Besides our normal parenting duties, we’re now asked to be teachers. We’ve already got a lot on our plate and are doing the best we can to keep our heads above the water. The added stress of finding curriculum or staying in touch with teachers is a challenge. In this post, I’ve listed 25 apps that can assist you with teaching or ways to stay in touch with your child’s school. Read it all the way through because I bet there’s at least one resource you have not heard of that could provide you with help.
ABC Mouse
ABC Mouse is for younger kids and teaches children fun ways to learn math, reading, and science. This is a nice app if you want to teach younger kids, but have older kids that also need your help. ABC Mouse can teach and entertain the little ones and give you the separation to teach the older kids.
Adventure Academy
Adventure Academy provides students a fun way to learn a variety of subjects. My favorite way to use Adventure Academy with my kids is by using the app to study history and maps. The app pulls my kids into the lessons by use of comic book style imagery and animation.
Amazon Free Time Unlimited
Amazon offers kids thousands of books they can read on a tablet or phone. Since we can’t get to the library or a bookstore, this is a nice way to increase our reading options. For younger kids, there are videos available.
Barefoot World Atlas
In doing research for this post, I came across Barefoot World Atlas and fell in love with the app. The app provides students with detailed information about a location and the culture. I’ll be using this one long past the homeschooling period and will add to our travel plans.
Brainly is a peer-to-peer homework assistance app that provides students with answers to questions they might have. Think Quora, but for homeschool. If a student has a question, they type the question in a subject category and will receive an answer.
Brilliant – Solve, Learn, Grow
Brilliant covers math and science for students who enjoy a more in-depth study. My 2nd grader loves science and wants to be a scientist when he grows up. He enjoys looking at the videos and trying to figure out complex problems. I use this site as additional learning and not as a tutorial, even though you can walk through how to solve a problem.
ClassDojo
Chances are, if you have a child in public school, you are familiar with ClassDojo. Classdojo is a quick and easy-to-use app that keeps your student and their teacher connected. Teachers can post assignments, send messages, and send links. Throughout the school year, I stayed in touch with my children’s teachers. And now, the teachers post updates throughout the day what my kids need to study. If I have a question, Dojo is my first option to use when I need to contact a teacher.
Duolingo
We started using Duolingo for our international travels and moved it into our homeschool curriculum. Now that we’re back to teaching our kids at home and we have two dual language students, Duolingo has helped us reinforce what they have learned in school. There are many languages students can choose from.
Explain Everything Whiteboard
Explain Everything is a tool mainly for teachers and for students that are doing a presentation. Also, for bloggers who are presenting at a conference. Students can create a presentation by drawing on a tablet and having it come to life with pictures, graphs, and stories both written and from the web.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a great way for students to stay in touch with their teachers. Students can record themselves asking a question, read an essay, or give a short presentation to their class or teacher. Flipgrid is about community and sharing within your community or a larger public one.
Get Epic – Kids Books and Videos
Epic has over 40,000 books, games, and videos for your child to read, study, and play. The students can pick a book and either read it themselves or use the audio version and the story is read to them.
Google Classroom
Chances are, you are already familiar with Google Classroom. All four of my kids are using it to keep in touch with their teachers and class. The teachers post the schoolwork needed for the day and after my kids accomplish the task, submit their work. Often, I use my camera phone to take a photo of the work and submit their schoolwork that way.
Hopscotch – Programming for Kids
If you have a kid that’s into coding or wanting to learn how to code, Hopscotch is a nice app to get the kids started. Students can create games and publish them for their friends to play.
Hungry Caterpillar Play School
Eric Carle’s books assist Pre-K students with learning letters, reading, and counting.
Kahoot! – Play and Create Quizzes
Kahoot assists parents and teachers by creating quizzes in a fun way. Students can interact with other kids in their class through Skype or Google Classroom. If you’re studying in a car, Kahoot is a great way to put the finishing touches on a subject the student has been studying. If you have little kids and your trying to teach older kids, the younger ones can feel involved by taking quizzes and playing games.
Khan Academy
Back in my homeschooling days, Khan Academy was a huge help in teaching my kids math. Like so many other parents, I have no problem doing the math in my head, but explaining it step by step is a challenge. Khan Academy explains each step. Other subjects are taught as well, but Khan Academy is the go-to spot for math in my house.
Nearpod
What makes Nearpod stand out for me is the use of VR in their lessons. For example, a student can study storytelling and then be able to look around and imagine what is being said between characters and implement that into their schoolwork. VR can also be used for the arts, science, math and history. One history lesson covers Civil Rights and kids can use VR technology to witness speeches interactively. There are other lessons taught in more online traditional ways.
News-O-Matic: Reading for kids
We are living through a difficult time and we debate within ourselves how much we should share the news with our children. News-O-Matic provides kids with news global news in an age appropriate way. I have always believed what’s going on around the world should be part of a curriculum and News-O-Matic is a great resource for parents like me.
Photomath
Do you have older kids and are dumbfounded when they ask for your help to explain a math problem? Photomath assists by breaking down a problem and explaining it. As the name is self-explanatory, a student can take a photo of the problem and Photomath will provide and explain the answer.
PBS Kids Video
I’ve been a dad for a long time now and PBS kids have been a resource I’ve used throughout my parenting life. PBS Kids offers children age-appropriate books, videos, and games.
Quizlet
Quizlet has brought old school flashcards into today’s techno lifestyle. Almost every subject is covered by Quizlet. Our favorite use is for Spanish lessons. The app displays a picture or a word on a virtual card, and before the student “flips” the card, they guess to see if they know what it is.
Scribble Together Whiteboard
Students can work together remotely by writing on their iPads. This is great for presentations and tutoring.
Seesaw Class
Seesaw is an app that allows kids to stay in touch with their teachers and submit their school work and received news and assignments.
Stack the States
Students (and adults) can learn interesting facts and geography by playing a variety of games.
TinyTap – Kids Learning Games
TinyTap provides students fun games to play while learning math, science, languages, and a wide variety of other subjects.
Tynker: Coding for kids
Tynker teaches kids how to code and has classes from beginners to advanced. If you have a child that is interested in coding, Tynker is a great app to start with.
Those are my apps of choice. What are some of your go-to apps?
Disclaimer: I have partnered with Apple on this post. The list and words are my own.
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This is very useful! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you.