Recent Findings About the Learning Process

For many years it was considered that learning was mostly a matter of repetition and that anyone could learn anything if they really put their mind to it. However, recent studies have come along to disprove that line of thinking. It was demonstrated that when information is conveyed through a humorous, clever, or distinct manner it is much more likely to be absorbed by the subject.

There was even a study* conducted at Princeton and Indiana University where two groups of students were tasked with reading textbooks. One group was to read it in a 16-point Arial font while the others were to read it in a 12-point Bodini MT, a font which is harder for the brain to process. After a short break, both groups were asked to perform exams and the group which had to read the 12-point Bodini MT font outperformed the other one 85.5% to 72.8%.
(* Study Source: http://web.princeton.edu/sites/opplab/papers/Diemand-Yauman_Oppenheimer_2010.pdf)

As most parents will confirm, kids often tend to perceive learning somewhat negatively as it just tends to bore them most of the time. However, according to the multitude of findings which researchers in the field of early education have made, if knowledge was to be passed to these children in the form of a game they would be much more likely to learn from it. As such, a few companies have tried to start their brand of educational toys, but unfortunately many of them proved to be ineffective for one reason or another. There are however a few companies which over time have proven their worth, with one of the most famous ones being MindWare.

A Bit About MindWare

Founded by Jeanne Voigt in 1990, MindWare started out as nothing but a little store with children’s toys in Minneapolis. Slowly but surely, the profits kept coming in and the company eventually grew into a cataloguer, a web retailer, and has even managed to become a distributor.

The main goal of the company is to provide high-quality learning toys for kids of all ages; they aim to teach as well as entertain. Their products are even distributed to various schools and teachers everywhere around the planet.

Apart from being very renowned, MindWare also has a 100% satisfaction guarantee plan which claims that if you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase you can return the item for a full refund.

A Look at Qwirkle

One of the most popular games released by MindWare is Qwirkle which can be best summed up as a different take on dominoes. Intended for children of ages 6 and up, the game comes with 108 wooden blocks in six different shapes and colors. The goal of the game is to connect the blocks either by color or by shape. When a player manages to build a line they earn points.

The game is designed to appeal both to children and parents alike; while kids will enjoy it as a very simple and rewarding game, adults can have their share of fun by looking at it as a strategy game, especially considering an average game lasts more than 45 minutes.

The wooden blocks themselves are quite sturdy, although it is more than possible you will lose one or two of them. In that case however, you can simply ask the company for a replacement which they will send you at no charge. The set is portable and even comes with a drawstring bag allowing your kids to take it with them for sleepovers or whenever the family goes on vacation.

Qwirkle’s Educational Benefits

To start things off, Qwirkle heavily contributes to developing a child’s matching and sorting skills, not to mention that it will develop their understanding of colors, shapes and numbers by associating them with language.

Second of all, it should be noted the Qwirkle is a competitive game in which each player tries to out-think their competition, at times for a duration of 45 minutes; it is a perfect way to keep the mind hard at work for kids.

More precisely, it will help them develop their logical thinking and strategy development skills because unlike other games such as Snakes and Ladders for example, the player does not rely on luck but on trying to think ahead of everyone else.

A Glance at Public Opinion

It seems that Qwirkle is by far the most popular MindWare educational toy on Amazon having garnered a total of 394 reviews. Out of the 394 reviews, 323 give it 5 stars, 59 give 4 stars, 8 give 3 stars, 3 give 2 stars, and only one person gave it 1 star. All in all, it is in very good standing with the community as the vast majority of people who bought Qwirkle have nothing but praise for it.

Our Verdict

All in all, Qwirkle is an excellent game for many reasons, the first one being that it can actually appeal to people of all ages. Adults and children alike find the game to be very fun and challenging for different reasons. Considering that MindWare’s goal is to create entertaining toys which educate children, it can be said that Qwirkle is one of their best achievements; most people find it to be fun and it actually helps children develop their matching, logical thinking, strategizing skills, and more. It is everything an educational toy should strive to be.

We have looked around a bit and found that Amazon is the best place to get Qwirkle seeing as how it comes at a 50% discount for $17.46. If you would like to purchase it, simply check out the Qwirkle product page.

About Online Education and ABC Mouse

For centuries now education has always been an activity which required physical books as well as face-to-face interaction with a teacher. Even if you take a look back to how things worked only ten or twenty years ago, things were still largely the same.

However, along came the internet and opened up a world of new possibilities for many niches and industries, including that of early learning. As it happens, there are a few kids learning websites out there dedicated to providing online activities to help children acquire the foundations for academic education, with one of the most renowned being ABC Mouse.

