If you’re not on back-to-school overload just yet, I wanted to dedicate this #techtuesday post to something that will make your life during this school year, just a little bit easier! Whether you’ve got kids that are new students or ones that are a bit older, these apps will help your kids:
- study for and ace their tests
- improve grammar and sentence structure
- keep up on and track homework assignments
- brush up on their new foreign language
- keep up in their harder classes or subjects
Apps aren’t the whole answer but these are my favorites. I even use them! Heaven forbid I can’t help my kids with their 5th-grade math!
So without further ado, here are my top picks.
Introducing Back-To-School Apps
Quizlet
This is the one app that will make your kids study time as easy, fun and effective as possible. They can create their own study materials (flashcards, tests, games) or browse through its vast library of materials created by other users (especially useful if they’re older).
For those who struggle with the old fashioned textbook study strategy, Quizlet proves to be an ideal alternative for the fact that it supercharges the learning experience with both audio and video components. There’s even an offline study feature that lets your kid use the app while they’re on the go with no internet connection.
When your kid’s done studying, he or she can switch to “test” mode to make sure they’ll ace the quiz!
SHOP BOYS BACKPACKS
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Grammaropolis
Called the “SchoolHouse Rock” for the next generation, Grammaropolis is an interactive grammar app that works on developing knowledge of parts of speech. Remember the D.O.L.? The Daily Oral Language practice that was on the board when the teacher took roll call? Well, turns out, those didn’t work that well at teaching sentence construction. Go figure. It just taught us to be proofreaders. But are you that good of a proofreader if you can’t construct a proper sentence? I feel like this is a chicken and egg problem.
With Grammaropolis, each part of speech plays an animated character indicative of their function in the sentence. As your kid moves through the app, they can watch story-based videos that depict the role of types of words within sentences. Also, the app contains 100+ quizzes to test skills as they progress.
At least when my kids are in high school and forging my signature on late notes they won’t embarrass me by using poor grammar.
MyHomework
Your kid has no more excuses for not doing and turning in homework. They can now take all their homework and schedule planning to the digital world with the myHomework app.
Not only is it incredibly powerful and intuitive to use, but its basic model is free and allows them to track their assignments, get due-date reminders, receive rewards for completing homework and more. If your kid’s tech-friendly teacher uses the companion site, Teachers.io, assignments can even appear automatically in their feed.
There is an upgrade available for $4.99, that will unlock access to more theme options, a file attachment feature, enhanced app widgets, and external calendar access.
Duolingo
It’s a free language app featuring over 22 languages that allows your kid to study their new language! Jr. High is exciting because that’s usually when you choose to take your first language. But learning a new language is hard and a little after-school studying can go a long way! This app includes mini-lessons that track your kid’s progress. And there is even a function for teachers to track their students’ progress.
Or, you as a parent can learn alongside your kid as they pick up their new language skills. That way, you’re never left out of the loop.
MY FAVORITE TECH ACCESSORIES
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Khan Academy
Your kids can sharpen their skills outside the classroom with this interactive app, which offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and in-depth articles on a variety of school subjects. It’s great for keeping skills sharp during school breaks, prepping for standardized tests, or even if you’re looking to brush up on the basics (are you smarter than a 5th grader?).
Topics covered include math, science, computer programming, history, economics, and more. Users have personalized accounts to watch instructional videos and practice the material covered. And as a bonus, this app has been shown to increase students’ grades and standardized testing scores!
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School can be tough, even for the smartest students (and parents). Honestly, I feel like sometimes I’m going to school right along with them! So download these apps and help a kid (and yourself) out! Tell me how it goes.
Xx Tara
P.S. got any apps I need to check out? Tell me below!
For math practice my kids LOVE Prodigy. Their teachers use it at school and they can earn time to play it, and they always beg to play it at home too. They have to solve math problems to get power to fight battles. They can’t get enough!
I love this! Prodigy is awesome – I need to add it to this list.
Do you have any app recommend rations for spelling test?
I would use quizlet! I’ve also heard that My Spelling List is really good as well – it’s $1.99 in the app store!