BACK TO SCHOOL – STAY SHARP WITH APPS, AUGMENTED REALITY, AND MUSIC!
Data shows that kids are falling behind. According to a survey commissioned by OSMO, a top learning app:
o 7 in 10 parents think children’s post-pandemic social skills are at risk
o 2 in 3 are worried that their child has gotten more socially awkward around others
These are alarming statistics, but they do note that four in five parents (81%) believe that certain technology or entertainment tools may be the solution to improving both their child’s social and educational skills.
Parents are looking for unique ways to get kids back up to speed. With that, I had to put together some favorite apps and sights that can get your child engaged digitally and physically.
I’ve enjoyed OSMO’s unique hands-on augmented reality activities for years now. The activities are legitimately fun and keep the brain thinking (my favorite educational activities kids enjoy)!
OSMO apps and kits are made for a variety of ages for kids 3-12 and the base OSMO hardware pairs with an iPad. Simply attach an iPad to the Osmo base and slide on the red camera on top of the iPad and it’s almost like the app comes to life. Get hands-on learning from math, coding, drawing; and my favorite tangram, building shapes of animals with puzzle pieces seen on the screen. All digital and physical by way of augmented reality! For a great starter kit, I suggest the Little Genius Starter Kit.
Augmented reality is becoming more and more mainstream and a great way to work in some fun teaching. For any parent or teacher looking for a fun science project, Picture this! is one of the most unique augmented reality apps.
Snap a photo of any plant from flowers to trees and within seconds the app scans and tell you what the plant is. My niece and I went around my entire backyard identifying many different plants. Each scan pops up so much info on each tree or flower—from what weather and season is best or what birds they attract. It even went as far as identifying one of the perennial daisy bushes we had, flagging it and saying it was damaged by caterpillars.
Adults love this app too! Everyone I showed it to was amazed by how fast it identified any plant, tree, or flower we took a picture of!
We often talk STEM—but I feel an M (or an M to the exponent of 2) needs to be added onto the STEM acronym to include “Music.” According to the Journal of Educational Psychology, highly engaged instrumental music students are found to be an average of 1 year ahead of their peers in math, science, and english. I am a huge proponent of anyone at any age learning a musical instrument and my go-to site is bestmusiccoach.com. You can take interactive lessons with a real coach virtually (ahem! Including my very own music coach, Dan Spencer) or download one of the many Best Music interactive music books (I use the Best Acoustic Guitar Book for Beginners), with over 115 audio and visual examples, and play along to your favorite songs. You will learn chords, melodies, and to be able to play and read songs.
The site’s first nook debuted at #1 on Amazon for guitar books and is great for all ages.
Dan shared with me, with report in hand as requested, that adults and children who study music are better at switching tasks, verbal fluency, and have better working memory.
Proloquo2Go is a visually supported communication app that I have been following for years. It is an AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) tool and a fantastic resource for nonverbal individuals, allowing them to express themselves.
Proloquo2Go shares the app is for non-verbal users of any age with down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy, or those who need help being understood or with speech difficulties. The app has 25k built in photos/symbols or you can add your own photos, or the user can type what they want to say—all of this displayed easily on multi-grid size. Additionally, over 100 child and adult natural voices are selectable. I have friends that work as teachers in special development that have seen great success with its use.
