Ultimate List of the 50 Best Childrens Apps [Updated for 2022]

For the very young, drawing is not just a visual-motor activity. If you have ever watched a preschooler or young elementary student make art, you know that there is always a running monologue going on at the same time. If you are watching, you’ll see that the picture goes through countless stages and phases that make perfect sense as you listen to the child explain things. This app records those precious utterances as the picture is made, creating a video record.

The app includes 30 picture prompts to get things started. The drawing tools are easy to use, and you can export the final videos to your camera roll to save or share.

Little Fox Nursery Rhymes

Price: $3.99

This app features 3 popular children’s songs (Old MacDonald, Evening Song, and London Bridge) with over 100 interactive elements in a digital storybook. What lifts this app ahead of the pack, though, is the “little fox music studio” where kids can sing and record their very own songs.

Kids can enjoy the songs, illustrations, and interactions, record their own songs, and even put the app into karaoke mode so they can sing right along with the music. It’s a great way to get children playing with sounds and music, and is well worth a peek!

The Cat in the Hat Builds That

Price: Free

The developers over at PBS have outdone themselves this time. The Cat in the Hat Builds That is a spin-off of the favorite television show, “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That.” Preschool and other young children will get a healthy dose of STEM-activities couched in the The Cat’s famous rhyming prose.

Kids will have ample opportunities to build bridges, create slides, and explore countless engineering games as they play in this wonderous world.

PlayART Classic

Price: $2.99

Kids can play and be creative with over 160 elements from 48 art masters in this creative app. Using bits and pieces from artists including Katsushika Hokusai, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Henri Rousseau, Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Paul Klee and Amedeo Modigliani, children can recreate masterpieces to see how the elements fit together, or they can mix and match the pieces to create their own unique works of art.

This award-winning app costs. $3.99 and offers over 160 elements and 48 canvases from famous artists. Various features allow youngsters to duplicate, move, arrange, rotate and manipulate the items to create their own masterpieces. Save the paintings in “My Museum,” or optionally share to Facebook. The social media feature can be disabled by parents if desired.

Magic Piano by Smule

Price: Free with in-app subscription purchases

Follow beams of light to hit the right notes and play favorite songs almost effortlessly. Control the rhythm, note duration, and tempo to make each piece your own. The full version includes thousands of popular, classical, and hit songs. There are also several different keyboard instruments available to try out, including harpsichord and organ.

This app is free to download, and offers a number of in-app purchases. You can get several different “packs” of various types of music for prices ranging from ninety-nine cents to $9.99. You can also subscribe to get full and unlimited access to all of the songs. The subscriptions cost $7.99 per week, $19.99 per month, or $99.99 annually.

Book Creator for iPad

Price: $2.99

Kids can create professional e-books with Book Creator for iPad. The app allows them to input text, use pictures, photos, drawings, or other illustrations on each page, and more. Authors can even add audio files. The books are savable, sharable, and even publishable on iBooks. It’s the perfect opportunity for your young authors to strut their stuff.

Book Creator opens up a huge realm of possibilities for young authors. So let them create, let them share, and let them revel in the sheer joy and power of creating their very own books.

Write About This

Price: $3.99

This incredible collection of visual and verbal writing prompts will help your child or student get over and around writer’s block every single time. It includes 175 images and 375 text plus audio prompts. There’s something here to intrigue any child writer.

This award winning app includes prompts that will start kids off on all genres of writing, such as opinions, descriptions, and informative pieces. It’s intuitive and easy to use.

INKredible

Price: Free with in-app purchases

This app is designed to make writing on your device as much like writing on paper as it can be. Developers have eliminated distractions, and so have freed the writer’s mind for nothing but creativity. Young authors can write, doodle, illuminate letters, and do everything that they could do on paper with this incredible app.

The app is free, and there are in-app purchases available. For ninety-nine cents each, users can add a variety of writing tools (like calligraphy pens and various brushes), different types of papers (like graph paper and colored pages), and more.

Toca Mystery House

Price: $3.99

There’s so much to explore in this app! Can the house really sing? Is the kitchen really covered in slime? The only way to find out is to open a door and go on inside. Kids will never know what they are going to find.

This is probably the spookiest of the Toca apps, but it’s a fun and child-friendly spookiness. Your young children will feel brave as they look around this sort-of-scary haunted house.

Create A Car

Price: $2.99

Young children can use loads of car parts and styles to get down and dirty with making their very own dream vehicle! They will love saving their creations in the garage and even “driving” them on the app’s roads. They’ll have opportunities to create vehicles to do specific tasks and to solve problems.

