Whether you’re enjoying a quiet day at home during the winter holidays or taking a road trip, these award-winning sites can be a fun companion for fun and learning.
Sir Dapp! App
This game show improves manners by teaching kids, in a fun way, to be polite and respectful. Special holiday offer is $1.99 (from November 25-January 5), 5-8, www.sirdapp.com
Journey with Story – Children’s Storytelling Podcast
Hosted by children’s author and Scottish storyteller, Kathleen T. Pelley, who shares retellings of fairy tales and folktales, beloved classics, nonsense poems and a sprinkling of her own original tales, all with a distinctive Celtic flavor. Free, 3-10, www.journeywithstory.com
Pinna Audio Streaming
Ad-free audio streaming service curated exclusively for children, featuring podcast shows, stories and songs, as well as some of the best-known, award-winning kids’ podcasts, music and audiobooks from around the world. $7.99/month, $79.99/year, 3-12, www.pinna.fm
Samsung Kids
Features a huge library of games, videos and books featuring names like Peppa Pig, Dr. Panda, Toca Boca, Sesame Street, LEGO, Dr. Seuss, Thomas the Tank Engine and more, plus parental controls. only works on Samsung Galaxy devices. $4.99/month, 3-12, www.samsungkids.com
ArgoPrep: Online Test Prep | Prepare, Practice, Review
Offers online resources, tools and self-paced programs for K to 8 and various standardized exams such as the SAT and ACT. Free and paid subscriptions, 6+, www.argopreop.com
Video Poodle
Wholesome, fun, informational and ad-free video website made just for kids. Designed to engage, inspire and grow young minds. $10/year, 2-6, www.videopoodle.com
Study.com
Includes thousands of lessons across a variety of subjects, self-assessments and flashcards created by subject-matter experts. $39.99 to $59.99, grades 3-12 and college, www.study.com
FamilyAlbum
Simply and securely share family photos and videos with only the people you invite, featuring free and unlimited storage. Keeps memories organized and creates collages. Free, www.family-album.com
Let’s Read App
Gives parents, teachers, grandparents and other special friends and family an opportunity to record their voices reading children’s stories. Synchronizes your video/audio recordings with the app’s illustrations and text from an award-winning collection of picture books. Free, 4-7, www.letsreadapp.com
ABCmouse Mastering Math
Innovative, game-based adaptive early learning app that helps children build a strong understanding of number sense and operations. $9.99/month, $79.99/year, Preschool-2nd grade, www.ABCmouse.com
KidloLand Educational App
Discover 1000+ songs, nursery rhymes, games, stories and activities focusing on early learning, with no advertising. $4.99/month, $39.99/year, 1-7, www.kidloland.com
Tynker: Coding Games for Kids
A fun way to help children develop computational thinking and programming skills in a creative and intuitive way featuring interactive game-based courses. $120/year, $240/lifetime, 5-15, www.tynker.com
Dr. Panda Learn & Play
Learn numbers, letters, phonics and more through playing 30+ activities.$4.99/month, $29.99/year, 2-5, www.drpanda.com
Toca Kitchen Sushi
Your child becomes the chef of a busy seaside restaurant –slice up squid, asparagus, and candy canes, and roll it all up into a cone of seaweed. $3.99, 6-9, www.tocaboca.com
For more holiday gift ideas, visit NAPPA Awards. #holidaygifts #giftguide #playlearnconnect
We have new award-winning apps that bring fun and learning together!
KidloLand Educational App
KidloLand is a comprehensive learning program for kids. Discover 1000+ songs, nursery rhymes, games, stories, and activities focusing on early learning, English, Math, coding, arts and more. The app also helps develop skills such as logical thinking, fine motor skills and creativity. KidloLand is regularly updated with new content and is also completely ad-free. $4.99/monthly, $39.99/annually, ages 1-7.
Tynker: Coding Games for Kids
Get creative and learn about coding with Tynker’s innovative computing platform. A great way to help children develop computational thinking and programming skills in a fun and intuitive way. As they’re guided through interactive game-based courses, children quickly learn fundamental programming concepts. With Tynker, a child can apply their coding skills as they build games, tell stories, mod Minecraft, create apps, control drones and robots, and more. Parents can follow their child’s success and share their creations through a parent dashboard. $20/monthly, $120/annually, $240/lifetime, ages 5-15.
