Apps to Prepare Children for New School Season

Learning doesn’t have to be dull. The more inspiring it gets, the better results students achieve, and the younger they are, the more important the funny side becomes. Turning a class into a game is way easier in our smartphone era, as now we can have teaching games on almost any subject. It doesn’t only work with preschoolers: math apps for middle school, say, prove just as effective.

There are already many apps meant to gamify learning for youngsters. Their developers do their best to revolutionize the school. Kids don’t have to smuggle their gadgets to class: now smartphones (and especially tablets) become a learning tool as powerful as the classical blackboard.

Games are especially useful for “hard” subjects kids have trouble with. No matter if it’s grammar, math, geography, or anything else. When playing, a schoolkid subconsciously learns the basics for later regular learning.

There are many free and paid iOS and Android tablet apps for school. Some of them are commercial, some are sponsored by certain communities or authorities. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Best Apps for Learning

There are some apps that gained special popularity among children, parents, and teachers. They cover many subjects, but they look quite similar. The player follows a story of a character who completes various quests, and these quests require knowledge.

Prodigy Math Game

This game is one of the most popular in gaming edutainment; mostly because it’s really an RPG with a long branched story, vivid visuals, intense combats, and all the stuff a game needs. But there is one thing: to make an attacking move during the combat, you need to solve a simple arithmetical problem. If you do it correctly, your attacks get stronger, and your chances to win the fight and go further grow. It’s really fun to play Prodigy: math game, and, while playing it, kids learn.

Epic!

It’s a library full of books, videos, tests, and quizzes, with over 35.000 titles to read and see. The app is designed in sort of Netflix-style, with topics, sections, Favorites, and personalized recommendations. It’s paid ($7.99/mo), but it has a 30-day free trial.

Kakooma

It’s a series of math puzzles that can get even an adult petrified with its logic. But if a child with all the flexibility of mind gets to it, the problems don’t seem that hard. This app is a great assistance when it comes to mastering addition, distraction, and multiplication. Alas, it hasn’t been updated since 2015, so it may run less smooth on newer devices.

Stack the States

It’s a Tetris-like game where you operate with shapes of states instead of abstract blocks. As kids play it, they learn shapes and positions of states, their capitals and prominent cities, interesting facts about each of the 50 states, and so on.

Word Wagon

It’s a game teaching kids letters’ names, the sounds they mean, spelling words up to four and then up to six letters long. In a playful manner, it offers to position the given letters correctly to form the word. Two jolly assistants, a mouse, and a bird, lead the young student through grammar basics.

Little Writer

It’s a tracing app helping kids to learn how to write letters, words, numbers, draw shapes, and so on. Collecting apples along the line, a kid or even a toddler memorizes shapes, forming certain symbols or objects. This app is very easy to understand, and it’s one of the highest-rated apps for kids.

Mathmateer

This is a space racing game where a player needs to build a rocket and fly up to space. In space, the rocket will be surrounded by various objects, and selecting the right one requires mathematical skills. It embraces various spheres of arithmetic, from odd and even numbers to square roots. Drawn with bright colors, in neonish style, it looks attractive and guides the player through different sections of basic math.

What Teachers Say

It was hard for mobile devices to make their way into the learning process. But now professionals and authorities recognize them as a successful way of assisting traditional learning; they don’t, though, think these apps can completely replace classes.

Renee Mitchell admits that, as engaging as they get, these apps are a good assistance. The gaming element draws the kids in, while the missions they have to complete correspond with class programs. Some games are even curated by education system specialists, so they fit the official school programs and can be adjusted where any differences appear. Most teachers who have worked with these apps agree.

Another thing to know is that games are meant rather for catching up with the rest if some subject goes hard. Say, using Prodigy: Math Game for school gives nothing to those advanced in math, but helps those behind others to catch up.

Ryan Scott

@allappsworld

Tech junkie, grilled haloumi devourer, cat owner @allappsworld