This morning as I was driving the kids to school it dawned on me that there are only 3 more weeks in this school year. I’m not entirely sure how the year flew by, but it definitely did. Summer vacation is just weeks away! My girls have lots of plans for the summer, but as a mom, my plans for the summer include sneaking in a little bit of education into my kids’ fun. Last summer I saw my oldest daughter regress in both reading and math after the summer break and I don’t want to find myself struggling to get her back on track when school starts again this fall.
Since my girls enjoy screen time, I downloaded a few educational apps on their iPad to keep them learning this summer. Best of all, they were all FREE! Here are a few of my favorites:
ABC Letter Tracing (iTunes): Intended for kids that are learning to write or practicing getting better at their writing ABC Letter Tracing allows kids to practice, practice, and practice some more. This app allows you to simply use your finger or get a stylus and trace every letter of the alphabet. I primarily downloaded this app for my younger daughter who will be entering kindergarten this fall, but my older daughter could certainly use the extra practice. This app also includes a monster mix and match!
Thomas & Friends Talk to You (iTunes/Google Play): Available for both Apple and Android devices, Thomas & Friends Talk to You is a great app for children to interact with the device as well as playing with some educational games is the app Thomas & Friends talk to you. This app allows the little ones to talk to and interact with Thomas The Train and all of his friends. This helps the kids to build up their communication skills while having fun, and they’ll never know they are learning! A friend of mine highly recommended this app, so I’m excited for my girls to give it a try.
Endless Reader (iTunes/Google Play): Endless Reader helps kids to learn to begin reading, but it also teaches them common sight words that they will see on a regular day to day basis. This helps them to learn what the words look like as well as what they mean. Each word includes a puzzle for them to solve to better understand the word!
The Wheels on the Bus (Google Play/iTunes): This fun, interactive music focused app revolves mostly around the nursery rhyme, “The Wheels on the Bus” but you can also create art in the digital coloring book. A really great feature of the app is that you can record and listen to your very own music using the “instruments” provided with the app!
Toca Doctor (iTunes): Toca Doctor is a really great app for teaching children all about the human body! This app allows them to act as the doctor, they get to examine the various body parts and then treat the patients based on their diagnosis. After playing around with this app myself, I definitely expect this one to be a favorite in my house.
Do you have a favorite education app for kindergartners or first graders? How do you keep the learning going during the summer months?
