Nighty Night Circus

I have fond memories of using this app. I’ve used it countless times when my two young sons were very young, and I always enjoyed the soothing sound design, animations, and simplicity of the activity before bedtime. Reminiscing about this ritual brings tears to my eyes. I would give anything to relive those days when this app played a small but significant role in my sons’ lives.

Rarely has any sort of app or video entranced my daughter (currently 19 months) as much as this does. The art style is gorgeous, the atmosphere is lovely and cozy, and while the overall amount of interactions in each scene is fairly light, it more than makes up for it in the results — this app can soothe my daughter in 10 seconds flat, and she’s been enjoying this on a multiple times per week basis for about a month now. The developers and artists behind this app have done a wonderful job tapping into what would entrance and delight a youngster, and it’s a pleasant enough experience for parents as well. I also recommend the other Nighty Night apps (currently 3 in total).

I had been struggling for two months to get my toddler to settle for bed. We have always had a bedtime routine since he was born but it just seemed like he had more mental energy lately and couldn’t settle down. Bedtime became filled with tears for both of us! We recently went on vacation visiting a friend and I searched bedtime stories for toddlers on YouTube. He was absolutely enamored by the visuals! I could see his mind settling as each animal climbed into bed. When it was done, I cut it off and turned off the lights and he immediately fell peacefully to sleep. Buying this app was mostly support for the developers for helping him sleep while on vacation, but it continued at home when he kept asking for “GAME!!!” Before bed. So now it’s our ritual, after we’ve eaten, cleaned up, take the dogs out, and had a bath. He gets so excited to curl up next to me and it’s how he learned how to say all the animals names. He has learned how to play it himself in a few days. I enjoy the visuals myself as well and describe the scene to him in as much detail as I can. It’s a perfectly paced game for him - he’s 15 months old. He won’t sit still for a real book yet but he enjoys this! I bought the original Nighty night too but it’s not as much animated as this one and he didn’t like it. I don’t care though, I will gladly buy all the games in the series as it’s such a big part of our night ritual now!

We purchased this app a few years ago. I noticed another review complaining about the cost of adding more animals. We’ve gladly paid for and added each new animal group as they’ve become available. My son is now 7 and this is still one of his favorites. Beautiful colors and graphics. Easy enough for a toddler to use but fun enough for everyone to enjoy. Lots of animals doing fun things before they go to sleep. Thanks!