Best Educational Apps for Kids | Free & Paid Learning & Reading Kids’ Apps

Introduction: Best Educational Apps for Kids

Every fall just before school starts, the school materials aisle of the local grocery store seems to always be a mess as parents and their children rush to buy notebooks, pencils, scissors, glue, and pretty much every other type of educational tool available.

Though the notebook and pencil haven’t been completely relegated to the trash can of history, more and more schools are turning to kids’ learning apps to improve education.

In our digitalized world, computers and learning apps for kids are taking the place of blackboards and chalk.

There are a number of companies that produce quality math apps for kids and many other quality educational apps for kids that have proven to be an effective way for children to learn—inside and outside the classroom.

In this article, we will look at the best educational apps for kids on the market and analyze how the best kids’ educational apps can help your child get motivated and excited about learning.

Source: Montessori Crosswords from iTunes

We will also look in detail at the best reading apps for kids and the best math apps for kids, these being two of the pillars of any educational experience.

Furthermore, we will consider the best free educational apps for kids for parents who prefer searching the web for freebies instead of purchasing expensive software.

Why You Need Learning Apps for Kids

Let’s face it, the vast majority of children today know a lot more about computers than they do about books. That is because most kids spend more time on their smartphones and tablets than with their noses tucked inside their textbooks.

With the advent of educational apps for kids, smartphones and tablets can be turned into innovative and exciting educational tools for children.

Though many of us may hold fond memories of the fresh, crisp smell of a new textbook, many children in today’s world may find books to be boring and lacklustre. When compared to the sounds and colors and interactive display of a smartphone, computer, or tablet, the black and white letters of a textbook seem dreary.

Instead of trying to convince children to learn the way people did in the past, a better strategy is to bring education into the world in which they inhabit.

Learning apps for kids are a fantastic way to help children discover that learning can go hand-in-hand with the technology they love. Furthermore, kids learning apps can be utilized to help children continue their education outside of the classroom.

Kids educational apps that are designed for tablets and smartphones make homework a lot more exciting. Screen time doesn’t have to be all mind-numbing video games, and homework doesn’t have to be a punishment.

By combining the two, you can get the best of both worlds and help children discover how using the best educational apps for kids as part of their screen time can be an educational experience.

According to CENOVIS “there are apps available (often free!) that are not only fun but are educational and can actually benefit our kids’ learning, without them even realizing it.

When used correctly and in combination with traditional mediums, apps do have a place in your little one’s growth and development and are much more than a simple distraction device.”

Don’t Miss: Algorithm Trading—What Is Algorithmic Trading? (Strategies and Software Reviews)

Best Reading Apps for Kids

Learning to read is a challenge for any child. These best reading apps for kids can help turn the learning process into an entertaining challenge instead of a frustrating battle to simply decipher black letters on a white page.

The best reading apps for kids are usually divided into the different areas they focus on: phonics and decoding, comprehension, sight words, and short books. We mention one of the best reading apps for kids for each section.

Montessori Crosswords is one of the best reading apps for kids who are struggling with phonics and decoding.

This app specializes in teaching children the sounds of letters, which is a good emphasis for children who are struggling to get started. It is one of the best kids’ educational apps because it allows children to concentrate on the phonetic sound of each letter before jumping into the combination of letters.

Source: Microsoft Encarta

All-in-One Change Management Tools

Top Rated Toolkit for Change Managers.

Get Your Change Management Tool Today...

Once your child has mastered the sounds of individual letters, Speech with Milo: Sequencing, is another of the best educational apps for kids to help with reading.

This app helps children with reading comprehension, specifically helping them to learn how to understand sequence, or the correct order of events in a story.

This is important for young readers so that they can learn to follow the plot development of the stories that they are beginning to read.

Before educational apps for kids became a popular option, many children learned sight words through flashcards. The best learning apps for kids in today’s world, however, make sight word recognition a lot more exciting than simply repeating words on a boring flashcard.

Reading Eggs Sight Words is one of the best kids’ educational apps to help with sight word recognition. It has three different levels, and what child doesn’t like a game that requires you to break eggs?

Once your child has advanced to the stage of reading complete books, there is a classic children’s book that has been made into one of the best learning apps for kids.

Dr. Seuss’s ABC’s may have been a book that you remember reading in first grade. This classic children’s book has now been made into one of the best reading apps for kids. Children can choose between three variations: Read to Me, Read by Myself, or Auto Play.

