There must be thousands of educational websites, apps and video games for kids these days. It can be overwhelming for parents, especially if they aren’t computer savvy to wonder which of these tools they should use for their children, if any.
There are some parents who think that kids should not use a computer (or watch T.V.). However, if children are involved in a variety of activities during their day, and if they use age-appropriate “tech tools,” I believe these devices can be beneficial to children.
Children can and do regulate themselves when it comes to these devices. For example, when we first introduced our son to some preschool software programs, he wanted to play on the computer any chance he could get. Over time, my son’s attention span at the computer has decreased, and many days he’s not interested in it at all. The same was true with my iPod Touch. He rarely asks to play with it anymore. When he does get on the computer or iPod, it’s usually for about 20 minutes.
Here are a few of my son’s favorite online tools and other goodies:
My sister, a first grade teacher, tipped me off to Starfall.com. It’s a great site for preschoolers who are learning their alphabet and learning how to read with phonics. The best part is that it’s free!
For a few months, we tried time4learning.com. It can be used as a full curriculum, but I wanted to use it as a supplement. There is a monthly $20 fee, and with that, parents can sign in and view/print reports on their children’s work (except with the pre-K portion). I found this extremely helpful, and my son had no problem learning how to navigate the site by himself.
He loved the pre-K lessons, and he was able to whiz right through them in a few weeks. So I bumped him up to Kindergarten. This was more challenging, but he kept requesting to use it, and I think he benefited from it. However, as the lessons went on, they became harder, and I felt it was too much for his age. For that reason and because I don’t want to do formal, consecutive lessons with him right now, I decided to discontinue the service.
Time4Learning.com can be used for any student from preschool thru middle school. For those of you who may be interested, I noticed that they are having a special April offer at only $4.99 per child for the first month!
We have used various applications or “apps” on our iPod Touch and Mac computer, and for those of you who are lucky enough to own an iPad, I just marvel at the possibilities there. Below are listed some of my son’s favorite apps, and these also make my list of favorites because I see how educational they are. All of them are under $2.00 to download.
“Letter Tracer” by Niftybrick Software has always been one of my son’s favorites. He loves to trace letters, and this app allows him to do that with his finger. I can’t help but wonder if this app is part of the reason my son now loves to write his letters with paper and pencil!
“First Words: Vehicles” and similar apps by Learning Touch is just what it sounds like. There are animated pictures of different vehicles and my son has to move the letters to spell the words correctly. These are helping him to learn how to spell some easy, first words.
“TeachMe: Kindergarten” by 24x7digital LLC is a huge hit with my son. It introduces math, sight words and more, and every time he gets three answers right, he earns a “coin.” If he saves his coins, he can then go “shopping” and buy things for a virtual aquarium or other scenes. It motivates him to keep playing and teaches him the value of saving his coins.
I can’t go without mentioning the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Wheels on the Bus” apps that my 19-month-old loves too! These are interactive games that he can poke and move things about on. Duck Duck Moose makes these and other cool apps, and they are some of my favorites, especially in the quality and beauty of the graphics.
I could go on and on about apps, and if you are already using them, you’ll know why. Just visit the iTunes Store, and you’ll find thousands of them! You’ll need to download iTunes to your computer for this. (Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/) It works on a PC too!
Another tool I am very grateful for is YouTube! If used properly, it can be very educational. Since my son is crazy for ocean animals, he often wants to see them in action. We have bookmarked several short videos — most by National Geographic or BBC – and he knows how to watch them by himself.
It excites me to think of the advantage my sons have with these “tech tools” that I didn’t have when I was a child. If my kids are learning good things, then I don’t care how they learned it.
Shelli Bond Pabis is a Winder resident and columnist for the Barrow Journal. You can reach her at writetospabis@gmail.com.
