Kids education softwares

16 Best Educational Apps For Kids and Students (2022)

With the best educational apps for kids, you can leverage technology to help your children or students learn new things in a fun, engaging, and highly effective manner.

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Look, the reality is that screen time is inevitable in this day and age.

That’s why it’s important to ensure your kids are using their screen time wisely by learning something new or honing a skill.

Thankfully, there are some great educational apps out there that can help kids learn a variety of different things, from math and science to reading and writing.

The best kids educational apps not only offer a personalized learning plan but also provide engaging content that keeps kids coming back for more.

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Even teachers can utilize learning apps for kids as a supplement to further aid their students’ development, particularly in virtual learning environments. But even in traditional classroom settings apps have a place as many teachers have started using tablets in their classrooms.

Of course, the app stores are flooded with educational content for kids, which can make finding the right app a bit overwhelming.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of the best educational apps for kids, covering a variety of different subjects and age groups. We’ve spent hours reviewing all of the apps on this list, putting them through the paces and also having them used by kids to ensure they are fun and engaging while also being educational.

We’ve reviewed and ranked the top educational apps for children based on a number of important factors, including educational value, curriculum quality, fun/engagement, ease of use, and age appropriateness.

Let’s get started…

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost for you, we might get a commission if you click the link and purchase.

What are the Best Kids Learning Apps?

Here are our picks for the best educational apps for kids available today:

1. Best Overall Educational App: HOMER Learning

HOMER - The Essential Early Learning Program and App for Kids 2-8

HOMER is a personalized learning app designed to help kids fall in love with learning. There are over 1,000 learning activities across all subjects, and the content is tailored to your child's age and interests.

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From toddlers to second-graders, this educational app is a fit for every eager kid ready to learn something new, especially younger kids early in their development.

HOMER is an early learning software designed to help children develop their critical thinking skills. It helps them build their confidence for the future by leading them on their customized educational journey.

It features a variety of interactive lessons, stories, and activities that are tailored according to the student’s individual skills, age, and interests. Because the lessons are tailored to your child’s interests and abilities, not to mention they’re fun and entertaining, the app keeps their attention and ensures their screen time is productive.

The personalization is what really sets HOMER apart from other kids educational apps, and it’s why this is our favorite app for keeping children of various ages and skills engaged and learning.

When you’re first setting up a profile for your child, the app asks a series of questions to gauge where your child is in their educational journey, like these:

At the end of the questionnaire, HOMER then recommends a curriculum for your child based on their interests and level of education:

Key Features & Benefits

• Wide range of informative games and stories are available.
• Fantastic for early childhood education.
• Teaches creativity as well as critical thinking and social skills.
• Provides fun learning activities for different subjects like math, reading, creativity, and
  thinking skills.
• Library is enriched with a wide variety of genres.
• Stories, games, lessons, and songs are very interactive and interesting for kids.
• App is kid-friendly and a child can easily touch, hold or drag objects with a
  simple tap.
• Hassle-free app with no advertisements.
• Printable, videos and expert tips are the resources available for parents.

Pricing

HOMER pricing across its 3 plans is as follows:

• Annually Plan: $59.99 per year
• Annual Digital Plan + Hands-On Bundle: $99.99 per year

HOMER offers a 30 days full access free trial.

Best Coding App for Kids

codeSpark Academy

codeSpark is a fun, engaging coding app that teaches kids basic problem solving, critical thinking skills, creativity, and a host of other valuable skills. Kids will enjoy playing on the app, not even realizing how much they're learning along the way as they get prepared for the world of tomorrow.

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Want your kids to be prepared for the world of tomorrow? Want them to improve their problem solving skills?

codeSpark is a popular coding app for kids that includes exciting games and challenges designed to teach children basic coding skills in a fun way that doesn’t even feel like learning.

With an intuitive, word-free interface, kids can learn to code before they even know how to read — talk about getting a head start!

Kids can learn basic coding concepts like sequencing, loops, conditionals, and more through fun, interactive activities and games.

The app is also designed to appeal to both girls and boys with the goal of helping close the gender gap in STEM.

Here are some compelling facts and figures showing just how effective this app is:

• Used by over 62,000 educators worldwide
• Used in over 35,000 schools worldwide
• After 90 minutes of coding with codeSpark Academy, 55% showed increased confidence in problem-solving abilities.
• After 90 minutes of coding with codeSpark Academy, 22% showed an increase in accuracy with moderate sequencing tasks.
• In 2020, kids created 11 million games and stories on codeSpark Academy

Key Features & Benefits

• Teaches kids to code before they even know how to read (great for younger kids!)
• Promotes problem solving and critical thinking skills
• Unlimited coding challenges
• Fun, engaging games and activities makes learning exciting
• Tons of creativity-inspiring activities
• Great for young learners 5 and up
• Teaches valuable coding skills that prepare kids for the world of tomorrow

Pricing

Start with a free 7-day trial. codeSpark pricing is then either $79.99 billed annually ($6.67 a month) or $9.99 on a monthly basis.

