Considering the current circumstances, it’s essential to give students a choice to learn at their own pace and time. This gives them full control over what information they consume and when they choose to do it. The implementation of this “new normal” in teaching may seem difficult at first but there are a lot of educational apps for kids that can aid teachers in making this possible.
Aside from using apps, teachers can also develop content for this type of learning using eLearning authoring tools. This eliminates the need to schedule sessions where everyone is forced to be available at a pre-decided time slot. Plus, the teacher will also have more time to prepare since they won’t have to facilitate virtual classes several hours a day.
If you are a struggling parent whose confused about the self-paced set-up we have recommended, don’t worry. We know exactly where you should begin. That’s why we have listed some of the best educational apps for kids you can download to start introducing your child to a more independent learning technique.
Table of Contents
1. Khan Academy Kids
Ages: 4 years old and above
Cost: Free
If your child loves animals, then he will surely love Khan Academy Kids’ educational app. This app is created through a collaboration with the Stanford Graduate School of Education! Pretty solid, huh! Here are the awards that this app received and why we considered it as one of the best learning apps for kids:
- Editors’ Choice — Apple App Store
- Common Sense Media—5 stars Educational Value, 5 stars Ease of Play
- Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award for Excellence in Design—100% Rating
- Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award
- American Association of School Librarians—2019 Best App for Teaching and Learning
Meanwhile, here are some features of the app that is truly remarkable:
- High-quality, Award-winning Content
- Robust Curriculum
- Personalized Learning Experience
- Joyful Learning
- Created by a Team of Experts
Click here to check out Khan Academy Kids.
2. Montessori Preschool
Another adorable app that your kids willfind engaging is the Montessori Preschool app. If you are a fan of the montessori approach for learning, this app offers that kind of technique and more. Here are some of its features according to their app website:
- A comprehensive Montessori 3-7 years old environment to learn by doing
- Regular updates and new content to make the app forever captivating!
- An enchanting digital classroom to make learning fun and simple for children at every stage
- 4 broad areas of learning grounded in the fundamentals of Montessori: self-correction, autonomy, self-confidence and adaptability
- A fun “reward“ system for increased motivation
- Parents/teachers benefit from a tailor-made dashboard that tracks each child’s progress and suggests the next activity.
Meanwhile, here are the topics covered by the app:
- Math
- Early Literacy
- Logic and Coding
- Nursery Rhymes
- Shapes and Colors
- Nurses’ Station
- Arts and Creativity
- AR/3D
- Practical Life
- Chinese
Once your child has mastered all of the concepts included in this app, they would also learn how to build their confidence which is a very important characteristic needed to deal with grade school bullying.
Click here to check out Montessori Preschool.
3. Elmo Loves 123s
Ages: 5 and below
Cost: $4.99
Elmo and Abby are the ones who will guide your kid in their first encounter with numbers! The goal of this app is to teach your children how to count from numbers 1 to 20. However, to access numbers 4 and above, you have to upgrade your subscription.
Here’s what your child can learn from Elmo Loves 123s according to their Google Play page:
- Number identification
- Number tracing
- Counting groups of objects
- Addition & Subtraction
- Problem Solving
- Art and creativity
Click here to check out Elmo Loves 123s.
4. ABCmouse.com
Ages: 2 to 8
Cost: one-month free trial, $10/month afterwards
ABCmouse is one of the best learning apps for kids because it offers an award winning curriculum. It is available as an app but you can also access it on their website. It features 10 levels, over 850 engaging lessons, and more than 10,000 individual learning activities. Here are the contents of each of their curriculums according to their website:
Reading Curriculum
- Uppercase and lowercase letter recognition
- Phonics
- Rhyming words and word families
- More than 450 books and beginning readers
- Sentence structure
- Parts of speech
Math Curriculum
- Recognizing and counting numbers 1–120
- The base ten system
- Place value
- Addition and subtraction
- Names and attributes of 2D and 3D shapes
- Length, time, and money measurement
Science and Social Studies
- The body and health
- Plants and animals
- Weather, climate, and the seasons
- Earth’s environments
- Maps
- Regions of the United States
- The Solar System
- Matter and its properties
The Art & Colors Curriculum
- Primary and secondary colors
- Shades of colors
- Paint-by-number activities
- Number and letter dot-to-dots
For the activities, your child can access animations, games, books, songs, puzzles, art, and printables. They also have the following extra features:
