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13 Best Educational Apps for Kids

  • January 16, 2020
  • 7 minute read
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A child using an educational app on his iPad.
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With so many apps for kids on Android, iPhone and iPad, which ones are worthy of their time? Our vote goes to activities that are irresistibly fun and educational. The apps that made our list of best educational apps (in no particular order) were picked based on factors like popularity with kids, fun, educational value, safety and rating on Common Sense Media—all boasting four stars or higher.

Check ‘em out and let the learning fun begin!

1. DIY.org – Creative Challenges

Best DIY App

DIY.org is a STEAM-approved app chock-full of instructional videos, featuring topics on simple machines, coding, crafting and building.

Pros

Kids can choose from dozens of projects, ranging from photography to cooking and science experiments. Each project includes an introduction, a how-to video and a challenge.

DIY.org Creative Challenges app

Cons

While strictly kids only, it does offer an internal social media component, encouraging kids to upload photos and videos of their creations and comment on those of others. Not necessarily a “con,” but as with anything online, you’ll want to be mindful of your child’s activity. 

Age Range: 5+

Price: $15-$25 a month

Available on iPhone and iPad

2. VocabularySpellingCity

Best Spelling App

Pros

You can create your own custom vocab lists for your child to learn through the app. After they complete each mission, they can see which words they missed, and you can easily check their progress along the way.

Vocabulary Spelling City app

Cons

Vocabulary lists and access to the parent/teacher portal are through the app’s website only—not the app itself. You also need to sign up for the paid version in order to use the mobile app or save your child’s progress.

Age Range: 5+

Price: $29.99 a year

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

3. Motion Math

Best Beginner Math App

With dozens of games to choose from, this math app is like several apps in one, teaching valuable skills like problem solving, addition, subtraction, multiplication and fractions.

Motion Math app

Pros

Choice! Your child can pick the game they want to play and which math skills to sharpen. Older kids can learn skills with real-life applications with simulation-style games, like learning business math by running a cupcake or pizza shop.

Cons

Kids need to start out and advance at the beginner levels to learn the rules of each game. As a result, older kids might get bored and skip to higher levels before grasping important game concepts.

Age Range: 5+

Price: $2.99 a month/$29.99 a year

Available on iPhone and iPad

4. Kodable

Best Coding App

Kodable introduces kids to the world of programming, teaching important basics such as problem solving, conditional statements, loop commands and debugging. It’s even easy enough for preschoolers to use.

Pros

This app is a great way for parents with little to no coding background to give their kids a fun, age-appropriate foundation in programming.

Kodable app

Cons

Some kids could complete the free lessons ahead of the advertised eight weeks of free play, and some concepts might be too complex for younger users.

Age Range: 4-10

Price: Free-$59.99

Available on iPhone and iPad

5. Stack the States 2

Best Geography App

Stack the States helps kids learn the location of states, capitals and major cities in an engaging, interactive way. The app also offers fun facts about each state to help kids understand the basic topography, culture and industries found throughout the U.S.

Stack the States 2 app

Pros

Stack the States goes beyond helping kids learn the state capitals and locations by also introducing them to related knowledge like state flags and major resources. 

Cons

Some kids might find the app too simple, repetitive or lacking the bells and whistles that some other games offer.

Age Range: 9-12

Price: $2.99

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

6. Breathe, Think, Do With Sesame

Best App for Emotional Intelligence

This modified meditation app can teach your child to calm down, and cope with and work through feelings and everyday frustrations in a way that’s fun and engaging. 

Breathe Think Do app by Sesame Street

Pros

While kids learn the skills and tools for dealing with emotions in any environment or situation, parents can track their child’s progress and identify which challenges they need the most help with (anxiety, bedtime or taking turns, for example).

Cons

While great for toddlers and preschoolers, it may not appeal to children 5 years and older.

Age Range: 2+

Price: Free

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

7. SkyView

Best Hands-On Astronomy App

This app lets you and your child enjoy some relaxing stargazing and explore planets and constellations day and night just by launching the app on your smartphone and pointing it at the sky. You’ll learn the names of nearby wonders in space—and a few fun facts about them, too. 

Skyview app

Pros

The app works day and night, and doesn’t require a WiFi connection.

Cons

All facts presented in the app come from Wikipedia, so there may be some concerns about the reliability of the information. 

