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With younger children using smartphones or mobile devices, it’s important that parents remain on top of their digital habits and find the right applications for kids that can help them safely navigate the world online.
Common Sense Media says, “Preteens need clear instructions to use the smartphone safely-these are strong little machines. They must also know what your expectations are for responsible, respectful behavior online.
When it comes to finding great apps for kids aged 8-12, you’ll need to look for apps they’ll actually use and enjoy; however, it’s also important to look for apps that will keep them safe (such as apps with parental control options) and educate them.
Vocabulary Spelling City
Your child may choose among different categories for his grade level, such as soundalikes or compound words. Then he picks out what he wants to do with the list: unscramble letters, take a spelling test, bring the words into alphabetical order, or use them in a game. “My fifth grader likes to play HangMouse, the Hangman edition of the game,” says Tiffany Everett of Port St. Lucie, Florida, somewhere. “He thinks pretending to be the mouse and eating all the cheese before the cat wakes up is fun.”
Thinking Blocks Multiplication
This app helps your child use blocks of numbers to solve problems with word multiplications, a strategy supported by common core standards. Says Finger: “We’ve just started using this app with third- and fourth-graders so they can visualize word problems better, and it helps.”
Number Rum
Think of it as a mathematical Temple Run. Your child can help a panda escape from a bully by solving problems of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division: perfect preparation for timed math tests.
Froggipedia
Apple has named Froggipedia the Best iPad app of 2018. Considering the millions of available apps, this award means that he is a winner. Froggipedia is an AR (Augmented Reality) app that enables users to explore and learn about a frog ‘s anatomy – without dissection.
Box Island
With the rise of the STEM movement, children have opportunities to learn new skills in fun ways. For example, Box Island is an app that teaches children coding uniquely in computer science gameplay. Plus, combining STEM learning with fun makes this one of the best free apps for children!
Stack the States
Your child reacts to questions about state flags, capitals, nicknames, abbreviations, and information related to geography. When she gets one right, a ring of stars appears and the animated version of the state will switch and drop anywhere onscreen. She will unlock new levels until she racks up enough states to hit the checkered line.
BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week
This app, an offshoot of the famous video subscription series, offers one three-minute video at no charge per week. Recent ones covered the expedition to the solar system and Lewis and Clark. “My son has been watching the movie over and over on Abraham Lincoln,” says Everett. “We took books out of the library so that he could learn more.”
Marble Math
Marble Math is another educational app that uses gaming to strengthen skills. The award-winning game blends geometry and mazes, as the name implies.
Duolingo
Duolingo is one of the best online software for children when it comes to language learning, for middle schoolers and up. Users will pick a language and then play games to develop their fluency and vocabulary. And it doesn’t stop there: parents can learn with their children because each member of the family gets their own profile.
A Dark Room
A Dark Room is completely different from all other game applications which rely heavily on graphics. A Dark Room is actually a purely text-based adventure game that encourages children to think outside of the box.
Gorogoa
Title of the year’s 2018 iPad Game went to Gorogoa and it is easy to see why. This is a puzzle game that is visually rich and will challenge children and adults alike.
The Infinite Arcade
Tinybop’s gaming app The Infinite Arcade is another fun way to improve the STEM skills. Users conceive and build their own arcade games in this app.
GarageBand
Looking for an app for your kid who loves music? GarageBand is among the best free apps for kids. This app lets children record, edit, and produce music tracks of high quality.
Terraria
If your children love Minecraft but are getting older from it, introduce them to Terraria. Terraria is a multiplayer game but instead of strangers, tweens will only compete locally (or with people they know).
Kudos
Kudos will love parents who are looking for a safe way to introduce their tweens to the social media. This is essentially a secure, photo-sharing app for tweens. Best of all, on this platform parents are informed about their kid’s activities.
Endless Alphabet
Chances are you will own some wooden puzzles where letters are slotted into a board if you have tiny humans. If you’re very fortunate, you’ll still have a few letters in fact, rather than a sad infant forlornly pointing at gaps.
Endless Alphabet should take away their minds from such losses, with dozens of words to sort by dragging letters about, and a bunch of funny animations when every word is completed. There’s the odd lurking of Americanism, but if you can hold back from hurling your device from a moving car when you see ‘odor’ lacking a ‘u,’ you’re going to be okay.
BBC iPlayer
We love BBC iPlayer but for kids, it’s a little bit tempting to ‘accidentally’ end up seeing something horrific that could scar them for life or, worse, get them interested in EastEnders. Hence BBC iPlayer Kids, which cunningly restricts the broadcast of nippers on CBeebies and CBBC shows.
There are no adverts like regular iPlayer, the GUI is elegant and simple, the search is fast and you can download shows for offline playback. That means, after watching 20 episodes of Danger Mouse back to back, we felt honored to thoroughly check the software for inclusion in these pages.
My hungry caterpillar
The world’s most loved and gluttonous larva stars in a range of books with holes in, some of which have been awkwardly shoehorned into apps. But this one’s different, coming across like a virtual pet.
It starts with an egg, which when hatched reveals the titular wriggler, who merrily scarfs down any food plonked in front of him. Then it’s playtime, which, depending on the season, might mean belly-sliding on an icy pond, frantically smacking a bouncy ball around, or popping bubbles. It’s all very charming, and once the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, we imagine your own little critter will want to start all over again.
Toca Life Farm
Farm is another in the excellent Toca Life series, and worth the few pounds it costs on every platform, as ever. There are numerous places to visit: the barn, the field, the farmhouse, and much more.
Children will communicate with anything they see in each, milk the cow, feed the lambs, and harvest crops. It possibly goes over their heads but one of the goals of Toca Boca is to expose children to the food lifecycle.
Our two testers loved to take seeds from the various sacks, plant, and water them, and then use the tractor to harvest them. The food machine can also be used to transform produce into food.
Miko and Cola
That starts as a storybook app following a pair of cats called Miko and Cola’s “silly fun adventures.” The real joy comes in their music mode, where your child can tap on characters and music-making items.
Editorial Staff of the TechnoRoll, are a bunch of Tech Writers, who are writing on the trending topics related to technology news and gadgets reviews.
