Please recommend me some educational apps for preschool and Y1

[funnyfoursome]

Hi we got a tablet for Christmas and wondered if anyone could recommend some good apps?
My son is in Y1 - overload of phonics at school imo so I guess am after maths, he's really into explorers and geography too . Daughter will start school in Sept - thanks!

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

Epic! is great, there will be books you can look at about geography etc.

Prodigy for maths.

Hit the Button for number bonds etc.

[user789653241]

Lowdoor, I wanted to ask you about Prodigy. (Sorry for derail, OP!)

There arn't any control for parents account to assign anything. Being a paid member doesn't seems to give you anymore either. It only enables child to buy equipment and catch more monsters, nothing to do with actual educational content.
There is grade override which I should be able to set grade level. But even I set it to grade 8, it's still giving ds far lower grade questions, even he isn't making any mistakes. Reading teacher section seems to give a lot of control, but not for parent account.
It is fun as game to play for a child, but to me it's pointless for children in higher years if it keeps giving questions like 3+5? or which one is triangle? etc. Is there way to fix this for parent account?

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

I have no idea! Is there anything to stop you having a teacher account?

My teacher account was free to sign up for and I have just added my son as a member of my 'class'. I am also a member of my class, as are several of my staff, so that we can play along with the children at school.

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

I have just had a go at setting up a teacher account with a home email address and it seemed like it would let me do it without a problem. Maybe try that?

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Ds likes moose maths

[user789653241]

Thank you Lowdoor. I am a bit worried I already have parent account and I may get into some sort of trouble or get penalty for faking as a teacher and get teacher account.
Yes I have a play account as well, and my account is set to secondary level, but I'm not a member of my parent account for some reason, even I have same email address and password. (Keep asking to ask parent to make a parent account.)I'm letting my ds play on this account too, but problem is I can't track the progress. I will see if I can add my account to my parent account.(weird)
Thank you for help.

Anyways, prodigy seems like a very fun maths game, which if OP's children are still lower primary, shouldn't have any problem regarding question difficulty levels.

[funnyfoursome]

Fantastic thanks so much I will look into those!! I honestly didn't know where to start! x

[catkind]

We've enjoyed Dragonbox apps - Dragonbox Numbers for the little one particularly I found great for developing number sense and "feel" for basic addition, but yr 1 (able) DD still enjoys it and my 8 yr old DS picks it up from time to time too! Any of their other apps are well crafted too IMO. They're feel and logic rather than covering syllabus.

For a bit more covering syllabus type app, DC like Sumdog (which we get from school, but you can access a lot of it for free I think?).

Second the recommendation for TYMTR for phonics.

Monument Valley just for sheer beauty. It's Escher-ish in look and requires logic, though not directly educational.

[funnyfoursome]

Ooh I love Escher - thanks!

[user789653241]

Another thing you can start early(I wish i did, when my ds was your dc's age) is MFL.

www.memrise.com/app/

www.duolingo.com/

For math:
centerforgamescience.org/blog/portfolio/treefrog-treasure/
centerforgamescience.org/blog/portfolio/refraction/

These ones are good for fraction(4+), made by same people who made Dragon Box.

www.khanacademy.org/downloads

Khan Academy is the best regarding math imo, though it's work based, not game based.

[Mammyofonlyone]

Following

[funnyfoursome]

OK a friend has recommended Fiete. I like the Maths one, poss too easy for Year 1 but well built and nice visual representation of number

[MrsU88]

going to have to check some of these out at some point... we got tablets for christmas and i'm sick to the back teeth of you tube videos and crossy road lol

she did love teach your monster to read when she was in reception

[SimultaneousEquation]

Squeebles maths apps are lovely as is the spelling one. My younger dc love these and my Y3 dc learned all the times tables (up to 15!) on this over Christmas

[Mammyofonlyone]

Funny I hope you don't mind me posting - I am looking for a French app for my daughter in Reception. Just had a look at duolingo but not sure it is quite right for reception age (it seemed to assume a basic level of knowledge as it was just asking vocab questions with no prior 'teaching' or learning (unless I have misunderstood it). Any suggestions?
Thanks you

[BlueChampagne]

Mathbingo
Squeebles
Pocket Phonics

[brilliotic]

mammy,
DS (7) has recently started Duolingo (French) and I agree reception age is probably too young. It is aimed at adults, really. As far as I can make out it doesn't 'teach' as such but introduces new vocab gradually: First you need to find the picture that shows the new word (e.g. 'the men'), and the word in French is read out to you (les hommes). Then later in the same session you need to recall that word in order to complete the exercises. Each session introduces a few words, some will be practised by giving the French word and you having to translate into English, some the other way. So for example "Translate to English: Les hommes" or "Write in French: The men". Some words are not initially introduced by picture, but 'mouse over' the 'red' word (I think words that you haven't been introduced yet are shown in red) will show you the solution, and this word will usually be queried again later in the session.

The actual grammar can be picked up by osmosis during the sessions, or you have to read the lesson notes. So e.g. you can learn by repetition and pattern detection that plurals come with 's' and that adjectives are adjusted in number/gender to the nouns they are describing, so come with 's' also. But this isn't 'taught' explicitly. So if you don't pick up the pattern automatically, you have to study the notes, which amounts to about the same as reading any textbook, clearly not appropriate to 4/5 year olds. Unless you as the parent use the notes as a teaching guide and teach your child.
Seeing as DS is quite good at picking up patterns without explicit instruction, I let him get on with it and (knowing French quite well myself) occasionally point out to him what he is supposed to be learning here. But at 7, we are consciously doing this in parallel to weekly French lessons at school and attending a further French Club (also at school, but paid for) because I believe children especially need to learn languages through hearing and using them orally.

I have come across an app called 'mes premiers mots' (currently free on kindle fire for kids unlimited), but cannot say anything about how good/bad it might be.

[user789653241]

Same as brilliotic , my ds(yr5) is learning French and another on Duolingo and Memoeise, but he only started in KS2.
Initially, we were watching French cartoon on you tube and stated learning songs, than he started watching with French with English sub.
So until ks2, it wasn't really proper learning, but made him interested enough to learn it on learning site.

[Mammyofonlyone]

Thanks Irvine and Brill

[user789653241]

Mammy, this is not an app, but seems to be good for young children.

www.chillola.com/at/french%20starter%20page.html