- Progress Tracking
- Tickets and Rewards
- Customizable Avatar
- Interactive Zoo
- Aquarium
- Interactive Farm
5. Epic!
Ages: 2 to 12
Cost: free access for teachers, one-month free trial for parents and $8/month afterwards
Epic is a digital reading platform that has 40,000+ popular books. The app’s goal is to build reading confidence and fuel curiosity among kids. That’s why it’s no wonder why it is tagged as one of the best learning apps for kids. Here are some of the most notable features of the app:
- You can personalize what your child can read every day depending on their age and interests.
- You can track your kid’s progress including the time they spent on reading and the books they like.
- Your kids will have access to quality educational books.
- Your kids will learn how to be more confident through reading and watching relevant videos.
- Your child’s teacher will has a free access to the app.
Click here to check out Epic.
6. Hungry Caterpillar Play School
Ages: 5 and below
Cost: $6/month or $50/year
This app is based on the book of Eric Carle entitled The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The focus of this is to enhance the skills in the following learning areas:
- Mathematics Development
- Language and Literacy
- Science and Nature Studies
- Creative arts
- Puzzles and Reasoning
Click here to check out Hungry Caterpillar Play School.
7. Quick Math Jr.
Ages: 4 to 8
Cost: free
This app, which is only available for IOS devices, is considered one of the best apps for kids in primary school. The developers of this app made sure that kids will find mathematical concepts fun and entertaining through immersive graphics and unique characters. Here are some other recognitions received by this app:
- Children’s Tech Review Parents’ Choice Award
- Top Rated by Balefire Labs
- REVERE Awards Finalist
Click here to check out Quick Math Jr.
8. Duolingo
Ages: 10 and above
Cost: Free, ad free version costs $6.99/month
This is another one of the educational apps for kids that has a strong presence in a lot of social media platforms. It is downloadable in both App Store and Google Play and has ranked as editor’s choice in the later. It is designed to teach kids and adults the basics of another language including Spanish, Italian, German, English, French, Chinese, and many more.
So how does Duolingo works? The app contains game-like lessons and fun characters that helps the user develop the following skills in using another language:
- Speaking
- Reading
- Listening
- Writing
You can ensure that every word and sentences in each language taught is accurate because it is designed by language experts all around the world. What’s more? It’s totally free.
Click here to check out Duolingo.
9. Toca Hair Salon 3
Ages: 3 to 7
Cost: $4
Aside from teaching your kids concepts from some of the core subjects they will encounter at school, you should encourage their creativity. One great way to do that is through the Toca Hair Salon 3. Your little girl will surely love this since all they have to do is showcase their imaginative mind by styling hair. It’s current rating at Google Play is 4.1. That’s quite high for a hair styling app!
Here is a list of its features according to Google Play:
- All-new characters with dozens of starter styles
- Straight, wavy, curly and now kinky hair!
- All the tools you need to create the style you want!
- New braiding tool!
- Every character can grow a beard to style
- More advanced hair color tool: Dip-dye and fade hair in any colors you want!
- Change clothes on characters!
- Dozens of new accessories: hats, glasses, jewelry and more
- Change backdrops in the photo booth!
- Snap a picture in the app and share with your friends!
- Gender-neutral aesthetic: Unlike most hairstyling apps, all kids are welcome to play!
- No time limit or high scores — play for as long as you like!
- No third-party advertising
Click here to check out Toca Hair Salon 3.