3. Best Educational App for Online Writing: Night Zookeeper

Night Zookeeper

This highly rated online learning program helps kids with reading and writing, and unleashes their full creativity.

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In an ideal world, all kids love reading and writing. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case! If you have a reluctant reader or writer at home, Night Zookeeper may be just what you’ve been looking for.

Aimed at children aged 6+, Night Zookeeper makes reading and writing fun and engaging for kids with their innovative approach to learning. The online program offers a full Language Arts curriculum, which is taught through games, challenges, interactive lessons, collaborative projects and creative writing prompts.

Night Zookeeper allows children to have a completely immersive learning experience, as they’ll be introduced to the world of the Night Zoo as soon as they start and will even be in charge of creating their own zoo!

Night Zookeeper.com’s best feature is that users receive personalized feedback from a team of professional tutors, who closely monitor, review and publish all the writing submitted by children on the program.

Parents have access to their own dashboard, where they can track progress, assign specific lessons and manage features. All settings are flexible and there are lots of options to adapt the program to best suit your child’s learning style and pace.

Key Features & Benefits

• Strong focus on developing reading and writing skills
• Personalized tutoring
• Gamified learning approach at the child’s own pace
• No ads – so no distractions!
• Full Language Arts curriculum planned by teachers
• Risk-free 7-day trial
• New content added regularly
• Community features to encourage teamwork
• Easy accessibility through all web devices
• Strong privacy policies

Pricing

Night Zookeeper offers 3 different subscription options. These are:

Monthly: $12.99 per month

Quarterly: $33.99 every 3 months

Yearly: $59.99 per year (50% discount!)

(prices based on a 1-child subscription)

Click here to check out the latest special offers and savings on Night Zookeeper today.

4. Also Great for Kids 8 & Under: ABCmouse

ABCmouse

ABCmouse is one of most popular learning apps for little kids ages 2-8. It includes educational games, books, puzzles, and more to help kids learn in a fun, effective manner.

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ABCmouse is one of the best kids learning apps out there for young learners. It was created for educating younger children from ages 2 to 8, helping them learn and master everything from letter recognition to reading to math and more.

The curriculum involves story videos, puzzles, engaging activities, songs, and a lot more in the field of math, science, art, and reading. Parents can always change the level of learning to ensure that the kid is not playing around with the same skills.

ABCmouse offers a fun bonus that will make your kids love every bit of it. They will get a ticket reward on every completed lesson to purchase items for decorating their virtual classroom.

Where ABCmouse really shines is its Learning Path. While kids can do one-off activities and games, the Learning Path is a specially designed curriculum that takes your child step-by-step lessons and activities to help them learn foundational skills to prepare them for school.

Also, there is a child-friendly environment at ABC Mouse so you don’t need to worry about the appearance of pop-ups or advertisements leading to dangerous content.

Key Features & Benefits

• Designed for two to eight years of children (preschool and elementary school kids)
• Curriculum planned by teaching experts
• Offers learning in various range of subjects
• Personalized learning path to keep kids engaged
• Fun educational games and activities
• Different learning programs for different skill levels
• Safe to use with COPPA-verification
• Offers free tickets to kids upon completion of the lesson
• Assessment center to monitor student progress
• Up to three kids’ registration allowed per account
• Available in the form of app and website
• 30-day free trial

Pricing

ABCmouse pricing is as follows:

• Monthly: $12. 99 per month
• Short-Term: $29.99 every 6 months
• Annually: $59.99 per year (up to 60% off the regular price)

Click here to check out the 30-day free trial.

5. Great for Learning to Code: Tynker

Tynker

Tynker is the fun and exciting way for kids to learn coding while developing problem solving skills.

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Pricing Plans

Tynker pricing is as follows:

Individual

• Lifetime ($360 one-time payment)
• Yearly ($15/mo billed at $180 annually)
• Quarterly ($20/mo billed at $60 quarterly)

Families (up to 3 accounts)

• Lifetime ($540 one-time payment)
• Yearly ($20/mo billed at $240 annually)
• Quarterly ($30/mo billed at $90 quarterly)

Recommended Age

This course has an age range of 5-18 years.

Tynker is one of today’s popular platforms for teaching kids coding. The platform offers a number of courses, activities, and puzzles to help kids learn coding basics while having fun.

Tynker’s mission is to provide every child with solid foundations in Computer Science, programming, and critical thinking skills so they can be prepared to build a better future world.

Tynker’s coding curriculum is a thoughtfully designed program of 300 lessons in six levels designed to take your child from a novice to an expert coder. The curriculum is self-paced, allowing children to learn at their own speed and explore the material as extensively as they want.

Tynker even hosts some competitions every once in a while that are open to all users for a chance to win prizes.

Tykner’s unique curriculum makes it so any age or skill level can learn to code starting with simple block coding courses and progressing to a variety of popular text-based languages, including Python, Javascript, HTML/CSS, and more.

