Age-by-age guide to the best educational apps for kids

We all know too much screen time isn't the best idea for kids. But sometimes when the weather is glum and you've run out of card games for kids and indoor games, educational apps are totally the answer.

If the kids are going to be glued to the iPad anyways, you might as well have them learning something, so here's a list of educational apps that are great for each age range. Download a few and let the kids tap, tap, tap away so you can get just a little bit of time to yourself.

Preschool

Sago Mini World

Travel with Harvey, Jinja, Robin and Jack as you explore space, fly through a forest, build a robot, design a monster, drive a firetruck, deep-sea dive, become a superhero, visit your friends and more—all in one whimsical world.

Khan Academy Kids

A cast of adorable animal characters will guide children through lessons, and our adaptive learning path will customize their experience to help them master different skills.

Montessori Preschool

Looking for an app for your child to whizz through PreK and Kindergarten? Montessori Preschool covers phonics, reading, writing, numbers, colours, shapes, nursery rhymes, colouring and even coding!

Papumba: Preschool ABC Games

Papumba features over 500 games and activities geared towards your child's age and aptitude. Designed around key preschool curriculum milestones, these games encourage independent play and critical thinking and give your kids a head start in learning 21st century STEAM skills.

Accelerating Young Minds

20 interactive educational activities for your eager learners, aged 3-6. AYM apps give parents and teachers the comfort of knowing that their kids are learning academics, life skills, and social skills even though they may be playing a game on their tablets or mom’s phone. Parents or teachers can register as many children to their account as needed and will see data for every child registered.

Ages 6 to 8

FamZoo

FamZoo Is a virtual family bank and is designed for preschoolers up to college-age kiddos. This app gives parents the power to manage finances for their kids as they earn. The earned money can be from chores, behavior charts or even gifts from Grandma. Prepaid cards n transfer real money to for each of your kids. Kids love the easy tracking, and parents love the emphasis on smart personal finance from such a young age.

MathTango

Kids will progress through dozens of math lessons as they earn monsters, complete missions, build out their own unique worlds, and discover even more fun and surprises along the way. While they’re having great fun, you’ll know they’re learning!

TABI Learning - Primary School

Tabi Learning takes in normal school subjects and creates beautiful, unique learning experiences. Ever wanted your kids to learn about fractions in Atlantis? With Tabi they can!

TinyTap - Homeschool for Kids

TinyTap houses a library of over 150,000 interactive learning games covering an abundance of subjects. Kids can learn and practice key skills and subjects according to their age and needs allowing them to reach developmental milestones at their own pace. It also includes a dashboard for parents so you can track their progress and see how they're doing compared to other kids in their age group.

K-5 Science for Kids - Tappity

Kids simply learn better when they're engaged one-on-one, which is why Haley the Science Gal will be with your child every step of the way, from explaining complex science topics and leading real science experiments to encouraging them to try their best.

Epic! - Kids' Books and Videos

Epic offers families unlimited access to 35,000 of the best children's books and learning videos so your child can read and learn anytime, anywhere.

Ages 9 to 11

Quick Math - Mental Arithmetic

Kids (and adults) can’t put it down! Practice your mathematics while racing the clock in this innovative app. Featuring advanced handwriting recognition and a beautiful interface, Quick Math will take your general arithmetic skills to the next level.

Hopscotch - Programming for Kids

Kids can create, play and learn with Hopscotch's kid-friendly programming platform. Learn to code games, art, stories or more and then publish your creations to Hopscotch’s fully moderated community, where kids can play and learn from your games. Plus you can play other user's creations too, and then open them up, tweak them and remix them!

Barefoot World Atlas

Fly around the interactive 3D globe and discover the rich wonders of our planet. Barefoot World Atlas show-stopping interactive app allows children to explore an enticing, spinning world packed with animated icons, an ever-changing soundscape and interactive quizzes.

Seek by iNaturalist

Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of plants, birds, fungi and more!

Droplets: Drops for Kids

Let Droplets help your children take their first steps in learning new languages! The learning process in Droplets is game-based, accompanied by colourful illustrations, nice and clear pronunciation samples, and great usability, which means kids won't want to put it down

Babbel

The popular language-learning site (with accompanying apps) is giving students a full month of learning for free, so they can learn real-life conversation skills in another language.