Headspace
Headspace is one of the best-known meditation and mindfulness apps. It was founded in 2010 by Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk whose voice still guides many of its core courses, and Rich Pierson.
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Joon
Joon is a chore and routine app for kids ages 6 to 12, built with kids who have ADHD in mind. It works as two linked apps. Parents use the Joon app to assign everyday tasks, which Joon calls Quests, such as brushing teeth, packing a backpack, or starting homework. Kids use a separate app, Joon Pet Game, where they adopt and raise a virtual pet called a Doter. When your child finishes a Quest, they tap it done in the game. You get a notification, check the work, and approve it or send it back with a note. Approved Quests pay coins that your child spends to feed, bathe, and level up the Doter.
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Mood Tools
Mood Tools, developed by MOOD, LLC, is a free mental health app for tweens and teens ages 9–17, offering 50+ evidence-based coping tools drawn from CBT, DBT, and ACT. Built for immediacy rather than scheduled sessions, it lets a child in the middle of a meltdown or a surge of anxiety find a useful tool within seconds.
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Crayola Create and Play
Crayola Create and Play is an app for children who want to make art on the go! After opening the app, the user can choose from several different art projects, including painting, coloring book pages, pixel art, and pet decoration. The app features several different Crayola products for users to create their masterpieces, such as colored pencils, crayons, glitter, paint, and stamps. The work created by the user is displayed in a “museum” where the crayon characters in the app can visit.
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Rebel Girls
Rebel Girls is an app designed for young girls to be introduced to stories of inspiring women from around the world. When the user opens the app, they simply scroll through the list of available stories and then select one that they would like to listen to. The app then plays an audio recording of the story, usually 10-15 minutes in length. The app also allows the user to favorite stories that they like and keep them saved together for future listening.
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Shonen Jump
Shonen Jump is an app that allows the user to access and read manga comic books using their mobile devices and online. The user creates a Shonen Jump account and is then able to browse through lists of available manga that have been translated into English.
When the user selects a manga series that they want to try, they click on it and can read the free chapters or pay for a subscription to unlock the whole series. For parents, Shonen Jump has created a rating system for each manga based on what age levels each series is appropriate for. If the user wants to check a series out later, they can click on the heart icon to add it to their Favorites list. Manga can also be downloaded to read at a later date.
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iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio allows users to listen to broadcast radio through an internet connection and is available on a wide variety of mobile and home entertainment devices. The app allows users to tune in to an enormous selection of broadcasts ranging from local music, news, and sports talk, to international events. Additional features include the ability of users to create custom stations based on music artists and songs, browse photographs and videos of artists, and save favorite stations for later listening. Users may also use the app’s recommendation system to search out music for nearly any situation.
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Instagram
Instagram is a fun tool for sharing classic or quirky looking photos instantly. The app has many different filter effects to choose from, allowing users to make their photos more unique and interesting. Instagram archives pictures like a blog space, where users can see the collection of all their photos, and can also follow photo streams of other users. Instagram can be linked to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and other social networking accounts, as well, with settings that allow users to select exactly where to post each photo. Captured photos can be saved to the device rather than shared, and accounts cana be set to private as to not publish photos openly to the web. While the simple interface makes Instagram easy enough to use for ages 6 and up, we only recommend allowing young children to use the app in junction with an account managed by a parent or guardian.
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Pinterest
Pinterest is a free content sharing social website where users can post images, recipes, poems, craft projects, and other creative ideas on “pinboards.” Users thematically organize their posts, or “pins,” to create a visually stimulating representation of their interests. Users often use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Users can also browse pinboards to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share similar interests.
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Minecraft
Minecraft is an open-world game unlike any other. Players are placed in a borderless, randomly generated land with no supplies, directions, or objective. It is up to them to decide what to do and how to do it. Players collect materials from the world around them in order to ‘craft’ items and build whatever their mind can imagine. The concept is similar to playing with LEGOs, only the amount of blocks is limitless.