Key Features

• Award-winning curriculum in 6 levels with 300 lessons
• 5,000 interactive, game-like learning modules
• Mastery of key coding concepts like loops, conditional logic, and sequencing
• Progression to real languages like JavaScript and Python
• Code Data Science, AI, and Web Dev
• Explore Art and Image Processing
• Earn CS mastery certifications

Click here to try Tynker free today.

6. Best For Online Reading: EPIC!

Great Reading App for Kids

Epic

Want your kids to fall in love with reading? Epic includes a huge library of 40,000+ books and helps kids progress in their reading, making it fun and exciting.

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This incredible kids learning app contains over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and videos for children that can be accessed from several devices like computers, laptops, mobile phones, and others. It is a great platform for educators and homeschooling parents to encourage kids for interactive reading.

Simply put, Epic is one of the most popular learn to read apps for kids.

You’ll be impressed by how user-friendly and easy to navigate Epic is. Kids can sort the library with the help of refined search options like age, reading level, interests, and so on.

Also, those who want to learn a second language can look for multilingual content. These options induce a feeling of personalization and make your kids enthusiastic readers.

Due to the downloading feature provided by Epic, the problem with portability is not a thing anymore. The badges awarded to readers serve as a motivational incentive and make them want to read more and accomplish more.

Also, the parents can track the progress of your children and have an insight into how far their reading interest has developed.

Key Features & Benefits

• Stores 40,000+ library
• Designed for two to twelve years old children
• Great for school and home use
• Easy navigation options
• Kid-friendly application
• Reading incentives like badges and awards
• Offline accessibility with download option
• Collaboration with many renowned academic platforms
• Compatible with most android and apple devices
• Up to 4 person accounts can be registered

Pricing

EPIC has 2 paid plans:

• $7. 99 monthly payment
• $71.99 annual prepayment

Epic gives access to a one-month free trial for new users. It is completely free for teachers and librarians.

7. Best For Phonics Learning: Starfall

Starfall is a digital learning app for kids that teaches letters, words, and sounds to children in an animated language. Thumbs up, the free version of this app is quite remarkable with access to a number of useful resources!

However, the paid version involves premium access to arts curriculum that helps children in mastering fundamental math skills and social science skills.

From allowing your kids great memorization to having fun while learning, Starfall knows how to make the most of their screen time.

This app uses a fantasy-based approach to learning for creating curiosity in children to get more knowledge. Children bond with the Starfall characters in their virtual classroom through games, stories, songs, and other fun activities. All of these activities are built on the same concept and introduce a new challenge and excitement as you move on to the next level.  Parents can monitor the pace of progress simultaneously.

Starfall’s teaching method focuses on the development of phonemic recognition, systematic phonics, words, communication, and comprehension. It is a great way to homeschool kids and make them learn without supervision.

The entertaining graphics and vibrant colors of the website ensure that children stay engaged throughout the lessons and learn to navigate the site.

Key Features & Benefits

• Made for children of 2-5 years
• Offers interactive learning program
• Helps with language learning skills
• Easy to filter through content
• Ideal for home and classroom use
• Supported by android and apple devices

Pricing

Starfall offers free service to users. However, it can be upgraded to one-year membership costing $35 per year for accessing premium features.

8. Best For Language Learning: Duolingo

Are you contemplating getting your child to learn a new language? Well, it may seem a daunting task at first, but the advent of online kids learning apps such as Duolingo has made it easier.

Duolingo is one of the most raved about free language learning apps. It is great for kids who have just started speaking or may have a language deficiency. All preschoolers and school-aged children can benefit from this app’s seamless learning approach.

Duolingo consists of more than 34 languages! And for now, we’re just counting the ones that use English as the base language. They are plenty of other base languages along with their subsequent language courses. Overall, it’s like an enormous library!

The best part is Duolingo’s well-targeted and organized lesson plans. Each course has a set of modules, which includes lessons for each level. Once you pass a certain number of modules, the other module will be unlocked.

At first, kids will have to attempt a placement test to gauge their current understanding. Next, the app will devise appropriate lessons based on the user’s skillset.

Also, the lessons progress in chronological order, but kids have full liberty to go back and revise a particular lesson if they want.

Key Features & Benefits

• Each lesson takes three to four minutes to complete
• 20-minute podcasts available to listen and learn from native speakers
• Strengthens reading, writing and speaking skills
• Option to access regular practice exercises
• Ability to track daily progress
• Sleek, easy to use interface

Pricing

Although Duolingo is free for everyone, it offers one paid plan if you want more advanced features

• Duolingo Plus: $12.99 per month

9. Also Great For Learning Coding: Hopscotch

We all know how difficult it is to learn programming, right? And when we are talking about programming for kids, it is no easy task for sure!

However, with the great user-friendly interface provided by Hopscotch, it makes coding far easier to learn for kids than generally assumed.

It is based on open-ended learning to stimulate the logical thinking ability of children. They are completely independent to experiment with and personalize their program or even formulate their own projects.

