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Parents Talk: There's An App For That

Which apps are you using to help you teach your child at home?

 

Before school started my 6-year-old bought an iPod Touch and while I initially didn't see much purpose for it besides music and a few games, he proved me wrong.

While he quickly fell in love with making videos that proved to be more than mindless electronic activity, I was also happy to find some apps thanks to the advice of friends, that were not only entertaining for him but also educational.

I was soon downloading apps for him to use to practice his spelling words [Spelling City]  or work on math facts [Rocket Math] or even just review basic letters and numbers. [123 Color]

I quickly learned that there is no limit when it comes to educational apps for our kids and that the learning apps can also be fun.

St. Michael Catholic School second-graders use iPod touches in the classroom and here are some of the app's they use and Technology Specialist Amy Huberty recommends:

  • My Math Flash Cards
  • Math Kingdom
  • Basic Math
  • Addition Coach
  • Spelling City
  • Kids Clock
  • Counting Coins
  • Everyday Math Apps

Technology continues to change leaps and bounds but I think if we do our homework, we can always find ways to use it to our advantage and help our kids use it in more than a "mindless" way.

Do you use certain websites or apps with your kids? What ones do you recommend or have you had a good experience with? Tell us in the comments.

Related Topics: Apps, Parents Talk, and apps for kids

Chris Buckley

5:27 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Khan academy app is a great resource for kids of all ages, but it is admittedly less "fun" than those mentioned. Our kids teachers will use the lectures to reinforce topics that the class is having a hard time wrapping their minds around. It consists of straightforward lectures, and often teaches topics in a slightly different way.

As an added plus, the higher level stuff can be interested for the parents too. I was able to fill in quite a few gaps in my world history knowledge.

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Kevira Voegele

5:31 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Hey Chris, I haven't seen that app. Is everything on it recorded classroom lectures? And are the lectures on every subject?

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rob_h78

6:11 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012

I second the Khan Academy - it is a fantastic site for Math and many other topics.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

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Flavius Saracut

10:14 am on Thursday, October 4, 2012

I also did a post about educational apps for kids, for more examples please see:

http://blog.mobiversal.com/educational-apps-for-kids.html

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Kevira Voegele

10:20 am on Thursday, October 4, 2012

That's great, Flavius. Thanks! I would download the painting ones for myself, if I had an iPad.

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