best educational games for 3 year old on ipad

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30 Teacher-Recommended IPad Educational Games for Kids

May 5, 2023 //  by  Brittany Ray

There is no doubt that tangible technology has more than made its presence in schools over the last two decades. Most toddlers know how to work a smartphone in all of its functions by the time they reach kindergarten. So if you are interested in growing your child’s cognitive, reading, math, vocabulary, or any other type of brain skills, check out these iPad educational games below!

30 Ipad Games to Increase Learning

1. zebrainy – abc kids game.

This game was initially designed for children between two and six years old. Zebrainy has over 700+ educational activities for kids that develop many different skill sets. Even better, the language this app uses aligns with what is taught through the Common Core State Standards.

Learn More: Zebrainy Limited

The Noggin app features digital games with all of your child’s favorite characters with a learning boost. Download games easily for that long car ride so they can still play basic math and letter games on the road. This app features anything from interactive videos to silly stories with their favorite pig.

Learn More: Nickelodeon

3. HOMER Learn & Grow

The HOMER Learn & Grow app focuses on the entire list of things you would want your child to be practicing. This app features math games, social and emotional learning activities , and reading skills-building games .

Learn More: Homer

4. Preschool & Kindergarten Learning Games

I have used this app with my kindergartener, and we love it! This app allows us to have bonding time working through different games together. Your child will practice observation skills by recognizing shapes and colors, cognitive skills through various puzzles, and vision through finding differences between scenes. Build your children’s brilliant brains with these cute characters and games.

Learn More: Rosi Mosi LLC

5. Dino Fun – Games for Kids

Elementary school kids are at the age where they like to start taking care of themselves. The Dino Fun app is the perfect game for kids where they can brush their Dino’s teeth, take care of them at the salon, and even potty train their dinosaurs! Also, the educational kid’s games here practice motor skills through learning to tie a virtual shoe and logical thinking skills with math games! One big plus about this app is that there are no pesky game ads!

Learn More: Avocado Mobile Inc.

6. Math Brain Booster Games

Ages: 4 – adult

If you want an educational game for kids and adults alike, then download the Math Brain Booster app. This game lets you practice everything from basic multiplication and addition to more complex math problems . Give yourself or your children regular quizzes on math concepts to help sharpen the mind. This app even allows time limits on certain activities to practice speed with different things, such as multiplication games.

Learn More: Kirill Dyakonov

7. Water Sort Color Puzzle

Your children will love the interesting challenge of sorting all colors so that one single color exists in each tube. This game also has the familiar sounds of pouring liquid which makes this app one for kids who enjoy sensory-type activities .  What’s even better is that this app is free!

Learn More: Vicenter Viet Nam Company Limited

8. State the States and Capitals

Ages: All Ages

Whether you teach preschool or high school, all kids need to know the states and capitals! There is an entire generation of kiddos needing this knowledge! Click on the state to see its name, the capital cities, state abbreviation, flag, famous landmarks, and more.

Learn More: Ecom Enterprises, Inc.

Your child can use this app to learn all about the great unknown from rocket ships to shooting stars. The NASA app features news and stories on space, over 20,000 space images, interactive 3D models, and other educational learning activities with soaring user reviews. Both children and adults can enjoy these enjoyable space learning activities .

Learn More: NASA

10. Wordle!

This app is all the rage with my students and my older children. Teasers on this app are challenging and will help take complex thinking skillset to the next level. Also, Wordle features a variety of puzzles to keep anyone entertained!

Learn More: Lion Studios Plus

11. Jigsaw Puzzles Game

My family loves puzzles. One thing I hate is constantly having to track all the puzzle pieces down. With this charming game, you will never lose another puzzle piece again. You can challenge your kid’s critical thinking skills by choosing puzzles with many pieces vs. only a few. The Jigsaw Puzzle app also has many puzzles to choose from.

Learn More: Easybrain

Nothing says arcade-style games like Tetris. This classic video game challenges anyone’s thinking skills and is fun to play. Take the basic shapes and maneuver them to fit just right to fit this puzzle and keep from hitting the top of the play screen.