10. Brainpop Jr. Movie of the Week
Ages: 5 to 9
Cost: free, subscription is optional at $6.99/month
Another one of the best learning apps for kids is Brainpop Jr. Movie of the Week. Each week, the app delivers different types of movies plus relevant quizzes and activities. The most common topics of the videos are the following:
- Science
- Social Studies
- Reading
- Writing
- Math
- Health
- Arts
- Technology
Click here to check out Brainpop Jr. Movie of the Week.
11. Lightbot: Code Hour
Ages: 8 and above
Cost: free
Does your kid love to tinker in your computer? Are they interested to learn about Phyton? Well, this is one of the educational apps for kids that you will find useful. Lightbot: Code Hour app will teach your kid the basics of coding and some other concepts of computer programming. This is a necessary skill especially in this age.
So how does this app work? Your kid will only solve puzzles in a videogame! The game mechanics are rooted in some concepts of programming including the following:
- Instruction sequencing
- Procedures
- Loops
Click here to check out Lightbot: Code Hour.
12. Phonics Ninja
Ages: 4 and above
Cost: free
The story of the creation of Phonic Ninja is quite amusing. The app’s developer has a son who likes playing fruit ninja. Apparently, he hates that his son spends a lot of time cutting fruits. So what he did is create an almost similar game but what his son would have to slice are words. The outcome? Another one of the best educational apps for kids you will find out there!
Here’s what your kid will learn from using this app:
- Letter sounds
- Blends
- Digraphs by sight, sound, and touch.
Click here to check out Phonics Ninja.
13. Swift Playgrounds
Ages: 9 and above
Cost: free
Swift playgrounds is an app developed by Apple that will teach your kid how to code just like Lightbot: Code Hour. However, this app is more suitable for older kids and adults since the concepts are more complex.
Through the lessons about coding in the app, your kids will be guided in solving tons of puzzelss available in the app. They will also be able to see their code in an interactive 3D world.
Click here to check out Swift Playgrounds.
14. Starfall ABCs
Ages: 2 to 5
Cost: free, upgrading is optional (costs $35/year)
This is one of the educational apps for kids that is best suited for pre-schoolers since the key things that kids will learn are letters and words. The app contains a variety of games, songs, stories, and letter sounds which your kid will definitely enjoy!
Here is a review of a Starfall ABCs app user from Google Play:
Fun, interactive way for preschoolers to learn about alphabet. Letter sounds, stories, games, and songs. Requires some adult assist to navigate when first learning the site. After that, child will enjoy exploring. As a teacher of preschool special needs children, I used Starfall with my students for many years. – Barbara Green
Click here to check out Starfall ABCs.
15. Nick Jr.
Ages: 2 to 7
Cost: free
If your child loves watching shows from Nickelodeon (who doesn’t!), they would go crazy over this app. This will help them watch their favorite shows like PAW Patrol and Blaze and the Monster Machines wherever they are. They can also learn some back to school jokes from watching the original videos offered. Here’s a complete list of what your kid will access when you download this app:
- Full Nick Jr. Tv Episodes
- Original Videos
- Games And Alphabet Buttons
- Kid-friendly Exploration
Click here to check out Nick Jr.
Conclusion
Go ahead and download the best learning apps for kids that caught your interest! We assure you that this will immensely help your child whether you are enrolling them in an online school or a private/public school. Just make sure that you still guide your kid while using them and you limit the time they’re exposed on their screens.
Here is a recap of best educational apps for kids by Student-tutor:
- Khan Academy Kids
- Montessori Preschool
- Elmo Loves 123s
- ABCmouse.com
- Epic!
- Hungry Caterpillar Play School
- Quick Math Jr.
- Duolingo
- Toca Hair Salon 3
- Brainpop Jr. Movie of the Week
- Lightbot: Code Hour
- Phonics Ninja
- Swift Playgrounds
- Starfall ABCs
- Nick Jr.
Todd VanDuzer
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