Find some quick inspiration from some of the best educational apps for early year children to senior school students.
We’ve assembled a selection of 12 fab apps for you to introduce to your family. From our favourite book turned app, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, to useful maths and music apps to a homework app – there is something for everyone.
Early Years – play based learning
Endless Reader – Free with in-app purchases
This app introduces “sight words”, the most commonly used words in children’s books. Kids need to recognise these words by sight in order to achieve reading fluency.
Kids will have a blast learning sight words and their context and usage with the adorable Endless monsters. Each word features an interactive word puzzle with letters that come alive. Other great apps from the team at ORIGINATOR include Endless Numbers and Endless Wordplay.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – A$4.49
This app is designed to spark your child’s creative exploration, cultivate imaginative thinking and encourage artistic expression. Your little ones will love exploring and experimenting with shape, colour and texture, inspired by the creator of the world’s favourite caterpillar.
Toca Band – A$4.99
With this app you can play together with your kids and experiment with sounds, beats and rhythms in lots of fun ways. Choose from 16 different cool characters – each with their own unique quirky sound and musical rhythms. Put your band members on stage to get the music started – then move them around and see what happens
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy – A$7.99
This app is an interactive book that lets kids run fingers over the text to hear the story and touch any word to hear and see it spoken and spelt. You can even colour in pages of the story and record your own voice. Hear the barking dogs and the ferocious yowl of Scarface Claw, all part of the interactive experience, giving children and parents’ hours of fun. This is not only a marvellous story, but a superb aid for early learning and literacy development.
Primary School
Carmen Sanediego Returns – A$5.99
This app is a global spy game where kids they learn geography and problem solving while chasing international criminal Carmen Sandiego. Kids learn about geography as they travel the world, decipher clues and capture the elusive villains in adrenaline-filled missions.
Quick Maths Pack – A$5.99
This app bundle contains four apps from the award-winning Quick Maths series — Arithmetic & Times Table, Fractions, Maths+, Clocks – Telling Time. With a focus on mathematical fluency, the “Quick” series is a perfect learning tool for those still developing their arithmetic skills, and an excellent practice tool for those needing a refresher.
Monster Chords – Free
This app is a new and one-of-a-kind way to learn the guitar. This app makes learning every chord a fun challenge, and it removes the tedium that can come with music learning by making it a game! Perfect for beginners of all ages, all you need is a guitar.
Star Walk 2 – A$4.49
This app is a tool for learning the exact position of stars, planets, constellations, comets, ISS, satellites, star clusters, nebulae and meteor showers in the night sky.
Secondary School
Swift Playgrounds – Free
This app is a revolutionary new app for iPad that makes it fun to learn and experiment with code. You solve interactive puzzles in the guided “Learn to Code” lessons to master the basics of coding, while additional challenges let you explore code and create programs that are engaging and unique.
The Homework App – Free
This app is perfect for students who want to get organised with features designed to ensure you never forget your homework again. Featuring an in-app calendar so you can see your tasks on a daily, monthly or yearly basis.
Mathspace – Free
This app is an online Maths textbook, workbook and mark book, covering the Australian Curriculum 5-12. Featuring a bank of over 30,000 interactive questions covering everything from addition to algebra, geometry to graphing, probability to statistics.
Duolingo – Free with in-app purchases
This app helps you learn another language with engaging mini-games that test your reading, writing and speaking skills. Languages include: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and English.