Learn More: Play Studios

13. Vocabulary Builder by Magoosh

This is not your classic vocabulary game . The vocabulary builder allows your child to build their skill level with various vocabulary words to build an overall higher level of reading. This app is free and allows you to start at a basic level and work your way up.

Learn More: Magoosh

14. 1st Grade Math Learning Games

Help your child learn the basics of counting with Splash Math! Your child can also practice addition and subtraction , word problems , and more. The learning process is easy for your child and they will use strategic thinking skills in solving various problems.

Learn More: Study Pad, Inc.

15. Trace Letters & Sight Words

Letter recognition is the first step to being a successful reader. Have your child learn their ABCs in real-time by tracing the letters with their fingers, then sounding out the letter. Child developmental specialists also recognize the importance of recognizing sight words in conjunction with early reading success.

Learn More: Vu Dang

16. Little Stories: Bedtime Books

I know my little one loves to read stories before bedtime, and this app has so many cute ones. Your children can choose the story they want, have you read it, or have them read it to you. One great feature of this app is that the stories can be put into “story mode” where the app will read to your child.

Learn More: Diveo Media

17. Flow Free

This popular puzzle game will have your child challenging their motor skills in an interactive environment. Kids will match and pair colors, and race against the clock to solve various puzzles!

Learn More: Big Duck Games LLC

18. Scrabble GO!

Nothing says family game night like a game of Scrabble Go! This app is free and has a few pesky game ads. Also, the learning process for Scrabble has never been easier than with this app. Put your vocabulary skill level to the test with Scrabble GO!

Learn More: Scopely, Inc.

19. June’s Journey: Hidden Objects

June’s Journey is one of the best and most challenging hidden picture games in the app store. Find the matching objects, follow the story, and search for hidden objects and clues. Also, I love object searches because they are challenging and test various skill levels.

Learn More: Wooga

20. Candy Crush Saga

All of you self-proclaimed shape gurus can potentially attest to the challenging concept of this game! My little one loves playing this game with me. This matching game allows my child to match colors, shapes, and sequence patterns. While this game does promote in-app purchases, you do not have to purchase anything to play.

Learn More: King

21. The Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail was an essential childhood rite for Millenials! This adventure game allows your child to learn the history of those traveling across the U.S.A in a covered wagon, all while having a ton of fun.

Learn More: Gameloft

22. US History Trivia 

Learn about American History in a fun and challenging way with this trivia app. Whether you have a history test coming up, or you just want to know about the founding fathers a little bit better, this is a fun and engaging trivia app.

Learn More: Google Playstore

23. Project Makeover

Learn self-care and individual style through this fun digital makeover app. Let your creative whims of fashion take you wherever you would like by styling various characters.

Learn More: Magic Tavern, Inc.

24. Pizza Maker Cooking Games

While the age says 4+, I believe this is a toddler-friendly app. Your child will have so much fun creating their pizza by virtually chopping ingredients, putting together their pizza, and eating it.

Learn More: Pazu Games Ltd

25. Google News

Have your older child understand the world by having them look at Google News Daily Headlines. This app will keep both you and your child up on current events and allow them to have a greater understanding of influential societies around the world. Check out our list of teacher-recommended reading websites for kids .

Learn More: Google LLC

26. Idle Human

Learn amazing facts about the human body with the Idle Human app. Your child will learn about all the bones, organs, and even how bacteria and viruses can affect the body.

Learn More: Green Panda Games

27. Shapes! Toddler Kids Games

Calling all children who are shape gurus, they will love the engaging challenge of finding and learning new shapes.

Learn More: Gennadii Zakharov

28. QuizzLand. Quiz & Trivia Game

Solve puzzles, compete against others, and complete your mission. This game will certainly challenge your knowledge retention.

Learn More: MNO Go Apps Ltd

29. Piano Academy

If you are wanting your child to learn piano, then download this app. It is totally free and your child will feel like they have an entire recording studio to compose their musical masterpieces.

Learn More: Yokee Music

30. Schulte Table

Have kids speed read, challenge their vision skills, and increase their mental agility with this speed reading app. The lightning-fast challenges in this app will make your child smarter and faster.

