Best Educational Apps for 4-year Olds

As any parent would agree, 4-year-olds are full of energy and curiosity. It’s at this young age that their brains are the most neuroplastic, with millions of neural connections being formed every day. According to experts in science and education, this time in a person’s life is the most conducive for learning.

4-year-olds have keen observation skills and are quick visual and auditory learners. They absorb information from their environments, and this young age is perfect for developing fundamental skills and laying down a solid foundation for learning.

Given today’s tech-savvy societies, many young children are exposed to smart devices like mobile phones and tablets. The best way to spend time with these devices is to make use of educational apps to lay down a foundation for future curriculums and build crucial soft skills.

Whether you’re a busy parent who wants to keep their children occupied or actively wants them to develop great foundations for creativity and self-expression, educational apps can be helpful.

These apps allow your kids to have fun while learning and help them hone important developmental skills. To save you the trouble, we’ve compiled a list of the Best Educational Apps for 4-year Olds across iOS and Android.

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1. Moose Math

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Moose Math is our top choice for your 4-year-olds to play and learn! With its wacky cast of characters and child-friendly design, this app takes your kids on a mathematical adventure. Through fun multi-level activities, your kids will be engaged in counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, and geometry!

Moose Math engages kids with puzzles and teaches them foundational math concepts. Your children can enjoy playing 5 multi-level activities in the Moose Juice Store, Puck’s Pet Shop, and Lost & Found. As they progress, they can earn rewards to help build their own city and decorate buildings.

This app introduces a new whimsical group of Duck Duck Moose characters, The Dust Funnies, who help your kids with mastering math skills.

Moose Math features 5 activities that teach math skills through fun games. Moose Juice lets your kids make smoothies while practicing counting, addition, and subtraction.

Paint Pet is a classic match game that teaches counting by matching pets. Additionally, Pet Bingo lets your child solve addition, subtraction, and counting problems to get BINGO.

Lost and Found lets them learn and sort through shapes and colors, while Dot to Dot teaches the chronological order of numbers by helping the Dust Funny find his way home by joining dots.

Using this app, kids will learn to solve word problems and develop algebraic thinking along with number pattern recognition. Other counting skills like letting your kids master counting up to 100. They also learn to add and subtract with numbers and dice. Basic geometry skills help them identify and recognize shapes.

The app also includes a Report Card section where parents and teachers can monitor progress and find additional skill-building activities. Each of these is personally tailored for your kid and ensures learning takes place at their own pace.

Moose Math is aligned with Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten and 1st Grade and is developed with the help of expert educators from esteemed universities like Stanford.

moosemath interface

Moose Math interface

The Good:

  • Complete math course based on standardized curriculum
  • No third-party ads or in-app purchases
  • Voice instructions for all games with helpful hints

The Not-so-good:

  • Occasional crashes in some version

Available on: iOS, Android

2. PBS Kids

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The PBS Kids Games app makes learning fun and safe with games featuring your kid’s favorite characters like Daniel Tiger, Wild Kratts, Donkey Hodie, and more!

Your kids can play hundreds of free educational games designed by experts and learn with their favorite PBS characters. Your child can play and learn with PBS Kids in both English and Spanish, thanks to familiar faces like Alma, Cat in the Hat, and Curious George.

With new games added weekly, you can be sure that your children will stay hooked and keep learning and having fun. They can build up their STEM skills with science, engineering, and math puzzles. These games are also geared to help with social concepts like kindness, mindfulness, and emotional development.

If your child is between the ages of 2 and 8, this app is the perfect playschool companion as it follows a curriculum-based library of games. With more than 200 different minigames, your kids can
explore mazes, solve puzzles, play dress-up, color, and more.

The app also lets you download games and play them anywhere on your device to keep the fun going offline. This is a great game with science, math, reading, and art games combined into a cohesive learning experience.

Using this app, your child will learn and play in a safe, kid-friendly interface, making preschool and early elementary education fun and easy.

PBS Kids interface

The Good:

  • Curriculum-based games to aid learning
  • Available in both English and Spanish
  • No ads or pop-ups


The Not-so-good:

  • No age-sorting feature for games

Available on: iOS, Android

3. Epic

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Epic! is a reading app that promises to inspire a lifelong love of reading in young kids. With over 40,000+ titles at their fingertips, your 4-year-olds will definitely find something they like!

