the iPad takes things to another level, by allowing the user to play with the photo and special effects. You can add stamps to your pictures, twist people’s faces, add a kaleidoscope look, or double the subject.

You do sometimes have to keep an eye on what children are photographing or recording. Once my daughter posted a very odd photo of her foot to my Instagram account. She’d only seen me post something once.

It’s important to keep a watchful eye on what’s going on, and to set up basic ground rules like ‘no posting anything on social networking sites without telling a grown-up first’, ‘no taking photos of people when they are changing their clothes’, ‘no recording mummy when she is yelling’ or ‘no recording mummy and daddy when they are talking about people who might see your recordings’. (Yikes!)

Here are some great creative apps for the iPod, iPhone or iPad to try. A lot of them work on the iPod but are lot more fun on the larger iPad screen.

Photo Booth that comes with the iPad. This has lots of great photo effects. Some of them are a little unnerving. You can split yourself in two, grow an extra head, make your head disappear altogether ...

The Lego Movie Maker app. Everything is awesome, about this app. Most movie apps are better suited to older children, but this one is an exception. Lego released the app after its blockbuster movie came out in theatres. It allows you to make stop gap animation movies using your Lego. It’s very simple. You point that camera at your Lego, (or anything you want). Take a photo. Then move the Lego a little, take another photo, and so on. There are soundtracks to add to your movie and sound effects. The app blends it altogether into a little movie. Lego actually has a couple of similar apps out for children.

Toontastic Jr. Another movie app that works for young children. There are a couple of different versions of this including Shrek, KungFu Panda and Pirates. This is great for the six or seven year old. It plays a portion of an animated movie such as a primitive version of Shrek. It stops. You have to move the Shrek characters around and record your voice saying something like stop, ‘Shrek, stop it!’ or ‘Fiona, wake up!’.There are sound effects and music to choose from to go with your creation.

VoiceChanger is one of my daughter’s favourites. You record your voice and then you can change the pitch of your recording or make it sound like a dog or a frog etc. It can be quite entertaining for the adults also, (and potentially annoying).

There are a number of art programme apps. One choice might be Art Set which allows you to draw (with your finger) on the screen in the modes of all kinds of art materials such as thick markers, thin markers, artists’ oil pastel, paint, pencil crayons et.

Night Zookeeper Drawing Torch, is an app that puts the player in charge of a virtual zoo full of magical animals, then provides them with creative drawing missions to complete. Missions might include drawing what a spying giraffe looks like, or turning a friend into a strange animal and then drawing it.

There are a number of music apps for children, some of which feature entire piano keyboards to play. One highly rated app is Juno’s Piano. It allows the user to learn songs, play with parents or do free play. It is good for ages five and up. There is an HD version available for the iPad.