Learn More: Artem Tselikov

Best iPad Apps for Children age 3 to 5 Reviewed

Kids aged 3 to 5 love stores, love creating, love experimenting.  Their language skills and numeracy skills are developing quickly and they're picking up new words (and concepts) daily. The iPad is great for children aged three to five because of it's tactile nature (you have to hold it).  iPad  provides instant-feedback during times of fast learning.   The best iPad Apps for children's education. Our latest reviews are listed firsts, and go back in time from there.

Storybook adventure for toddlers, young children and special needs, with lots of interactivity, music and colour!

Toddler touch and watch app that is beautiful, creative and totally fun!

Simple app perfect for early readers with multiple choice answers to fully engage your child!

Excellent educationally based pre-school app that has so much variety, one app covers it all!

Create your own clothing designs, from 4 different garment types and hundreds of decoration possibilities!

Host a birthday party for 3 guests with your choice of decorations, present and cake!

Totally comprehensive Learn to Write app with excellent work records and statistics by child.

Excellent, easy to use, shop-keeper simulation app for toddlers, young children and special needs fun!

Create your own Tea Party for 3 guests, serve tea, juice and a variety of cakes and biscuits.

Decorate Christmas Trees with baubles, lights, decorations and presents...fun and relaxing with a selection of Christmas music!

A beautiful, colourful, environmentally conscious games app created with crochet.

Excellent book using a well known song. Cute imagery and plenty of fun activities for toddlers, young children and special needs.

Unleash your creativity and create a unique vehicle each time from hundreds of parts!

Great pirate adventure story with games and activities to engage!

Gizmo the mouse lives on his own on the moon and is only interested in greed and selfishness until a visit to Earth teaches him the importance of friendship and sharing!

Learn upper and lower case letters, phonics, and words by sight in this excellent educational app for learning to read and spell.

Totally comprehensive App for learning how to write letters, numbers and shapes suitable for pre-school children upwards.

Excellent fully comprehensive alphabet learning app for young children and toddlers.

An excellent creativity app to make, bake and decorate all shapes of cakes with literally thousands of options!

Awesome App to Design your own clothing including style, fabric, finishing touches and accessories.

Excellent, easy to use animation studio with shapes, great educational and fun App for children of all ages.

Short stories with Pango and friends. This book features building a space rocket, a play at the park, putting on a magic show, cleaning up and a starry night.

This novel book is unique and educational, your child controls the story and it's different each time!

Minecraft is one iPad Apps that makes using an iPad extraordinary.

Simple to use creative App helping your child to construct their own submarine and launch it into the ocean!

A perfect App for toddlers learning to identify animals, vehicles and their accompanying sounds.

Find the animal, colour, shape or object from the selection or play the Matching Game...perfect for toddlers, young children and special needs teaching.

Excellent game with 5 skill levels for learning to read, spell and recognise letters all while having fun building an launching your custom designed rocket!

Learning maths have almost never been so much fun!

This is a colourful and lively educational App for toddlers with colour, size, letter and shape recognition as well as simple counting, puzzles and reward stickers.

Brilliant educational app for learning the concept of balance

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Top 10 iPad Education Apps on the iTunes Store

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Our 7 Favorite Free iPad Apps for Toddlers

iPad games, activities, learning, and entertainment for toddlers

• University of Texas at Arlington

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.

The Apple iPad is an excellent educational tool for kids of all ages. If you have little ones, free iPad apps for toddlers can entertain, engage, and educate safely and securely. We selected our 7 favorite free iPad apps for toddlers, rated according to design, educational content, and appeal. Try them out the next time you need a few distraction-free moments.

Before you download apps, child-proof your iPad. Turn off in-app purchases to keep your toddler from accidentally buying something within the app.

For a Variety of Content: YouTube Kids

Kid-friendly, algorithm-curated content from YouTube.

Create an age-appropriate profile for each child.

Hand-pick channels for kids.

The algorithm allows some inappropriate content.

The content contains ads.

Need to monitor kids' viewing choices.

The free YouTube Kids iPad app delivers a selection of kid-friendly channels that range from Sesame Street and Peppa Pig to educational and music videos. Its best feature is voice-enabled search, which helps kids perform searches and find videos on their own.

Parents set controls for each child's profile, so it's important to select Preschool to enable the right content settings for little ones.

YouTube Kids features unboxing videos, which are videos of a toy being unpacked and played with. These videos are appealing to children and may introduce them to new toys they think they need.

The app is kid-safe. It has ads, but ads are limited and enable the service to be free of charge.

Enjoy YouTube Kids on the web at  YouTubeKids.com .

For Creative Play: Trucks HD by Duck Duck Moose

Toddlers and older kids will love this app.

This app has won parenting and industry quality awards.

Music is engaging and not annoying.

There's only an iPad version, so you can't play it on your iPhone.

Trucks HD is one of a series of excellent free iPad apps by Duck Duck Moose. This award-winning creative play app introduces your toddler to a variety of trucks, highlighting each truck's activities with games that teach problem-solving, sorting, sequencing, and more. For example, take the garbage truck for a spin and learn about recycling and composting. Use your tow truck to fix a flat tire, and create a car and truck parade.

For Learning Farm Animals: Peekaboo Barn Lite

An award-winning game.

Play with no Wi-Fi or internet.

No ads or in-app purchases.

Must upgrade to the full version to gain more features.

This free iPad app is a sweet and carefully crafted interactive learning game for the youngest app users. Listen to animal sounds coming from the barn, and tap to find out which animal it is. The animation is beautiful and will help your little one learn animal names, sounds, and cause-and-effect scenarios.

For Learning About Music: Musical Me! by Duck Duck Moose

Unique games teach musical principles.

Learn about drums, cymbals, triangles, maracas, and egg shakers.

The app has won multiple quality awards.

Some of these songs might get stuck in your head.

Featuring Mozzarella the Mouse as a guide, this free iPad app for toddlers features 14 popular children's songs while teaching little ones about notes, pitch, rhythm, and more. Play instruments, create songs, and learn how to read music notes while engaging in age-appropriate games.

For Kids' Videos: PBS KIDS Video

Livestreams of educational videos and PBS shows.

Familiar PBS characters.

Stream full episodes or video clips.

The content is ad-supported.

Children love watching videos, but that doesn't mean they should browse through Netflix or Hulu. The free PBS KIDS Video iPad app lets kids choose videos on their own while giving parents peace of mind.

Kids have access to thousands of free videos, including episodes and clips, featuring favorites like Curious George , Sesame Street , Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood , and more.

PBS also has a PBS Parents Play and Learn app that kids may enjoy.

For Multiple Activities: The Wheels On The Bus Musical

The app offers 12 fun games.

It's an interactive sing-along.

The coloring book, puzzles, and memory match are great learning tasks.

The app is free to download. However, to get the most out of it, you need the in-app purchases.

The free iPad app The Wheels On The Bus Musical is a delightful combination of games, activities, and entertainment for toddlers. A favorite activity for many kids is the coloring book, which lets a child tap a color, and then tap the drawing to paint an area automatically.

Download and use the app for free. You'll need to purchase the full version for $7.99 to take advantage of all the puzzles and activities. More song packs and puzzles are available for $3.99.

For Social-Emotional Learning: Peek a Zoo by Duck Duck Moose

Kids will learn social and emotional cues.

The amazing jazz versions of nursery rhymes.

Interactive play.

You may find yourself humming jazz kids' tunes all day.

Peek-a-Zoo is another excellent free toddler iPad app from Duck Duck Moose. This app combines lovable animals with subtle clues about emotions, actions, and sounds, all surrounded by jazz versions of favorite children's tunes. Toddlers will learn about social-emotional cues, such as smiling, crying, and being sad or surprised, while enjoying this award-winning game.

How Much Screen Time Should Your Toddler Have?

Expert recommendations on screen time for children have changed over the years. It's currently advised to limit screen time for kids aged 18 months to 2 years to educational programming watched alongside adults. For children between the ages of 2 and 5, experts advise limiting non-educational screen time to about an hour a day on weekdays and three hours on weekend days.

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