Best Educational Apps For Toddlers
Teaching a toddler how to read and write is no mean feat considering the miniscule attention span they usually have. However, there’s a way around this. Toddlers enjoy using apps just as much as you do, if not more. But how do you know which are the best educational apps for toddlers
Well, the internet can be a tricky place to navigate when it comes to choosing age-appropriate content. Common concerns most parents have is how to select apps that are safe and easy for their children to use as learning tools.
The app shouldn’t just be educational, though; it should be fun as well. I hardly need to mention here that if it’s not fun, your child will likely not take to it in the first place.
Learning experiences in the form of games, puzzles, etc. will significantly appeal to your child and provide for an engaging pastime.
Besides, having a toddler, you’d know that even a few minutes of their distraction will be a breather!
Best Educational Apps For Toddlers
Below I’ve listed out some of the very best apps I could find that are both creative and educational. You’ll find that most of these apps aim towards teaching your child how to spell and count properly. After all, these are the first skills they’ll have to master when they begin schooling.
I’d like to mention here that while learning to count can be challenging, most parents report that their children struggle with reading more. It could be because reading involves spelling, pronunciation, etc. Apart from the apps I’ve mentioned below, the Children Learning Reading program is one of the best tools I could find online to help your child learn how to read.
It has over 78,000 parents registered who can vouch for how effective this program is. You can glance through the testimonials and comments posted by satisfied parents on their website to see for yourself.
This program also offers you a no questions asked money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with the program within 60 days of purchase.
Now let’s delve into the reviews I’ve written for all the best learning apps I could find. Make sure you go through each carefully to ensure you get a clear picture of what to expect before you download and start using it.
After all, I know how little time you’d have on your hands with a toddler at home!
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is easily one of the most fun apps I’ve included in this list. It’s more of a game than a learning tool, really. Your toddler is sure to be enamored with Milo the monkey here.
This app has a total of six educational games designed for children aged 2-5. These games teach children how to identify colors, shapes, letters, numbers, and much more. One of the things I liked the most about this app is that it doesn’t only focus on rich visuals but other tools as well.
For instance, it has a voice and sound recordings of colors, fruit names, etc. to complement the visuals. Milo will be present throughout to make sure your kids are eager to continue learning. Also, since this app is specifically designed for pre-schoolers, your child will find it easy to navigate and understand.
The app offers stickers for every game your child completes to provide them with incentives to continue playing.
I also liked how each game just flows into the next to provide a sense of continuity to the whole learning experience. The only complaint I have with this app is that it doesn’t really have a lockout option, so it can get confusing to exit the app.
ABC Mouse
This app is designed for children aged 2-8 years and is compatible with any device. What I found to be the most impressive feature of this app is the breadth of topics it covers. You’ll find everything from math and science to music and art on here.
Your toddler is sure to keep themselves occupied (and entertained) for hours with this app as it has over 10,000 individual activities, books, videos, puzzles, songs, games, and so much more. It all begins with a virtual classroom where your toddler can choose from lessons that teach math, reading, coloring, etc.
You can add your child’s age in the settings, and it’ll customize their lessons and activities based on that. Even though it’s a paid app, I thought it was a rather economical option for those with more than one child aged 2-8. How come?
Well, the app allows you to add up to three siblings to your subscription for no additional fee.
This award-winning program is designed with 10 levels and a total of over 850 lessons and 900 books. You’d be hard-pressed to find a good quality app with more variety than this.
Moose Math
Designed to help your toddler hone their mathematical skills, Moose Math has core standard math activities. These activities are specifically designed for kindergartners and first graders. Some of these activities include counting, sorting, geometry, and addition.
This app has five math-related activities, namely: Paint Pet, Pet Bingo, Moose Juice, Lost and Found, and Dot to Dot. These activities/games allow your kids to familiarize themselves with numbers, dice, etc. which in turn will help them grasp basic mathematical concepts.
On completing these activities, they will receive rewards that will help them build their own cities, decorate buildings, etc.
The prospect of receiving rewards will encourage your child to keep doing well in their course. I found the most educational of the activities to be Moose Juice and the most entertaining one to be Dot to Dot.
However, all of these games together ensure that your child learns algebraic thinking, pattern recognition, word problem solving, etc.
This app has been designed in line with Common Core Standards for kindergarten and first-grade students. I thought the report card section included in this app makes it incredibly easy for parents and teachers to monitor the learner’s progress.
