Best Smart Kids Apps to Use in Teaching Your Kids at Home 

Now that schools have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of parents take charge of their child’s education. If that’s also your case, you’ll be glad to know our handpicked, teacher-approved smart kids apps you can use to teach your kids at home. 

Smart Kids Apps for Toddlers (1 to 3 years old)

Toddlers learn through observing and watching things around them. They also learn best when you incorporate playtime into their lessons. For instance, you can teach your toddlers skills, such as problem-solving and social skills through play. 

This is also the best time for them to learn (or at least get familiar with) ABCs, numbers, and shapes. Here are the games we highly recommend:

ABC Mouse

ABC Mouse is one of the best smart kids apps and is one of the most popular. It’s a learning platform that teaches kids as young as two years old. With this educational app, your toddler can learn Math, Science, and reading. 

There are also art projects that encourage kids to express themselves and improve their creativity. 

ABC Mouse offers over 10,000 learning activities. You will also find thousands of videos, puzzles, printable activities, books, songs, and animations. 

The game has won several awards, including Mom’s Choice GOLD, Teacher’s Choice, and Parent’s Choice—this practically tells you that this app is second to none.  

ABC Mouse is available on the Apple App Store and Google PlayStore. The app offers a 30-day free trial. 

Shapes

Parents should not only emphasize teaching letters and numbers. They also need to teach toddlers about shapes and colors. Why? You might ask. 

Our world is literally made up of shapes and colors. We see them everywhere. And when kids learn about colors and shapes, it helps them sort and classify different things and determine risk (most cultures use red to indicate danger).

There are many smart kids apps for learning shapes, but the one that stole our hearts is the Shapes app (developed by Sergey Minkov). This educational app will acquaint your kids with shapes, sizes, and main colors while playing. 

It’s a fun game crafted with vivid animation, fun sounds, and engaging gameplay. 

Shapes is available on the Apple App Store. 

PBS Kids

PBS Kids is a fantastic, fun-filled educational platform for kids. It has loads of videos and games that teach kids a spectrum of learning resources that cover a great collection of topics. 

You will love the high-quality design of the platform. Parents like you can use PBS Kids to find games and videos as extensions of recent topics in the classroom (may that be during a homeschool session or online class). 

The number of videos and games on the platform won’t make you fall short of options. There will also be videos and games that your toddlers will love and enjoy. 

PBS Kids offers a variety of smart kids apps that you can find here. 

Smart Kids Apps for Preschoolers (3 to 5 years old)

Preschoolers love to learn new concepts. They like activities that will exercise their brain and can teach them new skills. 

They also love solving problems, exploring, asking questions, and creating new things. With that in mind, make sure to introduce smart kids apps that challenge your preschoolers to think hard, look for solutions, and discover new things. 

Zoolingo

When it comes to smart kids apps for preschoolers, we couldn’t think of anything as good as Zoolingo. It is an all-in-one educational app and has everything you could ask for. 

You can use Zoolingo to teach your preschoolers about:

• Alphabets – tracing, recognizing, and sequencing
• Numbers – counting, sorting, sequencing, basic math
• Shapes – measurement, sizes, sorting
• Occupations
• Puzzles – jigsaw puzzles and mazes
• Coloring 
• Flags
• Days of week and months of the year
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Colors

What’s more, Zoolingo is available in 16 languages, including Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Japanese, and Mandarin, to name a few. 

Zoolingo is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

Bugs and Buttons

Going to camp with your preschoolers is an excellent way to introduce them to plants, animals, and bugs (the backyard is a good alternative, too!). But if any of these options aren’t doable, then consider Bugs and Buttons. 

Bug and Buttons is one of the highly-reputable smart kids apps. With this game, your kids can play tic-tac-toe with a dragonfly, pick apples while avoiding bees, and complete beautiful patterns of buttons and yarn. 

This game is beyond bugs and varied-color buttons—it’s also about teaching kids about counting, memory, hand-eye coordination, critical thinking, sorting, and more.  

There are 18 activities in the game, and each has its beautiful and engaging music. Your preschoolers can strive for the 40 achievements in it, and enjoy humorous interactions and sound effects. 

Bugs and Buttons is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for only $2.99. 

Moose Math

As mentioned above, it’s best to challenge preschoolers to think critically and solve problems. And we can’t think of anything better than challenging them with math questions!

Moose Math is among the best smart kids apps that encourage preschoolers to ace mathematics. 

This game brings children to a mathematical adventure. While playing this game, your child will learn counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, geometry, etc. 

Here are some of the many things your preschoolers can learn with Moose Math:

• Numbers – solve word problems and algebraic thinking
• Counting – by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s; count up to 100
• Addition and subtraction – add and subtract by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s; add and subtract up to 20
• Measurement – understand and compare lengths
• Geometry – Identify and recognize shapes

Moose Math is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

Smart Kids Apps for Grade-Schoolers (5 to 12 years old)

Like toddlers and preschoolers, elementary schoolers still enjoy learning by observing, watching, exploring, listening, and experimenting. However, their age will push them to learn much more complex topics. 

It’s also when they need to understand why they must be interested and motivated in learning. 

Duolingo

One of our highly-recommended smart kids apps for learning a new language is Duolingo. This app has unique features and a solid structure, making it an excellent place to learn new languages. 

When your kid uses Duolingo, you will see the progress he is making in the dashboard. You will also see the road map of his learning program. 

The game offers hundreds of exercises. As your kid progresses, the difficulty level increases, too. 

And, oh, you can use this app, too, together with your child. It would be a great bonding moment!

Duolingo is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You may also use the web version of the app. 

Khan Academy Kids

There is no list of the best smart kids apps that don’t include Khan Academy Kids in it. Khan Academy Kids is a free, online learning platform that encourages kids to be learners for life. It offers tons of educational programs—absolutely for free. 

You will also find printable worksheets for various topics, including Math, Literacy, Social-Emotional & Science, and Writing. 

The program in Khan Academy engages kids in core subjects while encouraging them to build their creativity and social-emotional skills. 

Note here, a team of learning experts at Stanford helped in making this platform. Hence, we are confident that you can rely on this platform. 

Khan Academy Kids is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon Appstore. 

ScratchJr

Last but certainly not least, ScratchJr is among the best smart kids apps that introduce young learners to codes and programming languages. 

Not so long ago, the only way to learn to program is by using thick, hardbound textbooks as references. And by then, many believe that only the adults can learn them. But the world is quite mistaken. 

Thanks to smart kids apps like ScratchJr, even the young minds can master the programming languages. ScratchJr uses games and interactive stories to teach kids about coding. 

ScratchJr is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Conclusion

Use these smart kids apps as extensions to your child’s conventional learning. Many students have transitioned to distance learning, and they use educational apps to further their education. 

If your child is taking online classes, make sure to create a healthy learning environment at home for him. 

Related Questions

What apps are best for taking notes?

Evernote and Google Keep are some examples of apps for taking notes. Both are easy to use and sync your notes across your devices. 

How can I help my kids to study online?

The first is to talk to their teacher. Then, tackle the curriculum with your kids. Give them a designated spot for learning and make short quizzes and activities. Learn more here: How to Help Your Kids Study for Online Tests.

What other smart kids apps do you recommend?

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