With so many apps for kids on Android, iPhone and iPad, which ones are worthy of their time? Our vote goes to activities that are irresistibly fun and educational. The apps that made our list of best educational apps (in no particular order) were picked based on factors like popularity with kids, fun, educational value, safety and rating on Common Sense Media—all boasting four stars or higher.
Check ‘em out and let the learning fun begin!
1. DIY.org – Creative Challenges
Best DIY App
DIY.org is a STEAM-approved app chock-full of instructional videos, featuring topics on simple machines, coding, crafting and building.
Pros
Kids can choose from dozens of projects, ranging from photography to cooking and science experiments. Each project includes an introduction, a how-to video and a challenge.
Cons
While strictly kids only, it does offer an internal social media component, encouraging kids to upload photos and videos of their creations and comment on those of others. Not necessarily a “con,” but as with anything online, you’ll want to be mindful of your child’s activity.
Age Range: 5+
Price: $15-$25 a month
Available on iPhone and iPad
2. VocabularySpellingCity
Best Spelling App
Pros
You can create your own custom vocab lists for your child to learn through the app. After they complete each mission, they can see which words they missed, and you can easily check their progress along the way.
Cons
Vocabulary lists and access to the parent/teacher portal are through the app’s website only—not the app itself. You also need to sign up for the paid version in order to use the mobile app or save your child’s progress.
Age Range: 5+
Price: $29.99 a year
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
3. Motion Math
Best Beginner Math App
With dozens of games to choose from, this math app is like several apps in one, teaching valuable skills like problem solving, addition, subtraction, multiplication and fractions.
Pros
Choice! Your child can pick the game they want to play and which math skills to sharpen. Older kids can learn skills with real-life applications with simulation-style games, like learning business math by running a cupcake or pizza shop.
Cons
Kids need to start out and advance at the beginner levels to learn the rules of each game. As a result, older kids might get bored and skip to higher levels before grasping important game concepts.
Age Range: 5+
Price: $2.99 a month/$29.99 a year
Available on iPhone and iPad
4. Kodable
Best Coding App
Kodable introduces kids to the world of programming, teaching important basics such as problem solving, conditional statements, loop commands and debugging. It’s even easy enough for preschoolers to use.
Pros
This app is a great way for parents with little to no coding background to give their kids a fun, age-appropriate foundation in programming.
Cons
Some kids could complete the free lessons ahead of the advertised eight weeks of free play, and some concepts might be too complex for younger users.
Age Range: 4-10
Price: Free-$59.99
Available on iPhone and iPad
5. Stack the States 2
Best Geography App
Stack the States helps kids learn the location of states, capitals and major cities in an engaging, interactive way. The app also offers fun facts about each state to help kids understand the basic topography, culture and industries found throughout the U.S.
Pros
Stack the States goes beyond helping kids learn the state capitals and locations by also introducing them to related knowledge like state flags and major resources.
Cons
Some kids might find the app too simple, repetitive or lacking the bells and whistles that some other games offer.
Age Range: 9-12
Price: $2.99
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
6. Breathe, Think, Do With Sesame
Best App for Emotional Intelligence
This modified meditation app can teach your child to calm down, and cope with and work through feelings and everyday frustrations in a way that’s fun and engaging.
Pros
While kids learn the skills and tools for dealing with emotions in any environment or situation, parents can track their child’s progress and identify which challenges they need the most help with (anxiety, bedtime or taking turns, for example).
Cons
While great for toddlers and preschoolers, it may not appeal to children 5 years and older.
Age Range: 2+
Price: Free
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
7. SkyView
Best Hands-On Astronomy App
This app lets you and your child enjoy some relaxing stargazing and explore planets and constellations day and night just by launching the app on your smartphone and pointing it at the sky. You’ll learn the names of nearby wonders in space—and a few fun facts about them, too.
Pros
The app works day and night, and doesn’t require a WiFi connection.
Cons
All facts presented in the app come from Wikipedia, so there may be some concerns about the reliability of the information.
