10 Best Educational Apps/ Platforms For Kids

Homeschooling kids is fun isn’t it?!!!-SAID NO ONE EVER!

While we admittedly have some good days here when the kids actually listen to me. making me feel I’m aceing Homeschool like Miss Honey, other days I’m frankly Miss Trunchbull and I’m starting to empathise with that b**** right now!

Unruly kids are a complete nightmare.

I’m a former teacher (granted it was a million years ago) and I’m also a mother who previously homeschooled my eldest son last year and successfully at that when he had 3 weeks at home before moving schools, I still struggle some days.

Teaching two kids with different educational and emotional needs can feel tricky and testing. Thank goodness for gin, oh and these 10 educational apps/platforms below that are making mine and their lives easier.

 

1. BBC’s Bitesize

BBC’s Bitesize is a free online study support resource for school-age children in the UK to help with learning, revision and homework. During lockdown, the site is sharing 3 new lessons every weekday with videos and activities and you can access their archive too. You simply select the year/age of your child (it caters from those between 5-15) then together with you or solo, they watch the videos and read the engaging supporting material. The lessons have been created with teachers and cover English, Maths, Science, Geography, Music and History. Brilliant bite size lessons that nourish your kids https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize.

 

2. Twinkl

This is a trusted site for teachers and parents spanning primary and secondary education. It offers planning and assesment materials as well as activities and crafts.

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/

 

3. Barefoot x BT x Computing At School FREE Toolkit

If you didn’t already know, Barefoot gives primary school teachers the tools they need to deliver the computing curriculum in engaging and relatable ways inspiring children to think, learn and thrive in a digital world, with their programme being used in 70% of UK schools. Now, together with BT and Computing At School, they’ve launched a FREE toolkit providing parents/carers with safe online activities so our kids can continue to develop their digital skills at home.

The toolkit aimed at 5-11 year olds, includes –

• 8x Learning Together Activities (activities based on teacher resources)
• 1x Mini Missions activity (grid of 30 activities from BCS)
• 3x Interactive Learning Games (with 3 more to follow)
• Weekly computing at home Facebook Live classes by Dr Jon Chippindall
• 1x Computational Thinking cheat sheet for parents, aligned to the national curriculum.

There are also offline resources including mini missions you can do around the house and printable assets too.

https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/parents/learning-at-home.html

 

4. Skyscanner Travel-Themed Activities

Skyscanner offers some help in the form of their ‘Kids Play Packs’.  Designed by their own in-house travel experts, you can find free activities to educate and inspire curiosity about the world. Designed to help busy parents with activities for kids between 5-10 years old, they include:

• Destination discovery quizzes
• Colouring in exercises
• Travel themed word searches.

https://www.skyscanner.net/media/skyscanner-play-packs.

 

5. YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids offer a more contained, and importantly safe platform for kids to learn and be entertained without the worry of stumbling on non age-appropriate. With educational and fun videos spanning alegebra to storytelling and science (the solar system videos are top-notch), my children don’t even feel like they’re learning when they use it.

https://youtube.com/kids/

 

6. DuoLingo

With over 300 million users, this free platform/ app is deemed as one of the best for learning a language. I’m using it to help my children learn Modern Greek (I’m British Greek) and also brush up on my French. Easy to use, it asks a series of questions to ascertain your standard so it can best suit your needs.

https://www.duolingo.com/

 

7. Free Maths Lessons with Carol Vorderman 

9. Spelling Shed

For children aged 5-11 this spelling app was created with Primary School teachers based on the National Curriculum. It is also suitable for dyslexic children using the Open Dyslexic font. You can play with friends and ‘beat your score’.

https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb

 

10. Night Zookeeper

A creative and safe writing community for kids, the platform improves spelling, grammar and writing skills with over 1000 learning games and activities. With inspiring prompts and story creation lessons, this will encourage and inspire creative kids everywhere.

https://www.nightzookeeper.com/en-gb