Once you sign in with a free account, you can access a library of thousands of books, audiobooks, learning videos, and more. The app also has Read-To-Me books for younger audiences and books in Spanish, French, and Chinese.

Epic offers a huge variety of titles for kids from leading publishers like Scholastic, National Geographic, HarperCollins, and more. With tens of thousands of books and learning videos, there’s something for every age, interest, and reading level.

The app gives users personalized recommendations based on reading level and interests, so your child can always find what they enjoy. They also get cool badges and rewards to keep them motivated!

Epic School is another unique feature that is free for elementary school educators worldwide. Educators can use the award-winning digital library to supercharge reading and learning in classrooms. The app gives educators access to tons of high-quality, educational children’s books.

It also lets you create student profiles and assign books based on reading levels. More so, it offers seamless progress tracking between in-class and home reading

The app is free to use, but with a premium monthly subscription, you can unlock more features. The premium version also allows up to 4 child profiles on a single account, downloads for offline reading, and unlimited reading time.

The app is kid-safe and provides an interactive reading space that fuels curiosity and reading confidence by letting kids freely explore their interests. If you want your children to develop a love for reading from a young age, definitely give this app a try.

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Epic! Interface

The Good:

  • A vast library of curated books for children
  • Audiobooks and videos which are regularly updated

The Not-so-good:

  • Some features are locked behind a premium subscription

Available on: iOS, Android

4. Poptropica

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Poptropica transports your children into a magical virtual environment filled with adventure. This game helps young kids unleash their imagination and creativity and helps with the development of self-expression from a young age.

The game is filled with cool graphics, wacky characters, and other visual components that make it very entertaining for young minds. It also teaches crucial skills like reading, listening, and social interactions.

Once you start, Poptropica lets you pick a boy or girl for your character and design them. You can start reading the dialogue that appears in the cartoon speech bubbles. Exploration of your surroundings is as easy as tapping the screen to where you want to go.

To learn more about a mission, you can tap on different characters holding scrolls. You can also collect cool items you find on your missions and store them in your backpack. Your children can meet characters who can provide hints or present challenges, gather what is required, travel to different islands, and earn coins to spend on accessories.

As they board their very own blimp, the journey begins, and they can adventure through the unexplored islands while avoiding dangers like rocks and storms. The game also includes a detailed map, story quests, customizable characters, and an arcade filled with puzzles and minigames.

There are more than 80 fun characters that they can engage with throughout the course of the game, and the language used is friendly and informative.

Overall, this is a cool choose-your-own-adventure game where kids can explore islands, interact with players and build great social skills while enjoying the gamified UI that is easy to use.

poptropica interface

Poptropica interface

The Good:

  • Learning fused into games that don’t feel like a chore for kids
  • Unlimited exploration with no rules; gives children the freedom to learn at their own pace

The Not-so-good:

  • Requires membership for full access and contains in-app purchases
  • Potentially harmful as it gives children access to multiplayer games

Available on: iOS, Android

5. Montessori Preschool

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Based on the Montessori principles of hands-on learning, Montessori Preschool lets your child whizz through PreK and Kindergarten with courses that cover phonics, reading, writing, numbers, colors, shapes, nursery rhymes, coloring, and even coding!

Designed by certified Montessori teachers with years of classroom experience, it is a fun child-centered app, perfect for your 4-year-olds. Their robust curriculum teaches important math, literary and linguistic skills.

The math section covers counting, recognizing numbers, and tracing them. An introduction to addition and subtraction using Montessori materials is also available.

The app promotes early literacy that starts before learning to read, where children are exposed to sounds and train their ears to identify them before putting a name on a letter. In the Early Literacy class, children can start with fun sound games like “I Spy” and move all the way to reading comprehension.

The app also offers pre-coding and reasoning games to develop solid logic in young minds. The app features a collection of nursery rhymes, which children can learn along with the names of shapes and colors in a fun, interactive way!

Another cool minigame is the Nurse’s Station, where kids can help the school nurse take care of the school’s children and animals. Children have to recognize the patient’s symptoms and give them the right treatment.

