We know, we know! You think your kids spend too much time on “the smart phones.” You think the kids are going to go blind because they seem to have their little eyes and noses pressed up against “the smart phone” screen all the time. You think they may grow two extra thumbs because of how much texting and snap-chatting goes on. Relaaaaaax, Mom and Dad. Allow them to use their smart phones for good and they may surprise you!
Did you know
that some group of mad scientists, somewhere on this planet, created apps that
are…GULP!...educational? Come to terms
with that for a moment. There are apps
to help your child improve their spelling, time management, quiz scores, learn
a language, take notes and more.
What has the
world come to? Remember when we had to
use a paper and pen to take notes as the teacher spoke...all the while trying
to understand what in the name of Zeus the teacher was writing on the board or
overhead projector. …I think I may have
dated myself just then. Oh, well!
The point is,
there are apps that can help school age children achieve academic success. Family & MWR has done the hard research
and found five apps that may be beneficial for students in each school level:
elementary school, middle school, and high school. We hope you and your crew find one or two
helpful.
Elementary School
1. Barefoot
World Atlas
Puts the world at your children’s fingertips! With this
incredible app, anyone can fly around the magical, interactive 3D globe and
discover the rich wonders of our planet.
The best dictionary available for all English language learners,
include native English speakers.
3. Grammar Pop
A great way for kids to learn parts of speech. Match words
with parts-of-speech to pop clouds and progress from nouns and verbs to gerunds
and participles.
4. Hungry Fish
Students can practice mental addition and subtraction by
feeding the fish. The fish are hungry
for numbers. Keep feeding the fish answers to math problems to win a level and
unlock new colors and fins.
5. Spelling City
Spelling City is a fun way to learn spelling and vocabulary
words by playing engaging games using any word list.
Middle School
1. Sail Through
Math
A fun and exciting way to practice and reinforce math
skills. Users face mounting obstacles and surprising hazards as they navigate
through Math Facts, Algebra, Number Sense, and Rational Numbers.
2. iTooch
Language Arts
More than 1,590 exercises provide a new and fun way of
practicing and learning Language Arts for all middle school grades (even
though the app art says “5th”, there are apps for all grades).
3. Frontier
Heroes
Explore five exciting eras of American history through
dozens of mini-games and experience what it was like to expand the boundaries
of the American frontier.
4. Wonder Box
This app inspires curiosity and creative thinking while
exploring and learning about science, geography, music and design.
5. Science 360
Access to engaging science, engineering images, and video
from around the globe and a news feed featuring breaking science. Content is
either produced by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) or gathered from
scientists, colleges and universities.
Honorable Mention for elementary school
and middle school students.
Every child can learn how to trace and write cursive through
a fun app that maintains motivation. The
app is fully customizable to suit every child's needs. Kids can write letters and words, and you can
add your own words with audio.
High School
1. Talkboard
This app is useful for any
collaboration work because students can share whiteboard screens and work
together effectively.
2. 30/30
This task-managing app actually helps
with time management. For maximum
productivity, it gives students 30 minutes for work and 30 minutes for break. It is easy to set up and sends helpful
reminders to keep you on task towards your goal.
3. Quizlet
A great study tool with simple yet
effective features that help with memorization.
4. Notability
The absolute BEST note-taking app with a
great and intuitive user-interface.
5. Google Drive
This is a great way to keep documents,
from text files to presentations, easily accessible and organized for class.
Parents, it’s time to realize that the
smart phone isn’t going away. Our
children’s obsession with said smart phone isn’t going away…and it only gets
worse with teens. Their whole world is
one huge digital matrix. I went to a
career day at my son’s school and noticed the teachers tapping their white
boards (not chalk boards) to get video and power point presentations to appear
on the board. On a school supplies list,
they asked for the students to have a USB drive. School lessons and notes are now filed on
classroom pages found on the schools’ website and children have to print the
lessons at home. They even use Power Point presentations to teach lessons. It’s a whole new world
of education out there. Most of that
world is now digital.
So, in the words of a very wise wabbit,
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!”
Please note that these apps were found
in the Apple app store. However, most
apps can also be found in droid platform app stores. Be advised that some apps are just for use on
iPads (or tablets) and some may cost to download (though most of the ones
featured are free).
If you or your student has had success
with an app not mentioned, please leave a review of the app in the comments
below. Other parents and students will
appreciate the info.
