Self-isolation is a difficult time. Especially if you have children and they think that you can do the work in about five minutes, and then you have to ride them like a horse, draw together or build forts out of LEGO. There is no time for this even remotely, and the temptation immediately arises to simply turn on cartoons for the child in the next room and plunge into blissful silence for at least half an hour. For such cases, we have collected 10 services that will not only entertain children, but also teach them new things.
Just don’t forget to take into account the recommendations of pediatricians’ Media and Children Communication Toolkit:
- You can let your child near the screen from 15 months.
- From 2 to 5 years old, a child can use a gadget for no more than an hour a day (this includes applications, games, and cartoons) and only when accompanied by a parent.
- There are no universal recommendations for children over 5 years old. But doctors advise not to “buy off” a child with a phone or tablet, and to make sure that gadgets do not replace other activities and communication. Therefore, it is worth turning off all screens a couple of hours before bed and monitoring the quality of the content.
Let's play
- Children's age: from 3 to 11 years.
- Platform: web.
- Cost: free.
A good selection of games and exercises for teaching counting and reading, developing logic, memory, and thinking. As well as coloring books, crosswords, puzzles, math puzzles and much more.
The tasks are voiced and accompanied by bright, understandable pictures. There is one significant drawback: exercises can only be selected by category, and not by age. The exception is children under 5 years old; there is a separate block for them.
“Let’s play” →
Smartphone games for preschoolers
The preschool education program provides for preparation for school, development of logical thinking and mastering counting skills. The gameplay is focused on familiarization with letters, numbers, and basic concepts of the surrounding world.
Letters: learning to read is fun!
- Developer: Vostraw
- Size - 57 MB
One of the best apps for teaching children to read. The developers used a combination of the most effective techniques today: Zaitsev’s technique, the sound-letter method and others. Words are divided into “warehouses” (analogous to syllables), the child sees both the whole word and the “warehouses” of which it consists.
All audio is voiced by a professional announcer. Of course, learning takes place in a playful way so that the child does not get bored. There are modes designed for a child to use independently: he just needs to click on a word, and it will open for listening in its entirety and “by word.”
Fixies
- Developer — DEVGAME KIDS
- Size - 70 MB
The heroes of the favorite animated series, Simka and Nolik, will introduce the preschooler to the outside world from the inside - they will talk about the operation of home appliances, teach them to recognize musical instruments by sound, teach them how to properly care for pets, and also introduce them to technical tools.
Consolidation of knowledge occurs in educational quests, guessing games, and fixatives. There are a huge number of applications with these heroes.
Semka
- Developer — Syomka Games
- Size - 4.2 MB
A universal game collection that includes activities for both the youngest (from 1 year old) and older children. All sections are grouped by age categories and types (riddles, group games, single games).
The application can not only occupy the child’s attention on the tablet, but will also become an assistant for educators, as it includes detailed descriptions of outdoor activities, creative sections such as origami, creating crafts, and conducting educational experiments.
Can work even without an Internet connection.
ABC for children
- Developer — Bini Bambini
- Size - 43 MB
The game product teaches children 3-5 years old the Russian and English alphabet, the concept of syllables, the basics of reading, and also develops fine manual motor skills.
The menu includes live letters, more than a hundred words, puzzles, constructors, and also has two modes of reading by letter or by syllable.
Math for kids
- Developer — RV AppStudios
- Size - 32 MB
What could be more interesting for a preschooler than playing while learning or learning while playing? The educational program includes simple counting, basic comparisons of numbers, puzzles and quizzes on addition, subtraction, and matching missing numbers.
The child will have to count not boring examples, but bright fruits, funny animals, toys, geometric figures.
Fairy tales and educational games for children
- Children's age: from 3 to 8 years.
- Platform: Android.
- Cost: 2 fairy tales and several games are free, the rest can be purchased for 33 rubles. Full access to all games and stories - 1,990 rubles.
This is a collection of interactive fairy tales, now there are 18 of them. The stories are mostly classic: “Teremok”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Snow Queen” and so on.
By going to the main menu, you can select a fairy tale, then decide whether the child will read it himself or whether the story will be voiced by announcers. Then a picture book will open in front of you, and the story will begin. Periodically, the book will come to life, show a small cartoon and ask the child to complete a couple of simple tasks: open the window of the house, straighten the curtains.
