With the change in time and technology the way we bring up our kids have also changed. So while at our times excess of TV was a matter of concern now excess of gadgets like mobile , tablets is a concern. While in our times our parents exercised control over television time and counselled us to watch Discovery, History and Natgeo, now we have many options for our kids to make their screen time more effective and learning and change the lost game into a win by educational apps and excercising moderation.
One of the applications that I am going to review today is Kidloland.
My son is 2 yrs old and has been exposed to screen time since he was 20 months. He has a fixed timmimg for screen either mobile or television.We don’t watch television so most of the time it’s something that he watches on net but on TV.Only during traveling I allow him a little more liberty and little more of screen time apart from keeping him busy with his activities. This time while I was travelling alone with him I wanted an app which would be more of his activity then just plain viewing and that is when I tried Kidloland.
This app has endless options to keep the little ones busy without compromising on the learning aspect .What I liked most about this app is the age appropriate content.The settings has the option and you can choose the age you want your kid to view the content for.
The puzzles and the chomping monsters are baby N’s favourite he would simply browse and open the puzzle to feed the hungry chomping monsters. He would make donuts , hamburger by solving the puzzle and simply say eat donuts hungry monster. This has been one of the best development in the last month where he has learnt to frame sentences on his own and this app has helped in improving his vocabulary .
Other than puzzles the app has some very interesting early learning games, flash cards ,songs to make them learn numbers, vegetables etc.Again one of the things that baby N loves is the Collection of universe songs which has
The sun song which teaches about sun, the moon song about moon similarly a star song about stars.
The planet songs teaches about the planets and their unique features, the continent song about the different continents and the ocean songs about oceans.
Although N is too young to understand these but the songs are catchy enough for him to catch the tune and sing a whole line. That is when I decided to let him listen to these songs and make him learn about the universe early.
The collection of nursery rhymes is unending and are original without any addition of lyrics unlike most of the rhyme apps these days. All the rhymes ate interactive and child can click on the objects shown in the screen and they will move. This is a nice way to make them learn the meaning of the rhyme and helps them learn the ryhme in a better way.
The app has lullabies in melodious voice which can play at the background while making your child sleep.The stories in the app are interesting and can be read by the older kids on their own and read for me option for the young ones.the story collection is good for early readers.the collection of some old forgotten fables will take you back to your childhood . The stories we grew up listening can now be read to our children too.The app has some very nice stories on good manners which can be read as a part of bedtime stories to the young ones.
The flash cards are good for early learning and make kids learn about shapes, vehicles,food etc. Improves the vocabulary and recognition skills.
The Kidloland is full of options and covers almost all the learning skills required. This has been so far the best travelling companion for us. Along with keeping baby N busy and retaining my sanity this has been a great help on the learning part as well.
Few tips to make screen time more effective
1. Set a time for viewing for us it is max half and hour a day.
2. Allow only educational content.
3.Screen time should be only during day time as night time screen viewing is not good for kids.
4. Be around your baby and make the screen time more interactive rather than just viewing.
5. Ask what they have learnt from the app once their screen time is over.
6. Try to cut down your eon screen exposure so that you can actually preach what you practice about screen time.
Some of the cons of the Kidloland app
1. Takes a lot of space in the phone (not actually a con but the options are so tempting that I actually downloaded all)
2. No timer option hence a meltdown or emotional blackmail for more viewing is possible.
Rating by baby N and Mama
Educational -5/5
Overall -4/5 ( one less for timer option it would have been 5/5 by baby N though)
You can visit their website www.kidloland.com To know more
You can simply download the App by clicking the link below for ios
For android
Google kidloland app
From Amazon App Store
Rattle Babble Battle 