The summer months are an excellent time for you and your children to enjoy outdoor activities like swimming, bike riding and camping. However, after a few weeks, when the novelty of being out of school has worn off, children can start to get restless. To assist you in your quest to keep your children busy in a productive manner this summer, here are some of my favorite educational apps!
Free in the App Store
- ToDo Math: patterns, counting
- Kideos or YouTube Kids: YouTube videos for kids
- My First Keyboard: third party keyboard
- MyScript MathPad: converts your handwritten math equations into text
- MyScript Memo: converts handwritten notes into text that can be shared
- MyScript SmartNote: converts handwritten notes into text
- MyScript Calculator: converts handwritten math operations into text and solves them
- Endless Wordplay: spelling, wordplay and rhymes
- Endless Spanish: introduces Spanish vocabulary
- WriteReader: allows you to create your own books
- myKidzDay: enables communication between parent and childcare providers
PhotoMath (iPhone only): camera calculator, takes picture of equation, displays answer and provides step-by-step support- Moca Money: assists in making and counting change
- Math Shake: help with solving word problems
- Door 24 Plus: math fluency in all operations
- Little Story Creator: allows you to create collages and storybooks with videos, photos and text
- DoReMi Frog: cause/effect music teaches musical notes
- Fluent Mind Map: helps you generate and organize your ideas
- Math Slicer: work on addition and subtraction
- Pizza Fractions and Zap Zap Fractions: naming simple fractions
- Hooked on Phonics: Preschool and Kindergarten sight words
- Adobe Slate: create visual stories
- LumiKids Park: targets visual attention, visual motor coordination and sorting
- Office Lens: makes pics of whiteboards and documents readable, converts to editable Word and PowerPoint files
- Alarmed: reminders and timers
- ATracker: daily task and time tracking
- Magnifying Reader for Restaurant Bill and Menu: provides light and magnification
- DIY Human Body: videos and activities
- GoTalk Now Lite: augmentative communication app trial
- iDo Getting Dressed: step-by-step videos and sequences or make your own
- SAS Math Stretch: elementary math, practice and quiz modes
- This for That: Visual Schedules
- This for That: Token Store
- Wordflex Touch Dictionary: manipulate word trees
Paid Apps in App Store
- Motion Math (Free to $5.99): variety of math concepts
- Bugs & Buttons ($2.99): targets counting, letters, patterns and fine motor skills
- Bug Mazing ($1.99): work on letters, numbers, tracing and colors
- Sentence Maker ($0.99): create your own sentences
- Scoodle Jam ($3.99): common core, graphic organizers
- Sight Words ($0.99): pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade
- VeryPDF to Photo to PDF ($2.99): converts and exports photos to PDFs
As always, be sure to balance screen time with good old-fashioned gross motor and fine motor fun. When it is time to break out your device, try to make the most of it by finding an app that stimulates and challenges them!
– Nicole Weckherlin, OTR/L