Tiffany Raiford
It’s summer vacation in my house, and what that means for my two oldest children is that they’re bored and I’m forced to listen to it. We’re not always mobile since we do have two 1-year-old twins that nap for about four hours from late morning to mid-afternoon (also, I’m alone with four kids while Daddy is at work and that’s not my favorite way to go out into public on a regular basis). There is a lot working against us in Florida during summer vacation; namely the weather. It’s nearly impossible to plan an outing alone with the four kids when it’s raining knowing that I have to find a way to keep four kids dry while unloading them from the car and getting them inside any given location. And while I have no problem with manipulating the nap schedule to fit our plans, I don’t care to do that on a regular basis (remember, two – not one – fussy baby if naps are interrupted too much).
So, we are left with a dilemma: The kids are bored and the babies are napping, so it’s up to me and the kids to find creative ways to spend time. Fortunately, my kids have pretty active imaginations, so it’s not typical that they’re so bored that they have nothing to do, but it does happen. And when that happens, I have a go-to solution that makes them happy and it makes me happy. I give them their tablets and let them go to town. They love their tablets, and they love learning apps. This is good news, too, since I don’t like them feeling as if they’re not learning during the long summer vacation. So what we do is we learn with our apps and everyone is happy. I get some work done while they also get some work done. Life is a win-win situation (and then we wear them completely out on the weekends so that they’re good and tired on Mondays). Here are some of the best educational apps for kids to use this summer to keep up with their intelligence and education; you and your kids will love these amazing apps.
Funbrain Jr. – Free
This is a fun app for smaller kids that allows them to learn to count, to match and to practice other basic skills they will learn when they grow up. It’s a fun app that makes it seem like a game while it’s teaching your kids to learn things that they will need for their school years.
Elmo Loves 123s – $2.99
This is a great app for a small child entering preschool or kindergarten to help them learn to recognize and identify the letters of the alphabet, as well as their numbers. Your kids, particularly those in between VPK and kindergarten, will really benefit from this information. There is nothing like a good head start.
The Sight Word Adventure – $1.99
Your child will be Learning To Read Book faster and more efficiently than ever with this clever app. It uses the game of hide and seek to make your kids find their sight words and recognize their reading skills. It’s simple and fun, and one of the most educationally intelligent apps we’ve seen for kids going into their reading years.
Play 123 – Free
This is a great geometry app that makes math so much more fun and that much simpler for small kids, and that’s what makes it one of our kids’ favorite learning apps to use during the summer. Of course, they don’t realize that they’re learning; just that they are having a fun adventure on their tablets.
Disney Story Central – Free (App and first four books – additional books $4)
This is a great app for kids that are learning to read as it helps them read along with the books in the app. Kids will learn to recognized sight words, to sound out letters and to recognize simple words that will really help them learn to read.
Dexteria Dots 2 – $3
This great app looks like fun, but it’s a tricky way to get your kids to practice their math skills when school is not in session. And it’s a lot healthier than giving them a bag of M&Ms and asking them to count them and separate them by color, you know?
Endless Reader – Free
With fun graphics and words that come to life, your kids are going to beg you to play this game as they are learning to read. Our 4-year-old is a surprisingly good reader even though she’s not been to school yet and she will not sit down with us to read to save our lives, and it’s because she loves the silly words in this game and she’s learned to recognize them quite well.
Stack the States – $1.99
What a great app for not only kids that are learning their shapes and puzzle piecing skills, but also for kids that are learning their geography. The states have to be stacked and fit together so that they create the United States of America, which makes it a challenge as well as a learning tool for geography students.
News-O-Matic – Free
For older kids, this is a great educational app. It is a kid-friendly version of the latest news, which helps the kids learn more about current events, the importance of actually learning the news and it helps them practice their reading skills. This is a great app for kids that aren’t fans of picking up books and reading those just for fun, but it’s also good for kids like mine, who love to read any and everything she can get her hands on.
Winky Think Logic Puzzles – $2.99
Challenging and educational, your kids will have to think and use their logic to solve these puzzles, which keeps their minds sharp and their logic on target. It’s a simple game for kids to use during the summer to promote their thinking process and encourage them to learn.
Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Comments
Loading…