Children are able to use and understand technology at an early age. That’s why you typically reach for tablets, phones, or other electronic devices for your kids to play with when they’re bored. As you browse the App Store and Google Play, there are a sea of apps available, but not all of them are appropriate for children. We spent countless hours testing all of these amazing apps so you can be sure you’re downloading the best apps for your kids.
Whether your kid is in pre-school or high school, we have compiled a list of apps for kids, some are silly games while others are educational, but all of them are completely child-safe and fun.
The kids app market lives between Entertainment, Education, Gaming, and Technology. Kids’s apps are available in different categories such as Family, Games, Education, Creativity and Books. We saw developers push the boundaries of what an app can contribute to a child’s education and development. Toca Boca, Peppa Pig, LEGO, Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, CBeebies, Dr.Seuss, Sago Mini are some of the popular creator of children’s apps on smartphones and tablets.
From alphabets to coding, word games to problem solving, english to maths and phonics, music to drawing, and storybooks to pretend play, dive in with this kids app list. These best kids apps are tried and tested by actual kids at home.
Here, we’ve rounded up the best apps for kids that are fun and age-appropriate picks for your children.
(iPhone, iPad, Android)
ABCmouse is one of the best apps for kids that focuses on the four main curriculum subjects of Reading, Math, World Around Us as well as Art & Colors, establishing a foundation of knowledge for young children that they can build upon with confidence and success. ABCmouse.com is available both as an app and a website.
ABCmouse.com features hundreds of interactive fun games, videos, quizzes and activities, each designed to teach a specific concept. All of the games include voiced instructions, so even very young children will find it easy to learn and play. This preschool app teaches letters, letter sounds, counting, math, art, science, music and phonics. that are super fun.
Ages: 2-8
ABCMouse.com is available on iOS, Android or on the Amazon App Store.
(iPhone, iPad, Android)
Speech Blubs is one of the popular kids apps that improves your child’s speech in a fun and engaging way. Speech Blubs is a Speech Therapy application, created in cooperation with Speech and Language Pathologists, that uses voice controlled and video technology to develop speech articulation for young children with or without speech difficulties. The app has thousands of activities that aid over the practice of speech sounds in a fun and engaging way.
Interactive videos, face filters, stickers and tons of fun facts are what will keep your child engaged while improving their speaking abilities. Learn all about animals, dinosaurs, stars, vehicles, emotions and much more with this great app. Want to play guessing games? Practice speech through singing? Speech Blubs has it all and much more!
7-Day Free Trial Available on iPhone, iPad, and Android
(iPhone, iPad)
On second thought is an easy to use, a child-friendly app to use it with children who may be experiencing Anxiety symptoms, behavioural and emotional difficulties, automatic negative thoughts, and irrational beliefs.
On Second Thought: From Iffy to Witty Thoughts is an interactive learning tool to help kids recognize that their thoughts about a situation affect how they feel and behave.
Ages: 4-10
Hungry Caterpillar Play School is a beautifully illustrated app for kids that has interactive characters. It consists of a number of games and puzzles for kids to play, which can help them to practise counting, sorting, and memory skills. The app can also help them discover facts about caterpillars and other animals, and learn about healthy eating. The beautiful illustrations and reward badges will motivate children to keep on playing.
Ages: 1-5
Hungry Caterpillar Play School can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
We have selected a bunch of the best English apps that teach reading, writing, alphabets, words, spelling and phonics. These popular apps are perfect tools to help kids learn spelling, grammar and vocabulary and have fun doing it!
Epic! is one of the top apps for kids with an e-book library that contains over 35,000 children’s books in variety of formats including picture books, early readers, chapter books, Read-to-Me, and Audiobooks. With Epic! your kids will never complain they have nothing to read again. It’s truly all-you-can-read, and new books are being added every week.
Epic! is aimed at children between ages 2 and 12, and each child receives personalized recommendations based on their reading level and interests which means new books to discover and less opportunity for frustration from choosing books that are too hard or too easy. Epic! keeps a reading log for each profile so you can see which books your child has read and for how long. You also get a weekly email sent directly to your inbox with the same info to keep you up-to-date with their progress.
