From trick-or-treating, to Thanksgiving feasts, to the sweet celebrations Christmas and Hanukkah, your kid will be exposed to a lot of unhealthy options this holiday season. Get ahead of it! November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Here are five mobile apps that empower young ones to understand the consequences of what foods they put into their bodies.
Eat-And-Move-O-Matic (Free)
Eat-And-Move-O-Matic is a fantastic app for elementary school students. Children can figure out how many calories are in common food items, and how much time they would have to spend walking, swimming or biking to burn those calories. For example, a fried egg roll is 189 calories, which is the same amount you’d burn by 57 minutes of light biking, 44 minutes of softball or one hour and one minute on a trampoline. Full of interesting facts and simple illustrations, Eat-And-Move-O-Matic is the perfect way to help children make healthy choices.
(Curated by Monica Burns)
Jump Jump Froggy (Free)
Jump Jump Froggy turns doing push-ups, hopping and sit-ups into four interactive games: Graph Hopper, Jump Froggy Jump, Pushing Ants and Sit Up Snake. Each exercise routine correlates to an animation on the iPad screen, which makes for a fun and challenging kid-friendly workout. This app teaches basic exercises to children and in entertaining fashion, and aims to promote Physical Education IQ. For example, in the game Sit Up Snake, your child holds the iPad as she or he performs as many sit-ups as possible in 30 seconds. The animated snake at the bottom of the screen moves one space with each properly executed sit-up. At the end of each round, the child has the option of doing more of the exercise or taking a break.
(Curated by Stephen Danos)
Cardiograph: Heart Rate Pulse Measurement ($1.99)
Enter student names and record their heart rate with this app. It’s so simple and easy to use – let the students do it themselves. They will be amazed as the app works to record their heart rate by resting their finger on the iPad’s camera. Have the students use the app to take their heart rate before and then immediately after an activity. Let them record how long it takes to have their heart rate return back to their resting heart rate. The more fit they are, the quicker their heart rate will return to their resting rate. Students will quickly learn the value of knowing one’s heart rate and how it relates to their personal fitness level.
(Curated by Karen Marshall)
Toca Doctor HD ($2.99)
Toca Doctor HD boasts an easy-to-use interface and stunning animated graphics. It’s designed perfectly for kids starting from a very early age and offers enough of a depth of puzzles to keep them interested, while teaching an overview about the human body. This app teaches just the basics of how the body works, through puzzles. Your kids can mend broken bones, kill infections and navigate the digestive path – all presented with fantastic eye-catching art.
(Curated by Chantelle Joy Duxbury)
Awesome Eats™ (Free)
Lots of games will capture your child’s attention but Awesome Eats from the Whole Kids Foundation will help them name every fruit and vegetable! This engaging, addictive sorting game will introduce healthy foods, and teach nutritional facts at the same time. With plenty of levels to master, Awesome Eats is a fantastic app to familiarize your children with healthy foods. They will walk away with an expanded vocabulary and interest in fruits and vegetables they may have never seen on the dinner table.
(Curated by Monica Burns)
(This content was originally posted at appoLearning.com.)