Helping parents engage in early childhood education with their kids.
Here is a fun math activity to help your child practice skip counting by 10s up to 100.
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KinderTown loves the app Quick Math Jr. by Shiny Things. It’s uniquely made to capture kids’ attention and help them learn about counting, ordering numbers, adding, subtracting, and writing numbers. The app is centered on colorful and playful monsters. One of five different game areas is randomly selected when the gameplay begins. The areas are represented by a bus, a light bulb, a pair of eyes, a house, and a train. One of the greatest features of the games is that they automatically adjust to your child’s learning level so they are appropriately challenged as they learn and progress through the app.
These games are combined together to create Hustle Bustle Island. The app has 3 different islands available for purchase, each of which provides 3 new games for children. Parents can also elect to receive report card notifications on their child’s progress via email.
Throughout the game, children can earn different facial features for the monsters, which then appear within the app. Our child testers liked this feature and the ability to personalize their own monsters. The app allows for multiple students to have profiles, so if you have a classroom or multiple children at this level, the app will support each child’s individual development. The app is appropriate for children who can recognize numbers and number concepts, starting around age 4, although the ability to add and subtract numbers and memorize the facts usually occurs later. Make sure you read the parent section to find different examples of age-appropriate number games that can be played offline to support your child’s learning and development of numbers. The app is free, but additional content costs $4.99 for each island.
Todo Telling Time includes six mini-games that develop skill in telling time. Three levels of play are included in each of the games. The concepts about the clock, such as counting by 5′s and arranging the numbers correctly on the clock face, are developed in several of the games. Additional games related to the concept of time include understanding the days of the week, months of the year, and the calendar. The app includes a fun quiz section that can be used to assess a student’s development of these skills.
Welcome to your own personal fruit and vegetable farm! This app is adorable, and you will fall in love with it! Kids take on the role of the farmer and complete the tasks associated with growing food. The background music plays familiar nursery rhyme tunes. From the menu, children choose the garden, tractor, or monster area in which to play. Children are engaged in play but certainly learning about how food grows in an age-appropriate way. They can dig the holes for the seeds, plant the seeds, water the plants, harvest the vegetables, and even chase the unwanted bugs away. The app does not contain narration, so, parents, talk to your children about what is happening as they complete all the interactive areas. Children earn stickers along the way for extra motivation and are able to navigate the app independently. The app is $2.99 and appropriate for children ages 3-5.
Science experimentation without the mess! Thank you, Piiig Labs, for this inquisitive app that brings science-friendly activities to preschoolers. The budding scientist in your house will love making a volcano erupt, building a light bulb, and tinkering with a radio. The app touches on themes such as electricity, chemical reactions, and cause and effect relationships with age-appropriate activities that are designed for children ages 3-6. In addition, each experiment is accompanied by a short science fact for kids. The app is $2.99 and is available for iPad only.
This app provides an ingeniously designed virtual chemistry lab where emerging young scientists can explore how different materials interact. The incredible part is that children do not have to be able to read or understand all there is to know about chemistry to engage in tinkering in the lab. As children dabble with the “elements,” they create new “elements” for their own periodic table. Please note that the “elements” and periodic table are not based on the actual scientific reactions occurring but rather give children the understanding that when elements are placed under certain conditions, a new element can be created. The app does not provide narration, so parents can support their child by providing lots of vocabulary and asking questions that prompt curiosity while using the app. For example: What do you think is happening? Encourage your child to ask questions too. This app will make your child feel like they have all the tools of a mad scientist! The app is appropriate for children ages 4-8 and is $2.99.
Nico & Nor Coconut Star is an app that focuses on force and motion for early learners. The app does an excellent job of making the scientific concept approachable for children and parents. The goal of the app is to develop an understanding of force by using the lever in different positions to complete a specific challenge such as using force to knock over a stack of blocks, aiming the coconut at a bridge, or using a series of ramps to hit a target. The challenges become progressively harder as the challenges are solved. There is a complimentary app called Nico & Nor Ramps Journal which acts as a repository for children to explore and experiment with ramps. This would be an awesome tool for hands-on learning at home, in a school setting, or summer camp. Best of all both of the apps are free!
This Thanksgiving, you can complete your grocery shopping, and spend your day preparing dinner while your child plays with these festive apps. These apps will help reinstate the importance of the holiday, while letting them experience in the festivities. Over dinner, ask your child what they’ve learned; maybe you’ll learn something new, too.
The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks is a delightful story that addresses many conversations that happen around Thanksgiving. The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks is about their days leading up to Thanksgiving day, and includes the bear children learning about the first Thanksgiving.The familiar characters struggle to eat a familiar turkey, show great teamwork in creating a first Thanksgiving reenactment, and finally spend time together being thankful. This is a wonderful tale to share with the whole family. The book does include a coordinating bible verse at the end. The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks is a part of the Living Light Series by Oceanhouse Media.
