Our list of the top applications focused on helping kids understand history.
Here at Kidslox, we are all about helping kids and families engage with technology in their education and development. And while we’ve covered the various apps on the market to help with science and language learning – one area that is often overlooked is history.
Yet, it’s within the pages of history that children can discover new worlds beyond their back doors. Regardless of where we grow up or live, our shared human history allows us to learn about different times, places, cultures, and perspectives. Exposing children to history apps and content provides many benefits for both kids and families.
So, what are the best apps for learning history that kids can use at different ages? We’ve pulled together our top list of apps to give you an idea of where to start.
Our List Of History Apps For Kids
1. Civilisations AR
One exciting history app comes from the BBC – Civilisations AR. This augmented reality app lets kids explore historical artifacts from British museums in interactive 3D.
Created alongside the BBC Two documentary series Civilisations, the app digitally scans items from over 30 institutions. Budding historians can examine ancient Egyptian mummies, classic sculptures, medieval weaponry, and more by holding up a phone or tablet.
Close-up renderings allow tactile virtual handling of these precious relics. Kids can turn artifacts around, peel back layers, dive inside structures, and amplify details safely. Augmented reality makes the artifacts tangible, vivid, and unforgettable.
Features like zoom, rotation, and night vision modes transform learning about history into an engaging, game-like experience. Instead of just reading descriptions, children can unlock interactive stories with a scan. This interactivity speaks to their natural curiosity and sense of discovery.
Check out Civilisations AR online here
2. Historical Calendar
The Historical Calendar app brings history to life by showing compelling events from the past for each day. This free app is available for Android devices and serves up a diverse mix of daily historical trivia to spark kids’ curiosity.
The app curates historical facts across various categories such as events, births, deaths, holidays, and discoveries. So, no matter the date, there are interesting or important happenings from across different eras to uncover.
Alongside a short description, Historical Calendar displays images and photos related to the historical snippet. This visual element helps pique kids’ interests and makes the learning even more memorable.
Exploring the historical calendar is both fun and a daily habit and can be searched by keyword to dive into specific topics. The entries span from famous inventors’ birthdays to major political events, so there is an incredible variety.
Click here to learn more about Historical Calendar
3. The Oregon Trail
The classic educational computer game The Oregon Trail has found new life as a mobile app! First created in 1971 and played by generations of students to learn 19th-century American pioneer history, the game now brings its addictive mix of journey management, problem-solving, and frontier life consequences to smartphones and tablets.
Players take on various roles in a pioneer wagon party, making the perilous journey along the Oregon Trail in 1848. As “wagon leaders,” kids decide what supplies to buy, when to rest, which route to take, how much food to eat, and at what pace to travel. All while facing unpredictable frontier hazards like disease, injuries, harsh weather, and more!
With its simple graphics and text-based outcomes, the original game spawned a genre of “edutainment” games before computer labs were common in schools. Now modernized with additional narrative layers and visuals, today’s mobile version transports kids back in time to walk in pioneers’ shoes.
Check out The Oregon Trail app online
4. World History for Kids
The World History for Kids app delivers a dynamic tour through the ages with interactive touchpoints to bring history’s biggest moments to life. As a paid app for iOS devices, it provides a fun and educational overview of key history areas from life’s earliest beginnings up through the 20th century.
The app structures its content chronologically so kids can start at humanity’s roots and journey forward into modern times. Each historical period includes an audio summary of major events and uses visual elements like animations, maps, charts, facts, and recordings to engage young learners on their voyage.
With an experiential approach, the World History for Kids app transforms studying the past from dry textbook reading into a captivating multimedia encounter. For both educational and entertainment value in learning world history basics, the dynamic and interactive World History for Kids app provides a fun mobile experience.
Discover more about the World History for Kids app online
5. Britannica Kids: Ancient Rome
The Britannica Kids: Ancient Rome app delivers an interactive journey for budding historians to explore life at the Roman Empire’s peak. With engaging articles, images, games, quizzes, and more, upper elementary and middle schoolers can vividly bring their Ancient Rome studies to life.
