Best Educational Apps for Preschoolers & Kids of All Ages

PJ Masks all shout hooray! It’s time to be a hero and save the city from the villains, Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalinos. Your children will learn valuable social lessons like sharing and taking turns as they suit up as Gecko, Owlette or Cat Boy. The app is free, but additional levels cost $7.99.

Your preschooler will love exploring the environments of the grasslands, desert, and forest in this STEM-aligned app. New species and surprises await in every interactive diorama, and the app is available in over 50 languages.

Ages 4 and up

$1.99 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Getting ready for kindergarten? This app includes an interactive kindergarten readiness checklist for parents, 30 related activities to try with your preschooler (covering early reading, math, social, and self-care skills), and five in-app games that help kids learn some key concepts.

Ages 4 & up
$1.99 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
This app was produced by FamilyEducation.
Download here

Choose your team of three dancers, customize their costumes, and get grooving to the beat! This app puts your child in charge of his own dance production, from music selection to choreography to special effects. The open gameplay allows your child’s imagination to reign supreme in this funky app full of customizations.

Ages 6 and up

$2.99 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

With your mobile device’s GPS, Star Walk acts as your own personal telescope, showing you what’s located in the night sky right above your head. Your child will be able to spot stars, planets, and constellations invisible to the naked eye. This Apple Design Award winner is great for older kids learning about astronomy, but younger ones will also enjoy a stargazing walk with your help!

Ages 12 and up

$4.99 for Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Though it’s based on the children’s book The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor, this app is much more than a read-along storybook. Readers can tap on an animal and watch a video about it, or click on an ocean plant to get some cool facts and photos. With seven interactive science explorations, 11 videos, and 26 photos, there’s always more to discover. And when the story is over, there’s fun mini-games to play. Among its many awards, this app has won an Editor’s Choice Award from Children’s Technology Review and a National Parenting Publication Award.

Ages 6 and up

$3.99 for iPad

Shape Gurus introduces your preschooler the world of shapes and colors through a fun, interactive story made up of a series of puzzle games. She’ll learn to match shapes and colors, classify different shapes, sort shapes, and other important skills in this brightly colored app that’s easy for preschoolers to play on their own.

Ages 2 and up

$1.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Ever heard “when am I ever going to use this in real life?” while your kid does his math homework? Motion Math: Pizza! Is one of the best apps for kids out there to teach practical, real-world math and economics skills. In this Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice app that puts your child in charge of a pizzeria, your child will have to buy ingredients, design his pizzas, and set his prices, all of which involve both math and strategy skills. Who’s offering the best deal on cheese? What toppings do customers want most? The math skills become more challenging as your child progresses, so the game never gets boring.

Ages 8 and up

$11.99 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

If you have a young child just starting school, you’re likely very familiar with sight words — those words she’s supposed to know just by sight, without sounding them out. Designed with the English Common Core State Standards in mind, this app helps expose your child to these key words and makes studying and committing them to memory fun. The app received a Parent’s Choice Silver Award and includes sight words for children in pre-K to grade 3.

Ages 4 and up

$2.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Monkey and his jungle pals introduce your child to the core concepts behind reading, phonics, and spelling in this fun-filled adventure. The game automatically adjusts the difficulty level as your child learns, so the app will grow with him. And he’ll love getting to add frogs, butterflies, and chameleons to his reward terrarium when he wins.

Ages 3 and up

$1.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Let your child’s imagination run wild in Hoopa City 2, where she can build her own city from the ground up. Will she build a spiraling metropolis filled with skyscrapers or a relaxing beach resort? With different materials to combine to create new buildings, the possibilities are endless. And once she’s built her city, she can explore each building with a variety of fun characters.

Ages 6 and up

$3.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

DragonBox Algebra 5+ introduces basic algebraic concepts to children as young as five. As players try to isolate the DragonBox on one side of the game board, they learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills required to isolate a variable on one side of an equation and “solve for x.” DragonBox also offers an Algebra 12+ app for older children.

Ages 5 and up

$4.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Stack the States 2, like its predecessor, helps your school-aged child brush up on U.S. geography. He’ll have to build a stack of U.S. states by correctly answering questions about capitals, cities, flags, state shapes, landmarks, and more. Stack your states up to the checkered line to win!

Ages 9 and up
$2.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Melody Jams puts your preschooler in charge of her own rock band! She can choose from a variety of musicians on different instruments and help them create different songs in this fun, outer-space concert with a rocking beat.

Ages 4 & up
$3.99 for iPhone and iPad

Join Ansel, an inquisitive alien, and Clair, a brilliant robot, in their adventures through the Nile Valley, Sahara Desert, and Serengeti Plains. Kids learn about geography, science, history, reading, and vocabulary and are rewarded with virtual photos to arrange in a Travel Log. The app was one of Dr. Toy’s Top 10 Tech Products of 2011 and earned five stars from TeachersWithApps.com.

Ages 8 & up
$4.99 for iPad

This adorable game helps toddlers learn farm animals and the sounds they make. There’s someone mooing in the barn — tap the barn to see who it is! It’s available in multiple languages, and on the iOS version, you can even record your own voice reciting the names of the animals as an extra surprise for your little one.

Ages 2 & up
$1.99 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android

Your little one can join Harvey and his puppy pals in a series of interactive activities that introduce the concepts of numbers, shape recognition, matching, and music. Toddlers and preschoolers will love playing fetch with Stella the pug, playing the barking puppy piano, and winning yummy treats to feed their puppy friends!

Ages 2 & up
$2.99 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android

This top-rated flashcard app can help your child master just about any subject he’s studying. Kids can add anything from foreign language vocabulary to famous paintings to the customizable flashcards. It’s a must-have for visual learners and anyone with a tricky test coming up.

Ages 12 & up
$3.99 for Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch