There’s no way around it, technology is part of our lives and it will be for our children. Joshua and I feel strongly about preparing our littles to be 21st century learners. We want to give them the skills necessary to safely and securely navigate technology. As little ones and even as they grown older we will certainly maintain firm boundaries on what they have access to. Just like I teach my cute crew to count or write their letters. We want to teach our littles how to properly use technology as far as hardware, the internet, and apps. One way of doing this is through actually using technology. Over the last couple weeks I have been sharing our curriculum choices. Things such as reading, science, geography but an area I haven’t shared a whole lot about is technology- how we use apps to support learning. We have a family iPad for the children to share for educational activities (…and occasionally Netflix- which could arguably count as educational, Storybots, anyone?) They don’t need a whole lot of technology at this age and developmental state so we aim to keep tech time minimal. However, I do build it into our schedule everyday. While my little two nap in the afternoon, my big girl gets iPad time. She really looks forward to it. It’s just sort of set as our routine that in the afternoon she does Reading Eggs.
Reading Eggs is a program I used in the classroom before staying home with my children. I loved it then and love it even more now! Last year when she began kindergarten we purchased the annual subscription for our big girl. It had been a long time since using the program and I was pleasantly surprised to see how meaningful and well thought out the program is from the perspective as a parent!
The program is customized exactly for her and builds on itself as she learns. Each time she levels up I get an email with details on what she’s learning, how she’s scored and what’s to come next AND the email offers further in-depth lessons if I want them AND it offers a full set of printable activities! (You know I love a good printable!) I couldn’t get over it. It really could serve as your reading curriculum if you wanted to use it that way. Reading Eggs also fairly recently launched a sister program, Math Seeds. It’s set up very similarly to Reading Eggs but with a math focus. It is excellent, engaging, and perfect for littles too!
For us, it’s the perfect way to tie in some intentional tech time. My big girl learns how to handle the iPad with care, navigate the passcode, and loading the app. I enter my username and password. From there she selects her character icon (multiple children can use the program and are identified with their own character icon.) The app uses wifi but there is no access to the internet from inside the app. I feel secure letting her play and explore independently on the app without fear of her accidentally clicking pop ups or accidentally wandering around websites unsupervised. This is especially important to me as we will add in our middle little to the program this year and she can be click happy.
It was this exact time last year I started looking into the program and fortunately I was able to snag a promotional deal! I love Reading Eggs so much I knew we wanted to share with you! They have generously offered to give my readership a 4 week FREE trial of the program. You could try it out without obligation as you begin the school year. It could be a great addition to your routine.
I love that my crew is learning both language and math skills while simultaneously becoming respectful and careful technology users. Curious about specifics on the Reading Eggs program? Ask away! I’m happy to help!
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