The art section includes an introduction to colors as well as many drawing/coloring options and 4 games to learn the basics of music. The app is available in 8 different languages, and their Chinese course offers numbers, songs, vocabulary, and Chinese characters.

Parents and teachers also benefit from a tailor-made dashboard that tracks each child’s progress and suggests a personalized plan.

Whether they are a newcomer to the world of Montessori or a seasoned student, Montessori Preschool is sure to take your child on an enthralling journey!

Montessori Preschool interface

The Good:

  • A comprehensive Montessori environment to learn by doing rather than formal classroom teaching
  • Has a fun “reward“ system for increased motivation

The Not-so-good:

  • Requires a subscription for full access

Available on: iOS, Android

6. CodeSpark

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CodeSpark is sure to capture your 4-year-old child’s attention with its colorful design and fun games.

This app helps young minds develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills that can be applied to coding. And it does all of this through fun puzzles and images rather than boring words.

Aimed at kids aged 4 to 10, this app is perfect for KG students all the way up to 5th grade. Kids can learn through interactive activities, which are taught by cute characters called the Foos. These cartoons teach coding and problem-solving through creative exercises and challenges spread across 1000+ games and puzzles.

Your kids can use the programming interface and complete coding challenges to create their own games or animate stories. Once they’ve created a project, they can share it safely with other friends via the app.

Best of all, kids can operate the app without needing any help from an adult! The app is safe to use and does not have any ads or in-app purchases once you subscribe.

Another great feature is the Teacher Dashboard, which helps schools set up the app for classroom learning. This free service is based on a curriculum made by esteemed STEM universities like MIT and UCLA.

A free 7-day trial is available for parents who want to try its features before committing to a monthly subscription.

If you’re looking for a coding app that boosts creativity and teaches fundamental concepts of computer science along with math and reading, CodeSpark is for you.

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CodeSpark interface

The Good: 

  • Award-winning app with child safety features (COPPA certified)
  • Boosts creative confidence and teaches code through 1000+ gamified coding challenges
  • Access for up to three children per account and data can be synced across devices

The Not-so-good:

  • Requires a monthly subscription after the free trial is over.

Available on: iOS, Android

7. Kiddopia

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Kiddopia contains 1000+ play-based learning activities for curious little minds to learn and have fun. The app contains research-backed early education games that perfectly combine play, skill-building activities, and essential preschool curriculum, perfect for your 4-year-olds.

Math, Language, Creativity, Self-expression, Roleplaying- all these and more are covered by the app in a fun and engaging manner. You can watch your child play their way to a better understanding of preschool concepts and a better grasp of life skills.

Kiddopia takes children on colorful adventures with real-world challenges. Your child can be a doctor, a teacher, a chef, a farmer, a musician, an astronaut, an interior decorator, and more. This is a great app for independent learners to thrive.

Designed by teachers and tested by preschoolers, Kiddopia teaches kids important social and moral values. The UI is intuitive and COPPA-certified kidSAFE that requires zero supervision and causes no frustration in kids. There are no ads or in-app purchases, either.

From language and number-based activities to exciting games underwater and in outer space, the options for your kids are unending in this ever-evolving world. As they enjoy playing through puzzles and games, your kids will subconsciously develop perspective, creative thinking, academic skills, and self-expression.

Since Kiddopia is the brainchild of parents who know how precious a child’s early years are, the result is a great environment for children to learn, grow, and express themselves. We definitely recommend this app for your 4-year-olds to play and learn with.

Kiddopia games interface

The Good: 

  • Award-winning app with child safety features (COPPA certified)
  • Boosts creative confidence and teaches through 1000+ learning activities.

The Not-so-good:

  • Requires a subscription to use after the free 7-day trial is over.

Available on: iOS, Android

8. Duo ABC

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Featuring the friendly green owl, Duo, this app aims to teach kids spelling, pronunciation, phonetics, and the alphabet through a comprehensive phonics curriculum that feels like a game.

From preschool to second grade, this app will engage your kids with interactive stories and over 700 hands-on lessons. Duolingo ABC offers bite-sized lessons to help kids learn the alphabet, phonics, sight words, and vocabulary.

