I’m all about balance when it comes to screen time with my little one! I’m a firm believer in providing a wide range of educational experiences for him as he grows and learns. We spend time building puzzles together, practicing our ABCs and writing his name, however there is also something great about apps that give kids the independence to practice these skills on their own at times. Below are 6 educational apps that reinforce key skills for toddlers up to school-aged kids. If homework is a battle this might be a great compromise to add into your repertoire of skills practice.
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Top Educational Apps for Kids
1. Kidlo Land: Nursery Rhymes, Puzzles, Games and more!
My son absolutely loves this app. The variety of games, songs, activities, and puzzles available on the full version of this app is nothing short of incredible. Theme packs include animals, shapes, vehicles, fruits, vegetables, insects, ABCD songs, and on and on and on. Each theme pack includes a multitude of activities that will keep your child’s interest for months if not years.
There are over 190 interactive nursery rhymes (and counting). Your child is sure to have a new favorite to sing along and dance with each week. C absolutely loves these and has many of them already memorized.
The activities are my personal favorite. There are 10 portals to choose from that your child can click on to lead them to a homepage with even more characters to click. Each character leads to another unique game or puzzle. Each activity focuses on an intentional skill such as matching or counting.
If you have a child that is typically bored with an app after a few times playing, this one will be the jackpot for your family. There are so many things to do it’s almost impossible to get through them all. It’s the type of app that will continue to grow with your child.
Best for age: 1-5
Cost: Free 24 songs; additional in-app purchases for $1.99 per pack or yearly subscription for $45.99
2. PBS Kids: Parents Play and Learn:
Who doesn’t love anything put out by PBS? There are so many fun educational activities within this app. Just a few of the things you will find…
“At the Zoo” – The monkey wants 6 bananas! Can you count out 6 bananas for him? (counting)
“In the garden” – The flowers in the garden are arranged in a color pattern. Can you continue the pattern with the flowers on your screen? (math patterns)
“At a restaurant” – The Gorilla want to eat the food that starts with the same letter as his name! Can you find it? Is it apples? grapes? pears? (matching, phonics)
Best for age: 3-6
Cost: FREE
3. Fish School HD
This is a pretty simple app but my son is completely enamored by it! The ‘school of fish’ take you back to school to learn your ABCs and 123s. While the alphabet song plays, the fish make a pattern to form the letter. C just loves to sing along!
Best for age: 1-3
Cost: $2.99
4. Zap Zap Math:
If you have a school aged child and you’re looking to break out of nagging your child to practice their basic facts, this app may just become your new best friend. This app allows your child to work on several math skills through fun and interactive games. Parents and teachers can even sign up on their website to follow their child’s progress on any given concept.Best for age: Grades 1-6
Cost: Free!
5. BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr
As a science teacher myself I’m constantly going on BrainPop or BrainPop Jr. to find the feature video of the day to see if it fits in with what we’re doing in class. As a parent, all of the videos are an interesting introduction to a variety of topics from science and social studies to math and language arts! Each video is brought to you by two characters named Tim and Moby. There is also a fun quiz at the end which is a kid-favorite for sure! If the featured movie isn’t enough for you, you can also purchase a yearly subscription to their website to unlock them all! Best for age: BrainPop Jr. – K-Grade 3; BrainPop – Grade 3-6
Cost: Free!
6. Think Rolls
Such a simple concept and yet this app is where it’s at when it comes to problem-solving and patterns. It starts off easy enough – move your character through a maze to the end. Along the way your child will reach an obstacle. It could be a cracker, fire, or an elevator. Your child will have to problem-solve to figure out how to get beyond the obstacle and keep moving through the maze. It’s a pretty addictive game. My son begs to play it all the time. The difficulty increases with each level.Best for age: 3-6
Cost: $5.49
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a vendor I have chosen to work with. I have received either paid compensation and/or free product in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own based only on my own experience.
The Good Enuf Mommy
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While it’s not a good idea to replace real life with simulated experiences, a little educational screen time within reason is ‘good enuf’ for this mommy!
I know I’m not alone here. I love my child with more love than I ever thought was even possible. And yet there are definitely moments that I think to myself: What I wouldn’t do right now to just lounge on a patio, go shopping alone, spend the afternoon golfing, take a girl’s vacation, etc. etc. etc….
I'm definitely going to be checking some of these out!!! My daughter needs new apps so bad. She gets so sick of things and it's so hard to know what's actually good to download. That first one with the purple dude puzzle looks like it's right up her alley 🙂
Great list! We don't do a whole lot of computer/phone time with apps yet, but I love that these are educational!
I'm always looking for great educational apps! Thanks for sharing these!
I'll have to check these out! They look great!
Thanks for sharing! I was just thinking that I needed some educational toddler app recommendations! This is perfect!
LOOOVE Brain Pop Jr. I taught elementary school, and we used this all the time. The videos are wonderful, and worth paying for a subscription!
These are great! Although I don't have kids of my own, I do babysit a lot so I will look into these!
I have always been looking for good apps for my daughter. I will definitely check all the ones listed here.
These are so cute. I wish I had room on my phone to download more apps, my phone is always full!!
Great apps! My son is really getting into games and apps now that they use them in school. We're definitely getting the math one.
These are great! Angelina really loves apps and I like her using apps as her screen time as opposed to just watching TV. Pinned for future reference 🙂
What great educational apps! I'm passing along your recommendations to my sister who still has school-age kiddos. Thanks for sharing your expertise. 🙂
I havent heard of many of these.. I will have to check them out! Thanks for sharing.. pinning for later.
omg-pinning this! i have been looking for new educational apps, but it's so hard to weed through all of the zillions of apps out there. thank you for narrowing it down. the first one looks awesome–downloading now!
I didn't know PBS kids had an app! How fun:) my daughter would love that!
These look great! Especially the PBS one. I bet my son would love that!
I have a few of these… Fish school is always a favorite. I need to grab the puzzles. My daughter loves puzzles.
Great choices! Brain Pop used to be popular in my classroom. Think Rolls looks so cute!
These look like fun apps for kids!
Going to have to try some of these out, I'm akways searching for different kids apps.
I'll have to incorporate some of these! My kids are ALL about the apps.
I'm always on the lookout for new apps for our little guy! Thanks for these suggestions.
These are great to know! Such a helpful list 🙂 I will check them out!
I have been putting together a list of apps for my clients, thanks for doing my work for me. 🙂 It looks like you found some excellent educational apps.
Great ideas! We have some of them and the fish one is our go to for the waiting room in the doctors office!
We just downloaded the Think Rolls app. My 4 year old daughter LOVES it! It definitely makes her think!
I'm ALWAYS looking for great apps! Pinning and stumbling this, thanks!