Dr. Panda Learn & Play
Dr. Panda & Toto are back in the brand new learning app “Dr. Panda Learn & Play”! Kids can play and learn numbers, letters, phonics and more through playing 30+ activities along with Dr. Panda, with more added all the time! Beyond games, books and videos, kids will also explore Dr. Panda & Toto’s world, play dress up, unlock new costumes, and discover all sorts of hidden activities around Dr. Panda’s home. $4.99/monthly, $29.99/annually, ages 2-5.
Toca Kitchen Sushi
With Toca Kitchen Sushi, your child becomes the chef of a busy seaside restaurant. Slice up squid, asparagus, and candy canes, and roll it all up into a cone of seaweed! Or make stars and hearts of watermelon and mix them with fish and hot peppers! Want to make the roundest rice ball? You’ve got great tools for that right at your fingertips. Then see what your customers think. $3.99, ages 6-9.
For more product reviews, visit nappaawards.com. #playlearnconnect
As parents, we love when fun and learning come together. That’s why we’re so excited for these latest NAPPA Award winners.
Sir Dapp! Game Show
Fun and etiquette come together with an animated silver-haired Schnauzer in the Sir Dapp! Game Show app. Children select from categories like “Sight What’s Polite,” “Historically Rude,” and “Trivia Soup,” with the main canine character, Sir Dapp, guiding them to complete fun raps, decide “who did it?,” figure out what is polite or rude and more. Occasional commercial “breaks,” PSA’s, and music videos with teaching messages further the game show theme. $3.99, ages 5-7.
Jabuka
Ready for a fun brain challenge? Jabuka will have you quickly twisting letters and transforming words in this clever and fast-paced word game. The playing pieces are shaped like coffee beans and packaged in a mini jute sack — perfect for on-the-go fun, especially when traveling. $20, ages 8+.
Let’s Read App
The Let’s Read app gives parents, teachers, grandparents and other special friends and family an opportunity to record their voices reading children’s stories. It’s fun and easy to use on your phone or tablet. The app synchronizes your video/audio recordings with the app’s illustrations and text from an award-winning collection of picture books. Families can then share their own personalized, read-aloud stories on a private, secure family network. Free, ages 4+
Video Poodle
Videopoodle.com is a wholesome, fun and informational video website made just for kids. It is a positive and trusted environment, free of advertising and unsafe links, where children can safely watch responsibly made videos designed to engage, inspire and grow young minds. All of Video Poodle’s series, videos and content are written, designed and produced in-house. $10/yearly subscription, ages 2-6.
For parents looking to gain a greater understanding of their child’s screen use, we have two new NAPPA Award- winning Apps that help with the monitoring.
This app allows parents to more closely monitor their tweens’ and teens’ device use. The App will send all recorded data to a secure web-based account which allows parents to monitor remotely from any device. WebWatcher allows parents to view messages (texts, Facebook and other social media), call history, photos, website history, GPS and more.$10.83/month.
This app is designed to help parents gain a better understanding of just how much time their kids are spending on a screen. Includes a “pause button,” allowing parents to use their own smartphone to “pause” their child’s device remotely. The app also allows children to earn more screen time by doing specific things set up by the parents, such as chores or homework. Parents can also set daily screen time limits and block certain apps at specific times of day, in addition to many other useful features.$4.99/month.
Check out these terrific NAPPA Award-winning educational apps.
LetterSchool – Spelling Words!
LetterSchool is a fun and educational App with a wonderful mission — teaching the world to read and write while having fun. The App includes educational games for young children learning to read to work on sight words with endings such as -ab, -et, -at and -ut to increasingly more challenging endings such as -ock, -eed, -ish, etc. The program’s challenges increase with the child. $9.99, ages: 2 – 8.
Kidomi
Kidomi is an app that combines fun and learning. Featuring hundreds of puzzles to solve, adventures to read, inventions to build, creations to make and games to play from the top global content creators that kids know and love including Toca Boca, Crayola, Sago Sago, Highlights for Children and more. New activities are added every day. $7.99 monthly or $59.99 annually, ages 3-8
Connected Kids
Connected Kids is an online, self-directed study course that guides parents and educators to create and deliver mindfulness and meditations techniques that help kids and teens reduce anxiety and stress. Created by Lorraine E. Murray, author of “Calm Kids: Help Children Relax with Mindful Activities,” this program has been empowering adults to teach their kids and teens with mindful skills since 2003. A great way for adults to practice what they are teaching and for the whole family to learn these important skills. $230 for the course. For the entire family