How to Choose the Best Apps for Your Kids
Sometimes it can feel really hard to keep your kids occupied, especially when school is out. When this happens, we typically reach for our tablets, phones or other devices for our kids to play with when they’re bored. This can be the easiest option, but it can raise other questions, like how do we know if the apps they are using are safe and kid-friendly?
It’s not easy to figure out, especially if you’re a busy parent who juggles, work, school or multiple kids. Setting aside time to research and test kid-friendly apps might be impossible from a time perspective, especially when there are thousands of new apps being released every single day.
How do we make sense of the best options out there in a sea of cleverly marketed products?
Simple Tips To Get Started
You can get started by reading manufacturers instructions in the app stores. Before downloading, you can check how the manufacturers specify the intended age groups for their products. Scanning the reviews from these apps will also help give you some anecdotal information about how appropriate the app is for children.
The downside of this research is that oftentimes manufacturers don’t have the best intentions at heart – instead of specifying honest intended age-groups or other information, manufacturers will input vague or unreliable information to encourage more downloads. Similarly, app store reviews are not always as reliable as we might want – sometimes they can be influenced by the manufacturer through in-app incentives and discounts.
Another option is to speak to other parents for recommendations on useful apps or digital products they have found or use with their children. This can also be an easy route to reliable information for parents.
A Faster Way of Finding Apps
Reading manufacturer instructions and getting parental feedback from friends are a good start, but aren’t without their drawbacks. Luckily, there is now a new tool at hand for parents to find the best apps for their kids – Smart Bubblegum.
Smart Bubblegum is the world’s first online platform and resource for parents, teachers and kids that provides unbiased, neutral information about the best apps, resources and products out there for your children. When you log into Smart Bubblegum, you can immediately search for apps according to age range, subject and level for your kids. Smart Bubblegum then provides you with detailed reviews and reports so you can see at a glance whether or not an app is suitable for your child.
Our team is made up of educational specialists, teachers and parent reviewers who are united by a passion to provide teachers and parents the tools to enhance and customize each child’s internet usage and education. We’re dedicated to positively impacting each child’s experience with the online world, by providing you with all the information you need to decide whether an app is suitable or not during screen time.
Using Smart Bubblegum makes it easy to understand what apps to download for your children and why. Try Smart Bubblegum today with one month of free access!