The Pokemon Go craze has taken off – engaging troupes of kids and their parents on their phones. Many parents love that it is getting kids outside, moving and getting exercise. However some worry that an increase in screen time may result in a decrease in learning time. If you’re looking for educational alternatives for your Pokemon Go lovers, download these six educational apps and turn screen time into learning time that you’ll both enjoy.
Storytime App
Turn screen time into storytime with this “Netflix for Children’s Books” app. The FarFaria app gives your family access to thousands of books on an iPad, kindle, phone and more. You can even save books to the app so they can be read offline anywhere. Kids can read at the park, doctor’s office, in the car, on vacation, Grandma’s house, and more!
Develop Reading Skills App
Hooked on Phonics is no longer that old school program that taught your grandmother to read, they have entered the 21st Century with their AMAZING app. The Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read App has educational games to keep kids engaged at home or on the phone. You Download the app on any device and it will sync the child’s progress.
Learn to Code Program
Use a child’s love of video games to interest them in learning how to code. The Learn to Mod program is a browser-based software that teaches kids how to “mod” Minecraft with both Blockly and Javascript. The program includes hundreds of video lessons, puzzles and quizzes to teach your kids how to code. The program itself is a game with cool badges your child can win while completing coding tasks.
Ask a Tutor App
Does your child need homework help? There’s an app for that! GradeSlam provides 24/7 tutoring in all subjects to students in middle and high school as well as college. With their revolutionary and award winning chat-based tutoring platform, students can access a tutors anytime they need.
Improve Literacy App
Use an engaging app to improve grammar skills. Quill provides learning activities that engage students in the writing process through web applications teaching grammar, vocabulary and writing skills. Some of the Quill program’s most popular activities include comma usage, capitalization, verb tense agreement and commonly confused words.
Reading Game Program
Engage your tech-savvy children in reading and track their progress. Ooka Island includes over 80 hours of gameplay, 24 levels of reading activities and 85 ebooks. The program is built kids in pre-k to 2nd grade and continually assesses your child to plot a personalized learning path. Weekly progress reports are sent to you every Friday with a detailed picture of where each child is at in reading.
Full Curriculum App
ABCmouse.com is a full online curriculum for ages 2-7 with 450 lessons and 7,000 individual learning activities makes learning fun. With books, puzzles, games, songs, art activities, and/or printables that relate to specific topics, each lesson offers children several different ways to learn, in accordance with the recommendations of early childhood experts.
Kate Whiting is the founder & CEO of Educents, a marketplace that empowers parents to help their children succeed. To learn more, visit Educents.com.
