With the global pandemic in 2020, children are video conferencing into classrooms and parents are expected to be more hands-on in their child’s education. I don’t know about you guys, but my dad was a car mechanic and my mother a customer support agent, so asking them for help with my algebra homework was a bit out of the question.
Fortunately, we live in the digital age, and there are tons of learning apps that parents can use to help children with homeschooling or boosting knowledge for school tests. These five have won awards for their excellence in children’s education.
Some of these apps have membership fees. For free apps, check out the 10 best entirely free apps for kids learning.
Dragonbox Math Apps
Dragonbox offers numerous apps for a range of ages, all based on math learning. For ages 4-9, check out titles such as “Numbers” and “Big Numbers.” For ages 9+, “Algebra 12+” and “Elements” are great options.
For younger children, the apps are cleverly disguised as educational games, whereas the apps for older children focus more on the educational aspects.
Dragonbox’s apps have earned awards including:
- Academic’s Choice – Brain Toy Award
- Editor’s Choice Award- Children’s Technology Review 2016
- Best Pick App – Tech with Kids
- Best Learning Game – Games for Change
- 2016 Gold Winner – 2016 International Serious Play Awards
Abcmouse.com
ABCmouse is an online preschool-kindergarten curriculum that covers many preschool and elementary subjects. Your child can start out at a level suitable for them, then make progress through the various workstations, which include reading, puzzle-solving, coloring and songs.
There are a lot of categories to choose from, so your child will be a whiz at intelligent games such as Google Feud and Jeopardy in no time. As your child completes the workstations, they’ll earn “tickets” that can be used to purchase room decorations, upgrading their virtual classroom into a fun learning center.
Membership to ABCMouse costs $10 a month and it has won awards from parent, teacher and educational associations such as:
- HowToLearn Parent and Teacher Award
- Parents’ Choice Gold Award
- 2020 NAPPA Award
- 2019 Academics’ Choice Award
BabyBus
BabyBus is a highly popular children’s YouTube channel full of cute and educational children’s songs. It also offers tons of games for toddlers.
When you download the BabyBus app, it will act as a portal to hundreds of BabyBus games your toddler can download and play at the tap of a button. Many of these games teach concepts such as shapes and colors, numbers, coloring and also social skills such as caring for a baby panda and learning earthquake and fire safety.
The games are cute and simple, and many are similar to io games you can play in a browser on CrazyGames. Best of all, there’s no membership fee and video advertisements are minimal. My 3-year-old loves his BabyBus games and, to my memory, has never encountered a video ad.
Pinkfong
Pinkfong became a mainstream sensation with Baby Shark, the children’s YouTube song that was practically a Billboard chart-topper.
However, the company also has several great educational apps such as Pinkfong My Body, Pinkfong ABC Phonics and Pinkfong Word Power. The South Korean company has done an amazing job of creating content that engages toddlers and preschool children with bright characters. The focus on repetition learning through songs, dance and minigames is certainly effective.
PBS KIDS Games
The history of PBS and children’s education goes back decades, all the way back to the debut of “Sesame Street”in 1969. So, if you’d rather work with a company that has an established trust in children’s education, PBS fits the bill.
The PBS KIDS Games app has more than 100 free learning games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters from shows such as “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Wild Kratts,” “Super Why,” “Arthur,” “Sesame Street,” “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!” and “Odd Squad.”
A great feature of the PBS KIDS app is that if you’re an existing PBS video subscriber, your child can watch all of their favorite PBS shows inside the kids’ app if you connect it to your subscriber account.
Awards include:
- Kidscreen Award Winner (2017): Preschool – Best Game App (tablet)
- Parents’ Choice Recommended Mobile App (2017)
Katie Greene is a passionate video games writer and has a degree in computer sciences. She loves channeling her creativity to spread the news about video gaming and new technologies.
