Going on A Road Trip? Entertain Little Ones with These PBS KIDS Educational Apps!

Now that we are stuck in the house more than we expected, many families are turning to road trips to avoid going stir-crazy. On-screen entertainment is a must for long trips ... unless you enjoy hearing, "Are we there yet?" from the backseat. Parents can use these free PBS KIDS educational apps to engage little ones while tapping into their art, math, science, engineering and design skills. You'll find nearly 200 educational games that can be downloaded for offline play anytime, anywhere.

Here are a few examples:

• Scribbles & Ink, a character-driven interactive series that teaches kids, ages 4 to 8, drawing techniques as they move through six different worlds. Kids can let their imaginations run wild as they become part of the friendship between the beloved cat and mouse duo.
• The Daniel Tiger’s Storybooks app offers a library of interactive stories narrated by Daniel Tiger. The stories show Daniel learning life lessons, like sharing with friends and being a helper. Each book, available in English and Spanish, includes a familiar song, charming animations, and a simple game to encourage children to play about the theme of the story.
• NEW: The Cat in the Hat Invents mobile app encourages young children to learn more about STEM subjects through fun activities such as designing their own robots, exploring different worlds and navigating challenges. Developed with the Next Generation Science Standards in mind, this app allows players to use voice command when selecting specific tools to help characters Nick, Sally and the Cat in the Hat improve their robot.
  
• The Play and Learn Engineering app brings little ones the opportunity to design roller coasters and problem solve through the twists and turns of obstacle courses. It empowers Preschoolers to develop a better understanding of the world around them and experiment with new tools and techniques. This free app is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
• My personal favorite is Wild Kratts Rescue Run where you can run, jump, fly, and swim through 24 action-packed levels, rescue animals to unlock information about each one in the Creaturepedia, and face-off against villains to keep the animals safe from harm. Learn about animals and their habitats while using problem solving skills to choose different creature power suits, each with their own unique creature power.

Don't leave home without these free educational apps from PBS KIDS.

PBS KIDS for Parents Launches Play & Learn Engineering App

With distance learning growing across the country, you can count of PBS KIDS for Parents to help.

Developed through a collaboration with childhood experts, the PBS KIDS for Parents Play & Learn Engineering App is made to assist parents in helping three- to four-year-old children explore engineering concepts through play, both on screen and off. Users can design and test roller coasters, use simple tools to problem solve their way through an obstacle course, build clever contraptions to deliver food to hungry animals, and construct boxy towers to rescue a kitten from a tree. Activities include tips for parents to engage young players in conversation and extend in-app learnings to the real world. What a great parent-child engagement resource!

The app includes:

• Eight engaging games that encourage kids to design and test solutions to solve problems while exploring STEM concepts
• Parent section with English and Spanish localization helps to guide children’s learning while in and outside of the app
• Within the parent section are tips for how parents can engage with kids as they are playing the games in order to enhance learning

The app will be featured in the Amazon App Store, and is available in the iOS App Store, Google Play Store, and online at PBS KIDS.