Top 10 Educational iPad Apps for Kids
Considering an iPad and interested in what kind of educational content is out there for kids? Here are some of the best and most popular apps – which, when taken as a whole, present a compelling case for the role of the device as an educational tool. Let us know what other apps your kids love in the comments — there’s a lot of great content out there, and not all of it ends up at the top of the App Store listings. But here are some of the apps that did…
Top Educational Kids iPad Apps in the App Store
Star Walk is one of those special apps that delivers upon the iPad’s promise of being a “magical” device. You may in fact have already seen this one — it won the Apple Design Awards in 2010 and was featured among the best iPhone apps of 2009.
The iPad version continues to provide great astronomical information — but the real “wow’ of this app is the fact that it delivers a full screen augmented reality view of the heavens that rotates as you move your iPad around — turning it into a super-powered virtual telescope.
Strongly recommended both for experienced star gazers and the youngest observers of the heavens. (Although the littlest Gallileo wannabes may need a bit of help..) You can get it from the App Store here.
Honorable Mention: If you’re looking for other fantastic astronomy apps, both Mars Globe HD and Solar Walk 3D Solar System are great.
Fish School HD continues Duck Duck Moose’s strong tradition of producing quality kids educational apps for the iOS platform. Like their previous iPhone mega-hits, Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider, Fish School HD features strong animations that can help engage kids in a learning experience. This app features a dynamic school of fish that swims into place to display letters, numbers and shapes — and, like a well-trained aquatic marching band, the fish are perfectly synced with the accompanying music. Fish School HD guides kids through different learning modes and periodically rewards them with free play with the fish. If you’re looking to help kids learn letters, numbers, and shapes, it’s hard to go wrong with this one.
You can get it from the App Store here.
Math Bingo has been one of the hottest kids apps in recent weeks and has been extensively featured by Apple — but in case you missed it, Math Bingo is wonderfully focused on a simple concept — you answer math problems to fill spots on a bingo board. This drill-style learning is complemented by adorable little “bingo bugs” that you place on your board as you correctly answer problems. Once you win a round you are awarded a bingo bug to keep and then given the chance to play with it for a bit — not only by touching it, but also by moving your iPad around and triggering the accelerometer. Great fun and a great reward for learning. My three year old isn’t quite ready for this yet, but apps like this one and Math Ninja are driving her curiosity around this whole “math” thing. Last night she spent an hour with me asking questions like what is 3+4 and 5+2 and 1+4 and on and on.. Anything that engages my daughter in learning like that is a tool I want in her life. If you’re interested you can get it from the App Store here.
Full disclosure here – Build A Zoo is our app, and we’re proud of it – but you don’t have to take our word for the fact that it is a great learning app for the iPad – Apple named it a “New & Notable” education app just the day after it was released. Build A Zoo features six different learning games that kids can play to earn animals for their zoo. The included games help develop a nice balance of skills including spelling, memory, matching, as well as timing and fine motor skills. Interested in seeing what your kids think? We’ve got some promo codes for free copies of the app that we’d be happy to share with you, our loyal readers — just let us know in the comments..We’re all out of promo codes for the current version, but you can still get it from the App Store here.
There’s absolutely no doubting the fact that Cookie Doodle is an incredibly engaging app. Kids love to play house – and this app lets them bake and decorate cookies without the mess. Trust us – if your kids like baking real cookies, they’ll love this too. We have seen some comments in user reviews that this app is void of educational content — but we disagree. If you’re looking for apps to help your kids get a jumpstart on reading, writing and arithmetic, than this probably isn’t the best app for you. But if you believe the process of going through a self-guided yet structured creative exercise can help your child learn to think, than this is probably an excellent app to add to your child’s collection. Just be prepared to help eat the virtual cookies.. You can get it from the App Store here.