To sum it up ABC Mouse is basically a website which contains a large number of learning activities designed for children aged between 2 and 6. There are three levels: preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten. While using this website is totally free for all public schools in Canada and the U.S., the general public has a bit more of a restricted access with only some of the features being available at no charge; to use the full capabilities of this website one must enroll in a subscription-based membership.

An Overview of the ABC Mouse Levels

There are six levels in total to their program, each one containing materials on reading, math, art & colors, and the World Around Us. The levels have been carefully designed to challenge your child, but not too harshly so as not to make things unpleasant; after all, we don’t need a scientific study to tell us that learning is much easier when it’s also fun. Here is a very quick overview of what each level covers:

ABC Mouse’s Pre-School Levels

The pre-school levels were mainly designed for children between the ages of 2 and 3 who are only starting to learn letters and numbers. There are various puzzles and activities designed to help your child develop the most basic fundamentals needed to get through life in general.

Ideally, by the end of this level your child should be able to spell the entire alphabet in upper case letters, count from one to five, have the ability to identify circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, diamonds, stars, not to mention the ability to differentiate red, yellow, blue, orange, green and purple.

Also, there is a section called The World Around Us which in this level teaches your child how to get dressed, about their body in general, as well as various ways in which you can learn while at the market.

ABC Mouse’s Pre-Kindergarten Levels

Picking up where the pre-school curriculum left off, the pre-kindergarten levels are intended for children between the ages of 3 and 6 who already have the knowledge which the previous levels bring.

In a nutshell, this curriculum teaches the alphabet in both upper and lower case letters, numbers 1 through 20, and all the basic geometric shapes (circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, diamonds and stars).

As far as arts & colors go, the levels are mostly dedicated to white, black and brown, and finally The World Around Us teaches your children about weather, plants and the connection between the two.

ABC Mouse’s Kindergarten Levels

Finally, there are the Kindergarten levels which are meant for children who know everything the last four levels teach, as well as those aged between 4 and 6 who are already somewhat familiar with the alphabet and the numbers 1 through 10.

In any case, this final curriculum aims to get your child ready for an academic life by first of all giving them an understanding of how to mix lower and upper case letters. In addition to that, numbers from 1 to 20 are thoroughly covered, as are all the geometric shapes to which hearts and ovals have been added.

As far as arts & colors are concerned, basically every color taught up until this point is used, with a couple of new additions: pink and grey. Finally, The World Around Us section aims to expand your child’s understanding about the universe, teaching them the four seasons, as well as very basic astronomy about our solar system.

Learning More about ABC Mouse’s Early Learning Features

Of course, there is much more to the early learning tools for kids ABC Mouse has in store, as amongst many things it allows you to easily track your progress, not to mention build your own lessons customized to your child’s learning style.

Needless to say, this was just a very brief and shallow overview of what ABC Mouse is and what it has to offer. You can learn more about what they have to offer by simply following this link, not to mention that some of their features are accessible for free so you can try it out without having to worry about anything.
 

The Importance of Early Kids Learning

Hello, and welcome to our website dedicated to early learning tools for kids. This might seem a little vague so allow us to provide you with a few details. As most people would agree, our children are our future and the way we raise them now will affect how they eventually end up.

While there are many factors which are simply beyond our control, one thing which we can do is make sure they develop a knack for learning and become well educated.

Why Early Learning Needs to be a Game

However, in our opinion simply teaching your children to do things from books is not the way to go; many parents fail to realize that and end up causing more harm to their child rather than good.

At the young age of 3 infants are still very much learning about their environment and adapting to it mostly through playing. As such, it is necessary to take the same approach when it comes to introducing children to subjects such as reading or basic mathematics; you need to turn the education into a game.

While you can always use yourself as a resource to teach your kids about school subjects as well as the world, in our opinion it always helps to have some sort of specialized program, system or resource that you can use to make the learning process funner and easier.

Finding Legitimate Learning Tools for Kids

You should always keep in mind that whatever happens to your children during their very early youth will end up affecting them for the rest of their lives. If you do indeed choose to get some external resource into the mix, then you will need to thoroughly investigate it.

Just like with any product, there are dozens of people out there who release completely ineffective early learning tools and programs that end up failing the children.

When our turn came up to finally sit down with our children and start teaching them, We realized that we couldn’t go through with this without some sort of reputable guide. Thus, we set out to search for the best learning tools for kids that we could.

After doing some research, we got the idea of creating a website where people could inform themselves about early education. We’ve looked around and as of now we can recommend that you look into a product called Hooked on Phonics Reading Program. Click here if you would like to read our Hooked on Phonics review to see what we thought of it,

The people behind it claim that their product is meant for children from 2.5 to 8 years old . They also claim that it turns learning into a game and that it teaches them a slew of base subjects including reading, math, art, music and even puzzles.

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