Ages: 2-12
Epic! is available on any iOS or Android device, laptop or desktop.
Reading Eggs is one of the best learning apps for kids that helps children learn to read. The app makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great interactive reading games, guided reading lessons, fun activities and over 2,000 digital story books. The app is ideal for children who are preparing for school or struggling with their reading.
Reading Eggs is based on solid scientific research and focuses around the five essential keys to reading success – phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. The app makes learning to read fun and highly motivating for children – nurturing a lifelong love of reading, straight from the family home.
Ages: 2 to 13
Reading Eggs can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
The Teach your Monster to Read is an award winning app that teaches children to read in a fun and simplistic manner. The app covers the first two years of reading, from matching letters and sounds to enjoying books. The app has been designed in collaboration with academics at Roehampton university and Complements Phases 2-5 of UK Government-approved Letters and Sounds and other major systematic synthetic phonics programmes.
Ages: 3 to 7
Teach Your Monster to Read can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Math apps for kids can make learning more fun and engaging. Preschoolers, kindergarteners, toddlers, and older kids are eager to learn counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, division and more.
DoodleMaths is the top-selling app for kids to learn maths. DoodleMaths is an easy-to-use and engaging math app for children with different math games that feature fundamental math skills and concepts. DoodleMaths is a maths programme that supports maths learning in homes and schools. It identifies each child’s level, strengths and weakness and adapts a programme to that child.
Children are motivated by earning DoodleStars which can be used to buy accessories for their robot, pet, or coach. You can get involved with your child’s maths and help motivate them every step of the way through the Parent Dashboard, which includes a weakness analysis, email reports, plus more.
Ages: 4 to 14
DoodleMaths can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
123 Numbers is a fun, bright and playful way for young children to learn about numbers and counting. Kids can enjoy a range of activities, from identifying numbers to counting objects.
123 Numbers features colorful games that teach while children play, making it easy to learn basic number and counting knowledge from a convenient all-in-one app.
Ages: 2 to 5
123 Numbers is free to download for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
Get your kids excited about learning with our collection of educational games. With various activities, your kids will build foundational skills in everything from counting to reading comprehension, fractions to basic coding, and much more. Ditch the dry lessons and let learning games transform study time into an adventure kids will want to go on again and again!
Toca Hair Salon is a good app for kids that encourages creativity. Kids can cut, comb, or color the customer’s hair any way they like using various tools such as scissors, electric hair trimmer, and color sprays. Kids have new characters to choose from, new tools to use, new hair types and textures, more coloring options and more accessories.
Kids can learn to use their imagination to create hairstyles digitally on Toca Hair Salon. The characters will laugh, smile, and make other facial expressions and sounds as kids work on their hair.
Ages: 5+
Toca Hair Salon can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Sago Mini, once again, creates a sweet, fun experience for kids that builds on their interests and experiences and lets them explore technology and cause and effect while being delighted. Sago Mini Friends lets kids touch, try, play, experiment, and observe. The characters and graphics are warm, appealing, and welcoming.
Kids can learn about playing well with others — taking turns, sharing, and getting along with friends. They’ll learn about cause and effect, seeing the impact their taps and touches have on the toys and characters.
Ages: 2+
Sago Mini Friends can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
PBS Kids Games is one of the best game apps for kids that includes more than 25 games with popular PBS Kids characters. This mini-game collection will entertain and hopefully educate kids for hours on end with some of their favorite animated TV personalities. The app provides a safe, child-friendly playing experience for all ages.
Kids can learn math, creativity, weather, sea creatures, patterns, shapes, painting, and tools, among other things. They can also practice strategy, build reading skills, and test out their theories. The app is meant to be dynamic, with new games being added, so the body of learning will grow over time. Overall, PBS Kids Games is a solid, free selection of learning games featuring your kids’ favorite PBS Kids characters.
Ages: 2 to 8
PBS Kids Games can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Kids Academy is a top childrens app with over 5000 preschool learning activities that include educational games and videos, interactive and printable worksheets, songs, puzzles and flashcards. Their unique learn-through-play program combines the most advanced in adaptive technology, artificial intelligence, personalized learning, and gamification to help kids put their best foot forward and get the education they deserve.
