5 Day’s Of Technology For homeschooling ~ Day 5 Android Apps
Apps can be a big help in your learning experience. I can easily find many lists of iPad apps for education, but it’s harder to find round up’s of Android apps! Since I own an Android tablet I would like to share some of the apps we’ve found both fun and helpful.
iAnnotate PDF is a great free PDF reader that also lets you write, highlight and make notes on PDF files. I like to load copies of PDF worksheets and notes then the children can fill them in using the writing tools in any color they want. This saves on printing!
LectureNotes (Trial Version) is an amazing Android app and the closest I can find to the well-known iPad Notability app.
The trial version is limited to 2 notebooks with 8 pages in each, but the full version is just a few dollars and on my wishlist! With this app, you can import images and PDF’s into your notebooks.
You can customize your page size, select what paper type you want blank, ruled, graph, etc., rearrange your notebook layout, export it as a PDF or export it to Evernote and so much more!
Evernote is something I use often and the app version is great too. One feature the app has that I find really handy is speech to text. I let the kids use this to record their narrations, then they can edit it to add more info.
This works great for struggling writers who always share more information when they talk but have a hard time writing it all down. Evernote is also a great way for children to clip and organize research into notebooks.
Kindle app is great for accessing your Amazon books on your tablet.
Sky Map is a really cool app from Google. It is an interactive map of the night sky. At night if you hold the tablet up to the sky it will show you what stars you are looking at. As you move the tablet around it adjusts to show you the new section. Very cool!
Multiplication Genius helps children practice their times tables.
Kids math is another fun math practice game that covers addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Read Me Stories: Kid's Books is a great app that reads storybooks to children. Every day a new storybook is added to their account.
Spelling Sea Word Game is a fun game with a “sea” of letters. You have to build words from the letters available.
What about keeping kids safe when they are using a tablet? After all, you really don’t want them to go on a Google Play store shopping spree or to be freely surfing the web. I’ve found the best solution for our family is KIDO'Z app. It’s a free android app that you can set to auto launch when the tablet is turned on. Parents set up a password to exit Kido’z or change its settings.
Kido’z lets you set up accounts for each child turning a single-user tablet into multi-user easily. It comes preloaded with great games, videos, and websites for children. All of these can be edited in the parent’s admin.
So if there is a website you don’t want your child using you can remove it. It also gives you the option to select other apps you have downloaded from Google Play to add to your child's account. Kido’z blocks Google services on startup so children can not access the store.
Well, that’s a few of my favorite Android apps. What are your favorites?
