Apps to keep the brain busy - any recommendations?

[WaitingForAGovernment]

I’m looking for some apps to download over the summer for my DC, aged 8 and 11. Their behaviour really gets worse if I don’t find something that uses their brains over the long summer holidays, but they’re both well ahead of age related expectations so I don’t want anything that will do more of what they’ll get at school next year as that’s counter-productive (that’s why I’m posting on this board).

I’m looking for something that’s challenging, maybe about problem-solving, that sort of thing. Does anyone know of any good apps that would be interesting and take them a while to work through?

They both enjoy sciencey type things, and they will be reading lots of books over the summer, so I’m thinking something maybe on the STEM side?

Dragonbox Algebra 12+
Dragonbox Elements

Have them learn to play chess, e.g. Chesskid.com

Tangram (app or real thing)

Thanks! We’ve got both Dragonbox apps and they’re great, I was hoping for some recommendations along those lines.

Chess is a hit with one, but not the other.

I should dig out our tangrams set - it came with some other games that are younger but would actually still be good, I think.

Try killer sudoku

And Bridge

Not on the app side, but we always buy a few puzzle books for our hols. Ours like traditional grid style logic problems and the picture ones where you colour squares black and white, called picross or hanji I think. You can can picross apps but I think they are much more challenging and reliable on pen and paper. There are other logic puzzles like Tents that are ok in app form.

Another option might be to get them into building their own games in a language such as Scratch. There may be some books to get them started. Lego do a few books about building your own machines, or there's a "create your own animation" one that they might like.

Thanks, Elstree. I went to WH Smiths and got a couple of mixed puzzle books, which were a hit with one dd, and I’ll see which of the puzzles she likes and then buy more of those style.

Are there any particular ones you’d recommend for an 8yo? School doesn’t teach beyond that year’s curriculum, so they need not to assume knowledge beyond Y3 level, but she’s good at maths puzzles that involve logic or using what she does know in a new way, and she reads widely so her vocabulary is good for an 8yo.

For crosswords and word puzzles, a junior puzzler book is probably your best bet. They also have things like colour in the shapes with a dot to make a picture, and spot the difference.

At 8 my son likes adult books of Hanji, Battleships, Sudoku. With the first two, keep it to smaller grids while they are getting the hang of it.

Wordfits (where you have to slot all the listed words into an empty grid) and wordsearches might be worth a go if the above don't suit your daughter.

We also like the i newspaper on Saturdays. There is a double page spread of different puzzles including ones DC can help with. DH and DS fight over the killer sudoku so we have to photocopy that bit!!