This can help them develop confidence in their own reading abilities while having fun at the same time.

Best Math Apps for Kids

Mathematics is both one of the most important subjects for a child’s education and one of the most difficult and frustrating subjects for many young students. Luckily, there are a number of best math apps for kids that can help make learning numbers fun.

Math apps for kids are designed for a number of different skill and grade levels. We will look at three different math apps for kids for different grade levels.

For children who are just starting out in school, Math Jungle is a fantastic math app for kids to help them learn basic arithmetic skills.

In this game, children run monkeys through a jungle, and in order to collect your prize bananas, you have to answer basic math questions. What better motivation to learn math could there be?

Times Table Galaxy is a quality math app for kids that helps children learn their multiplication tables. This is one of the best learning apps for kids because it introduces a certain element of competition that suddenly makes the multiplication tables a fun and competitive challenge.

Math Climber HD is another of the best educational apps for kids who want to improve their intermediate math skills.

This quality kids’ learning app teaches math skills all the way up to pre-algebra levels and can help kids who are just learning or even preteens who need a refresher before jumping into algebra and more complicated math.

Free Educational Apps for Kids

Even though most of the best learning apps for kids only cost around $3–$5, the cost can add up—especially if your child quickly advances through all the levels of each of the educational apps for kids that you purchase.

Luckily, the web is full of free learning apps for kids.

Free educational apps for kids are easy to find online if you spend some time looking around. These free educational apps for kids cover a number of subjects from reading to math to overall education.

Here we list three of the best free educational apps for kids.

Animal Pants is a fantastic free learning app for kids that will help your preschool-aged child improve his or her matching skills.

Source: Animal Pants from iTunes

In this fun game, a fun, interactive narrative will have your child match animals to their missing parts.

If your child is ready to start learning letters and words, Endless Alphabet is one of the best free learning apps for kids to help them learn to identify the letters of the alphabet. This is undoubtedly one of the best kids’ educational apps because it was made by the creators of a Sesame Street book.

These games don’t have any time limits, which is extremely important to take away the stress factor for young children who are just beginning to learn how to read.

In today’s world, it is important for children to learn more than one language. There are a number of kids’ educational apps that are great at helping kids on their quest to learn a new language. Duolingo is one of the best free educational apps for kids to aid in the process of learning a new language—and Duolingo is fun for adults, too!

Since children’s minds are so impressionable at a young age, it is important to expose them to another language early in life. This quality free educational app for kids can help your child learn Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, or any number of other languages in a fun and creative way.

How Kids Educational Apps Can Help Your Child Get Ahead in Life

There are literally thousands of best learning apps for kids out there. The best educational apps for kids are those that help children to discover that learning is a fun and exciting adventure.

Educational apps for kids are not meant to replace the classroom. Education is also a community activity, and children always learn best when they are together with their peers.

Nonetheless, educational apps for kids are a great way to help children understand that learning does not just occur in a classroom, but everywhere they go.

The best educational apps for kids will help your child strengthen those subjects that he or she is struggling with. In fact, many teachers are recommending educational apps for kids as a form of homework. Parents and teachers can come together to discover the best educational apps for kids to help them develop a well-rounded learning experience.

According to ourpact.com, “the American Academy of Pediatrics has recently acknowledged that the educational app market is diluted; only a fraction of the apps in this category really provide kids with quality learning experiences. According to Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, an expert on child and infant development, more parents should be concerned about this issue. ‘Many apps marketed as ‘educational’ are basically the equivalent of sugary foods… At best, most of these apps will do no harm; at worst, they add even more distraction to children’s deeply distracting lives.’”

With more than 80,000 educational apps for kids on the market today, it is important to be careful about which ones you choose.

Finding the best educational apps for kids will take a little bit of discretion on your part, but when you find the good ones, educational apps for kids can definitely be a tool to help your child get a step ahead in his or her educational experience.

AdvisoryHQ (AHQ) Disclaimer:

Reasonable efforts have been made by AdvisoryHQ to present accurate information, however all info is presented without warranty. Review AdvisoryHQ’s Terms for details. Also review each firm’s site for the most updated data, rates and info.

Note: Firms and products, including the one(s) reviewed above, may be AdvisoryHQ's affiliates. Click to view AdvisoryHQ's advertiser disclosures.