I still remember the twins in the bath with Pete a few years ago, they could barely talk and he was trying to teach them to count to five. Like, he was really trying! It was hilarious! There was no way they would be able to do it!
Fast forward a few years, and they are counting well into the hundreds and doing simple maths equations! They can spell their names and sound out simple words…and even some tricky ones…for example WOLLONGONG! We taught them by WOLL-ONG-ONG (double U, O, double L, ONG, ONG). A very fun word to spell out loud if you ask me!
So what have we done along the way? Honestly, we have tried many things! Pete used to spend hours and many a car ride memorising streets, counting on swings, and spelling as we walked! I spent a lot of time doing puzzles and flash cards, counting apples, strawberries, peas or anything we could find! We just blended it into everyday life.
We also tried a few games on the phones, and subscribed to some online learning libraries, with very little success. We like to limit access to our phones and screen time, so I wans’t looking for anything…
And then I fell pregnant.
Then moved house.
Then had a baby.
So it was a rough couple of months for the kids as we went through all these changes! And I was exhausted!
And the there just happened to be an invitation to try the KIDLO app sitting in my inbox!!!
The kids immediately loved it, and I loved that they were using my phone to learn rather than play games or watch kids shows on the ABC app.
They often had to share my phone if Pete wasn’t home, so I just put the timer on for them to take turns, and they had a blast.
We had the Learn English App and the Math Games App, but they also have Coding for Kids (so excited to try this one!), bedtime stories for kids, and many others!
The Learn English app had 3 levels of difficulty, starting with learning the Alphabet, Phonics, Tracing the Letters, Flash Cards, Word Families, Spelling, Colours and Shapes etc in the level ‘Pre K’, learning to read and spell in level ‘K’, and learning nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions, and learning sight words in ‘Grade 1’.
And. So. Much. More!
I found it to be a well planned and easy to use app which helped the kids grasp the concepts and enjoy it. It was well paced, and and easy to navigate.
The Maths Games app is broken up into different sections including Counting, Number Sense, Geometry, Comparison, Patterns, Addition & Subtraction, Sorting & Categorizing, Songs and Tracing.
Again this app had great graphics and was easy to navigate. It held the kids attention and helped with their counting to 100.
In both apps, I love how each activity only takes seconds to load, and you can do each activity over and over and it doesn’t track progress. I know that last point sounds weird, but I’ve tried other apps that track progress and when you get this many coins you can buy something for your virtual bedroom blah blah blah etc etc! It’s too much! With Kidlo, it is a tool to use for learning, not a virtual world for the kids to get lost in and confused by! They can do the activities they want, whenever they want! And they learn! They don’t get bored or caught up in mundane ‘shopping’ or other parts of an app that don’t contribute to learning.
As I’ve said, I have definitely enjoyed our year with the KIDLO apps, and the kids definitely did too!
The links to purchase are set out below x
Math Games
Android: http://bit.ly/2IvJx1J
Kidlo English
Android: http://bit.ly/2rTS33p
Once again, thanks for reading!
