ABCmouse.com Review

I am always looking for fun ways to engage Cody, while teaching him things at the same time. I do believe that just by allowing kids to play, you are giving them endless amounts of opportunities to learn, without ever having to open a text book or turn on anything electronic. At the Learning Through Play conference (which I HIGHLY recommend: an annual event at the museum center), I saw Dr. Hutton, pediatrician and owner of the Blue Manatee, who spoke about Unplugging your Kids. If you read this blog, you know that Kim and I both limit the boys “electronic time” and believe more in reading paper books and playing with our kids over anything else. One of the most important things I took away from his talk was that research suggests that having a television in the bedroom is the greatest single predictors that your child will head towards obesity. Also, bright light short circuits the melatonin in the brain (and melatonin helps you to fall asleep) so it can cause sleep issues with your kids if you are letting them watch the tube or play electronics before bed.

With all of that being said, I have a blog. I own a cell phone, a computer, ipad, and all the other fun electronic devices that our society is blessed with in this day and age and so I KNOW that being plugged in has its advantages. There are SO many great learning apps, devices and shows for kids these days that they didn’t have when I was growing up. One site I have found that I LOVE is ABCmouse.com. It is an early learning academy that has a FULL curriculum for preschool through kindergarten. They have a  Step-by-Step Learning Path with more than 350 lessons in six levels and more than 2,000 individual learning activities. As your child completes each lesson, he or she is guided to the next one and is motivated to continue learning by ABCmouse.com’s Tickets and Rewards System. Their mission and overall objective it is to help parents (in the U.S. and abroad) build a strong foundation for the future academic success of their children (most importantly- something that is safe, affordable and easily accessible).  They make all the lessons SO much fun for the kids, but also challenging at the same time. There is so much to choose from once you get your child registered… AND, you can register more than one child on the same account and they keep track of each of your childs’ individual progress! Although it costs money to use the program, it is SUPER comprehensive and I am sure all of you homeschoolers out there can vouch that programs like these just aren’t free… they just have SO much to offer.

This is their interactive classroom where the kids can pick from all types of learning activities!

If you know me, you know that I am always talking about how freaked out I am to have kids in this technologically advanced era. I don’t want my kids to be addicted to their electronics, but what I am learning is that everything is o.k. in moderation. A little tv time helps me out here and there and if I limit it to no more than an hour, then he can watch a show he enjoys (maybe even learn something from it), but isn’t zoning out in front of it all day. The same with a program like ABCmouse.com. They have hours and hours worth of curriculum, but I think if you set the time for 20 minutes and sit down WITH your child at the computer, you can go through some of the activities with them and they are learning and you are having fun together at the same time. When the timer goes off, you move onto something else that isn’t electronic. Nothing is black and white and I am learning that there is give and take to everything. We can use our sophisticated advances to our advantage, but still not go overboard. Moderation is key!

I do highly recommend ABCmouse.com and Cody and I both have a blast taking little time outs here and there to play and learn with all of their many activities!

Do you have any favorite electronic learning devices?? Have you tried ABCmouse.com yet??