The animation and gaming options are a great way to keep children engaged while learning. The rich range of avatars is another entertaining thing about this app. And you know what’s more? Kids can also interact with their friends and the whole Hopscotch community by sharing their programs.

Key Features & Benefits

• Great programming app for beginners
• Specifically for children of 10 to 16 years
• Encourages to think intellectually
• Designed to be an open-ended platform
• Easy to navigate the site
• Variety of avatars to choose from
• Allows kids to personalize their program
• Promotes interaction with fellow users
• Compatible with only Apple mobile devices

Pricing

Hopscotch gives free access to all users. However, there are many in-app purchases available to make programming even more fun for children.

10. Best For Learning Mathematical Skills: DragonBox Math

Mathematics is a difficult subject to both learn and teach.

But it is now absolutely fun to learn with DragonBox as it teaches kids with the help of games and exciting activities. There are no quizzes and assessments so they don’t even realize that they are being taught. They just keep enjoying their screen time while their mind grasps mathematical skills and the concepts stay there lifelong.

This innovative math app for kids has the most eye-pleasing graphics and motivating techniques to keep the children hooked throughout the lesson. A couple of simple directions are given to learners on each level for their better understanding of the game. They can delve deeper into the basic and advanced concepts and explore as much as they want.

Key Features & Benefits

• For children of four to nine years old
• Five geometric and algebraic learning apps
• Award-winning teaching platform
• Easy to follow instructions at every step
• Level-based and age-based learning
• Allows for creativity and experimentation
• Captivating graphics for an interesting experience

Pricing

DragonBox offers four paid plans:

• Basic Version: Free for all
• Home version: $5 per month and $60 per year
• Family version 33. 33% discount on $7.5 per month and $90 per year
• Premier Version: $15 per month and $180 per year

11. Best For Behavior Management: ClassDojo

Class Dojo is an online classroom teaching app and supports positive student behavior and classroom culture like no other. With COPPA and FERPA verification, it ensures a safe learning environment for children. It is operational on almost all devices such as computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.

It offers plenty of innovative resources to educators in the form of video lectures and tutorials. Each instructor can customize class values based on a particular classroom’s needs. The students are awarded dojo points by their teachers based on their performance which encourages them to work hard and get more appreciation.

Class Dojo is uniquely designed with immense ease of communication and receiving notifications. Students can connect to their instructors in case of academic-related problems. Parents can get timely feedback about their child’s progress and interact with the teachers to discuss his/her behavioral development.

Key Features & Benefits

• Promotes a positive student culture
• Verified by COPPA and FERPA
• Encourages communication between parents and teachers
• Allows to track the progress of children
• Customizable class values for teachers
• Offers performance appraisal in the form of points
• Accessible on most Android and Apple devices

Pricing

ClassDojo is an all-free teaching program for educators, administration, and parents.

12. Best For Personalized Learning: Khan Academy Kids

An all-in-one educational app for kids of all ages. Khan Academy Kids provides all the resources for free and is successful in providing every person with their in-depth study material. It’s among the best free educational apps out there.

Khan Academy Kids provides practice problems, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard, allowing students to study at their own speed. It has a library of thousands of educational videos on hundreds of topics and additional resources like practice questions etc.

Khan Academy Kids consists of a variety of subjects at different levels like math, science, arts, and humanities as well as AP courses. Test Preparation like SAT, GMAT, and IELTS are also inclusive of their study material.

Key Features & Benefits

• Provides thousands of videos and explanations for different courses.
• Uses high-quality images, videos, and other illustrations, making the learning journey easier
  and interesting.
• From core courses like math, science, economics, and history to different languages, many
  courses are offered for free.
• Over 50,000 practice questions provided with step-by-step guidelines and instant feedback.
• Download all the study material, from videos to entire topics, and access it easily any time
  and anywhere.
• Keeps track of student work and lets you pick up from where you left off.
• Easy to set up and use.

Pricing

Khan Academy is free for all and does not need the creation of an account as well.

13. Best For Toddlers: Busy Shapes

Busy Shapes is a smart learning app designed to assist toddlers and preschoolers. The app uses AI to strengthen child’s intelligence and their cognitive skills.

It features a digital playground full of geometric shapes in different colors and sizes that toddlers can explore and match into their corresponding holes. It is a clever method that encourages the kids to start thinking logically instead of rote learning.

The challenges presented before the toddlers evolves with each level through the use of AI and the screen offers a simple and clean ground with no instructions to let the child explore.

Key Features & Benefits

• Progress is tracked and can be picked up right from where they left off
• Most difficult stages also demand some problem-solving.
• Helps kid develop their cognitive skills and not just memorize shapes and colors.
• Screen determines when a child’s finger contacts the block even if there are other
  fingers touching the screen.
• App is child-friendly and ad-free keeping the child hooked.
• Parents can set up accounts as many as 40 for several kids.