Parents will love that the kids will exercise their higher-order thinking skills, preparing them for later learning and development. Teachers will enjoy the capability to make lesson plans and coax kids into using various parts of the app. You’ll want to take a look-see at this one!

EDUCATION

Farm 123-Learn to Count!

Price: Free with in-app purchases

This great children’s ebook gives a realistic experience of a pop-up book in digital form. The gently progressive games give good foundation for counting 1-10 and for sorting. The book is charmingly illustrated, and allows users to view the pop-ups from different angles, just like a real-world book. Kids will love chasing the cheeky animals back to their pens, washing them, and more.

The app includes the book and two bonus counting games for free. There is an in-app purchase of $2.99 that unlocks 5 additional counting games.

Little Digits Finger Counting

Price: $2.99

iOS App Store / Google Play

Here’s an app that takes full advantage of iOS devices’ ability to use multi-touch technology. Kids can put varying numbers of fingers on the screen and the app will respond by counting and showing them the corresponding number. They can learn to associate the numbers with the number of fingers touching the screen, and so learn to count. The app also includes games and interactions designed to teach simple addition and subtraction using finger counting.

It has no in-app purchases or outside advertisements. Concepts covered include counting, adding, subtracting, and number bonds.

Squeebles Multiplication

Price: $3.99

Squeebles multiplication features a training area where kids can practice their times tables before taking on any of the seven more challenging games. The app teaches as well as tests, and rewards players for rescuing the adorable Squeebles from the horrific Math Monster.

Some of the games even focus on the challenging math facts (like 6 x 7 and 8 x 9). Playing with the math facts earns turns in a fun mini-game, too, to keep kids coming back for more. The app is suitable for elementary students.

Around the Clock

Price: Free

If your youth or teen is into fitness (or needs a little less screen time and more exercise time), then this might be the app for you. It can help keep track of class schedules and fitness goals. It also links to other popular fitness apps, so you can access everything in one spot.

The app uses Healthkit to track progress with workouts and the like. That means you can use activity to meet your goals.

Barefoot World Atlas

Price: $4.99

This interactive 3D globe and map set invites exploration. Kids of all ages will find fascinating facts, breath-taking photos, and clearly narrated commentary about countries they choose to zoom to. The app includes hundreds of mini-photos and hundreds of detailed and vivid photographs.

The app makes a great companion to the printed Barefoot World Atlas, but it stands on its own just fine. Give your kids a digital opportunity to see the world and learn about faraway places with the Barefoot World Atlas app.

Move the Turtle: Learn to Code

Price: $3.99

This app harkens back to the old LOGO programming language that was popular years ago, and has exactly the same appeal for kids. The app teaches basic programming concepts, like loops and if-thens. Kids as young as five and six can learn to give instructions to computers using this simple app.

The app does so much more than helping children learn to code, though. It nurtures visual-spatial skills, teaches how to solve problems in an organized step-by-step fashion, and promotes persistence. All of these things are important skills whether your child becomes a programmer or not. The app costs $3.99 on the App Store.

Happy Face

Price: Free

This app offers some great ways to put on that happy face. It focuses your energy and helps you think in positive ways using affirmations and fun exercises. It offers quotes, instructions, exercises and visualizations that will brighten everyone’s day.

The app is completely free and can be set up to send push notifications to help users maintain their positive outlook. It’s a quick and accessible way to brighten anyone’s day.

Kahoot!

Price: Free with in-app purchases

This app is ideal for older students who need to study content areas. Users can create their own trivia games with questions and answers. You can also find quizzes created by others on almost any topic. The app is great to set up as a study guide, and can even be assigned as homework.

The app is free for teachers and students to use, and has a variety of subscription plans for various settings that range from $6.99 to $119.99 annually. There is also a “family and friends” option for $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually.

Hologo

Price: Free with in-app subscription purchase

Hologo merges AR with learning. Your phone’s camera plus Hologo’s huge AR library combine to project objects on the real world seen through the camera lens to help students learn. The possibilities are endless- look at a person and see the image of internal organs or bones. Look at a rock and see information about how it might have been formed.

The Hologo models are designed to be walked up to, to be assembled and disassembled, and inspected closely. It adds a whole new dimension (or two) to learning. Users can sign up either for student or teacher subscriptions for $9.99.

