The joyous April holiday season is upon us, and this year Passover begins on Wednesday, April 8, and ends on Thursday, April 16. Easter is on Sunday, April 12, followed by Ramadan on Thursday, April 23 through Saturday, May 23. If you’re like most Americans in years past, you’ve probably been on the road and traveling over these holidays. With COVID-19 and Americans practicing social distancing, it’s more imperative than ever that we take precautions over the holidays to keep our loved ones safe and healthy. Whether you’re cooking dinner in, picking up takeout, attending a virtual church service or setting up an Easter egg hunt in the yard, you’ll probably find your holidays busy and app-centered this year. Check out these kid-friendly best apps for Easter, Passover and Ramadan.
Best Apps for Easter, Passover and Ramadan to Distract Kids
Whether you want to get kids in the holiday spirit or you just want to thwart the dreaded “Is dinner ready yet?” complaints, we have some fun-filled apps and activities for kids this Passover and Easter season.
- Easter Egg Painter(Android; iOS: Free) - Forgo the messy food coloring, broken eggs and crying kids and download this egg painter app. Kids can have all the fun of decorating Easter Eggs, and you can avoid cleaning paint brushes and removing stains from their clothes.
- Bible(Android; iOS: Free) - Whether you’re Christian or Jewish, this app lets you listen to the New Testament, Old Testament or both. You can quickly scan 1,500 Bible verses, make your own daily devotions and listen to His stories this holiday season.
- Quran(Android; iOS: Free - The Al-Quran app features the Islamic texts with a local search index. Perfect for on-the-go listening while you prepare your dinner, it’s easy to download and use on your smartphone device.
- Easter Swap(iOS: Free) - If you love Candy Crush, you’ll definitely enjoy this Easter-themed version. Connect three or more eggs, flowers, chicks and bunnies as you burst through chocolate squares to level up and explore the Easter garden.
- Pat the Bunny(Android; iOS: $3.99) - This interactive storybook allows kids to paint the pages while it shares the story of Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt.
- Kitchen Stories(Android; iOS: Free) - A great app year-round, this is excellent for Passover or Easter meals when you have a dozen or more dinner guests, or in this case, need leftovers to feed your family for the week. Featuring beautiful photos, step-by-step instructions and helpful videos, you can easily prepare a feast fit for a King.
- Touchnote(Android; iOS: Free) - Instead of buying Easter cards and mailing them, select from some gorgeous built-in card designs, or start from scratch and add your own photos. Send them to your family and friends all around the world. Kids will love interacting and helping you design cards!
Best Video Conferencing Apps for Social Distancing
When you can’t spend the holidays with family, take advantage of our tech-filled society and plan a video conference so you can still catch up and virtually eat dinner together. Here are the top five FREE apps.
- Google Hangouts - Easy for up to 10 people to join and free for any Gmail customers, Google Hangouts makes it easy to chat via a video call. Due to COVID-19, Google allows up to 250 people in a conference through July 1, 2020.
- Skype - Hosting up to 50 people for an unlimited duration, this cloud-based service lets you record and share the call for up to 30 days. The downside is that each person will have to download Skype and sign up.
- Zoom - Supporting up to 100 participants for up to 40 minutes, you can simply host a new call if your time expires. You can share screens, record video and audio and catch up with your grandparents.
- Facetime - Group Facetime allows you to add up to 30 people via your iPhone, iPad or Mac device. Kids enjoy this because they can add some cool filters, animoji and memoji during the call.