Pricing

Busy Shapes offers a standardized plan of $1.99 at the time of download only (Apple, Android).

14. Best For Elementary School Kids: Prodigy

Prodigy is an online interactive mathematics game designed for elementary and middle school students. It assesses students’ proficiency in mathematics while they are immersed in a different fantasy world full of battles, treasures, and characters.

In order to proceed in-game, the student needs to answer the mathematical questions that are aligned with the concepts they are learning.

Key Features & Benefits

• Students are immersed in a fascinating fantasy world where success is based on their
  mathematical skills.
• Students are motivated to study more via in-game questions that are targeted to them and
  the questions can be customized to their needs.
• Keeps the kids engaged with their different characters, items, quests, and battles.
• Progress can be tracked easily by the teacher or parents.
• In-game support like a pen tool to show their working
• Provides immediate feedback which clarifies their misconceptions and encourages students
  to learn independently and try again.

Pricing

Prodigy is a free game where all the educational content is free of cost. However, it provides a premium subscription that gives access to in-app features such as more characters, items, treasure chests, and pets.

• Premium monthly plan: $8.95 per month
• Premium Annual plan: $59.88 per year.

15. Best For Teenagers: Quizlet

Quizlet is a study tool that enables you to create your own flashcards and features high-quality graphics, diagrams, several languages, and text-to-speech audio uploads.

Students can discover a variety of pre-made study sets made by instructors and other students on many topics. It provides them with options of flashcards, games, adaptive questions, and quizzes to learn, revise and review their practice in a timely manner.

It has a website as well as mobile apps for both iOS and Android, which enables mobile learning and ease of accessibility.

Key Features & Benefits

• Create your own set of flashcards for memorizing facts and key information.
• Perfect for independent rote learning.
• Tests your memory and lets you race against the clock through different study activities.
• Allows your flashcards and notes to be shared with others.
• Uses graphics and audio to assist in effective learning.
• Automatic pronunciation is available in 18 languages.
• Offline support is available through offline downloading.

Pricing

Quizlet is a free tool, however, it features an optional upgrade for more advanced features for both students and teachers.

• Teacher: $35.99 per year
• Go: $11. 99 per year
• Plus: $19.99 per year

All the plans offer a 7-day free trial.

16. Best For Science: Science 360

Science 360 is a perfect learning and discovery platform for all science geeks. It provides quick and effortless access to intriguing engineering and science videos, images as well as providing all-time access to the latest scientific news and discovery from NSF-funded organizations.

This app is developed by the science360 knowledge network and is funded by the National Science Foundation.

All the data collected is provided by the NSF or from renowned scientists or various educational institutions like colleges and universities as well as science and engineering centers. Any amateur can use it to his own benefit easily as it is intuitive and very user-friendly.

Key Features & Benefits

• A thorough explanation appears when you tap the image.
• Provides fun and engaging images, texts, and videos on a wide range of scientific topics.
• Access to high-quality images from NSF-funded organization which are also available for
  download.
• Download and view any image or video within the app with a simple tap.
• Explore interesting content through keywords or navigate in an engaging 360 view.
• Provides up to date information on the latest scientific discoveries using the in-app
  newsfeed feature

Pricing

Science 360 is a free educational app available for download on iPad and Android devices

Why Are Educational Apps Important?

Educational apps now serve as an enhanced caregiver to kids. Children now resort to gadgets and internet for answers instead of reaching out to adults.

These applications have the most recent and updated information, in comparison to different channels. No longer do you have to keep on buying new books for kids to help them gain more knowledge, everything is under one application now.

Learning on the best educational applications is personalized for every student, helping them develop key skills to fit their unique needs.

Unlike in a classroom, where you have one teacher for 30+ students, the applications create a one-on-one learning environment with age-appropriate lessons, content, and interactive games. All progress is kept private to ensure no student is embarrassed by poor progress. Students who have social anxiety find such an environment beneficial for their learning.

Educational applications also promote literacy in areas where there is poor infrastructure for education.

Educational apps require no infrastructure, such as teachers, a good building, power, running water, etc. — you only need a device and access to the internet.

When the kids learn in a comfortable environment, they enjoy it.

And education experts also advocate for apps since they have shown improved test scores. They can even be used in certain moments to keep kids from getting bored in online class.

Features To Look For In Educational Apps

Parents need to ensure that the application they select and download for their kids is actually beneficial. They may use a few tips to ensure that kids will be learning and using their time efficiently. Below are some of the features parents should look for in educational applications:

Customizable Settings

They are a very important feature to ensure that learning is according to students’ standards. A grade two student would neither be interested nor comprehend the content for a grade eight student.

Speech and pronunciation

Such speaking tools for young kids are essential to building up their pronunciation skills and also to keep them engaged since they aren’t proficient at reading.

Parental control

Option for parental control should be present in the application, to control whatever the parents want. It could be something as small as the music of the game or something like preventing the kids from opening the lessons of higher levels so that you’re certain the lessons are age appropriate.

