Apps to Help With Homeschooling

Whether you’re completely committed to homeschooling or supplementing your child’s online education, chances are pandemic-induced social distancing measures may have you taking on an unexpected role as a teacher.

Fortunately, technology is here to help aid you as an educator. We’ve found a number of learning-focused apps to challenge and reward students of all ages—and to give parents some much-needed respite.

 

Math Board

Designed specifically for classroom use, Math Board is an essential arithmetic app that covers a wide range of age and skill levels. Focused on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as squares, cubes, and square roots, Math Board can be useful for those just learning the basics all the way up to middle school students.

 

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Math Board allows parents to pair the app directly to their child’s skill level and it will automatically generate quizzes, timed or not, to test proficiency and push growth. The app even has a Problem Solver mode that will outline the exact steps needed to solve an equation—a useful tool when learning to “show your work.”

Math Board is available on Apple devices (phones, tablets, computers) or Windows products (phones, tablets, computers, X Box) for $4.99, with a free trial available on Windows devices.

 

Homer

Built for children ages 2 to 8, Homer looks to foster early reading skills and grow a love of reading. When parents start their child’s Homer account, they pair the child’s current reading level with their subject interests (animals, sports, dinosaurs, et cetera) and Homer builds a personalized learning plan for that child, with lessons that speak to their interests and ability. As the child progresses through their lessons, Homer automatically ups the difficulty of the activities, enabling the user to grow in their literacy—and with more than 1,000 lessons, stories and activities, students will have no shortage of opportunities to grow.

 

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Homer is available, free to download, in the Apple App Store, the Google Play store and the Amazon Appstore. Homer offers the first month for free, but if users would like to continue with the app, they will need to pay a $7.99 monthly subscription fee.

Duolingo

For parents looking to introduce a second (or third!) language into the curriculum, Duolingo is one solution. Built for all ages—from children to centenarians—the popular language-learning app is available for iOS, Android or even through your web browser, and offers instruction in 38 languages, from Spanish to Chinese to Arabic to High Valyrian.

 

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Educating through a process of gamification with immediate rewards for correct answers, Duolingo is an entertaining way to boost vocabulary and the written and spoken proficiency of a foreign language.

Duolingo is free to download and use, but users can upgrade to Duolingo Plus for $6.99/month for an ad-free experience and additional benefits.

Lightbot

Parents looking to give their kids a leg-up on the language of the future should consider installing Lightbot. This all-ages puzzle game teaches users the programming logic behind coding, introducing the concepts of sequencing, overloading, procedures, recursive loops and conditionals through easy-to-grasp gameplay.

 

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Available in 28 languages, Lightbot features 50 levels and 20 challenges for first-time coders to complete and expand their knowledge of foundational coding concepts.

Lightbot is available in the Apple App Store, the Google Play store and the Amazon Appstore for $2.99.