Age Range: 9+
Price: $1.99
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
8. Creature Garden
Best Creativity App
Creature Garden is a zany app that allows kids to create their own animals by combining hundreds of different animal legs, hooves, heads and other body parts. Once your child has built their animals, they can name, feed, and groom it, design a garden for it and much more.
Pros
Your child can use their imagination while developing their thinking and reasoning skills, as well as understanding of part-whole relationships.
Cons
As far as we can tell, this app is an all-around hit with kids, teachers and parents!
Age Range: 6+
Price: $2.99
Available on iPhone and iPad
9. Music4Kids – Learn and Compose Music Through Play
Best Music App
This music app shows kids how to write music by encouraging them to reproduce famous melodies and even write a few of their own tunes. All music is written by dragging and dropping notes onto the page as well as rests, clefts and flats. And when their masterpiece is complete, they can listen to their creations.
Pros
The app can help your child learn the basics of tempo, pitch and rhythm, giving them a solid foundation in music composition.
Cons
Kids can’t create unique chords or compose in the bass clef, making it a little limiting when it comes to creating their own music.
It can also take a little practice moving notes in order to get them to “stick.”
Age Range: 6+
Price: $2.99
Available on iPhone and iPad
10. Dexteria Dots 2
Best Dexterity & Fine Motor Skills App
Dexteria Dots 2 is a great way to help kids learn dexterity—all while sharpening their math skills. Younger kids can use the app to help improve dexterity while older kids can continue on to higher levels to work on their addition and subtraction skills. There’s also a timed component that encourages kids to complete puzzles quickly.
Pros
The app is engaging, super interactive and comes highly recommended by parents, teachers and even children’s occupational therapists.
Cons
Some kids may struggle with the use of this type of visualization to learn math concepts.
Age Range: 6+
Price: $2.99
Available on iPhone and iPad
BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week
11. Best Interactive Video App
BrainPOP Jr. is an educational app that uses videos to teach kids about topics ranging from art, history and math to the environment and other potential subjects for school. The best part for kids is they’re filled to the brim with goofy humor.
Pros
BrainPOP Jr. releases new videos each week on a wealth of subjects. Each show’s hosts present information in a thoughtful way and kids can see their progress by taking quizzes and monitoring their scores.
Cons
While the app offers plenty of high-quality videos on a variety of topics, it’s interactivity is low and offers little opportunity for kids to reflect on what they’ve learned.
Age Range: 6+
Price: Free – $6.99
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
12. LeapFrog: Let’s Go to School
Best App for the First Day of School
LeapFrog’s Let’s Go to School video let’s kids follow frog siblings Tad and Lily through a typical day of kindergarten to help them visualize how things will go ahead of the big day.
Pros
The 35-minute in-app video talks about typical emotions that may arise on the first day of school, including worry, anxiety, happiness and even boredom.
Beyond helping kids cope, it also helps support parents who may be suffering from first-day-of-school jitters.
Cons
The video may cover too much content for preschoolers to process in just over half an hour, but kids will relate to the characters and enjoy the story as they work through their fears.
Age Range: 4-5
Price: Free
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
13. Epic!
Best “Sneaky Learning” App
And last but not least there’s … us!
Like several other apps on this list, Epic! isn’t billed as an “educational app,” per se. Epic! is filled with high-quality books and videos that appeal to millions of kids of all ages, interests and learning levels. We call it “sneaky learning” because kids have so much fun reading, listening and watching stories unfold, they don’t even realize they’re, well, learning.
Pros
Kids can’t get enough of the content and love the freedom to choose from thousands of entertaining options. Teachers and parents love knowing their students and children are learning and enjoying screen time in a safe and healthy way.
Cons
We can all use a little improvement sometimes, right?
Age Range: 2+
Price: Free – $7.99 a month
Available on iPhone, iPad and Android
Sign up today!
That’s a wrap! We’re definitely ready to take more than a few of these for a test drive with our own kids, and we hope you are, too. You can find more app picks in our post “Best Free Learning Apps for Kids.”
For more on safe, kid-safe app time, check out our posts Tech Time: Quality or Quantity? and 3 Tips for Kid-Safe Streaming.
