Babysitting is a great way to earn some extra income for teenagers, mainly because you don’t need to acquire a particular degree, or invest anything at all. If you are mature and responsible enough, you are good to get a babysitting job which is much better and more fulfilling than flipping burgers or working at a pet store as a part time job (you might prefer those over babysitting, but to each his own). Getting a babysitting job is pretty simple, all you need is to go to some website like sittercity.com or care.com and get registered as a babysitter.

As a simple babysitter, your job will be to keep an eye on the kids and keep them entertained while the parents are away. The first part is easy (keeping an eye on the kids), the second part, not so much (keeping them entertained and engaged). You can sit down with an adult and have a casual chatter to give him/her some company, but when it comes to kids, it’s not that simple. You will have to get a little creative as no two kids are the same, which means you will need to have a bag full of tricks to keep them entertained. The good news is, if you have a smart-phone with Android, it can be really handy. Following are some apps that will help you in your efforts of keeping the kids busy with healthy activities, and the best part is, all of them are totally free, so you don’t have to spend an extra dime.

Talking Tom:

For kids, you need to have an app that will catch them by surprise and grab their attention in an instant, and Talking Tom can do exactly that without you needing to do anything. Just download this free app and open at your smart phone, and let the Tom do its job. It will record the kids’ voice and then repeat them in a funny voice, and there you have … the kids will be getting curious and coming to your smart phone to have a look at the thing that’s mimicking everything they say. Depending on how talkative are the kids, this will keep them busy for quite some time.

Kids Connect The Dots:

Starting from an app for kids aged from 3 to 5 (but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it with elder kids). As the name suggests, connect the dots is a simple join the dots game with more than forty engaging dot quizzes. There’s plenty of amusement and fun for kids, and the app can keep them busy for hours, given that you can talk them into playing it at least for the first time, good news is that lots of colors and some catchy tunes are there to help you.

Kids Numbers and Math:

If you are looking to go one step ahead i.e. you want to please the parents as well as entertaining the kids, you can opt for one of these games that will teach the kids a thing or two in a fun way. The free version has limited features, but if it works well, you can spend $2 dollars to get the full version that includes numbers lessons, subtracting, adding, match finding, and many more exercises.

AniWorld:

If you are looking for an App that will entertain the kids, while managing to amuse you as well, then AniWorld is that app. The free version has 36 animals and 250 pictures, but animal pictures are not all this app has in the offing. When you choose an animal, the animal will appear on the screen and the kids can hear the voice of that animal, but the fun doesn’t stop there. You can choose different activities like “Feed me” in which children can feed the animal by trying to choose the appropriate food from three available options, or “Pet me” where the pet will reward the children with funny sounds and animated picture when they choose to pet and caress them. If you like the free version, you can go for premium version to get more animals.

Steamy Window:

At times, apps with a very simple concept can turn out to be the most fun. Steamy Window is one such app, the concept is pretty simple, opening this app will fill your mobile screen with steam and kids will love to use their fingers to clean this steam and draw pictures on steamy screen. Once they have cleaned it up, you can ask them to blow in the microphone and see the screen getting filled with more steam.

Apart from these recommendations, Joel offers in WeightLossTriumph a Care.com promotional code. Also, wannabe babysitters can use this Sittercity promotion code. Sittercity and care.com are two of the most popular websites for finding babysitting jobs. Parents can find qualified and experienced nannies for their children or senior loved ones as well.