Age Range: 9+

Price: $1.99

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

8. Creature Garden

Best Creativity App

Creature Garden is a zany app that allows kids to create their own animals by combining hundreds of different animal legs, hooves, heads and other body parts. Once your child has built their animals, they can name, feed, and groom it, design a garden for it and much more.

Creature Garden app

Pros

Your child can use their imagination while developing their thinking and reasoning skills, as well as understanding of part-whole relationships. 

Cons

As far as we can tell, this app is an all-around hit with kids, teachers and parents!

Age Range: 6+

Price: $2.99

Available on iPhone and iPad

9. Music4Kids – Learn and Compose Music Through Play

Best Music App

This music app shows kids how to write music by encouraging them to reproduce famous melodies and even write a few of their own tunes. All music is written by dragging and dropping notes onto the page as well as rests, clefts and flats. And when their masterpiece is complete, they can listen to their creations.

Pros

The app can help your child learn the basics of tempo, pitch and rhythm, giving them a solid foundation in music composition.

Music 4 Kids app

Cons

Kids can’t create unique chords or compose in the bass clef, making it a little limiting when it comes to creating their own music.

It can also take a little practice moving notes in order to get them to “stick.”

Age Range: 6+

Price: $2.99

Available on iPhone and iPad

10. Dexteria Dots 2

Best Dexterity & Fine Motor Skills App

Dexteria Dots 2 is a great way to help kids learn dexterity—all while sharpening their math skills. Younger kids can use the app to help improve dexterity while older kids can continue on to higher levels to work on their addition and subtraction skills. There’s also a timed component that encourages kids to complete puzzles quickly.

Pros

The app is engaging, super interactive and comes highly recommended by parents, teachers and even children’s occupational therapists. 

Dexteria Dots 2 app

Cons

Some kids may struggle with the use of this type of visualization to learn math concepts.

Age Range: 6+

Price: $2.99

Available on iPhone and iPad

BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week

11. Best Interactive Video App

BrainPOP Jr. is an educational app that uses videos to teach kids about topics ranging from art, history and math to the environment and other potential subjects for school. The best part for kids is they’re filled to the brim with goofy humor. 

Pros

BrainPOP Jr. releases new videos each week on a wealth of subjects. Each show’s hosts present information in a thoughtful way and kids can see their progress by taking quizzes and monitoring their scores.

BrainPOP Jr. app

Cons

While the app offers plenty of high-quality videos on a variety of topics, it’s interactivity is low and offers little opportunity for kids to reflect on what they’ve learned.

Age Range: 6+

Price: Free – $6.99

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

12. LeapFrog: Let’s Go to School

Best App for the First Day of School 

LeapFrog’s Let’s Go to School video let’s kids follow frog siblings Tad and Lily through a typical day of kindergarten to help them visualize how things will go ahead of the big day.

Leap Frog First Day of School App

Pros

The 35-minute in-app video talks about typical emotions that may arise on the first day of school, including worry, anxiety, happiness and even boredom.

Beyond helping kids cope, it also helps support parents who may be suffering from first-day-of-school jitters.

Cons

The video may cover too much content for preschoolers to process in just over half an hour, but kids will relate to the characters and enjoy the story as they work through their fears.

Age Range: 4-5

Price: Free

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

13. Epic!

Best “Sneaky Learning” App

And last but not least there’s … us! 

Like several other apps on this list, Epic! isn’t billed as an “educational app,” per se. Epic! is filled with high-quality books and videos that appeal to millions of kids of all ages, interests and learning levels. We call it “sneaky learning” because kids have so much fun reading, listening and watching stories unfold, they don’t even realize they’re, well, learning.

Explore Epic today!

Pros

Kids can’t get enough of the content and love the freedom to choose from thousands of entertaining options. Teachers and parents love knowing their students and children are learning and enjoying screen time in a safe and healthy way. 

Cons

We can all use a little improvement sometimes, right? 

Age Range: 2+

Price: Free – $7.99 a month

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android

Sign up today!

That’s a wrap! We’re definitely ready to take more than a few of these for a test drive with our own kids, and we hope you are, too. You can find more app picks in our post “Best Free Learning Apps for Kids.”

For more on safe, kid-safe app time, check out our posts Tech Time: Quality or Quantity? and 3 Tips for Kid-Safe Streaming.

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