EPIC! Kids’ Books and Videos

Price: Free with in-app subscription purchase options

EPIC is a huge digital collection of children’s books and videos. Subscribers have access to 35,000 books, videos, audio books, and several other types of digital media. The offerings are primarily designed for elementary aged children.

A monthly subscription to EPIC is $9.99, and can support up to four separate children’s profiles. You can also choose an annual plan for $71.99. There are also subscription plans for educators, so be sure to check those options if you are a teacher.

PLAY

Sensory Light Box

Price: $3.99 on iOS; $2.49 on Google Play

Cause and Effect Sensory Light Box uses abstract animations and sounds to attract your baby’s attention and help them become more aware of their world. Parents can customize visuals and sounds, but the app comes with 30 different scenes that range from soothing to exciting.

The app is fabulous for older kids with special needs, as well. It can be used to stimulate children with low vision, and can also be useful as a calming “cool-down” for children who struggle with emotional control.

Toca Kitchen 2

Price: $3.99 on iOS Store; Free on Google Play

Toca Kitchen 2 opens up a world of creativity for young children. They can make any recipe they want (even if it’s wildly improbable, like boiled salad. There are five different kitchen tools to try, and loads of food to try them on. Make a mess as you cook-clean up is a breeze!

The app has no in-app purchases or outside advertisements. Players not only get to cook, but they also can feed their creations to virtual guests. It’s great fun for the preschool set.

Toca Train

Price: $3.99

Little ones, especially those that have been bitten by the train bug, will love this app where they get to control their very own train. The controls are intuitive, too, so they are perfect for little ones who are not yet able to read. There are six different stations to visit and many characters and pieces of cargo to load and unload.

The app costs $3.99 and is recommended for children ages 3 to 7. It’s like having a toy train set in your device! Your little one will have hours and hours of fun.

Memory King

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Memory King is a versatile and fun app that allows people of all ages to enjoy the classic game of Memory. Up to four players can enjoy the game at one time. It also features some unique twists on the game that add interest and challenge for older players.

The game is fully customizable, even allowing users to use their own photos for memory cards! You can also adjust aspects such as the number of cards on the playing board, time allotted, and much, much more. Expansion packs of cards are available as in-app purchases for ninety-nine cents each, but the game itself is free to download and play.

Cut the Rope

Price: Free with in-app purchases

This award-winner features Om-Nom, a little space alien with an insatiable desire for candy. The physics-based game is addictive as players work their way through the 425 levels. Players can collect stickers, find power-ups, and even discover animated shorts starring Om-Nom himself.

The app is free to download. There are multiple in-app purchases available. Subscription packages range from $4.99 to $19.99, and you can also purchase various packs of items and hints for prices ranging from $1.99 to $29.99. It’s possible to remove ads for ninety-nine cents, too.

Art of Glow

Price: Free

Create glowing masterpieces, fireworks, twinkling stars, and more with this unique drawing app. Use the colorful, animated pieces to make your own unique art. It’s relaxing, it’s unusual, and best of all, it’s fun!

The app is free to download and it’s ready to play. Kids will have hours of fun. Think of it as a digital Light Bright!

Barnyard Games for Kids

Price: Free with in-app purchases

This game collection is perfect for toddlers through kindergarteners. The free version includes two games designed to build readiness skills such as matching, sorting, and sequencing. Other games help with color identification, counting, ABCs, following directions, and more.

There are a total of 21 games available through multiple in-app purchases, or you can unlock everything for $4.99. This app will keep your young child busy for hours with productive learning fun. It also includes a parent dashboard so you can keep an eye on the progress of up to four children. A subscription ($4.99 monthly or $29.99 annually) will add features to allow parents and teachers to control and assign activities in a planned and orderly fashion for more detailed management.

Racing Penguin Slide and Fly

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Have an awesome time keeping your penguin safe from the hungry polar bear in this chilly cool racing game. It works just like the games for older kids, where speed scores more points. You need to slide or fly when needed to make the best time through the course.

The app has 6 worlds and 48 racing levels. It’s free to download, and there are in-app purchases. Turn off the ads for ninety-nine cents, or purchase additional points and bonuses for prices between ninety-nine cents and $29.99. Purchases are available for various game enhancements or a weekly subscription.

Thinkrolls Kings and Queens Full

Price: $4.99 on iOS App Store; Free with in-app purchases on Google Play

Thinkrolls Kings and Queens is one of a series of apps that will tap into kids’ logic, reasoning, and problem-solving skills in a big way. The app includes over 200 unique puzzles inside of twelve unique fairy castles. Kids will hardly notice the major educational power of this amazing app as they manipulate objects to achieve goals in each puzzle.

