By Dean Reagan: Kids are the most natural learners as they have an intrinsic curiosity, and these apps are all aimed at harnessing that enthusiasm and bringing it into the learning sphere. The Internet has brought everyone closer to everyone else in the world, and fortunately, one aspect of the externality of that is that classrooms from across the globe are instantly accessible for everyone. This means education is more available now than it has ever been before, and the levels of such means we can learn at a greater pace than ever before. Here we take a look at some of the best apps to get your kids into the best frame of mind for their learning. These are not necessarily in order of how we rate them, but they are the best we have come across during our research.
YouTube
As you might expect from the mighty YouTube, this app is just fantastic. It’s aimed at future stars from ages 2 to 12 and it has a heap of all kinds of clips for all kinds of learners. There’s education as well as entertainment, plenty of music videos, and all of them are aimed at introducing kids to new ideas or helping our youngsters be better at what they do. It’s safe too, because YouTube has spent a lot of time and research into bringing you a safe environment. They use AI and human input to ensure standards are maintained, and parents can join in with their children’s enjoyment and learning journey. It’s customisable too, so you can choose what they watch and how much of it they see. There are also features like age levels, arts, hobbies, cartoons, and learning.
Khan academy for kids
I cannot say enough how brilliant the Khan Academy is. Created in 2008 by Sal Khan, it’s been offering tutorials for all ages and levels for quite a few years now, and it is free. What a cracking platform this is, and it also provides stuff for your kids too. It starts from as early as 2 years old and levels out at 7; it has thousands of activities for your kids to engage in, and thousands of books for them to choose from. The topics range through from maths to languages, arts and social learning, which is fantastic in this ever globalised world. As you’d expect from a responsible provider, there are also parental controls so you can restrict what your little learner watches. Another great feature is that you can get it off line too, because material is downloadable. It also comes with a progress chart indicator and e-books, and, check this out: it’s advert free and you don’t have to pay in app!
ABC Mouse
I love animals, and mice are very cute. ABC mouse is also very helpful for early learning and is aimed at kids ranging from 2 to 8 years of age. There are tens of thousands of activities your kids can choose from, and they range from science and maths through to arts and reading. It’s also a bit of an award winner, as tons of parents think it’s the bee’s knees and voted for it in the Choice awards. It won on a merit system and lots of parents thought it was worthy of prizes. Another thing that might interest the kids is that they can choose an avatar to represent them rather than use their own photo. Features include the choice of printing their activities, parental tracking and interactive games.
Epic
This app is aimed at young bookworms, and it is one of the leaders in the market. It draws its resources from more than 250 of the world’s biggest publishers. It’s aimed at kids below the age of 12 and resources are bracketed into age, genre and special interests. Epic is used in classrooms across the planet as their preferred reading app. The great thing about Epic is that parents can join in with their kids’ progress and take part in it too, by checking their updates and activities. What is also brilliant about Epic is that it is also aimed at very young learners to encourage them into reading. Features include daily reading tips, class integration and exclusive content.
The Hungry Caterpillar Play School
This app has been ranked as the best of them all in more than 25 countries across the planet. Metamorphosing from the massively popular book series, the Hungry Caterpillar is aimed at ages from 2-6 and helps kids in a variety of subject areas ranging through maths, science, creative arts and nature studies. There are songs to sing, and videos to watch and entertain while learning. Kids can choose to learn at their own pace, and they are encouraged to take ownership of their learning, which helps them become independent learners, and in turn, will help them later on in life. Content is updated regularly.PBS Kids play and learn science
First and foremost, this is not a peanut butter sandwich! PBS Kids tech gurus have created a whole host of software for kids’ education. This is a learn as you play app that lets your young learners play games while they create and build using a host of material. The game play includes a ton of everyday science that kids see but don’t necessarily realise the science behind what they see. Suitable for learners between the ages of 2 and 8, they are encouraged to investigate what goes on in the world by recreating their own scenarios. Other features include hands-on stuff, two languages (English & Spanish) and it’s even been developed using childhood experts, so it hits the spot.
Quick maths Junior
I know that when I was at school I couldn’t bear maths, even though I wasn’t too bad at it. However, I think I’d have found it more entertaining if the teachers had made it more interesting. That’s what Quick Maths Jr does. The aim is (believe it or not) to help develop kids’ maths skills using interactive creativity. Learners get engaged in the process by allowing them to bring their own characters to life and it also helps improve their handwriting skills! Levels can also be adjusted according to skill and age, and features include basic arithmetic (sadly lacking in many people these days) such as addition, multiplication and subtraction. As a side note, I would highly recommend playing darts for practical arithmetic: it’s brilliant.
Read along
Guess what this app deals with? Indeed, you got it, it looks at how to encourage kids into reading on their own for pleasure. It’s available in a range of languages including Hindi, Chinese, Tamil, Urdu, English, Marathi and Bengali, and is suitable for kids aged from five and above. The app works by showing the reader which words they miss or mispronounce or skip, and gives awards for correct pronunciation, so it works as though there’s someone with them when they’re reading. There’s also a handbook that helps kids when they’re in or out of the classroom.
Class Dojo
Another virtual classroom that helps bring students and teachers together with parents in order to keep everyone on the same page with their learning. Learners can make portfolios to demonstrate their work and project progress, and also encourage teachers to stay in the moment with the learner. The app cultivates a really constructive learning process where students share their stories and progress with their peers. It also features access to frequently asked questions for presentations, it has quality safety features and is free for instructors.
Goodness Shapes
If you think your kid has an artistic bent, this could be the app for you and them. It helps organise and shape (forgive the pun) patterns, designs by matching, sorting and naming. It’s definitely a beginner app, and is aimed at under fours, and utilises the fact that they are enamoured by bright colours and fabulous shapes.It’s a lot of fun, as you’d expect it to be so that it grabs attention from the start. The app has been put through its paces by parents and teachers as well as a host of kids, and it gets the thumbs up from everyone. It features some great challenges and gives interactive feedback, so it keeps your kids on their toes.