Grammar mistakes are common even for adults, so it’s no surprise that young students often have difficulty remembering all the rules! Check out these fun and educational grammar apps for kids.
What makes a good app for kids?
When it comes to educational apps for kids, we’re primarily looking for two things: educational value and, to put it simply, how much fun it is. The second one is extremely important for younger students, and the best apps will aim to find a delicate balance between educational gameplay and entertainment. After all, it doesn’t matter how densely educational an app is if your kids are too bored to use it!
Tutor Doctor’s favorite grammar apps for kids
There are tons of excellent grammar apps out there, so don’t hesitate to explore the app store on your own! If you need some help getting started, here are two of our current favorites:
- Duolingo ABC. Free! We’ve talked about Duolingo quite a bit on our blog, and for good reason – it’s fun, colorful, and highly entertaining. We love the way Duolingo features cute animal characters and highly interactive games to keep younger students engaged. Another great aspect of Duolingo ABC is how the app breaks up the gameplay with funny stories and sketches featuring the cast of characters. It has excellent gameplay progression, encouraging younger students to keep playing so they can “unlock” the next chapter! If we had to point out a limitation, it would be that older students may find this app overly childish or too easy. As a result, Duolingo ABC is recommended for kids ages 3-8!
- Grammaropolis. Free with limitations. Grammaropolis is really, really cool. We love old-school games thematically centered around a colorful town or city in which players are encouraged to explore, and that’s exactly how Grammaropolis is designed. Within the city of Grammaropolis, students have the option of visiting multiple different neighborhoods, each focusing on different parts of speech! The free version of the app includes “The Nouns” neighborhood, but it’s only $5.99 to unlock seven additional neighborhoods (which include adverbs, adjectives, and more). Grammaropolis also encourages tracking your progress with quiz scores and progression milestones. Our favorite parts were actually the catchy music videos featuring the numerous colorful characters (which kids are sure to love)! The app is recommended for ages 8-14.
Advice on grammar rules
As we mentioned earlier, it’s generally best for kids to understand the context behind grammar rules rather than memorizing and adhering to a strict “code.” Remember, these rules don’t always work consistently! “I before E except after C” may be a classic we all remember, but what about when you need to spell words like chief, ancient, species, or efficient? These are just a handful of the many exceptions to this classic rule!