Systematic learning

An application should have a plethora of information, but nothing too overwhelming for kids. It should be organized and categorized into a systematic learning procedure combining live and recorded sessions.

Assessments and Feedback

It should have an option to test information. For young kids, it could be as simple as a question, whereas for older students it could be quizzes or mock tests. This provides quantitative feedback to parents and show them the improvement in learning.

Base Language

To ensure inclusivity, the application should have an option to choose languages the student is comfortable in. In underdeveloped countries, English language is not very common to students. They usually are fluent in their native languages and mother tongue.

Visual Enhancement Tools

Video-based content and gamified version of activities keep the kids engaged which is why parents should also try to find such apps. However, it should be noted that advertisements should be kept to a minimum, especially advertisements of other games and TV show promotions since they can be distracting for the student and negatively impact their learning.

Benefits of Kids Learning Apps

Why should you be convinced that educational applications are important? Why should you place your trust in an application?

Here is why:

• These applications are more motivating than physical classrooms. Students find it taxing to get up, get dressed, and travel to school. Getting onto an educational application is easier and from the comfort of their bed
• Learning has no geographical or political boundaries. They can be learning any language or any kind of information that is inaccessible in physical learning spaces.
• Applications, unlike teachers, are available 24/7 to students. Students can open them in the middle of the night, or early morning for learning, whatever fits their schedule.
• Educational applications are environmentally friendly since they save on the papers used for printing the books, and also the learning material used for writing.
• Kids learning apps are constantly updated for new research and errors. While humans can miscommunicate or teach a wrong fact sometimes, the applications have the latest and the correct information
• Unlike teachers who may communicate different things to different students, an application provides a systematic way of informed learning.
• Learning apps for kids are highly engaging and interactive, more than books which is why they are more efficient and give a better learning experience

A Final Word on Children’s Apps for Learning

No doubt, traditional learning methods linger a feeling of boredom. Monotonous learning patterns restrict children’s creativity and critical thinking skills.

With the best educational apps for kids, it’s the other way round!

Novel learning methods incorporating the element of fun and engagement are best to amp up your child’s confidence and improve their learning habits.

Have any questions about the best learning apps for kids? Comment below and we’ll help.

• Author
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Fatima Mansoor

Fatima Mansoor is a freelance writer covering education technology. She has a Master of Arts (MA) in English Language Teaching.

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The best free educational learning apps for kids in 2022

Do you know what makes the back-to-school season exciting? All the new apps and ed-tech platforms kids get to use. Whether they’re still joining online classes or using ed-tech for in-person lessons, there are various free educational apps for kids that make learning fun. Most of these are completely free, but some of them also offer paid plans for more advanced features.

Contents

• Many subjects
• Math
• Science
• Coding
• Reading
• Language
• Art
• Gym
• Video resources

Ready to revamp the back-to-school curriculum? Here are the best free educational apps for kids.

Khan Academy has thousands of lessons in dozens of languages. You can do deep dives into cosmology, ancient civilizations, the branches of government, cryptography, and far too many more to mention. A progress tracker lets you know how far you’ve advanced in a particular topic. The app for younger kids has cute cartoon animals, music, and lots of activities. There are books (you can either choose to have them read to you or read on your own), coloring and drawing options, and videos about math and other subjects. There are also reading, math, and logic activities. Everything is accessible from the Library menu in the top corner, while the main screen is more focused on short games for kids. Khan Academy also has some additional resources, like suggested schedules for remote learning.

Ages: Khan Academy Kids is for ages 2 to 7; Khan Academy is for older kids in high school.  

Subjects: The kids’ app is focused on math, reading, and social learning. The older students’ app has math (everything from arithmetic to calculus), science (including biology, physics, and chemistry), economics, arts and humanities (like grammar and history), and computing.

Khan Academy Kids

Android iOS

Khan Academy

Android iOS

BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. are apps that cover a wide variety of topics. Its science videos showcase the life cycle of plants, temperature, hibernation (for younger kids) or potential energy, metabolism, or Jane Goodall. Follow-up activities, like quizzes, help reinforce concepts. Everything is well-organized and easy to navigate. It costs a subscription, but you can also access several free lessons and activities.

Ages: BrainPop Jr. is for kindergarteners through third graders; BrainPop is for older elementary and middle school students.

Subjects: Math, science, social studies, art and music, health, engineering and tech, and English.

BrainPop

Android iOS

BrainPop Jr.

Android iOS

Chances are, your kid is already familiar with at least a few PBS characters from shows like Molly of Denali, Sesame Street, or Clifford the Big Red Dog. Their faves can help them find shapes, learn to count, or go on a museum hunt for historic figures in the PBS Kids Games app. There isn’t a good way to narrow down the long list of games in this app by age or subject, but if you click on a show and then tap the Grownups button, the description will provide an age range and goals the game focuses on, like social and emotional growth, literacy, or science.

Ages: 2 to 8.

Subjects: Science, reading, math, social and emotional growth, creativity, music, social studies.