Math Board is a classic – one of those apps that validates our claim that mobile devices are the modern chalkboard. This app takes that idea quite literally – math problems appear and you have the ability to work them out by hand on the virtual chalkboard. The app features deep options for customizing both the type of problems you want to answer and the overall quiz. Further it also stores your quiz results and displays them in an easy to see dashboard. Perhaps the best part of this app is it’s ability to deliver value across a wide range of learning levels. Depending upon the child, it’s easy to see this being useful as a regular learning tool for kids from as young as 4 to as old as 13 — and not many apps can make that claim.
You can get it from the App Store here.
Color & Draw is a modern coloring book. It includes a wide variety of line drawings that kids can color in, as well as stickers that can be added to drawings, and the ability to import images and draw on them. The app’s user interface is simple and clean and easy for little kids to figure out — meaning you don’t have to fight with the technology at all and can instead get straight to the fun of coloring. Color & Draw also makes it easy for you to save and share images — meaning that even if junior’s next masterpiece doesn’t end up on on gramma’s fridge, it may end up on her desktop. Sound like fun?
You can get it from the App Store here.
The Cat in the Hat has always been a classic, and it’s only gotten better on the iPad. The iPad version will read to you, or let you read and explore the story yourself along the way. Really, the magic here is the story – but the occasional convenience of having the book read itself and the fun of being able to interact with story elements gives this version a freshness beyond any paper copy.
You can get it from the App Store here.
123 World Geography 
is both a guided coloring exercise and a great introduction to geography. It’s best explained by watching the demo built into the app, but the essence of it is that you get to color in a wide range of maps. Once you’ve finished coloring in your map, you can also easily save or share your colorful cartography with friends. A great app for the kids in the car on any road trip.
You can get it from the App Store here.
Super Why is a favorite of many kids from the PBS Kids series. Their app is true to the series – with classic characters 
each hosting their own game, including sentence completion, rhyming, spelling and a letter hunt. The visual look of this is obviously top-notch and the learning games are of obvious educational value. Some reader reviews seem to indicate that there’s been some instability with this app – but I’m happy to say that I’ve not been able to crash my iPad with it. Which is lucky, because our kids love it.
This list is based on a mix of our personal take and iTunes App Store data as of early June ’10. We’re confident all of these are truly great iPad apps for kids — but we’re not convinced our list is completely comprehensive. Although the situation has improved greatly since we put together our list of Top 20 Kids Educational Apps for the iPhone, the nature of the App Store still makes it easy for some great apps to slip through the cracks and makes it even harder for them to ever get rediscovered. On that note – are your kids using any great educational iPad apps that you love that you don’t see on this list?
Let us know — we’d love to feature some reader favorites here.
Do share.
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If you are still giving out codes for your build a zoo game, i would really appreciate it. And thank you for this list!
Are you still giving out promo codes for build a zoo app? I would love to try it!
Could I please get the promo code for Build a Zoo app ? Thank you!
could I please get the promo code for Build a Zoo? Thanks!
If your still giving them out, I would love a promo code for your build a zoo app. My 3 kids would love it!
I would like to get a promo code for Build A Zoo please. Thanks in advance!
Hi there can I get the promo code for the zoo game please
Thanks
Could I please have the promo code (Build a Zoo) as well, if it’s not too late?
our family loves the iPad but my 3 girls are always arguing over it so we try and find Apps everyone can enjoy- where the older one isn’t saying “this is babyish” but not too hard for the littlest one (K)…they share: SMARTYSHORTZ 1ST, MONTESSORI CROSSWORDS AND MATHGIRL
May I have a promo code for build a Zoo. My son has a learning disability and the IPAD APPs help him so much. I am amazed how much he learns for it. Thank you
Can I get the promo code for build a zoo???
If you have any of those promo codes left for Build A Zoo I would love to get one for my kids. I’m also putting together a presentation for an educator’s conference where I’ll be demoing some of the best educational apps I can find for them as well.
I’m the computer specialist at a school for students with autism, and would very much like to get a promo code for Build A Zoo. Thanks
Please send me the promo code for the zoo game. Thanks.
Can I get the promo code please. I promise to feedback.
Would love a promo code for your Zoo game app. Sounds perfect for our 5-year-old!
