5 Amazing Apps That Help Kids Learn During the Pandemic

The seemingly never-ending pandemic has caused havoc in all facets of lives. Whether socializing, working, or learning, everything has changed post-pandemic. This also includes education.

As reported by UNICEF, worldwide, a staggering 1 billion children are at a risk of falling behind on their education owing to the COVID-19 school closures. Another independent study published in PNAS states that the learning loss owing to the pandemic is roughly equal to one-fifth of a school year!

As the world moves towards remote learning, you must make an active effort to ensure that your child receives the rich learning and development required for their age. Thankfully, there are multiple educational and fun apps available to facilitate distance learning.

Here are the top five amazing apps which might help your kids learn during the pandemic. Try them out and see which helps your child the most.

ABCmouse

To further enrich the ‘zoom learning’ experience, you can have your kids practice and revise concepts through the ABCmouse app. Never heard of it? Well, you might be familiar with its previous name – GoodHousekeeping!

The revamped app offers more than 800 lessons about various subjects, ranging from Mathematics to Language. Each subject features ten levels, increasing difficulty with every completed task. The lessons use puzzles, songs, games, and books to improve comprehension and retention.

For starters, to teach mathematics, the app uses virtual reward tickets that children can use to buy items within the app. This helps teach them the concept of addition, subtraction, and profit or loss better than theoretical learning.

So, if your child is between the ages of two and eight, you know which app to introduce him to. While the app charges a subscription fee, it does offer a free trial for a month.

Big Barn World

Sometimes, too much importance is placed on hard skills like mathematics and science. While those are surely important, soft skills like communication and self-confidence are just as needed to excel in life. And sadly, these are the skills that are most ignored during distance learning,

One soft skill that you can teach your child through an app is cooperation. And Big Barn World is an excellent social farming app for this. Looking at any AirG product review, you might notice that this game is ranked very highly. This is because of the educational and fun nature of the app!

This free app allows players to engage in social farming, whereby they must take care and grow different types of crops and then sell them off in hopes of earning a profit. They can then reinvest this profit to purchase new seeds or expand their land. This gameplay can help teach children the concept of revenue and buying and selling.

The skill of cooperation is taught in the game by the constant need to negotiate and form deals with other live players for mutual benefit. Additionally, since the crops take their sweet time to grow, it also teaches players the art of patience.

Hopscotch

No, this is not the outdoor game you grew up playing! In today’s age, Hopscotch is an app that introduces children to the world of programming and coding. We know what you are thinking – isn’t that too advanced for children? It turns out it is not!

According to a survey conducted by CodeWizardHQ, a lot of parents consider coding to be a crucial skill. In fact, a whopping 77 percent of the respondents wished that they had learned the skill during their education.

There are various benefits to learning to code as well. It helps improve problem-solving, computational thinking, and creativity, to name a few skills!

Hopscotch is an app that helps children between the ages of nine and eleven learn this skill. The app can teach children how software is made, how they can animate their drawings, or how they can make fully functioning chatbots.

A basic version of the app is available for free. However, there are various premium items available within the app. You can begin by using the free basic version and see if your child needs these add-ons. Only add those which are fruitful for the learning experience.

Kids Brain Trainer

Going beyond what is taught already in a traditional classroom really helps make a difference in a child’s learning. For example, even if you don’t use an app for it, the chances are that your child is learning about the conventional concepts of science, language, and mathematics via remote learning.

But, to combat the learning loss that is caused by distance and lack of physical presence, you need to use supplementary apps that complement their learning curve. One such app is Kids Brain Trainer. This app uses various activities to boost cognitive and motor skills in young children.

For starters, a mere engaging activity of matching a given image with its right shadow can help in improving cognitive functions and spatial awareness among children. There are over 140 other similar activities in Kids Brain Trainer, each targeting a given skill, ranging from vocabulary development to memory.

Depending on what area you think your child needs improvement on, pick a series of activities and voila, let the brain training begin!

Khan Academy

Last but definitely not least, one free app that is ideal for students of all ages is Khan Academy.

 Its popularity is not due to the pandemic either. Instead, even before COVID-19, students worldwide would take help from the online platform to understand concepts that seemed too difficult in class.

The award-winning app features engaging lessons on virtually every topic for children aged four and above, including reading, problem-solving, mathematics, writing, etc. The app uses traditional simplified lessons as well as games to clarify concepts. This helps in boosting creativity and comprehension.

Unlike other self-learning platforms, the best thing about Khan Academy is that the app allows students to learn at their own pace. There are no timed lectures. Instead, one can set his goal as per his liking and competence.

The addition of fun characters as part of educational games further makes the app excellent for teaching young children. Every aspect of the app is free for all.

Ending Remarks

Each in their own way, these five apps play a pivotal role in boosting learning during the pandemic. You can choose to introduce all of them to your child. Or, see what aspects they need help in most and select an app that best caters to it.

Regardless of which of these apps you choose, make sure that you provide your little one with a thriving environment that is just as enriching (if not more) for an optimum learning experience.

 Remember, the early years of your life shape your future. Just because the world witnessed a curveball since 2020 doesn’t mean we can put the development of our children at risk!

Play your role and let the educators take care of the rest. Do let us know by commenting below which apps worked best for your child.