Khan Academy Kids the Next Big Thing in Educational Apps
If you have kids in high school you may have heard of Khan Academy. Their partnership with The College Board has made them the go-to online study destination for the SAT. Besides the SAT they have an impressive collection of lessons on almost any subject that you would want for all grade levels.
Khan Academy is a non-profit who is dedicated to equal access for all students. Khan Academy has already been leading the industry as an online interactive learning platform. However, they just launched an app today that, in this writer’s opinion, is going to be one of the biggest if not the biggest educational application for preschoolers and kindergartners.
Khan Academy Kids is geared towards ages 2-5 years old. Khan Academy Kids partnered with Super Simple, Bellwater Media, National Geographic, and The National Head Start Association to create this application. All of the contents are aligned with Common Core Standards and Head Start Learning Outcomes. All these standards are fulfilled through super amazing, games, activities, and books that you and your students will both find entertaining.
Meet the Characters
Khan Academy Kids has little ones interacting with five different animal friends: Ollo the Elephant, Raja the Red Panda, Peck the Bird, Sandy the Fox, and Kodi the Bear. Students get to play games with the different characters, and the more that they play the more rewards that they get for the character’s bedrooms. When I work with students, I know rewards is a big thing. My students would definitely be motivated to work more if they knew there were rewards that could come from their work. We as parents and educators know that the learning is a reward in itself.
Stories
This application is strong overall but one of its strongest areas is its stories. Not only are kids able to read stories that involve the five animal friends, they also get to interact with amazing stories from National Geographic. I have students who love animals. They can tell me things about animals that I never knew, and they are 3 and 4 years old. These stories would spark their curiosity even more, and they would want to keep coming back for more.
The stories also have modes where the app will read to the students, or the students can read them on their own. This allows students to hear hard words read but when they are ready to start reading the words themselves. The stories are at many different reading levels. So when your little ones get better at reading they can have stories that will grow with them.
Want to Read More?
The Best Fall Activities for Preschoolers
What Should Your Child Know Before Kindergarten
Stop the “Reading is Boring” Excuse
ABCs, 123, Shapes and Colors Oh My
This app has games where your little ones will learn their letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. It has them recognize the shapes of letters, numbers, and shapes. They also work on tracing them with their fingers. Although the interaction of tracing a letter with your finger on a phone is different than writing it, it still helps preschoolers with fine motor skills which are super important at that age. If you are using the app on a tablet you may also be able to give your kids a stylus to help them with holding pens. This will also make the tracing feature more like writing letters.
Beyond the Academics
This app truly has thought of everything beyond what we would think are the basic academic skills that preschoolers and kindergartners need. It is moving to make kids not only academically smart but also emotionally smart. There is a whole section of social and emotional development. This section teaches students about feelings and how to interact with others. It is teaching kids how to have basic manners, how to express their feelings, and how to know other’s feelings. It does this through songs and games.
Also, there are many games that call students to interact with the world around them. They are called to look around them for words and go on word hunts. This is something that parents can reinforce by going on word hunts in everyday life. There are also many other games that bring the learning out of the game and call students to look in their surroundings.
Get This App
Khan Academy has truly outdone themselves with this application. They have an amazing team that has put every concept that your preschooler and kindergarten needs to know to not only succeed in school but to also be a good person in one application. I have older students who struggle in school because they do not have a good foundation in some of the things that this application is working on.
This application is so amazing, that I hope Khan Academy will make things just as fun and interactive for higher level students because they have proven that they are fully capable. In the meantime, it is well worth it to get this application if you have little ones because what do you have to lose it is free. But believe me, you will not regret it. I have had so much fun myself exploring this application today and can’t wait to introduce it to the preschoolers I tutor. This application is available through the App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon App Store.
If you enjoyed this post please share so that others can benefit as well. A great way to share is through Pinterest.