Android iOS

Duck Duck Moose is an education company that is now part of Khan Academy. In this math-focused app, kids help a burly moose and his friends do various tasks around town. They’ll use counting to help make juice or find hidden animals. There’s also a shape game and a couple of games that use addition and subtraction. The five games have different levels, but your child will have to progress through them instead of skipping ahead.

Ages: Kindergarten and first graders.

Android iOS

The Prodigy app is a story mixed with math. You start by customizing your wizard, then move on to battling monsters (in a cute way). The types of math problems you need to solve are based on the level you select at the start. A fourth grader might be asked about trapezoids or tell time on a clock in order to successfully cast a spell.

Ages: First through eighth graders.  

Android iOS

Aspiring astronauts will be thrilled with the amount of space content at their fingertips, thanks to NASA’s app. They can explore news, watch videos, and learn about past and present missions. They can also get a map of all the NASA visitor centers, enjoy augmented reality (AR) 3D models of various NASA orbiters and missions, and cast all their favorite content to Apple TV, Chromecast, and Fire TV devices. Audio fans will love the NASA podcast and radio stations that take you on an immersive journey. Naturally, there are lots of amazing images as well.

Ages: Older elementary school and up.

Android iOS Amazon

The National Science Foundation created this app, which is a collection of impressive images and interesting videos on scientific topics. Kids can learn more about new discoveries, watch informative videos on the latest innovations, and conduct deep-dive searches into their favorite topics. There’s a broad range of categories to choose from, including biology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, and even nanoscience.

Ages: Older elementary school and up.

Android iOS

This fun augmented reality app lets kids dream up all sorts of creative critters. The creatures are a mashup of body parts from several animals, so you might end up with a whale tale, kangaroo appendages, and butterfly wings. Once you’ve created the creature, you can use your phone’s camera to send it on missions, like finding food or creating a home for its babies. You can also watch a slideshow describing how your creature lives. The quizzes are helpful to put your kid in a thinking mode about what the creature needs to survive.

Ages: 4 and up.

iOS

Yet another PBS app, the Play and Learn Science app focuses on science games. The topics include water, motion, shadows, and weather. Though the games are engaging, they also teach problem-solving in addition to scientific concepts. For example, in Thirsty Doggie, you have to use a variety of objects to direct the flow of water into a pup’s bowl. It gets progressively harder as you move up in levels. While it’s a favorite among kids, parents love it as well, considering it provides parent-child engagement tips and activities so you can strengthen your relationship with your kid while helping them learn new things.

Ages: 2 and up.

Android iOS

Coding

Scratch is a programming language from MIT, and this app introduces kids to it in a fun, intuitive way. Coding blocks help them make connections between a command and its outcome. They can create animations, decorate backgrounds, and add their voices and photos. Older kids might want to start with regular Scratch, which offers more advanced projects.

Ages: 5 and up.

Android iOS Amazon

This logic-building app has adorable visuals and an easy-to-grasp premise. Create a path from pieces with different twists and turns so cute woodland creatures can get from one spot to another. The path gets more complex the more levels you do. This is excellent as an introduction to computational thinking and learning the foundations of how coding works. Kids can choose between cute themes to make everything more fun.

Ages: Kindergarten through second grade.

iOS

For kids who are interested in a variety of programming languages, Encode is a good place to start. It has lessons for JavaScript, Swift, Python, and Bash. They start with the basics and move on from there. They can set their own pace and learn with bite-sized lessons so nothing feels too overwhelming. It will help kids become proficient in the lingo for when they’re ready to move on to creating their own projects. To make the transition easier, Encode lets them run real code to test their skills.

Ages: Older elementary school and up.

iOS

Reading

Kindle

Kindle is the first app that comes to mind when you think of reading. It’s free to download and use, and you also get several free books without needing to buy a subscription or pay for any purchase. The kids’ section is pretty robust, and you get free access to titles like Ara the Star Engineer, Kevin and the King of Karate, Denny and Penny, and many more. You don’t even need to buy a Kindle for this, since the app works on phones and tablets. You can sync the downloaded books to various devices and take your reading anywhere with you.

Ages: 3 and up.

Android iOS

If your kid has assigned reading at school, it helps to have books handy. Libraries are the best for this, but not everyone has access to one. If you have a library card but live far away from your local branch, you can still access your branch’s digital resources, including movies, audiobooks, and even digitized picture books. The app was made by OverDrive, so if your library uses that system for e-book and audiobook lending, you should have access to Libby. While this app doesn’t actually teach kids how to read, it will hopefully give them plenty of material to read or listen to.

Ages: 2 and up.

Android iOS Windows

Language

Simple graphics and a focus on the basics make this a good choice for beginning language learners, especially because you can’t set your level beyond beginner or intermediate. Plus, there’s a good mix of tasks that will keep kids entertained. There are a few dozen languages to choose from, from French to Portuguese and many more. A word of warning: The free version only lets you play for five minutes before locking you out for 10 hours.

