By Tracey Dowdy
Has the phrase “Don’t believe everything you read” ever been truer than it is today? I don’t think so. Whether it’s a post gone viral about the life saving power of coconut oil or a spiteful comment on an Instagram photo, the power of words is as great, if not greater, than ever.
The amount of information available online is staggering and many people lack the judgement to determine what’s fact and what’s fiction. My friend Todd is a university professor and the number of students that cite Wikipedia articles as their source material falls somewhere between disappointing and frightening.
As parents raising 21st century kids, we need to start teaching critical thinking skills from an early age. Not only will this help our children to discern fact from fiction online, but these skills will transfer to real-life situations and enable them to problem solve in all areas of their lives.
The following apps teach critical thinking skills from a number of different approaches:
Busy Shapes
Busy Shapes is far more than an app designed to recognize shapes and name them, it teaches spatial relations and how the shapes relate to one another and the space around them. The focus isn’t on rote memorization – toddlers must use early critical thinking skills to manipulate shapes and move them through puzzles. Play difficulty increases at each level and moves quickly to keep kids engaged.
Platform: iOS
Price: $1.99
Clockwork Brain
Clockwork Brain is a series of brain-building puzzles aimed at improving cognitive abilities in six specific areas: memory, perception, language, logic, reflexes and calculation. Games are fast-paced to keep kids engaged and, because play is fun and energetic, kids will want to play often creating a habit of daily brain-training.
Platform: iOS, Kindle Fire
Price: Free download, in-app purchases
Winky Think Logic Puzzles
Winky Think Logic Puzzles is a series of games and challenges that provide kids with problem solving, logic, memory, eye-hand coordination and other skills. With over 180 puzzles that gradually increase in difficulty, kids will develop their logic and reasoning skills and, because no reading is required, games are user-friendly for kids as young as six.
Platform: iOS
Price: $2.99
Brain Jump Pro
Brain Jump Pro was developed by teachers and neuroscientists to show kids our brains can get stronger by constantly challenging them. Ned the Neuron will guide kids through three different games with 54 different levels of challenges that develop concentration and memory skills. Plus, the app includes a Brain Science section that parents and kids can explore together.
Platform: iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
Price: $2.99
Brainbean
Brainbean challenges kids through puzzles, memory and other educational games. Each game intuitively adapts to match users’ creative capabilities and offers a fun challenge to build confidence, test memory, improve resourcefulness, and boost critical thinking. Because challenges are designed to stretch cognitive and creative skills, no matter what learning style works best for your child there’s bound to be a game or puzzle that stimulates their brain and ultimately improves their critical thinking skills.
Platform: iOS
Price: $0.99
Apps are merely a tool and nothing works better than making those critical thinking skills part of everyday life. Teach your kids to be critical thinkers with what they see, make sure they check their source, and remember, if something appears too good to be true, it very likely is. As Abraham Lincoln might have said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet!”
Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Toronto, ON. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances and researches on subjects from family and education to pop culture and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.
Chantal is located in Ottawa, Ontario. She is passionate about everything related to the World of Work: Leadership, HR, Social Media and Technology. You can read more from Chantal at her 
Toca Life: Town is an open play environment that lets kids interact with characters in a town that includes a home, an apartment, a restaurant, a store, a police station and a park. All the locations cross over, allowing kids to shop at the grocery store then go home and put their purchases away or go out to eat at the restaurant and then come home to their apartment and go to bed. Play is only limited by a child’s imagination and the colorful diversity of the characters is an especially refreshing touch.
Peg + Cat Big Gig uses creativity and music to let preschoolers sing and dance their way to better math skills. Kids can sing along with Peg and Cat or create their own stage show with disco lights, fireworks and back-up singers, while learning number and pattern recognition, counting by ones and twos, and practice using ordinal numbers.
Toca Robot Lab is another great app from the creative team at Toca Boca. Kids use tools and found items along with their imagination to build robots then can then fly around the robot test track. Kids learn basic recycling, engineering, and construction principles all while having a blast by being creative.
Monument Valley is an MC Escher-inspired puzzle game that warps the world and its architecture. Users guide a princess through a silent world by dragging and turning parts of certain buildings to create a path from one part of the landscape to another or by stepping on specific tiles they can suspend gravity and climb walls. The whole point of the game is to stretch your imagination so things are possible in the game that aren’t possible in the real world.
GoldieBox and the Movie Machine is from the creators of the GoldieBlox engineering toys designed to level the playing field and inspire kids to be creative while piquing their interest in science. With Movie Machine kids can get step by step directions to create their own stop motion movies either by starting from scratch or by choosing a template and building from there. Kids will pay attention to detail and learn problem solving skills as they use their imaginations to create their movies.
Intro to Math offers kids a comprehensive look at fundamental math concepts like comparison, sequencing, units and wholes, even and odd, and symbols. Kids learn to read, write and understand numbers from 0-9, learn problem-solving and develop fine-motor skills.
Starfall ABCs is the app-based version of the popular Starfall website. Kids see, hear and interact with words to learn upper and lower case letters, phonics, and develop vocabulary skills. The app focuses on positive reinforcement by offering games that hold the child’s interest while boosting their confidence to try more challenging activities.
Thinkrolls challenges kids to move different shapes through over 200 mazes, all while teaching observation skills, logic and reasoning, problem solving, spatial cognition and memory. There’s no winning or losing, passing or failing. Kids learn by trial and error what works to get their character through the maze.
Avokiddo Emotions uses silliness and an open-style of play to teach children to recognize emotions. Kids play with animals like a zany zebra, shimmying sheep, jolly giraffe and a modest moose by dressing them up using props and watching them react to a honking horn or dance at a fiesta. While it may seem like fun and games, kids not only explore their creativity, they learn cause and effect, practice following directions and learn empathy as they see the consequences of their choices.
Feeding Time has children follow Fred and Olive around Uncle John’s farm as they feed the animals. More than simply teaching kids basic farm animals and sounds, they learn what foods each animal eats and more importantly, they learn responsibility as they see the animals depend on the farmer for their food. It’s a simple game, but pre-schoolers will love the illustrations, narration, and the satisfaction of seeing the animals fall asleep once they’ve been fed.