3 learning apps ease kids back to school
Along with lining up lunchboxes and backpacks, downloading the apps on this list can help to make your child's entry into school easier. By getting your kids into the habit of learning at home, school doesn't seem so daunting. With these apps, kids can make objects come alive by combining geometric shapes, invent fantastic machines by using the parts of phone or tablet and practice academic subjects through games, songs, art and digital books.
Colto, best for ages 2-4, $1.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Rating: 4 stars (out of 4)
For preschoolers who are just noticing shapes and colors, this clever app turns that learning into a series of engaging puzzles that seamlessly flow from one to another. The puzzles involve moving geometric shapes to outlined locations on the screen to make objects come to life. For example, a green circle turns into an egg when kids move it into its dotted outline. When kids tap it, out flies a little bird. As the combining of shapes gets gradually harder, kids will put together the bones of dinosaurs and even build a rocket ship that blasts into space. Each shape is identified by name as well as its color.
Bonus Tip: Since this app is only on iOS, Android users looking for great preschool apps can check out this list of apps for kids ages 5 and under.
The Everything Machine by Tinybop
Tinybop, best for ages 9-up, $2.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
4 stars
This exciting back-to-school app focuses on higher level thinking skills needed to become an inventor. It lets kids harness the component parts of their device (such as the camera, accelerometers, screen, microphone, etc.) to create their own machines. The app provides players with a simple visual programming language to let tinkerers play with combining hardware and sensors with their own imagination. If you can think up a machine, this app hopes to help you make it. What's more, you can use this app to connect to other idevices, so that your machine can have more inputs.
The visual programming language uses icons to show kids their options. All machines start with a battery for power, so it automatically appears in the inventing space. It is then up to the player to decide what to connect next. To get data for their machine, inventors can drag the icons for components such as the camera, microphone, recorder, image or sound to the workspace. Icons will automatically connect when brought close together. Budding inventors have lots of other options, including ways to control the power (toggles, buttons, sliders and such), detectors (such as for motion or a face), modifiers (preprogrammed ways to change a sound, image or video), logic gates (another type of control) and outputs (ways to experience the data coming into your machine.)
The app comes with schematics to make five machines accompanied by video tutorials showing where to find the icons needed. There is also an online manual that provides more information, as well as a YouTube channel.
An easy machine to make is a "Picture Swirler." Inventors simply drag the icons for the camera, an image modifier called "kaleidoscope," and the video player to the screen. The result is a kaleidoscope which swirls and turns as kids move their device around. I also had fun creating a groovy talking machine which played disco music while also saying funny words I had typed.
With this app, kids can hone their engineering skills while also stretching their creativity. It's a great way to get children pumped about inventing and learning.
Bonus Tip: If your budding engineer is looking for more great apps, check out the ones on the Engaging Engineering Apps for Kids list.
ABCmouse.com - Early Learning Academy
Age of Learning, Inc., best for ages 3-7, $7.95/mo, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Kindle Fire, Android, PC, Mac.
Rating: 3.5 stars
For families with kids in the age range of 2-7 years, ABCmouse.com offers a robust sequence of learning activities for a monthly subscription of $7.95 or $79.99/year. Available via a browser on computers or as an app via smart devices, ABCmouse.com lets parents register up to three children and then set each child's profile to be at specific learning levels based on their age.
The main curriculum is presented in a step-by-step program, which offers over 500 lessons filled with more than 6,000 standards-based learning activities. These activities cover reading and writing, math, art, music, social studies and science; and they take the format of videos, coloring activities, learning games, poems, puzzles and songs. Kids can also approach this inviting content outside of the sequential program by simply selecting things from the main menu that appeal to them, such as a visit to a zoo or a farm.
Some of the toddler activities aren't as strong as those found in the other age levels, making this product a better fit for preschoolers through first graders. By grouping the activities into themes, ABCmouse.com introduces the learning content from many different angles. Most of the lessons also offer printables, so the learning can continue away from your device. The new expansion into first grade curriculum (still in Beta) features a core set of characters, so that kids feel as if they are playing with friends.
Kids can jump between the browser or app formats with ease. However, by signing up online, parents can take advantage of a free trial month to see if their kids like this learning experience.
Bonus Tip: If you want more recommendations for back to school apps, click here for my top 20 favorites compiled into a list.
Jinny Gudmundsen is the Editor of www.TechwithKids.com and author of iPad Apps for Kids, a For Dummies book. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.