Spooky season is an exciting time for families. Plenty of parents want to help their kids embrace Halloween in as many ways as possible, so app developers have been busy creating some great apps that are not only fun, but also educational. Keep reading to find out about six free Halloween-themed educational apps for kids.
1. Color by Numbers - Halloween (4+)
Color by Numbers - Halloween gives kids a chance to get creative, without any mess! It offers three different pictures that kids can paint for free. The settings are customizable in lots of ways, and there are easy, normal, and hard versions of each image available (easy is pictured above).
The Color By Numbers - Halloween app is a great way to get young kids familiar with numbers and colors.
As your kids become more confident with the numbers, you can adjust the settings so each section shows a math question, and the answer is the color they need to use. You can also adjust the settings so that your child paints by letters or shapes, so there's lots of potential learning on offer.
This app also helps kids to improve their hand-eye coordination. The full version of the app contains 12 additional images, so if your kid loves painting, you can unlock those for a few dollars.
Download: Color By Numbers - Halloween (Free, in-app purchases available)
2. Halloween Games for Kids! (4+)
Halloween Games for Kids is packed with spooky-themed activities. Kids can unleash their creative side, designing a pumpkin face of their own, before practicing spelling lots of Halloween-themed words, including Cat, Kids, and Fairy. The letters needed for each word are shown on-screen, and you have to drag the letters into the correct order.
The Halloween Math game offers sums using the numbers 0–5 for free. You can pay to unlock higher numbers. In the free version, you are shown four Cauldrons with a different number written on each. Five ghosts are hovering above, and each has a different "dice face" on its tummy. You have to match the dice face with the cauldron to progress through the game.
Next up, there's a tracing letters game, which is unlocked after you've played the other free games for a while. Your child traces the outline of each letter of the alphabet, in turn, to proceed to the next one. To keep with the Halloween theme, the images within this mini-game are "spooky."
There are lots of other games available within this app, but they all require in-app purchases to enjoy them.
Download: Halloween Games for Kids! (Free, in-app purchases available)
3. Yasa Pets Halloween (4+)
The Yasa Pets Halloween app is a role-playing game, based on all the ways kids enjoy October 31. You begin inside a spooky house, which is decked out for a Halloween party. You can interact with lots of the items within the house, and even dress the characters, as you walk around the scene. Once you've had enough of being indoors, you can head outside and knock on houses to play Trick or Treat.
Apps like Yasa Pets Halloween encourage social skills development, imaginative play, and are a great way to open dialog to discuss children's fears or worries around Halloween. You can choose to pay a few dollars to get rid of the ads, but all the game's content is available for free if the ads don't bother you.
Download: Yasa Pets Halloween (Free, in-app purchases available)
4. Hey Duggee: The Spooky Badge (4+)
The Hey Duggee: The Spooky Badge has been created for fans of the BBC children's show Hey Duggee. The app begins by letting the player select a character. Once you've decided which "squirrel" you want to be, you get to design their spooky ghost costume. Next, you're asked to carve your pumpkin, within the app.
After giving your pumpkin a spooky look, your characters are turned into a short, Halloween-themed Hey Duggee animation. This app is brilliant for younger kids. It's a great way to improve their hand-eye coordination, practice their fine motor skills, and show off their creativity.
Download: Hey Duggee: The Spooky Badge (Free)
5. Monster Dentist School (4+)
The Monster Dentist School app is a brilliant way to teach kids the importance of good oral hygiene. You are essentially Frankenstein's Monster's dentist, and it's down to you to look after the monster's teeth. The app features lots of tools you'd find in a real-life dental surgery, and there's a steady stream of ghoulish patients, who need their teeth fixing.
If your child isn't a fan of cleaning their teeth, this app shows them what can happen when teeth aren't looked after. As the dentist, you need to brush, floss, and polish your patient's teeth. If any of them have already gone bad, you have to extract the tooth with pliers, then fit a false one. Once your patient's teeth are squeaky clean, you can fit braces to help straighten their smile.
The in-app purchases let you buy equipment in different colors, get rid of the ads, and help prevent further accidental downloads or purchases.
Download: Monster Dentist School (Free, in-app purchases available)
6. Countdown to Halloween (4+)
If your child is really excited about Halloween, this app is perfect. It allows them to clearly see how long is left until Halloween, and it's a great way to familiarize younger kids with the concept of dates and the passing of time.
The app allows you to upload your own photo so the countdown can be personalized. The confetti cannon at the bottom of the screen fires spooky confetti all over your screen when you tap it, and you can also share the daily display straight to your phone contacts or social media if you want to.
Download: Countdown to Halloween (Free)
Educational Fun For Kids
No matter what season is approaching, chances are you'll find some great free educational apps for your kids to enjoy. It's always worth checking the reviews before you download them, to make sure the apps are updated to the current iOS, and that other users have enjoyed them—but we did that for you with all of these apps.
So whether you want educational Halloween apps or free Christmas apps for kids, there are lots to choose from.