How much screen time is good for your five or six-year-old child? Should you allow her to watch television, play a tablet, or use a handheld video game? And if so, for how long? The opinions of professional educators, psychologists, and physicians about screen time have changed dramatically in the past decade. In the early 21st century, the consensus was that screen time was a waste of time and potentially even detrimental to a five- or six-year-old child. But in recent years the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAECY), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Joan Ganz Cooney Foundation have all recognized that not only are screens unavoidable for five- and six-year-olds, but in the right conditions can be beneficial for learning and interaction with parents and peers.
[cjphs_content_placeholder id=”73592″ random=”no” ]Our view at LearningWorks for Kids is that five and six-year-olds need to focus primarily on physical, social, creative, and structured play. We also recognize that there are so many opportunities to learn from technology that we need to find the best tools and the best strategies to use them. You can read about our research-based developmental recommendations and screen time strategies for five and six-year-olds in previous posts. Here are some of our favorite apps for young school-age children.
BrainPOP Jr. is a web-based educational service geared towards children between kindergarten and third grade, and offers curriculum-based learning in the form of interactive lessons in-line with state educational standards. In-depth video lessons cover a range of subjects including Science, Reading and Writing, Social Studies, Math, Health, and Arts & Music.
StoryBoook Reading is an educational app where parents can record themselves reading their children’s favorite books out loud, making it easy for developing readers to follow along. The app is free to download and users create storybooks by capturing the cover and pages via their device’s camera and the video recorder for the narrative.
Curiosityville is an interactive learning website designed specifically for younger children with a free 30 day trial. There are three different learning levels based on age, which children sign into before they begin play. with proficient reading and writing. The app primarily consists of a collection of mini-gFrom there, they meet meet 6 characters, each with a specific area of interest, who provide activities in different academic areas like art, science, math and reading.
Monkey Word School Adventure is a fun and educational app designed to teach young children the fundamental skills that introduce children to new words and concepts and ask them to demonstrate the application of these skills in order to advance.