I would also like to add http://sharkfuel.com/kinderhangman.html to this list of these educational iPhone apps for children. I personally used this application to prepare my children for school.
Montessorium Intro to Letters is an amazing app that uses iPad tech to its fullest. It is sleek and beautiful, and an example of how ipad will tranform education. My son begs to use the iPad to play.
We are happy to give codes out as well for our eco-educational app Let’s Go Chipper. Love the comments and reviews here.
I just found out that I am getting an iPad to test with students. I would love a promo code for your App if you are still giving them out! Thanks!
May I get a promo code please? Would love to use with my students!
Could you please send the promo code for Build a Zoo? Thanks so much for your great suggestions~
I have tried a few of these and this is a great list! Looking forward to researching the others. I really like Math Bingo and Teach Me Kindergarten. I’d love a promo code for Build a Zoo!
Punflay is back with a new iPad app for kids called Rhymes for tots. Check out http://punflay.com/rhymes-for-tots.html
Hey, thanks for the list,
You Should definitely check out Qbox for ipad, Qbox is a challenging brain teaser that combines the magic of wisdom quotes in an interactive word game. Its educational and fun
Are you still offering promo codes for the Build A Zoo? I would really like to try it.
Are you still offering the promo codes for the Build A Zoo? I would really like to try it.
Here is a new kids/education game that teaches pre-reading skills, letter sound recognition, and hand writing.
ABCs Letter Rip!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abcs-letter-rip/id401457182?mt=8
Hello, could you send me a promo code for your zoo game please.
Many thanks
I wrote this app because my son loves playing with my iPhone, and I need him to do his homework. So I built an app where he can study, but he thinks he is playing. Homework for iPhone helps kids learn spelling. Parents, or kids, enter spelling lists, including recording the words. Kids can practice or take test by listening to the word and spelling it. Kids love to create their own lists because they like to hear their recorded voices. Please let me know what you think of my app.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/homework-for-iphone/id399086922?mt=8
Hello, I have a grandson who had a stroke at birth. He also has CP. Where can I obtain a full list of your children’s educational software?
Thanks very much.
Sharron – This is a great list of apps for kids with special needs: http://momswithapps.com/apps-for-special-needs/
The list is put together by a group of parent/developers called Moms With Apps, some of whom are also the parents of kids with special needs. Highly recommended.
would love codes for let’s go chipper and buildazoo! Thanks! Need more educational apps!
cool stuff, thank you!
Great List! Thanks! We’re prepping our daughter’s new iPad for Christmas and making sure she has all of them… Would love the promo code for build a zoo if you get the chance. Thanks!
Great reviews – would love the promo code for the build-a-zoo app.
Thanks for all the requests for promo codes for Build A Zoo!
We only have a handful of promo codes remaining for the current version of Build A Zoo, and unfortunately we don’t have enough to give to everyone that asked.
So, here’s what we’re going to do..we’ll post a code in the comments like this:
WAFT6AHY4MXL
If you use this code, just leave a quick comment confirming that you used it and letting us know what you thought of Build A Zoo. When the code has been redeemed and a comment has been posted, we’ll make another code available, and so on until they’re all gone.
If this goes well, we will consider doing this with the remaining promo codes we have for all of our other apps as well.
Als0 – for those of you hoping for a promo code for Build A Zoo that aren’t able to snag one – fret not. We’ve got an update coming soon for the app (which means we’ll have more promo codes available) AND we’ll be releasing a free lite version of the app in coming weeks. Should be enough free educational fun to go around…
top 10 apps going good there are lots of reviews…… thats fantastic
I am a special education teacher for grades k-4. I have been selected to be part of a grant in my school system that brings the iPad and iPod Touch to children of various ages and abilities (students with special needs, i.e. learning disabilities, itellectually disabled, autism, etc.) to help enhance learning within the school setting and at home. My job is to “play” with this new technology and work with my students to see what works and doesn’t work. I saw on your webpage that you have a promo code for Build A Zoo. Is that promo code still available? Are there any other promo codes for the apps you have recommended?
