Learning Apps Kids and Parents Love

Kristy Pepping said:  HOMER is fun and easy to use, and can work for beginners as well as more advanced readers. A membership gives access to two apps: HOMER Reading, a learn-to-read program and HOMER Stories, a library of interactive stories. Kids will learn phonics, sight words, ABCs organized by reading stages, and more. Parents have a dashboard to track their child's progress.

Lisa R said:  This multi-faceted program teaches reading, math, science and more through stories, puzzles, and other games that advance with your child. Kids accumulate tickets each time they complete an activity, which they can redeem for clothes, toys, and pets for their avatar. My daughter loves visiting the virtual farm and zoo, where she can listen to facts about animals while watching them move around the screen and feeding the fish in the virtual classroom.

Kristy Pepping said:  Moose Math is a math game that takes kids on fun adventures. They won't even know they are actually learning to count, add, subtract, do geometry and much more. Kids earn rewards which in turn lets them build a city and keep adding to it. Plus, this app is aligned with Common Core Math so the teaching methods match what they are already learning in school.

Katie G. said:  Math fact fluency is important for elementary age kids to master as they move forward in math. XtraMath provides a great resource for students to practice their math facts quickly and easily. Students are evaluated at the start to see what they know then placed in a level. Once they master all the facts, they'll receive a certification of achievement and move onto the next level. Parents receive a report each week showing your child's progress.

Lisa R said:  Though not an app, this is a mobile-friendly online resource from Scholastic featuring hundreds of animated and interactive eBooks read by celebrity narrators. Each of the stories is accompanied by additional learning activities, such as word match games, recall quizzes, puzzles, and more. Access is only available through a library subscription, however members of participating libraries can get free at-home access.

Gina I. said:  This kid-friendly language app is the perfect tool to help your kids learn a new language! Choose from more than 30 languages including Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Hindi, Greek, Japanese, and others! Kids will get practice reading, listening to, and speaking their chosen language, and the lesson "gamification" makes learning engaging and fun! Little kids may need assistance, but school-age children should be able to use the app with relative ease.

Speakaboos is designed to turn children's screen time into reading time with fun stories that keep kids entertained. The app features hundreds of stories with much loved characters, offers read-along highlighting, and publishes reports for parents that highlight your child's favorite stories, time spent reading, top interests, and the educational concepts your child covered.

Vanessa M. said:  Young children will enjoy learning to count, playing number games, tracing numbers, watching music videos and more with the Sesame Street app Elmo Loves 123s. The 123s tracker allows parents to keep tabs on what their child is learning.

Kelly R. said:  This whimsical app allows kids to interact with each letter of the alphabet to trigger a variety of animations portraying words beginning with the same letter. A fun and vocabulary-expanding experience.

Kristy Pepping said:   If you have an elementary aged child that could use some extra math help try Marble Math Junior. Your child will solve a variety of math problems by collecting numbers as they roll or drag a marble through a series of fun mazes.

Gina I. said:  Using puzzles, drawing exercises, and challenges, this educational app from Montessorium makes learning world geography fun! Kids will learn to identify the locations, shapes, and flags of countries around the globe, while developing a curiosity about their world.