Wonster Words: ABC Phonics
Wonster Words was created to help teach your kids to spell new words using phonics. Their learning activities also allow children to spell by recognizing word families and digraphs. They mostly use colorful animation to help your toddler memorize the meanings of commonly used words.
With constant use of this app, you’ll find your child growing their vocabulary while improving pronunciations. The app introduces your child to letter ghosts and wonsters in mini-games that ignite their imagination and make learning a fun experience overall.
The many great activities featured here include letter hide and seek, spelling puzzles, and much more.
The first fourteen words are free for download, and you’ll need to purchase the rest. Is it worth it? Considering this app is well-designed and easy to navigate, I’d say yes. Once your child completes a set of words, they’ll be rewarded with colorful animations featuring wonsters.
This educational game is sure to help your child learn words and spellings faster as they advance through kindergarten or preschool. I found this app to be glitch-free and very easy to use, which is definitely a bonus for an app aimed towards toddlers.
123 Numbers – Count And Tracing
123 Numbers is crafted to help your toddler learn how to count quickly. It achieves this by displaying objects on your screen and prompting your child to count them individually. Also, this app has number tracing and number matching activities.
The number tracing is in the form of a mini-game that allows your child to trace number shapes to memorize them. It doesn’t get much easier to learn than this. The number matching activity includes a balloon at the top of the screen that contains a number that your child will have to match to a given solution on the same screen.
For more advanced learners, this app also has a fill in the blanks activity. In this activity, numbers will be displayed in a sequence that your child will have to identify and complete. The attractive, colorful graphics of this app are sure to entice your child and hold their attention for long periods of time.
This app is completely free to download and use as it has no in-app purchases or third-party advertisements. It has to be said – this free app offers a lot more for a safe and fun learning experience than even some popular paid apps available today.
ABS Spelling – Spell And Phonics
ABC Spelling helps your toddler learn words and spellings in a creative, fun way. It uses a very simple yet effective method of achieving this. It displays a picture on your screen with letters just above it. Your child would have to match the letters to the picture in the correct order to spell perfectly.
The colorful graphics and useful sounds will help your child learn to spell and pronounce simple words perfectly in no time. This app also has a report card feature that allows parents to monitor progress and encourage their children to learn accordingly.
ABS Spelling is recommended by teachers all around the world as a practical learning tool. What I found to be an especially great feature of this app is that parents can control the settings to customize game modes according to their child’s preference.
It ensures your child is kept entertained while learning how to read – a great way to keep them hooked for hours. The app rewards your child with stickers every time they successfully complete an activity to keep them enticed.
I’d say the animation in this app is a reward in itself, thanks to its vivid colors and rich details.
Funny Food 2
The games in this app include puzzles, hide and seek, sorting games, matching games, shapes and colors, counting, etc. Your toddler will be spoilt for choice here! The games included here address almost everything you’d need to make sure your child learns basic skills to prepare them for school.
The app has a lot of colorful characters that interact with your child to keep them interested and engaged for hours together. Also, the interface is simple and easy for toddlers to get the hang of. I found the matching games to be the best as they’re loaded with rich colors and boost your child’s memory skills.
Many of the games here help with logical thinking that will help your child learn better in school. It also has a set of family fun pack games you can enjoy with your toddler. It does have quite a few ads if you use the mobile version. If you want an ad-free experience, try using the tablet version.
Conclusion
Having gone through the descriptions and reviews above, you may now have a fairly good idea of what to expect from a good educational app for toddlers. As you’d have observed, most of them use games and other fun tools to keep your child entertained while they learn.
Since each child is different, I’d recommend you opt for apps that allow you to customize their learning options. Apps that offer this feature are usually paid apps, but I’d say it’s worth what they charge you. If your child is unable to grasp or follow the learning activities, it makes little sense for them to be using the app at all.
You won’t need much of an effort getting your child hooked to these learning apps. Most, if not all, of them, have colorful graphics and richly depicted animated characters to keep them intrigued. In fact, don’t be surprised if you find yourself joining in to help your toddler solve puzzles and play games as well!
All the apps I’ve reviewed for you are completely safe for children, and many of them are totally ad-free as well. So, you won’t need to think twice before leaving your child alone with the app to take out time for yourself. They’ll be occupied and prepare to do well in school at the same time – win-win!
So there you have it. All in all, learning apps are useful tools to have for those with toddlers and young children. Even when these apps are paid, they offer a host of benefits that merit the tiny price tags.
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