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Hello everyone! Welcome back to Kouao Blogs. We missed you guys so much. This week we decided to do some real research to help you with the upcoming summer break. As mentioned above, children lose over 40% of their learning over summer break. This is absolutely terrible! It also means when school starts back up, our children are playing catch up while trying to grasp new concepts all at the same time. To help with this issue, we are highlighting 3 learning programs for children that we think you should try.
Now before I get started, let me just point out that I am not affiliated with any of these programs what-so-ever and I do not get paid for mentioning them. My sole purpose is to help you find resources, so that your children can continue to learn and grow while they are away from school.
Let’s get started shall we?
#1 ABCMouse
- Price - $12.99/month
- Age Group - 2-8
- Rating - 4.5/5
Pros
- Tracks progress
- Printable activities
- Personalized plan/learning path
Cons
- Difficult navigation
ABCMouse is a program you can use if you don’t mind paying. Although there are a ton of programs you can use for free, I honestly think this program is worth it’s membership fee. From experience, my kids absolutely loved ABCMouse, and they learned a lot while having fun. They were very engaged and excited to jump online. They even had a classroom pet that they had to play with and feed everyday. This taught them to be consistent with the app (mainly because they were concerned that the pet would die if they didn’t feed it). Hey, whatever works right!
On their “break” days, we would print out pages for them to color or complete activities. It was a great headstart for them to learn and for me to know what they needed to be learning. I’m glad we did it.
#2 Khan Academy Kids
- Price - free
- Age Group - 2-8
- Rating - 4.8/5
Pros
- Designed by early childhood education experts
- Personalized learning plans
- Free
- Also has a version for older kids
Cons
- Crashes often
Khan Academy Kids is a learning program that offers educational programs with no ads and no subscriptions necessary. It is completely free and offers personalized learning paths for each child. With a combination of books, videos, and activities, your children can learn at their own pace.
While researching this tool, the only complaint I saw repeatedly from users was that the app continually crashes. Of course this could be caused by a number of reasons, so don’t let that discourage you from giving it a try.
In full transparency, this is the only app my children have not used for an extended amount of time. They are currently still getting familiar with this program. (I will be sure to come back with an update to let you know how things have gone.)
#3 PBS Kids Games
- Price - free
- Age Group - 3-8
- Rating 4.3 / 5
Pros
- 200+ free curriculum-based games
- Kid-friendly program
- Easy to navigate
Cons
- No curriculum path to follow
- Games are not grouped by age
PBS Kids is a free learning program that allows children to play games with their favorite characters to learn new things. It differs from the other programs on this list in that there is no curriculum or learning path. Your child can scroll through the list of characters and just pick a game.
From experience, PBS Kids is engaging, interactive, and encouraging to young learners. My daughters love spelling with Princess Pea from Super Why and learning table manners through a tea party with Daniel Tiger. I have never had any issues using the PBS Kids app, although some users have complained about errors when downloading games to their devices.
Personally, I’m a fan of everything done by PBS because I appreciate the work they put in to make sure each child has a free learning environment. Give it a try! I think your little ones will love it.
My Overall Opinion
While I didn’t put these learning programs into any particular order, I think it’s fair to say that ABCMouse is #1 on the list for a lot of people. It has been around for years, and teachers absolutely love it. With its interactive learning path, children love using ABCMouse. It would be great for your children if price is not an issue.
Ironically, the best free alternative to ABCMouse is Khan Academy Kids. This learning program is just as amazing, and it’s FREE99! If you like the idea of having a personalized learning path or curriculum, then Khan Academy Kids may just be the way to go. It’s free (I can’t express that enough!), so it definitely wouldn’t hurt you to try it out. If you try it and the kiddos don’t like it, just delete it and keep on moving.
As a completely biased opinion (maybe I should’t say that, but whatever), I think PBS Kids is a must have. What better way to learn than with your tv pals. Whether learning about animals with the Kratt brother, becoming a spelling champion with Princess Pea, or showing your math genius with the cast of Cyber Chase, there are plenty of amazing things for your children to do. That is my totally honest, biased opinion. Again, if you don’t like it (which you will), just delete it.
Conclusion
On a serious note, I really hope this helps. With summer break going on for some or quickly approaching for others, I felt this would be a timely post to help the masses. If your children will be on the phone anyway, might as well give them something useful to do. Be their Summer Break Champion! You don’t want your babies starting the year off already behind on their studies.
Now, go download some learning programs and come on back!
P.S.: Don't forget to Read Something New Today!
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Morrison, Nick. (2020). Children Lose up to 40% of Learning over Summer Break - So Imagine what Lockdown Will Do. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2020/07/10/children-lose-up-to-40-of-learning-over-summer-breakso-imagine-what-lockdown-will-do/?sh=61d933eb73b3