5 STEM & Maker Apps & Games For Under $6 To Avoid Summer Slide

The number one thing that parents and educators worry about over the summer is the dreaded summer slide. While we want our kids to have a little break from school, it’s important to keep their brains engaged. What should you do to keep your kids from the summer slide and regressing academically on their summer break?

Traditionally, as the designated family vacation time, summer travel is a great way to teach kids about geography, culture and history. But what about getting your kids to invest a little bit in learning STEM, the hard sciences and math skills that are so important to quality academics and careers?

Not to worry, summer can be a great time to get you kids – especially young ones – to learn science, math and computer skills – especially while road tripping. And with new, highly successful gamification learning and apps, most kids don’t even know they are learning computer coding or physics.

Finding and using a few of these STEM-based, maker movement compatible games and activities can absolutely stall the summer learning slide and may even give your kids a leg up next year or even further down the road.

While you may want to spend a few minutes searching computer and STEM learning activities for the summer, here are a few ideas and options to get you started. Many of these are free – or less than $6.

 

5 STEM & Maker Apps & Games For Under $6 To Avoid Summer Slide

1. Lego Education – get kits for hands-on building mechanized robots and other tech and engineering marvels using Legos. And much, much more.

2. Simple Physics – an app that allows kids to build things such as skyscrapers and bridges using real physics and engineering and calculating cost considerations. Available for both Apple and Android.

3. Blokus – an easy, kid-focused app based strategy game that rewards strategic decision making and spatial awareness.

4. Tynker – introduce kids to the basics of computer coding with the leading app and learning platform for coding for kids.

5. Orienteering – an outside, map-based logic sport and game that’s more than a century old – teaching map skills and navigation.

Looking for more STEM apps? Here are some more of our favorites!

 

Smart Cycle Blaze Speed & STEMCode Karts – Pre-coding in PreschoolNancy Drew Codes and Clues Mystery Coding GameThinkrolls – Logic and Physics Puzzles for KidsThomas Edison’s Secret LabDNA Play – Create and Play with Funny MonstersBrain Jump