Top App Picks for Screen Time That’s Actually Educational

Screen time has always been a controversial topic between parents and kids. Growing up in the 1990s, my parents set a limit of 30 minutes of screen time on weekdays and one hour on weekends, and only if we finished all of our homework and chores. Now, raising kids in the 2020s, I have mostly stuck to the same rules, but with a few exceptions that make room for more educational activities, even if they are on a screen.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recently changed some of its recommendations, saying that it's not just the amount of time spent on a screen that matters, but also what you're doing with that time. Learning to read or code, for example, is not the same as playing Mario Kart.

In recent years, several apps have been developed that actually help kids academically, artistically, or socially while using their screens. While these aren't substitutes for school or in-person social interactions, they can still be a productive use of screen time that allows kids to relax. And when they get bored with these, they can always check out our list of screen-free activities for a change of pace.

Here are some of our favorite apps that make the best use of screen time for kids:

Khan Academy Kids

Based on stories and games with a friendly cast of animal characters, Khan Academy Kids is best for kids ages 2-8. Follow Kodi the bear and his friends as they help kids learn to read, count, add, tell time, and more. The app grows with kids from preschool through about second grade. You can select stories and lessons for your child, or they can follow their own learning path set out by early childhood experts.

Duolingo and Duolingo ABC

Preliterate kids can learn to read using Duolingo ABC, which uses funny, character-driven stories to teach phonics and sight words. Level up by delving into lessons on vocabulary or handwriting. My fifth-grade daughter is now using the regular Duolingo app to learn Spanish and Japanese so she can speak with her friends in the languages they use at home! Parents and kids alike can use this gamefied language learning app to earn points that unlock new levels. You can master any language from French to High Valyrian. You can use the app a lot to see rapid improvement, or move at your own pace if you're just doing it for fun.

ABCmouse

You can try ABCmouse free for 30 days, or pay monthly or annually for this app that teaches kids in preschool through age 8 a variety of subjects through games. ABCmouse boasts more than 850 lessons across 10 levels in subjects including reading, math, science, social studies, and art. Start with videos and songs, and then progress into books, games, and puzzles. Kids can choose to stay on a path or jump around: ABCmouse keeps them within the lessons that are appropriate for their learning level. Parents can track learning in different subjects within the app, and kids can earn tickets to buy virtual items as they reach certain achievement levels.

PBS Kids

If your kid loves Daniel Tiger, Wild Kratts, Molly of Denali, or any of the other fun PBS characters, the games in this app are great for them. Some of the games are very basic, like the Daniel Tiger Look Closely game, where kids click or tap on various items in the garden to see them closer up. Others are more complicated, including several story-making games and math games where kids count how many toppings they're putting on a pizza. Be aware, kids can also watch PBS shows in their entirety on this app, so check to make sure they're doing something interactive if that's what you were hoping to get out of this app.

The Teach Your Monster Apps

My daughter started kindergarten in 2020, and her teacher downloaded a bunch of apps onto their iPads to supplement their learning. The teacher could then work with kids in small groups while the others “played” in different breakout rooms on Zoom. One of the apps we really liked was the cutely animated Teach Your Monster to Read. The game starts with letter recognition (“feed your monster all of the Gs!”). Then it progresses into sounds that letters make, consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, and more.

Once you've Taught Your Monster to Read, you can also Teach Your Monster Number Skills (like counting, addition, and subtraction) or Teach Your Monster Adventurous Eating (which encourages kids and monsters alike to explore fruits and vegetables with all of their senses). Each version has a Starter, Confident, and Experienced level to help kids move through the lessons.

Endless Alphabet, Endless Numbers, and other Endless Learning Academy Apps

These are no longer free apps, but the Originator, Inc. series that started with Endless Alphabet brings learning to life for preschoolers. We got Endless Alphabet on our phones as soon as our kids were big enough to recognize letters. The app shows outlines of bubble letters, with colored letters scattered around the screen. Kids drag the colored letters to their corresponding bubble letters. The letter says its own sound as kids drag it. When all the letters are in place, a 10-second cartoon featuring cute little monsters plays, defining the word and using it in a sentence.

Since Endless Alphabet became popular, its creators have added Endless Numbers, which uses the same format for basic addition and subtraction problems, and Endless Reader, which has kids put words into a sentence.

Endless Spanish combines Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader but in Spanish. The new Endless Wordplay teaches concepts like rhyming and homonyms. You can get all of these apps together in Endless Learning Academy, which challenges kids to progress through thousands of lessons from all of the apps in a game-like fashion.

Epic!

I like downloading and reading books from my local library onto my Kindle, and I don't consider that using screen time for myself. Kids can read in a similar way by browsing tens of thousands of different books on Epic! There are more options for kids' titles than the standard local library, and you can choose an audiobook if you just want to listen instead of read. Epic! will provide reading recommendations for kids as they reach each next level of reading, and kids can look up words they don't know as they read. On the parent dashboard, you can see how many books they've read and what books they're interested in reading next.

Scratch Jr. and Scratch

Start the journey of learning to code with these apps geared at kids ages 5 and up. Scratch Jr. helps five- to seven-year-olds snap together pieces of code to make the characters in stories do different things, like run, jump or dance. Kids can modify their own characters to add voices or even photos of themselves using coding blocks to make the character come to life.

Once kids have mastered Scratch Jr., they can move on to Scratch. This is a simple coding tool that allows kids to create digital stories, games, and animations using coding blocks. Kids can post their projects, and others can modify or create their own pieces of the project, making Scratch a collaborative and creative platform for kids ages 8 and up.

Prodigy Math

This math-based game lets kids solve math problems to win battles with their opponents and complete quests to earn virtual items and rewards. Kids can battle their friends from class in the ever-evolving Prodigy world. The game's algorithm ensures that kids get questions that are appropriate for their education level. Parents can view reports on the progress their children have made within the game.

Swift Playground

Big kids who want to learn how to code can benefit from using Swift Playground. The app teaches kids coding in an interactive way, where the lines of code they write show up as images on the screen as they go. Learn commands, functions, loops, conditional statements, and more as you create your playground. Kids can eventually learn to code their own app. Or if they're just getting started, they can use the code to solve puzzles or create images. This app is recommended for ages 8 and up — younger kids might get frustrated using it.

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