5 Amazing Educational Apps for Kids

As most parents know quite well, kids and mobile devices seem to go together as naturally as toast and marmalade. Even small toddlers can grasp the concept of using their mum’s smartphone to play games. While our kids certainly enjoy all sorts of activities on these devices, we mums and dads hope that our kids are using apps that will help them learn. Fortunately, there are a variety of fun and engaging apps that also are educational. For example, consider the following:

The Koala Brothers Turn 10!

If you don't already know, ‘The Koala Brothers’ is an animation series for pre-schoolers which is broadcast by CBeebies within the UK. Your little ones can follow the adventures of Frank and Buster, two cute and friendly koalas living in the Australian outback, whose mission in life is to help others. From their isolated homestead, they fly out on daily patrol in their yellow aeroplane, looking for anyone in need of help. The series shows the true value of friendship and caring for others and has sold to 150 territories worldwide, been translated into 31 languages and it has even been nominated for four children’s BAFTA awards.

The National Lobster Hatchery and an Afternoon on the Beach

While in Padstow recently we decided to head out and do something a little different. I'd had a look at the local attractions and came across the website for the National Lobster Hatchery. Somewhere that would not only shelter us from the wet weather but would be interesting and educational; teaching the Mini Mes about the importance of conserving marine life.

 I must admit I was quite excited to see tiny baby lobsters too!

Family Favourites - Apps

Many apps have educational benefits that most children don't even realise. Whether they involve spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination or numeracy, it might be worth downloading a few to your tablet for your little ones to enjoy. 

They can learn while having fun without even knowing it!

These are our family favourites...

Where's My Water

The main objective of this fun filled game from Disney is to provide Swampy, the cute little croc, with water for his shower while collecting ducks and hidden items on the way. It's a fairly simple game to play and you can remove the dirt with a swipe of your finger to help the fluid flow.

There is a second game (2) and also a Valentine's edition available where you can meet Allie and Cranky and play in sewer and beach settings too.

A great game for problem solving skills.

Burger Shop

You are in charge of your own restaurant and as the levels progress the game gets a lot harder with more food options available and more people to serve - ideal for tweens and even adults. You have to make a variety of savoury dishes, drinks, burgers, salads and ice creams and the quicker you do it the happier the customers are! 

Great for building hand eye co-ordination and learning about the importance of prioritising. 

Tilly and Friends

You can create up to four profiles for different family members to play this app which is based on the popular CBeebies TV series. Aimed at pre-schoolers there are different levels of difficulty and 32 mini games available in total. These range from word and image matching and finding the odd one out, to butterfly catching and simple sums.

It's very useful that Tilly verbally guides your child to make their selections which also helps to encourage individual play and build confidence. 

They can play with all their favourite characters including Pru, Tumpty, Doodle, Hector and Tiptoe.

Great for developing numeracy and phonetic skills.

Room on the Broom

Based on the picture book by Julia Donaldson this app has 8 activities which involve broom flying to gather letters and spell words, catching items that are being blown away in the wind and feeding a rather hungry dragon chips!

Suitable for children aged 3-7 this beautifully designed game will keep little ones engaged as they earn medals for each achievement. They can play with the Witch, Cat, Dog, Bird, Frog and Dragon from the story and there are no in-app purchases to worry about.

Great for literacy and creativity development.

Animaru

Animaru is really easy to navigate and play making it ideal for toddlers in particular that are just being introduced to technology. The app is filled with well loved zoo animals and there are three basic games to choose from; Puzzle, Find Me and Memory.

The pairs activity is good for playing with a parent and the puzzle game involves basic jigsaws to help develop hand-eye coordination.

Great for building memory and problem solving skills.

Minion Rush

A colourful and fast moving game featuring the most loved characters from the Despicable Me movies - Minions!

You must slide, jump and dodge obstacles by swiping left and right (and up and down) in a fantastic 3D world while trying to collect bananas to become Gru's star Minion. You can play against friends by connecting to social media networks too. It's good competitive fun.

Great for developing perception skills.

What are your favourite apps?

Rub-a-dub-dub... what's in your tub?

Apart from being time to clean up and rinse off all the food, paint and mud from the day, bathtimes can be fun and educational too. As the kids have got older (boohoo) I've found that the variety of toys suitbale for them in the bath is minimal. This is rather disappointing as it means they usually want to drag in dolls and action figures with them which aren't always good for a water and bubbles combo!

So I ask you, what is in your tub? What fab splash-worthy toys do your little ones enjoy? What games do you play in the tub that you could recommend to others?


What's in our tub

Firstly no bath is complete without a collection of ducks, surely? We got the small yellow ones in a hook-a-duck stall at the fair and they are great fun in the bath as they are magnetic and the kids have little fishing rods to gather them all up with. The pink one is from soap and glory and is more for me and my love of all things fluff, sparkles and glitter and anything else classed as girly!

Jamster has had the Imaginext Submarine for a good few years. It has slowly worked it's way from his room into the bathroom along with the deep sea divers that came with it. It's durable and it doesn't contain batteries so it seems to be ideal for him.

This collection of animals we use in part of a memory game we play. Originally from various Animal Hospital playsets, we line the animals up on the side of the bath, the kids look away and I remove one animal. They then guess which one it is. Simple but they seem to like it!




This is the most recent purchase - The Hello Kitty Bath Slider Playset. Minxy has just turned 8 and was moaning for ages some time that she had no bath toys so I searched her favourite character and found this tower of fun. It seems good quality although we had a few issues attaching it to the side of the bath (doesn't fit all tubs).


We also have tile crayons and foam letters too which are great for pratising spellings and playing hangman too.

Have you found it difficult to find bath toys that are suitable for older children?

What is your child's favourite bath time toy or activity?

I've added a linky below so if you have any bath time pics, games, educational fun or more you can add them below and I'll pop over for a nosey.