Educational and Fun Apps

Nowadays electronic devices are everywhere. Most of us can hardly live without our smartphones and tablets. Having spent all day in front of a computer, we then reach out to our phone to order dinner with a single swipe of our finger or through a simple voice message.

However, what about our young kids? Can we keep toddlers and preschoolers entirely away from screens, or should we rather find inventive ways to harness their learning potential? Read the article below as we discuss how young children can interact with screens to develop new skills. We will also present our selection of the best tested educational and fun apps for toddlers.

How to Use Mobile Apps for Education?

Before we continue any further, let us underline the fact that you always need to be careful how much screen time your child gets. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you do not allow any screen time for children under the age of 18 months.

That said, you can still use mobile technology to help your kids learn after that age. The key component here is your active participation in the process. Guiding the learning process or just having a fun time together with your child is the best way to incorporate mobile devices into your activities.

Tried and Tested Recommended Apps

Now let us cut to the chase. What are the best apps for toddlers? Of course, there is no one way to answer this question. It all depends on the goal you intend to achieve while using the app. Some toddler apps are mostly entertaining, others are purely educational, but mostly, apps for young children combine both fun and learning.

Here are our best picks:

PBS Kids Games

PBS Kids Games is aimed at children between the ages of 2 and 8. It offers hundreds of free educational games, where your kids can enjoy popular characters like Daniel Tiger, Donkey Hodie, Wild Kratts, and more. The app’s creators have developed it as a curriculum-based medium, where kids can use mathematics, science, and creativity to play and learn. The content is safe and age-appropriate.

ABCmouse

Released back in 2014, ABCmouse is one of the most beloved toddler and preschool apps. It is suitable for kids ages 2-8 and is entirely free and available on all platforms. The ABCmouse app was developed using advanced research and helps create an individual learning path for every child user to help them reach educational milestones like kindergarten entry and third grade.

Besides the personalized learning paths, kids can also explore ABCmouse according to their own preferences. The app includes areas like science, math, reading, geography, social science, art, music and more. It offers activities, such as puzzles, printables, songs, games, animations, books, and many more.

Homer Learn & Grow

This award-winning app also targets the age group between 2-8 and is available for Android and iOS. The first 30 days are free. The subscription after the trial period starts from $7.99 per month. The app offers personalized learning that incorporates several areas including mathematics, reading, social and emotional learning, creativity, and thinking skills.

The Homer method uses a four-step research-validated approach based on the pillars of Introduce-Practice-Apply-Transfer. The learning paths are developed by age groups and by subjects.

Khan Academy Kids

You must have heard of Khan Academy, right? This educational NGO was created in 2006 by Sal Khan to provide free online resources for students. Nowadays, it is one of the world’s most renowned educational brands.

Khan Academy Kids is a free app for Android and iOS that was developed by experts from Stanford. It features fun characters like Kodi Bear that guide young learners through the depths of reading, writing, math, and many more.

Here is an example of a Khan Academy Kids back-to-school book:

Other Fun and Educational Apps for Toddlers

The great news is that many celebrated mobile brands are offering high-quality fun and educational apps for toddlers and preschoolers entirely free. Some of our favorites include:

• Elmo Loves 123s
• Elmo Calls
• Daniel Tiger’s Grr-ific Feelings
• Beck and Bo
• Reading
• Epic!
• 2-3.com Baby Games
• Hungry Caterpillar Play School
• Starfall ABCs
• Goodness Shapes

Conclusion

Finally, whatever apps you choose for your children, we advise you to make sure they follow the recommended privacy requirements and always select reputable brands. It is best if the apps are research-based and certified. Individual learning paths are also a major asset of a good learning app.

Last but not least, your kid should be able to enjoy using the app. After all, as the saying, goes, “It’s all fun and games!” This holds especially true when we are talking about the youngest learners.