The app includes 115 “easy” puzzles designed for younger elementary kids, and 113 “harder” puzzles designed for upper elementary, so it’s got a great range and loads of play value.

Endless Alphabet

Price: $8.99 on iOS App Store; Free with in-app purchase of $8.99 to unlock on Google Play Store

Endless Alphabet is a learning tool disguised as a great game for preschool and young elementary kids. From the makers of Sesame Street, it pairs each letter with a fabulously exciting word, an animation, and an interactive puzzle.

There are over 100 words for kids to learn, but there is absolutely no pressure, high scores, timers, or other stress-inducers. Kids will play for hours and hours in this relaxing game.

SCIENCE

Cat Physics

Price: $1.99 on iOS App Store; Free with ina-pp purchases on Google Play Store

Kids will have a ball (literally) passing the ball from one cat to the next, as they avoid or go around obstacles like glass windows and trap doors. There are 250 puzzles to solve and some have multiple solutions to find, which increases the app’s play value.

There are badges to unlock and much more to this game. It costs just $1.99 and will keep kids busy playing (and learning) for hours and hours.

Fractals

Price: $2.99

Move and pinch fractals in real time. Change numbers in the equations and see the effects in real time. Save the fractals you create and share them on social media. It’s relaxing, amazing, and fun! This highly-rated app has a lot to offer both as science and as art.

The app will fascinate older students for hours. They don’t even really need to understand what fractals are to appreciate their beauty.

Star Walk- Explore the Sky

Price: Free with optional subscription

Use your device to help you map out the night sky wherever and whenever you may be. Star Walk offers an augmented reality view of the night sky. You can see the stars above you, and push out into deep space to “see” beyond them. The app helps you track night sky objects too.

There’s an astronomical calendar to recreate (or predict) celestial events, and a stunning Picture of the Day that will knock your socks off. Learn about meteor showers, moon phases, and more with this detailed app. The app is free to use, and offers additional features for subscription options ranging from ninety-nine cents to $9.99

Play and Learn Science

Price: Free

This app includes 16 great science games that will help younger children lay foundations for scientific thought. The games themselves are engaging and entertaining, but perhaps the best feature is the help the app gives to parents to guide them in creating “teachable moments” to make the most of the science learning.

The app includes activities in core science competencies like shadow and light, sink/float, life sciences and more. It’s also bilingual, allowing users to switch between English and Spanish at the touch of a button.

3D Brain

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Do you know an older kid or teen who aspires to medicine? This app would be perfect for him or her. It’s a detailed study of the human brain, the kind that medical students could use. Use the device’s touch screen to rotate and zoom around 29 structures in an interactive format. Find out about functions, the consequences of brain damage to the region, and more.

The app is free to download and offers one in-app purchase for ninety-nine cents. You won’t find a more economical way to get interactive information about the brain and put it at your youngster’s eager fingertips.

BrainPOP Featured Movie

Price: Free with in-app purchases for subscriptions

This app will help your elementary, middle school, or high school student become more curious and self-directed with science learning. The free featured movies rotate daily, covering current and important topics from the field of science. All the movies are paired with an interactive quiz, and all feature closed captioning so kids can read along as they learn.

The app is free to download and offers one movie per day. If you’d like to unlock all of the movies so your child can explore, you’ll want a subscription for either $3.99 or $9.99. There’s an annual subscription available for $59.99. These are all available as in-app purchases.

Prof Brian Cox’s Universe

Price: $1.99 on iOS Store; $1.53 on Google Play Store

Take a fantastic 3D tour of the universe, narrated by Professor Brian Cox, courtesy of the BBC. Start with the microscope (and submicroscopic) and work your way outward to the stars themselves. There are also over 200 articles pinned to the various stars and features in the app, so there’s a wealth of content.

The app offers a huge amount of multi-media content, from text to videos. You’ll also be able to enjoy some of the best stellar photography available anywhere.

Tappity: K-5 Science for Kids

Price: Free limited trial with optional subscription plans

The full version of the app offers over 200 hands-on science activities for kids from kindergarten through grade 5. It includes activities from major core science areas, such as space, physical science, and life science. There are experiments your child can control, a science journal, and hundreds of game-show style questions to try.

The first Tappity story in each world is always free, and there is a new free game every week. If you want more extensive content, you’ll want to grab a subscription. These are available as in-app purchases on a monthly, three-month, annual, or life-time basis for prices ranging from $14.99 to $149.99.

