Best educational apps and sites for your kids during the UK Corona Virus lock down
Best apps for babies
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‘Sesame Street- Elmo Loves 123’s | Check it out | ||
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First Words UK | Check it out |
Best apps for children
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Duo Lingo | Check it out |
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Autodesk SketchBook | Check it out |
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Equate Problem Solver | Check it out |
Best sites for toddlers
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Fisher Price Play Website | Check it out |
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CBeebies | Check it out |
Best sites for childrens
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BBC Bitesize | Check it out |
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Stem Learning | Check it out |
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Discovery education | Check it out |
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Khan Academy | Check it out |
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Second life | Check it out |
As isolation continues any initial enthusiasm around home schooling is likely to have waned. Carefully created timetables have been ripped up and chaos is like a wolf at the door.
The question of when the schools will re-open doesn’t seem to have been thought about never mind decided upon and we know that maintaining the education of our offspring is a priority, so we’ve produced a guide to the best educational apps and websites available to U.K parents.
We’ve found educational apps for android and IOS, so no one misses out. All the work is done for you. Because, let’s be honest, when we’ve been ‘teaching’ since 10am and the G&T is calling, we really don’t want to be Googling ‘The best educational iPad apps to keep my 6-year-old entertained’ do we?!
Educational apps for toddlers
Sesame Street- Elmo Loves 123s
Price: The Lite version is free. There are extensions that can be purchased.
Everyone loves Sesame Street and this spell binding app will keep your little one enthralled for hours. We would say it’s one of the best free educational iPad apps for children under 4.
Pros
- Twenty games to choose from
- Much-loved characters
- Problem solving
- Imaginative play and development of creativity
- Observation skills
- Motor skills
First Words UK
Price: Free
This is one of the best educational apps for 3-year-olds as it encourages speech and word recognition in a fun and charming way.
Pros
- U.K spelling and pronunciation (you’ll find many apps are more suited to the U.S)
- There are over 110 words to learn
- Easy and clear to understand for your toddler and you
- The voice can be either male or female.
- The size of the text can be altered to suit.
- There are simple quizzes which are a fun way to check progress
- You can choose from either cartoons or photos
- Great for autistic kids as the colour and noises can be turned off.
Top educational apps for kids in primary school
Hit the Button Maths
Price: £2.99.
This is awesome! Educational apps for maths can be a little dull but this interactive maths game is really good fun.
Pros
- Answer quick-fire questions on the following concepts number bonds, times tables, doubles and halves, multiplication division, square numbers
- Against the clock answering so it’s exciting for the child, as all fun educational apps should be
- Educational apps for maths like this are excellent at developing mental maths skills
Duo Lingo
Price: Free.
The primary school stage, especially early on, is a great time for a child to begin to learn another language.
Pros
- Good preparation for a compulsory modern language in secondary school
- Short and sweet lessons stop the student from feeling like their brain has been over-stuffed with new words.
- Different levels of difficulty
- Charming and colourful illustrations
- Duo-lingo pops up on lots of ‘Top 10 educational apps’ lists
- It is not only one of the best free educational apps, it’s loved and used by teachers too.
Top educational apps for teenagers
Autodesk SketchBook
Price: Free.
Good educational apps shouldn’t feel like work. The best interactive educational sites for kids are the ones that teach by stealth and Sketchbook does that beautifully.
Pros
- Easy to use and navigate
- Builds confidence in their artistic skills
- Super for encouraging creativity
- Progressive – from simple sketches to more considered pieces of art
- A camera phone can be cleverly used as a scanner
- One of the best educational apps for iPad
Equate Problem Solver
Price: Free with in-app purchases.
This app is gloriously geeky and we love it!
Pros
- Covers Key Stage 4 (GCSE) maths, chemistry and physics
- It is adept at explaining algebraic notation amongst other complicated concepts
- Educational apps for kids are often a little ‘clunky’ but this one is technically brilliant
- Two levels of testing
- The student receives feedback on where they went wrong and suggests which areas need to be worked on.
Preschool educational sites
Fisher Price Play Website
Price: Free
Fisher Price has been a trusted toy manufacturer of many years and they have developed the educational side of their iconic products into a colourful learning website.
Pros
- There are hundreds of ideas to choose from
- Choose your child’s age for appropriate resources and enjoy watching them play and learn through each stage
- Any materials suggested will be easy to find at home
- The site is easy to navigate
- It’s a lovely bright and vibrant site to look at
- When sharing an activity with your child we will highlight where the ‘teaching and learning’ moments
CBeebies
Price: Free
Every parent who has a child under the age of 25 will recognise CBeebies. The website belonging to this cherished TV channel is vast and it’s also one of the best educational iPad apps for toddlers, portable entertainment at its most diverse!
Pros
- A huge range of activities for pre-school children of all ages
- Interactive games
- Short educational videos
- Recognisable characters, most toddlers will be obsessed with at least one of them
- There is some content for 5 and 6-year-olds so they can join in with their little brother or sister
The best educational sites for primary school kids
Bitesize by the BBC
Price: Free
Recommended by most schools, you’ll find daily lessons for homeschooling in Maths and English for every year group, as well as regular lessons in Science, History, Geography and more from year 1 to 10.
Stem Learning
This is a favourite of all the educational sites for kids who love the STEM subjects Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths.
Pros
- A fantastic way to extend your child’s learning in important subjects
- There is a huge amount of choice about what to learn and at what level.
- Great for curious teenagers and adults too.
- The site is easy to navigate with each subject separated and separated according to your child’s year at school.
Discovery Education
This amazing website can be used by students, teachers and home-schooling parents.
Pros
- Free resources for primary school children
- A vast catalogue of subjects covered from literature to coding
- Access to free educational video download sites
- We loved the Virtual Field Trips
- Fab for parents looking for ideas of what to discuss with their children in ‘class’
- A library of inspirational webinars
Khan Academy
This appears on many lists of the best educational apps for adults and children
Pros
- Students study at their own pace
- Plug gaps in your student’s knowledge
- Created by a team of teachers, educational experts and researchers
- A useful tool for parents who are keen to help their older children and keep them studying
- The programme of study can be entirely tailored to the student’s needs
Second Life
This is the most intriguing of all the educational sites for students in secondary school. It’s worth investigating if you’re struggling to motivate your teenager to study. One of the best VR educational apps on the internet.
Pros
- Second life educational sites give you access to a virtual version of university libraries, lectures and seminars all over the world.
- Visit art galleries and interact with artists.
- Explore some of the most famous museums
- It will appeal to your teenager’s anti-social tendencies to disappear into a different world
So, if you’re a parent at the coal face of home schooling we hope these recommendations for educational apps and websites have been useful.
If you need further help and advice have a read of our articles: ‘Activity ideas to entertain your kids at home during the Corona virus lock down’ and ‘Five tips to homeschool your kids during lockdown’
