Our Favourite Educational Apps

   $2.99

Pocket Phonics lets your little one trace the letters of the alphabet with their finger to learn the shape and teaches them to sound out words right off the bat. This really helped Ironman. He played with it the summer before kindergarten and was at a real advantage for learning to read because he learned the letters by their sounds first. Names of letters came afterwards. He could figure out small words because he could sound them out.

It's good for your kids just learning cursive writing too. They can also trace the letters with their fingers but in cursive. Petunia was really frustrated right off with cursive because it looked so difficult and she couldn't form the right shapes right away so I took away the paper for a while and had her trace her letters in this app. We still go back to it if she's getting frustrated with a particular letter. 

Love this app! It stinks that it's not available for Android as well.

   FREE

Meteor Math is more like an arcade game than just straight math. That makes it fun but it doesn't make it any less effective. This app covers addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. And look, it's free! We've had it a few months now and my kids still like it. That's saying something.

I found a very good review of it on GiggleApps.

   FREE

From the BrainPop site: "The BrainPOP Featured Movie (rotating daily) and BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week (rotating weekly) apps regularly deliver fresh movies, quizzes, and bonus features right to your handheld device. They cover a breadth of relevant topics including current events, historical figures and milestones, holidays, curricular subjects, and more." A broad range of topics covering Social Studies, Science, Math, Health, Technology and more. 

For more information check out BrainPop Mobile.

And if you're a homeschooler who hasn't yet discovered http://www.brainpop.com and http://www.brainpopjr.com, I wholeheartedly suggest you check them out. Great resources.

     FREE

Smash Your Food will let your kids have fun smashing a burger, a can of coke, a jelly donut and many other food items and learning about how much sugar, oil and salt these have. They will learn about reading a nutrition label and be motivated to make healthier food choices, all while making a big mess that you don't have to clean up! 

To learn more about FoodN'Me and our goal of educating children about healthy eating habits, visit our website at www.foodnme.com or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/smashyourfood.

http://www.foodnme.com

$2.99

Bugs N Buttons has18 beautiful different games and activities. So far I usually stay away from the collections of games. I often don't find them to be as well done as a single game but that's not the case here. Some of the included games are:

• Fling bees at a target flower. 
• Fly a butterfly through butterfly valley (tilt to steer). 
• Play tic-tac-toe with a dragonfly. 
• Sort and pack buttons fresh off the factory conveyer belt. 
• Race roaches across the finish grate/line. 
• Remove and sort bugs infesting the button production. 
• Catch bugs frantically scurrying about. 
• Pick apples while dodging bees. 
• Catch buttons falling off Uncle Bob's button truck. 
• Help bugs find their way through mazes. 
• Finish sequences on the letter train.
• Interactively count bugs. 
• Catch colorful fireflies in a jar.
• and more… 

What they teach:

 
• Counting 
• Fine motor skills (i.e. pinching) 
• Path finding 
• Patterns 
• Sorting 
• Tracking 
• and more... 

Check out the GiggleApps review if you want to know more ...

  $2.99

Artkive is "The clutter-free way to save and enjoy your children's artwork." 

Do you feel guilty throwing away artwork you kids make and want to keep forever . . . just like the other 400 pieces they've made this month? You can get rid of the clutter and save it as pictures for you kids to look through. You can also upload their precious creations to make gifts for grandparents, or send them to grandparents as attachments to an email.

"As featured on THE TODAY SHOW, Artkive is the #1 app to chronologically store, share and print your child's artwork or schoolwork."

I don't put everything in here, but it's easier to throw the bulk of it away if it's recorded and saved in this app, because then, you see, it can be FOUND again. It's not lost forever in the sometimes dark hole of iPhoto.

http://www.artkiveapp.com

And an app that we love just because it's fun ...

     .99

Where's My Water is a physics based puzzle game with bright, colourful graphics and a funny storyline.

SWAMPY’S STORY 
Swampy the Alligator lives in the sewers under the city. He is a little different from the other alligators — he’s curious, friendly, and loves taking a nice long shower after a hard day at work. The other alligators have damaged his plumbing and disrupted the water flow. Help Swampy by guiding water to his shower! In Swampy’s Story, play ten themed chapters over 200 levels. Collect Swampy’s ducks and shower items to unlock new puzzles and bonus levels. 

One more app we use daily is Chore Cards, and I'll have a post on that coming soon!

GETTING APPS FOR FREE

I know not all of these apps are free but I only paid for one. The rest have come up free at some point or other. I use the AppShopper app to watch for apps I want to go down in price. I add them to my wishlist and am notified if they change price. Unfortunately it appears to have been removed from the App Store so it's only available through the website.

If you want to find free kid friendly, usually educational apps you should like 1+1+1=1 on Facebook. She often finds and shares free apps. She also shares all kinds of other homeschool related freebies, links and posts.

What are your favourite kids apps?