Comprehensive Lingokids Review: Is It the Right App for Your Child?

In today’s article, we’ll take a look at a kids’ educational app that you should definitely consider if you have an English learner or if you are looking for some serious play-based learning for kids from two years old all the way up to eight years old.

The app I’m going to be talking about is Lingokids. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

*Affiliate disclosure: This post may include affiliate links, meaning I can get a little commission if you buy from them at no additional cost to you.

What is Lingokids?

Lingokids is an English learning app for kids from two to eight years old. It’s based on the concept of “playlearning”—in fact, they have even trademarked this method—and they are pretty serious about learning while having fun!

From the very beginning, I could see how that was totally real. The activities, the songs, and the games were super fun and engaging, but extremely educational at the same time.

Interestingly, while this app was originally created for children learning English as a second language (and they have a very strong language curriculum for English learners in the app, which was designed in conjunction with Oxford University Press—more on this later!), it’s also great for native English speakers.

There are lots of educational activities in a myriad of different subjects, including reading and literacy, math and science, technology, creativity, social skills, and many others.

In fact, my daughters—who are not English Learners—use Lingokids. Many of the activities are appropriate for both EL (English Learners) and native English students alike. Besides, they LOVE this app! It’s at the top of our list in our house.

My youngest kid enjoys listening to the songs the most (lots of super catchy songs with awesome graphics), while my oldest prefers to play the games; the runner game is her favorite (you’ll get a chance to sneak a peek into this game later).

A good friend of mine with English Learners at home has told that she has noticed improvement with English vocabulary thanks to this app.

Why is Lingokids a highly-regarded app?

Apart from my personal experience (as you have learned, pretty positive—even though, hold on, I’ll go through more things, including some cons in Lingokids!), this is a highly regarded app.

There are several reasons that make it stand out from the crowd when it comes to educational apps:

1. Awards: It’s been awarded the “Best Original Learning App” by Kidsscreen two years in a row (2022 and 2023), which is apparently a big deal. Kidsscreen is a trade publication for key decision-makers in the kids’ entertainment business.
2. Safety: It’s got the SensicalSelect badge, a certification that shows it provides high-quality and age-appropriate content.
3. High-Quality English Content: It’s associated with Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford that publishes English language teaching materials.
4. Backed by Research: They’ve conducted research, case studies, and reports on literacy, vocabulary acquisition, content appropriateness for learning differences, etc.

As you can see, Lingokids has extremely good reputation!

Let’s find out how all these things translate into practice and get into the nitty-gritty of our real-life experience

Let’s go through Lingokids’ pros and cons!

Lingokids Pros

• Lingokids is really nicely designed, and I haven’t noticed any glitches at all when using it. This is huge, actually! Most apps have at least the occasional glitch. Others have way more than “the occasional glitch,” which leads to a great deal of frustration.
  
• It covers lots and lots of preschool subjects that you want your kid to work on, including literacy, numeracy, science, technology, music, creativity, and daily routines. It’s got so many different categories!! But it’s especially good, in my opinion, for English: for learning new vocabulary, language acquisition, and literacy in general. And, as I said before, it’s great for young English learners. There’s a special section for them. This section was developed in conjunction with Oxford University Press, and you can tell it’s high-quality.

• Children really enjoy using the app. At least, that has been our experience. Remember, this app doesn’t have any “heavy content,” it’s all play-based learning. That’s their method. Children, as the name indicates, are going to learn while having fun: playing games and listening to songs, mainly.
  
• The graphics and the songs are super sweet and captivating. For instance, there are lots of nursery rhymes that my 6 year-old still loves to watch!
  
• It’s super safe. Not only the content is super safe for young children, but you can also rest assured that this app doesn’t feel like a video-game (we don’t want that with young children, especially with children from 2 to 5  years old). While children love to use it, it’s not addictive. This is extremely important when picking an app for a young kid! I’ve seen apps -meant for young kids- that have elements I do not agree with. You want something nice and safe, age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate.
  
• You don’t need an internet connection for all the activities. A few of them can be downloaded on your device and be done offline! I truly appreciate this, as we don’t have a SIM card on the ipad my children normally use, and sometimes you are in a situation where there’s not an internet connection. For instance, on a plane!
  
• You can control screen time! You can set limits on screen usage on the parents portal.
  
• I love how it’s organized by “categories” and subjects. It’s easy to navigate around and easily find what you are after!
  
• Progress center. This is super cool! You can see how many activities your child has completed, the most played subjects, the top practiced skills… For instance, in my youngest child’s case so far the most practices skill have been fine motor skills, problem-solving and literacy skills

Want to see examples of all of this? Don’t worry! See the video below.

Lingokids: Cons

Let’s talk about the cons now and about the things that lingokids is not:

• Lingokids is not a literacy curriculum. Don’t take me wrong, though! I’m not saying either it won’t help with important literacy skills, such us vocabulary, learning letter sounds, letter names, phonics. All these are super important skills for learning to read, but it’s not a  learn-to-read curriculum in an app. If that is what you are after, there are other apps that will be a better fit for that specific purpose, for instance this one. 
  
• If you are planning to use it with an English Learner and s/he is super advanced, it doesn’t go over B1 level, which is intermediate.
  
• If your kid is older than 8 (or 9, maybe, depending on the kid) some of the content in this app, might feel too childish. Refer to the sample activities in the video to get a feel for them.
  
• It’s not free. That’s what you normally get when you don’t want ads and you want really good content. They have a free trial, though, and a free basic plan. More details in the next section!

How much does Lingokids cost?

Lingokids offers a 7-day free trial. After that, it’s $14.99/month.

If this is still too much for you, you can always stay on their free version, which will gives you restricted access to the app.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Lingokids stands out as a top-tier educational app, offering a rich blend of fun and learning through its well-designed, glitch-free interface.

With a strong curriculum for English Learners backed by Oxford University Press, it’s ideal for English learners, but also an excellent choice for native speakers.

Despite not being a full literacy curriculum and having a subscription cost, its numerous benefits, including offline access, safety, engaging design, and screen time control, make it a valuable tool for early learning.

The 7-day free trial allows you to explore its offerings before committing. Besides, Lingokids offers a free basic version, with limited access to the content in the app.