Summer has officially begun and Josiah couldn't be more excited. His homeschool lessons ended last week and he's ready for all the fun we have planned over the next few months for summer vacation. Even though we have a busy summer planned, I don't want Josiah to completely neglect his studies. Did you know that, on average, children lose 2.6 months of learned materials during the summer. This means when going back to school children are already behind by a good 2-4 weeks as teachers re-teach those skills. Since Josiah will enter our local school system next year for first grade, I want him to be ready and prepared for what is in store. That's why I was so excited to work with The Motherhood on a review of Curiosityville!
Curiosityville is an online learning world for children ages 3 to 8! The website is completely personalized and not only helps children with their education, but also helps parents and caregivers become great teachers. Children have fun learning new and interesting subjects and activities while parents can track the goals reached and via the Learning Tree.
My three year old, Liam, along with my soon-to-be six year old, Josiah, know all about online games and programs because their homeschool studies are online! They also have their own tablets and enjoy playing learning games, so they were excited to give Curiosityville a try and couldn't wait to get started.
Once my account was activated, I entered their personalized information, allowing me to sign in and go to their own "account", which keeps up with their progress separately. There are 5 different animals in Curiosityville who are ready to teach children different subjects and skills, including Jack, Rosie, Joe, Ruby and Pablo.
The characters are interested in different subjects and introduce children to different activities. For example, when we clicked on Rosie, we found that she studies neuroscience and is a doctor, so all of the activities with Rosie are related to science! Liam particularly likes puzzles, so when we found a body parts puzzle, he was the first to volunteer.
We also visited Joe, the mayor of Curiosityville. He enjoys tinkering and we also found puzzles at his house, too. When clicking on the television, we found fun exercise videos. The boys were both fans of this and love doing daily exercise, so this is a great way to get the heart pumping and ready for learning. The great thing is that there are several different videos, so you can come back for more exercise or keep going. We've come back to watch videos many times now.
Josiah's favorite animal is Jack, Curiosityville's police officer. Josiah is just learning to read and, when we clicked on the aquarium in Jack's office, we found a fun letter game that was perfect for him. We had to catch letters, first uppercase and then lowercase. Then, he had to catch all the pictures of items with a "b" sound. He has struggled with letters and sounds in the past, so I really wanted to keep up with phonics during the summer, so this has made it fun for him.
How will I know how Josiah and Liam progress? They collect apples and badges based on participation. Josiah has earned 8 apples with Joe and 3 apples with Dr. Rosie. In addition, I can look at their own Learning Tree to see what they have learned for the day, week, month and quarter.
As a homeschooling mom, I want to make learning fun and this is what Curiosityville is all about! The website introduces children to exciting subjects with familiar settings. Want to focus on math skills? Children can visit Ms. Ruby. Does your child enjoy art? Pablo, the artist, has some fun activities, too. I'm very impressed with this wide variety of interactive games the kids can play and how well it keeps kids entertained. Plus, the content on Curiosityville changes weekly, so there is always something new to learn and see!
I highly recommend Curiosityville as a fun way to educate children, especially during the summer months when so much can be forgotten. The great thing is that the first month is FREE! Sign up and give it a try. If your kids like it, you can extend your subscription for only $7.95 a month or, if you pay for a year, you also get a Pablo stuffed animal. It's totally risk-free, so give Curiosityville a try and let me know what you think. I bet your kids will love it just as much as mine do.
Twitter Party For Moms and Dads
Kids don't get to have all the fun! Join the Curiosityville Twitter Party on Monday, June 4th at 1pm EST. Join in on the fun with the hashtag #Curiosityville.