The app opens with the classic Peanuts music and each page has a hidden leaf for children to discover. The story has the options “Read to me” and “Read myself.” The words are highlighted as the narrator reads, and the characters on the page are animated like the classic Peanuts show. In the story, Charlie Brown is not feeling thankful. His friends invite themselves over for Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown is upset about preparing a meal. Woodstock and Snoopy save the day by helping Charlie Brown prepare a meal. The story includes nice interactive features on each page, but it is long and feels almost like you are watching a Peanuts movie while reading the story and turning the pages. This app is appropriate for children ages 4-6 and is $5.99.
Creativity is the ability to think in new, unique, or unusual ways. Creativity gives us the ability to problem solve and learn cognitive skills. This is why, especially for early learners, creativity is extremely important. Luckily for us, creativity comes in many forms. We’ll give you a start with these creativity apps that will inspire the artist, scientist, teacher, and musician in your student.
My PlayHome School is a digital playhouse that inspires conversation, role playing, and collaborative interaction. Manipulate a variety of character dolls throughout different rooms of the school. There are plenty of interactive elements in each room to make the play much more dynamic and extends a child’s interest with the app. For example, your child can play being a teacher, or experiment in the science room. This is an excellent app that lets kids take ownership of their play through exploration, storytelling, and role playing. They do an excellent job of adding rooms and characters with free updates. The app is $3.99 and does not include in-app purchases or advertisement, just lots of fresh ways for your child to create and explore. The app is for iPhone and iPad and is appropriate for children ages 3-5.
There are six different virtual art activities for your child to experiment with in Dr. Panda Art Class. Create your own pottery with the virtual lathe. Then fire it and paint it. Fold origami paper to make a virtual pinwheel to play with in the wind. Design a virtual kite to sail through the sky. Put colored pegs on a board to create a design. The best part is that they can experience the process over and over again and play with their finished creations. The app is $2.99 and appropriate for children 3-5.
Sago Mini Sound Box, called a 21st century rattle by the developers, is a fantastic early sound exploration experience. Nine different thematic areas produce a variety of sounds with a tap, shake, or slide on the iPad. Sounds emerge from colorful spheres of various sizes that materialize as you touch the screen. Join your child to make a chorus of barking dogs, farm animals, or our personal favorite, the crystal clear chimes. The app is appropriate for children ages 3-5 and is $2.99.
Draw and Tell brings the best features of drawing apps into one fabulous art experience. Choose from a blank page, your photos, or one of the backgrounds in in the app and start creating. Tools like crayons, stickers, paint, and erasers are used while this app records your child singing, talking, and moving objects as they create on the screen. Not feeling up to creating your own picture? Try out the variety of coloring pages where you get to drop paint into the lines to create a vibrant scene. This is another top free app from Duck Duck Moose. It is appropriate for children 3-5.
My children are growing out of the age range for KinderTown. Do you have any recommendations for older children? TL;DR – yes. ????
This is a great question from one of our KinderTowners. Included in KinderTown are many apps that would apply to older children; while we focus on apps for ages 3-8, we have many apps at the upper age limit that extend beyond the age range. Check out these apps that work best for children ages 9-12.
At this age, the multiplication and division facts are typically memorized and apps are a great way to practice them. They may interest your child more than worksheets or flashcards. Check out these apps for multiplication and division facts: Operation Math works against a timer to solve math facts, which can be motivating for some children but intimidating for others. The app is set up to evoke children on a secret spy mission to solve the equations. Try Operation Math Code Squad for use with multiple children which has a similar theme. Another great app for older children is Quick Math. This app offers choices from the four operations to practice. The app works to motivate students by beating their own best time. A less intimidating timing device and less of a threat when you are competing against yourself but motivating for children.
Full app reviews: Operation Math | Operation Math Code Squad | Quick Math
For 9-12-year-olds, language arts is more complex. Here are few suggestions for great apps in this subject area. Word Runners – This app works to develop your child’s comprehension skills and vocabulary in a creative way. The app is built with many different worlds where children can advance through by choosing creative adjectives, defining words, or choosing the best vocabulary work to finish a sentence. There are lots of creative opportunities to work with words as you progress through the worlds. Duolingo – this app is great for anyone learning a new language. The app is free and aims to give access to anyone who wants to learn a new language. A great resource for everyone!
Science becomes more approachable at this age and children are often interested in a wide variety of topics. Capitalize on their curiosity with these apps; Sound Uncovered – This app offers a large amount of content on every aspect of sound that you can imagine. The content is diverse with interesting pictures, facts, diagrams, and multimedia activities to play with sound. If you have a fan of space concepts, the NASA app is a must-have. The information is updated directly from NASA and includes amazing pictures and updates on their current and past work. Lastly, experimenting and tinkering with objects is often a fascination for children in this age range. Try the app Monster Physics. This app presents tutorials about physics concepts in the atmosphere through a fun game as well as an open-ended environment for play and discovery.
Full app reviews: Sound Uncovered | NASA | Monster Physics