Ages: 7 to 16.

Android iOS

With over 30 languages, Duolingo has lots of educational games, whether you want to learn Hawaiian, Greek, or Spanish. To start, you’ll take a placement test, so the app can serve up content tailored to your knowledge level. Then you’ll practice listening, reading, vocabulary, and pronunciation. There are lots of levels to progress through and a variety of ways to practice the ins and outs of a language. Please note that the free version is ad-supported.

Ages: 13 and up.

Android iOS

Art

Two apps from Duck Duck Moose have similar functionality but different themes. Draw and Tell is more general, while Superhero Comic Book Maker has monsters and caped crusaders. Both let kids scribble away with digital markers and crayons but also use stickers and color in drawings. They can save any creations they’re particularly proud of and share them with family and friends.

Ages: 3 and up.

Superhero Comic Book Maker Draw and Tell

If you’ve always wanted to explore the museums of Moscow, Vienna, and New York, the Google Arts and Culture app is a good place to start. It has collections from hundreds of museums, from Japan’s Ohara Museum of Art to The Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa. There are lots of other activities in the app as well, whether you want to take a foodie tour of Spain, learn to strike a pose like Misty Copeland, or get Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons from The British Library.

Ages: Older elementary and up.

Android iOS

Gym

With a deep catalog of all sorts of high-energy videos, GoNoodle can keep active kids entertained for weeks. Some videos are just a couple of minutes long, while others (like Indoor Recess) string together several clips for 15 to 20 minutes of movement. One of our personal favorites is Blazer Fresh, who is self-described as nerdy by nature and will teach your child how to sing the alphabet backward.

Ages: 5 to 12.

Android iOS

If you want your kids up and moving but in a tranquil way, Super Stretch Yoga is great for younger kids. Instead of introducing them to complicated yoga poses, the app has videos of tots doing modifications based on things found in nature, like mouse pose or eagle pose. The video snippets don’t last long, but they could help with flexibility and balance.

Ages: 2 and up.

iOS

This is actually an all-ages app, but there is a kids’ section with lots of types of exercise for strength, agility, flexibility, and cardio. You can customize a routine by swapping in different moves and adjusting the workout’s timer. The moves are all done by kids, with a voice-over explaining how to copy them. Sworkit has workout mixes through the app or on Apple Music and Spotify, including a kid-friendly mix.

Ages: Older elementary and up.

Android iOS

This app is full of episodes and clips from shows like Peg + Cat, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Molly of Denali, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and more. The grown-ups tab at the bottom gives age ranges for each show, as well as goals, like science for Wild Kratts.

Ages: 2 and up.

Android iOS

CuriosityStream is a great resource for all kinds of documentaries. It has thousands of them for science, history, nature, and more. There’s also a special kids’ section with lots of David Attenborough, dinosaurs, and space-themed videos. The history category has movies about Chambord, the Silk Road, the Apollo Mission, and tons in between.

Ages: Older elementary and up.

Subscription required? Yes, after the 30-day free trial (through Amazon), it’s $20 a year.

Android iOS

This app actually has a ton of movies for everyone, with a special focus on kids’ content. It has both movies and TV shows, including many PBS shows. If you’re not sure what you want to watch, you’ll find things arranged in useful collections, like classic tales, explore science and math, and stories from around the world. Once you get into the kids’ section, it takes some clicking to get back out, which is useful if you don’t want your little ones accidentally watching Midsommer.

Ages: 2 and up.

Subscription required? Available for free through your library, and you can log in with your library card. Also open to students and professors.

Android iOS

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14 educational apps for kids for free

My son goes to kindergarten, but now he is in self-isolation at home.

Maria Kolenkova

found something to do with the child

Author profile

I continue to work remotely and try to keep my child busy in order to earn easy money.

During the first week of self-isolation, I wanted to teach him how to play chess and study English in traditional “tutorials”. But too formalized classes turned out to be boring. After them, my five-year-old son said: "Mom, please, let's not play anymore." nine0003

Therefore, I have collected games that develop logic, thinking, memory, teach counting and writing, but at the same time are interesting for the child.

Cut The Rope

Age: 2-4 years
What will teach: Logically think
Price: free
download or open: Android, iOS, desktop

Green monstrik Nyami from the same name cartoon character loves candy. The whole game is built on this: you need to feed the hero. But to do this is not so easy. The child needs to cut the ropes that the candy is tied to and watch how gravity works, in which direction the sweet will fly off or swing. Complicating the passage of the level are bubbles that can pick up the candy and take it upstairs - then you have to start over. nine0003

The logic and laws of physics in the game are not presented boringly and formally, but are explained in practice. The creators of the game marked it 0+, and even kindergarteners can really handle the very first levels. But then it can be difficult for younger students.

/list/online-games-for-children/

English, programming and logic: 9 educational online games for children

Drawing

Age: 2-7 years old
Learning to draw:

1 Price: first month free, full version — 299 R
Download: Android, iOS