They cover the key subject areas of Math, Reading, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.
Ages: 2 to 8
Kids Academy can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
LightBot is one of the best coding games for kids in middle school. Categorized as a programming puzzle game, Lightbot requires the user to guide a robot to light up tiles and solve different levels using commands, all while cultivating a real understanding of basic programming concepts like procedures, loops, and conditionals. With 50 levels and 20 challenge stars to collect, kids will have a blast competing and learning in this game.
The app is featured by Apple in over 100 countries and winner of multiple awards, Lightbot is an exciting game that gets kids hooked on coding within minutes.
Ages: 8+
LightBot can be accessed on iPhone, iPad, Android and Browser
Kidlo Coding is a fun coding game to teach kids the very basics of programming, an essential skill in today’s world. Coding Games for kids introduces coding concepts to young children through the use of sequential visual coding. The app teaches coding with 50+ fun games and encourages children to solve problems, improve logical thinking and increase their memory in a fun and interactive environment.
The app has over 1000+ levels to teach the basic programming concepts, however, this is the paid version and not the free version which has its limitations. The app covers the following coding topics: sequences, loops, functions and arrays.
Ages: 5 to 9
Coding Games for kids can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Musilla Musical School is one of the best app for kids to learn the basics of music. This beautifully presented app explores the adventures of the Mussila band on a musical journey. Kids can help them find instruments, costumes and create their own music. The app is based on a music curriculum and the kids progresses through skill building levels such as recognising instruments, instrumental sounds, rhythm and melodies.
Kids can learn and hone beginning piano skills as they practice simple songs and hone their sight-reading skills. They can practice techniques as they play with each hand and then both hands together, and they can ramp up to more intermediate skills such as chords and arpeggios. Kids can also learn consistent practice habits as they earn stars and level up based on their performance.
Ages: 6 to 11
Musilla Musical School can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Loopimal is a seriously fun music app for kids to explore sequences, loops, and music as they try to animate a bunch of cute animals. Children have endless opportunities to create rich compositions and explore loops and computer sequencing within an easy-to-use pre-programming framework.
Kids can learn about components of music such as beat, rhythm, melody, tempo, and so on. As they create patterns of up to eight musical blocks that repeat endlessly, kids experience visual and auditory loops and sequences.
Ages:
Loopimal can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad
LetterSchool is a fun and easy app for kids to learn the alphabets with tracing, puzzles, videos, and songs. LetterSchool does a great job of teaching letter writing with a three-step process: learn the starting points for each stroke, trace the letter, and write the letter without hints.
LetterSchool is a beautifully designed handwriting app that will teach your children how to write letters (both upper and lower case) and numbers (from 1 to 10) in an animated and fun way. Letter School is a fun app designed to help young children learn letters and develop their handwriting skills.
Ages: 4+
LetterSchool can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Geo Challenge is a fun and challenging geography quiz game with beautiful graphics and animation to test your geography knowledge of the world. This exciting geography game helps kids learn geography and general knowledge about different country flags, cities and famous landmarks around the world.
Ages: 1-5
Geo Challenge can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
Coco – Educational Games is an easy to use educational games apps for kids, featuring multiple brain trainer activities such as children’s puzzle, children’s math games featuring mental math and memory games for children. The Puzzle Plus game allows you to recompose puzzles as quickly as possible and read the description of the image. The puzzles are very diverse and offer several exciting features and levels.
Ages: 5 to 11
Coco – Educational Games can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
PicoToons is a remarkable coloring book app for kids. The app brings the experience of physical colouring books to electronic devices and adds some extra graphical flourishes to distinguish it from the paper versions. The provides the kids with a vast collection of drawing tools such as Pencil, Crayon, Brush, Spray, Marker, Bucket and sparkling Glitter Paint tool. Children can also decorate their drawings with a set of beautiful stickers and paint the drawings with colours or customizable patterns.
Colouring in is calming, enjoyable and prompts creative thinking. PicoToONs brings the experience of physical colouring books to electronic devices and adds some extra graphical flourishes to distinguish it from the paper versions.
Ages: 3 to 7
PicoToONs – Colouring Book can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad and Android
SOURCE EDUCATIONAL APP STORE