Thank You for great article!
I would like to suggest to community We Search HD – great game for kids all ages.
http://agilescreensavers.com/index.php?page=ig_WeSearch
This game helps kids (not only) to improve their memory and fingers.
plays one against one to beet the record.
My kids (3 and
I find really must have game!
Just received an iPad for Christmas from my wife. I really don’t need it but was wanting to get one for my little girl. Any more promo codes for the Build a Zoo?
Thanks!
PA
Here is a great app to teach good habits to kids:
Link to iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/little-steps-to-good-habits/id411404110?mt=8
‘Little Steps to Good Habits’ is a storybook series with adorable characters that help your children learn some of the good and essential habits. If kids got to learn the habits (and they do), this is a good way to do it.
Features:
Four interactive stories with real life scenarios.
Stories that kids can relate to and learn.
Excellent use of colors and illustrations in HD (High Definition).
‘Read it to Me’ feature has voice that can tell story to kids.
Parents can record their own voice to teach.
We are setting up a review site that focuses on iPad Children’s Picture Books Apps.
http://digital-storytime.com/
its a good resource for parents.
Cool resource! Good luck with the site.
Downloaded your app ‘Build a Zoo’. Must confess…REALLY disappointed! The concept is good, however my child went through the 6 or so games in about 10 minutes and then that was about it. No levels or progression whatsoever. The only learning he did was how to push the red button quickly to win the turtle race, move the dolphin around to bounce the ball (please tell me where the educational value in either of those is) etc. I sure hope you’re giving out a LOT of promo codes because this is worth no money. (btw, I actually paid for it…big mistake!) I hope you’ll make big improvements to it and pass them on to those of us that took a chance and paid to download it.
My children love Didakto (http://www.didaktoapp.com). It offers a lot of variety.
Great site. Very cook, came to it after a search for the velveteen rabbit iPad book, and it looks like you guys have some good ideas and suggestions. I’ve got 6 year old twins that steal both my iPad and iPhone, so things like universal apps are a must have
If you happen to have any other codes available, I would happily accept and review for you!
If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to email me, I would be happy to provide advice, beta testing, etc!
Thanks!
Nick
I came across your site looking for other apps. The coolest think I’ve seen for educational apps for the Ipad.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi would love to try the build a zoo app too…are you still giving out the free trial codes? Thx for the list …i got most of the things on it
@Mark —
Thanks for the feedback. Very sorry to hear that you’re disappointed with Build A Zoo. Do you mind if I ask how old your child is?
As far as the educational value of Build A Zoo goes, we stand by it. Depending upon their age, interests, and development level, kids can learn lots from the different modules within the app. The Monkey Letter Scramble module teaches letters, words and basic spelling. The Bird Matching and the Elephant Mindreading games both teach matching skills. As far as the dolphin, turtle and polar bear modules go, we believe that these games help teach motor skills, which is just as real a skill as spelling or matching. I’ve watched my own kids learn from the app, so I know it can work. I’ve also paid a lot more for toys, books and apps that deliver less value (educational or otherwise..) for my kids.
One of our core beliefs is that kids only learn if they are engaged. Our aim is to produce apps that deliver learning powered by fun – and this approach means that our apps will include elements which, when considered in isolation, may not immediately strike you as educational. The intent of lighter, more “fun” elements like the Dolphin and Turtle games is to keep kids engaged in an overall experience that is of educational value, and insofar as this helps to power learning, we continue to believe that it’s a good thing.
Again, sorry to hear that you were disappointed in Build A Zoo and that you regret taking a chance and spending $1.99. For our part, we have in fact given away all of our promo codes for the app (Apple only gives us 50 per version) and we’ve also put in long hours developing other free educational kids content that we give away in the App Store.
Most of all, I’m sorry to hear that your child didn’t have a good experience with our app. Any specific suggestions you have on other apps that your child likes or features that you’d like to see in an update really are appreciated.
All the best..
Christopher