In addition to fairy tales, the application contains simple games: puzzles, coloring books. If you use the service regularly, you will receive bonus coins, which you can then use to buy new stories.
Download QR Code
Fairy tales and educational games for children and toddlers
Developer: Amaya Kids Play & Learn Ltd
Price: Free
What should a junior high school student play?
Primary school age is characterized by curiosity, as well as a thirst for new things, so a child of 7-9 years old will be interested in getting to know the world around us, as well as taking part in the adventures of the heroes of their favorite cartoons.
Safety on the road
- Developer – BabyBus Kids Games
- Size - 54 MB
A useful tutorial for children 6-8 years old will explain the basics of safe behavior on the road, teach how to behave in various situations on the street, role-playing possible scenes in tasks.
The knowledge invested in the game will become especially relevant during the summer holidays, when children have more free time.
Space Atlas
- Developer – Vito Technology
- Size - 87 MB
Give your child a virtual telescope on your smartphone with the game Space Atlas! Using the application, you can watch a star projection on real parts of the sky, see the sky of the past or future with a time machine, use augmented reality technology, get acquainted with planets, stars, satellites, and other space objects.
Masha and the Bear
- Developer — AppQuiz
- Size - 33 MB
The application contains educational and entertaining content that will be of interest to children of different ages. It includes language learning, drawing, puzzles, and musical games.
Additionally, there are sections for younger children, in which the child learns counting, basic calculations, and mastering geometric shapes together with the characters of the animated series.
Life9 useful mobile applications for children
Alexandra Savina
Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, including children's lives. Many people already know how to perform simple actions on the phone before they even learn to speak. You definitely shouldn’t be afraid of this, but should use it wisely. We're talking about nine apps for preschoolers that not only entertain, but also bring benefits - for example, they turn everyday tasks into games and help children prepare for school.
Lullaby for a baby
iOS: Free, Android: Free
As you can easily guess from the name, this application that plays lullabies will be useful for parents of very young children. In it you can adjust the noise level, above which a melody will play (for example, if a baby wakes up and starts crying), and turn on a night light screensaver. The creators of the application advise you to first activate the airplane mode on your phone so that an accidental call does not wake up the child, and also recommend not putting the smartphone in the crib.
The tunes are divided into several categories: classical music, English lullabies, white noise and French nursery rhymes. Some of them are available for free, but in order to unlock the rest and turn off advertising, you will have to pay extra (from 75 to 229 rubles). In addition, every day you can receive one of the melodies as a gift - to do this you need to leave a review. You can also add your own lullabies to the application: record your voice or import melodies from your smartphone’s library. The only negative: the tunes are not played one after another as a playlist - you can only play the same song four times in a row.
LEGO DUPLO Food
iOS: Free, Android: Free
With LEGO DUPLO Food, kids can play like an adult and operate a kiosk that sells ice cream, muffins or sandwiches. To do this, you will need to open the kiosk, lay out the products, collect several orders from the necessary ingredients, and then clean the kitchen. The application has built-in protection against accidental downloads by children. There are other mini-games in the LEGO DUPLO series, themed around animals, the circus and driving a train.
Good night
iOS: RUB 249, Android: free, in-app purchases
A beautiful paid application that will help parents put their child to sleep. This is not a game, but rather an interactive bedtime story: the child needs to turn off the lights and take turns putting the animals to sleep - and then go to the side himself. The application is available in twelve languages, including Russian. The game has a sequel - “Good night, circus”, and its developers own another popular application - Little Fox Music Box with children's songs in English, which the child can sing along with.
Sago Mini Workshop
iOS: 229 rub., Android: 149 rub.
"Sago Mini Workshop" will appeal to children from 2 to 4 years old. In the game, the child must help the animals complete various tasks: sew dolls for a puppet theater, make a robot costume, repair a swing, and much more. To do this, using the touchpad you will need to saw, work with a wrench, cut paper with scissors, drill, sew and perform other actions. The game developers have several more applications - you can see them all on the Sago Sago website.
