Top 5 Amazingly Educational iPad Apps For Kids
We love seeing the wide-eyed look of wonder on a friend’s face when we introduce a great piece of tech to them. We have seen this look frequently when we share our latest tech acquisition, our iPad, and it is especially fun to see it on the eyes of a kid. Eager to share our iPad with our children and young friends, we began the search for age appropriate educational apps.
As a group of several former elementary school teachers there are some habits we just can’t seem to break ourselves of, and one of these is looking at the education prospects of every device and app that we play with. We at Unplggd love delving into kid tech and with our education backgrounds coming into play we knew it was time for an educational iPad app roundup tailored for kids. Here are some of our top picks of great educational iPad apps for kids:
The Word Magic app is geared towards young readers learning to spell and recognize words. The app was created by the parents of a 5 year-old and in 2009, it app was nominated for Best Educational App. A picture appears along with the word below the picture however; one letter is missing from the word. Children enter the missing letter to spell the word correctly.
Children around preschool age will enjoy the app the best because of the simplistic words – older children will probably bore easily of the small words. The graphics are simple and children only need to touch to provide the correct answer. The Word Magic educational app can be downloaded to both the iPad and iPhone and only costs 99 cents.
Also available for young children is the Learn Sight Words app. The high-frequency words that children are taught early in school are available in this one app which includes 300+ sight words from the Dolch Word List. The words are pronounced clearly for children or the sound can be turned off.
The Learn Sight Words app is available for the Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and does not have any ads to distract children from learning. This is a handy app for only 99 cents.
Manual for the United States of America
For older children, the Manual for the United States of America is amazing and only costs $1.99. This isn’t a game but rather an app filled with many useful documents that will come in handy when studying US history. Included are copies of the Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, and even the Federalist Papers.
This app puts the most important founding documents in US history right at your fingertips. The Manual for the United States of America is compatible with the Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. It’s a great app for older students and educators.
Although this game is dubbed as a ‘fun game for kids of all ages’ it does have its limitations. Younger children will need some basic concept of math and older children may not find it very challenging. However, all kids in between will have fun playing this math game that teach basic math from adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division.
The more kids play, the higher the levels get or children can stay at the same level. Points are awarded as kids get correct answers. PopMath Basic Math app is available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch for only 99 cents.
As children, we loved finding those hidden objects in the Highlights’ pictures. Our children can do the same but in a high-tech fashion with the Highlights Hidden Pictures app which was winner of the 2010 Parents’ Choice Silver Award. This is a classic game that helps children use critical thinking skills while having fun.
The original app is $1.99 which provides 8 pictures that can be played over and over. Each month, a new puzzle will be available for free however; you can purchase more puzzle packs for 99 cents each. And this is where some parents have a problem with this app – kids can easily purchase new puzzle apps without their parents’ knowledge which can add up quickly.
Parents complained loud and clear about this problem and the new version includes instructions on how to restrict app purchases. It’s not exactly clear how many puzzles are in the extra puzzle packs but the one we purchased for 99 cents only had 3 new puzzles. This a great app for road trips and keeping young minds busy. The Highlights Hidden Pictures app is available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