The app structures robust historical content across intuitive sections that speak to kids’ desires for varied multimedia activities. The main content addresses topics like the rise of the Roman Republic, the rule of the Caesars, gladiators, architecture, mythology, and more.
Supplementary areas allow kids to examine profiles of Roman gods, identify key geographical sites on interactive maps, match Roman artifact images, or test their knowledge with quiz questions.
The games integrating the historical content – like jigsaw puzzle building using artifact imagery or brushing off dirt layers to reveal statues – transforms studying history into a captivating activity for visual, kinesthetic learners. So, for any kid infatuated with gladiators, chariot races, or epic Roman conquests, the Britannica Kids app stocks their curiosity with a vivid encounter with antiquity.
Learn more about Britannica Kids: Ancient Rome online
6. Timeline Eons
The aptly named Timeline Eons app delivers a comprehensive, scrollable overview of history’s biggest events – from the Big Bang to the present day. Available on iOS and Android, its zoomable interface lets kids explore major happenings spanning 13.8 billion years organized on one unbroken timeline!
Timelines Eons fuels kids’ curiosity about what came before and visual orientation to history’s progression. Its “Today in History” feature shows current date events from across the ages for daily discovery. And the timeline’s future extension allows kids to envision human milestones yet to come.
With content filtering options, young scholars can focus on topics matching their interests – toggling between natural shifts, human civilization progression, artistic movements, or technological innovations.
The free version provides full access for the first ten days, then limits access to 1950-present. But unlocking the full app provides the complete 13.8 billion-year spectrum with no limits.
See more on Timeline Eons online
7. The History Channel App
For any kid who can’t get enough of history documentaries, the HISTORY Channel app offers an endless video trove to quench their curiosity. With over 2,000 titles on topics spanning ancient civilizations to modern events, aspiring young historians can get comprehensive video lessons exploring the people, discoveries, and battles that shaped human civilization.
The app provides unlimited on-demand access to full HISTORY Channel docuseries and specials like “America: The Story of Us,” “Founding Fathers,” “Days That Shaped America,” and “The Men Who Built America.” Kids and parents can engage in an expansive video curriculum covering key history areas.
New documentaries and segments are added weekly, so there’s always fresh content to discover. And with no ads interrupting videos, kids can immerse fully into binging the historical eras matching their interests and school studies. Key moments like Independence declarations or pivotal battles unfold uninterrupted.
Check out the History Channel App online
8. Dino Walk
For any kid obsessed with dinosaurs and natural history, the Dino Walk app delivers an evolutionary journey spanning eons of geological shifts and creature emergence. Available on iOS, its interactive timeline lets budding paleontologists scroll through Earth’s phases from the Proterozoic era to the modern day.
As kids journey through the ages, they can spin animated globes to witness continent rearrangements, meteor strikes, ice age expansions, and volcanic events that transformed habitats over millennia.
Tapping icons prompts flipcard-style interactive content, revealing species details and habitat backgrounds. There’s robust trivia on over 100 creatures like velociraptors, mastodons, pterodactyls, and the wooly mammoth to captivate young scholars.
For any kid hooked on Jurassic giant reptiles or newly emerging mammals throughout history, Dino Walk chronicles Earth’s epic story through its extinct and thriving inhabitants.
Help Your Kids Get Curious About History with These Apps
History is an amazing subject – and when your child begins to wonder how our world works and the ways we got here, it’s important to nurture that curiosity. The apps above each offer unique features and fun ways to explore history, specifically focusing on different aspects of our shared history.
Take your time looking through these apps to find one that fits your child’s age, interests, and learning style. As you and your children engage online, don’t forget to check out the latest guides and resources on creating healthy online habits.
At Kidslox, we know that safety online is paramount – and that’s why we continue adding to our online resources for parents and guardians to help you navigate the digital world with your family.