Kids Doodle
iOS: Free, Android: Free
Kids Doodle is a convenient drawing application. What distinguishes it from its analogues is that you need to draw here on a colored background and paints with different effects - including neon. For creativity, different brushes and stamps are offered, and the program selects a color randomly every time you click on the screen (which, however, you may not like). Kids Doodle bonus - you can create on images from your phone’s library and on your own photos, and the application offers to record how the drawing was created on video.
OakHouse
iOS: 149 rub.
"OakDom" is an educational application with beautiful illustrations from which children will learn about animals that live in the forest. In the app, a child can learn how they live, what sounds they make, and what they eat for the animals that call the oak tree their home. There are also several games where you need to feed the animals; and the child can try on filters with animal masks. The developers of "DubDom" have other applications: the interactive collection "Fairy Tales Inside" and an application based on children's poems by Daniil Kharms - both with eye-pleasing illustrations.
Preschool education
iOS: 150 rub.
Both in the App Store and on Google Play you can find many good free educational games for kids. We recommend paying attention to the Preschool Education app: it is intended for children four years old and older and should help them prepare for school. There are a total of 15 tasks and games in the application, which are divided into several categories: in the first, the child learns letters and learns to write, in the second, counting, solving examples and drawing numbers with a finger, in the third, he studies shapes and colors, in the fourth, he puts together puzzles and solves logical problems . For successful completion of tasks, the child receives medals. The game has a free demo version so you can see if you want to spend money on it.
ChoreMonster
iOS: Free, Android: Free, Windows: Free
A useful application that turns your child's household chores into a game. Through the app or website, parents create a list of chores that the child can do (for example, wash the dishes, walk the dog, or set the table), decide how often the child should perform a particular task, and assign a reward for each of them - a certain number of points. When a child completes a task, he receives points for it - they can be saved up to receive one of the prizes assigned by the parents (for example, the right to hang out with friends longer or eat ice cream). The makers of ChoreMonster have also launched a separate app, Mothershp, from which parents can assign tasks to their children, and Landra, an analogue of ChoreMonster for teenagers.
A serious disadvantage of the application is that it is not translated into Russian, but parents can create their own assignments (for example, typing them in Russian) and add notes to them. In addition, ChoreMonster is designed for children 6-8 years old - so it can be used for learning English.
Forestry
iOS: Free, Android: Free
The Forestry game is intended for children from 2 to 5 years old. In it, the child gets acquainted with several animals that live in the forest: hare, moose, beaver, wild boar, bear, hedgehog, squirrel. The child must help each of the animals complete tasks - for example, pick berries, catch fish, build a dam. You can only play with the bear for free, and to unlock other animals you will have to pay 149 rubles. At the same time, Forestry has protection against accidental purchases by children: to gain access to the store, you need to solve an example. In addition, the game has an autoplay mode - the child can simply watch it like a cartoon.
Universal tablet games for everyone
Despite the fact that electronic toys are generally considered the prerogative of younger children, there are applications that will be of interest not only to children and teenagers, but even to their parents. The rating of games for family time includes three universal products for Android and iOS.
Toca Kitchen 2
- Developer: Toca Boca
- Size - 56 MB
A creative game whose main principle is unlimited freedom of expression in cooking. There is food in the refrigerator, equipment in the kitchen, including an oven, juicer, deep fryer, and at the table there are guests who try the prepared treats. Fried watermelon? Let's see if the cheerful gourmets will like the dish!
Papers
- Developer — Interactive Moolt DTv
- Size - 90 MB
The application is based on a popular cartoon - all locations and characters fully correspond to the plot. The game kit includes coloring books, a creative studio, a photo editor, printed drawings, and interactive modeling. Any action of the player leads to a new development of the plot - it is simply impossible to lose. Experiment and admire the fruits of your imagination!
Animation Desk
- Developer – Kdan Mobile Software LTD
- Size - 13 MB
A graphic game that will be interesting to all children of all ages, as well as their parents. The player has access to several graphic tools, adjusting diameter and transparency, changing backgrounds, working with frames, animation, as well as several color palettes. A distinctive plus is a convenient, intuitive control interface.
More interesting applications here:
- Top 5 apps for learning English
- 8 apps that will be useful for your mothers and grandmothers