Astro Cat’s Solar System

Price: $3.99

Play your way through the solar system with this game combined with learning app. Build rockets and “unzip” planets to see what’s inside. And best of all, win up to 11 medals for learning about the solar system.

This app is a great example of how gamification can take important information and make learning more palatable. There are no other in-app purchases, and no outside advertisements.

Coaster Physics

Price: $1.99

Motion physics comes to life for elementary and secondary students with this app. Design and ride realistic roller coasters and see how force, acceleration, G-force, and other attributes affect your ride. The powerful track creator lets users make nearly any kind of track, then experiment with the coaster to see what happens.

The app costs $1.99 and will make your eyes pop when you ride your creation in 3D glory using any pair of 3D movie glasses. You may just find out if a person can get sick simply from watching the coaster ride!

Animals and Nature

Marco Polo Ocean

Price: Free

This app is playfully narrated and designed to help children learn vocabulary and concepts related to six ocean topics. Kids can steer their very own submersible through several different biomes in the ocean and learn all about the habitat and the animals and plants that live there.

Best of all, the app is free! It’s hard to find a better combination of fun and learning under the sea (or anywhere else for that matter!).

Ranger Rick Magazine

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Ranger Rick was one of the first nature magazines for kids, and now it’s available in digital form. The magazine is known for encouraging literacy as well as offering great information about the natural world. It includes nature adventures, new discoveries, and great articles, as well as jokes, riddles and other nature-related content.

The app is free to download, and you can purchase individual editions of the monthly magazine. You can also subscribe for $3.99 per month, $9.99 for six months, or $15.99 for a year.

Ocean Forests

Price: Free

Kids will enjoy exploring the underwater environment as they learn about oceans, develop academic vocabulary, and complete STEM activities. They’ll revel in the accurate information that will take their curiosity beyond places that it has never been before.

This app is recommended for children from 5 to 8 years of age. It is free to download, with no in-app purchases or outside advertisements.

Plum’s Photo Hunt

Price: Free

Here’s a child-friendly nature journal from the developers at PBS Kids. The app sends kids on actual missions out of doors to photograph various items and scenes that will help Plum, the space alien from the television show, Plum’s Landing, learn about the world.

The app is completely free to download, and is designed for the entire family to enjoy. It will certainly get everyone off their chairs and outside, so it’s a hugely important app.

Amazing Amphibeans

Price: Free

Bet you never thought you’d see a clean way for kids to catch and play with frogs, right? Kids will enjoy the games and stories while they get exposed to STEM ideas and academic vocabulary in this fun app.

The app is designed for kids from kindergarten through grade 3. It’s free to download. The app offers immersive learning that kids will enjoy for years to come.

Toca Nature

Price: Free

Don’t leave the littlest learners out of the fun! Toca Nature is another in the collection from Toca Boca, a developer known for high quality apps for preschoolers. This app is no exception. It offers hands-on experiences with planting flowers, feeding animals, collecting nuts and berries, and more.

The app features a wealth of nature-related activities that will help preschoolers learn more about the world around them. It’s awesome, and you should take a good look if you have young children that need a dose of nature.

Virry Game: Learn Wild Animals

Price: Free with in-app purchases

This interactive app is the perfect pastime for children who love wild animals. Play 28 unique games with real wild animals. Watch real animals in real time on the live stream. Give water to the giraffes by shaking the device, or see the lioness come when you call.

This app is free to download. To access all of the content, you’ll want a subscription. Six months costs $14.99, and one year is a bargain at $19.99.

Care for Our World

Price: Free

This animated adaptation of the children’s book, Care for Our World, takes users on a journey around the world to different habitats to meet the animals that live there. There are also interactive activities, like animal coloring pages and a minigame where you can create your own habitats.

This five-star app costs $2.99 to download, and is great for preschoolers and young elementary kids. The message is important, and the presentation is outstanding.

Animalia Education- Family

Price: $2.99

This interactive literacy tool is geared for all levels of young children, from preschool through about grade 3. For younger children, it’s an amazing alphabet ebook. For older kids, it’s a vocabulary builder and more. It’s based off of the print book Animalia by Graeme Base, so the illustrations are out of this world. There’s also a bonus animated story included called the ABC of Flying.

Since it’s an Australian publication, it focuses on the wild life of that continent, making it extremely interesting for children from other parts of the world. This one is definitely worth a look!

Weird But True Fun Facts and Amazing Trivia for Kids

Price: Free with in-app purchases