It seems like kids are spending more time on our electronics. I wouldn't mind it as much if they were learning something while they were playing. I know my friend felt the same. We both had some edicational apps on our phone/tablets, but the kids ignored them and went straight back to the "fun" (aka non educational) apps.
Amazingly, about 2 weeks after our, conversation about school starting again & needing to find learning apps that they find fun, I learned about Verizon Educational Tools App!
Verizon Family Education Tools is an app designed for kids from kindergarten to high school senior and even special needs. The apps are reviewed by educational professionals who know what helps our kids learn. The app is well designed and easy to navigate, arranged first by grade level. Then subdivided by category (mathematics, vocabulary, spelling, calculus, etc).
The Hungry Fishie Game is currently a favorite of my kids. They "feed" the fish whatever number is on his tummy. The higher the difficulty the more bubbles you had to combine to add up to equal the number the fish wants.
Some of the apps are free, some are not. For me, having a new 2nd grader I love the portability and ease to navigate. He can pick and choose the apps he'd like. My daughter is in preschool so sadly, there's no category for her yet.
For some reason the app seems to be having a log-in issue suddenly. Hopefully by the time you read this it'll be resolved, but it keeps asking us to log-into our accounts.
The only other issue I've herd with the app is it only seems to be supported on iPhone, iPad or iPod. Both my kids have a Kindle and I try to keep them awayfrom my phone unless I forsee an emergency meltdown coming. They really like the games, but now constantly want my iPhone to play on because they don't have these games on their kindles. If your kids have iPads, like one of my friends' kids, this seems to be a must have app.
The game prices range from free to $9.99 (I believe). I just noticed they also have test preps available - apps for ACT testing as well as SAT. I'd much rather be paying for fun educational downloads then paying for the non-educational games that my kids won't get much out of.
I highly recommend a quick download just to check it out instead of buying another app that the kids will play for an hour and be bored with.
*Compinsation was provided by Verizon in exchange for my review of the Verizon Educational Tools.