Lessons also include multi-sensory activities, such as tracing and drag-and-drop prompts. Interactive stories will teach your kids to read and build fluency. These wacky stories include engaging imagery along with words read aloud to kids while highlighting each word.

Fun mini-games and rewards work in tandem with the lessons, keeping kids motivated to learn while building confidence. This utilizes multi-sensory learning and can help your child learn to read independently.

The app features bite-sized lessons to help kids learn important language fundamentals. There are 10 different maps with hundreds of levels that give your kids a personalized learning experience.

Activities like letter tracing and interactive stories are suitable for even the youngest learners and perfect for your 4-year-olds to hone their reading and pronunciation.

The app is also completely free to use, with no payments or subscriptions required. Another cool feature is the offline learning mode. Whether you’re on a plane or in a restaurant, Duolingo ABC’s vast library of content can be used anytime, anywhere.

The best part is that it has been developed by a team of learning scientists, literacy specialists, illustrators, and parents to facilitate early learning in young kids.

If you’re looking for an educational learning app that offers immersive lessons to teach reading fundamentals, this is a perfect choice.

duo abc interface

Duo ABC interface

The Good: 

  • New lessons are added often, so there is always something new to discover
  •  No ads or in-app purchases to worry about

The Not-so-good:

  • Hard to find a content description for each lesson, so going back to a completed lesson may take some effort

Available on: iOS, Android

9. Monster Chef

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Monster Chef is a fun cooking game for kids, where young chefs can unleash their imagination and stir-up wacky monster food. Your 4-year-olds can enjoy the entire food making process – choosing the ingredients, mixing, cooking, frying, baking, and creating extraordinary monster dishes.

The app features a friendly cast of monsters that let you cook different cuisines and dishes. Each monster has preferences, and your child gets their own creative freedom to cook up whatever they like to feed the monsters.

They can choose from a variety of ingredients from a cupboard and feed them raw or combine them with other ingredients in the monster kitchen. If the monster likes the food, the Happy meter goes up; otherwise, they throw it up!

Your kids can feed the creatures and see what they like, try different dishes to figure out their taste, or cook up varied monster food! The app offers a variety of game mechanics adapted to your kids’ age and capabilities and is suitable for both boys and girls.

The game has a free version, but this has limited features. To unlock the full potential of this app and play the game unlimited, you’ll need to purchase a monthly subscription. This subscription gives you access to all games by the developer.

The game has no ads while playing, no accidental ad clicks, and no external interference. The UI is simple and child-friendly, along with great graphics and sound design. Overall, this is a fun app for your kids to play while learning the basics of cooking.

monster chef interface

Monster Chef interface

The Good: 

  • No ads or pop-ups to worry about
  • Boosts creative confidence and develops a culinary sense in kids

The Not-so-good:

  • The free version is limited
  • Requires a subscription to use the premium version

Available on: iOS, Android

10. LogicLike

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LogicLike advertises itself as a learning app for “Healthy screen time” for kids. It covers more than 40 topics ranging from math, reading, art, and logic and contains over 3500 puzzles.

You can choose the age range and learning goals and set them accordingly for your 4-year-old. Your child can then start solving puzzles that advance their thinking skills. Varied skills like maths, logic, pattern recognition, and spatial reasoning can be developed by using this app.

The games for children are designed with clear and simple instructions and visuals. The puzzles are intuitive and have voice-overs. All tasks have exciting images and hints that help children stay motivated and engaged.

Puzzles are smartly collected into games within the app. Completing the games step-by-step is like doing a learning course.

The app offers a trial to parents who want to test out the app before making a decision. Once you finish the free 3-day trial, the app requires a subscription to use further.

Subscribed members can use all the features, including access to a report card section that shows detailed analytics of your child’s activities. This is a great way to monitor their course progress and encourage them with certificates and rewards.

All the puzzles are a product of an experienced team of professional educators and psychologists. The app’s design and animations not only excite but also reinforce the learning effect.

logiclike interface

Logic Like interface

The Good: 

  • No ads or intrusive pop-ups 
  • Gives parents and educators detailed report cards to track progress

The Not-so-good:

  • Only free for a 3-day trial period
  • Requires a subscription to use the premium version

Available on: iOS, Android