As a homeschooling mom, I am always trying to be mindful of the apps my children are playing. I have become rather disgusted by the amount of apps and games that are carrying the “educational” claim, yet, when I play the games, I can’t find an ounce of educational benefit. The LumiKids creators/developers are a “team of child development experts, game developers and artists with a passion for harnessing the power of play to provide young kids with opportunities to challenge core skills.” After previewing their first app, I am excited to see more from them. Education + Play + App is possible after all!
The LumiKids App series is a collection of intuitive & adaptive play-based activities for young children created by child development experts to challenge core skills while having fun.
Lumikids Park is designed for children between the ages of 2-5 years old. LumiKids has taken input from parents as well as scientific research to develop this app with teaches core skills like cognitive, motor and social-emotional skills.
Available in English, French, German, and Spanish
Setup made easy: Once you have the app downloaded you are asked to enter your child’s name, age, and email (optional). After the initial setup, your kids are ready to head of to the park for some fun.
I had my four year-old try the app. He was very excited when turned on the iPad and saw that there was a new game installed. He immediately opened the app on his own and navigated his way to each game. You could tell he was engaged in what he was doing. LumiKids Park has three games included. His favorite seemed to be the game where he had to eat all of the dots (flying “nom nom” critters). Each critter needed to eat dots of a certain color in order to move on and “win” or “complete” the game. The patterns were always different and continued play offered new elements to the game to make it more challenging. For example, flying “nom nom” critters needed to navigate around bumpers/buzzers and would put back dots if the critter touched it.
ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES CREATED BY CHILD DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS
• SORTING: Sort squirmy little water critters into their correct water puddles based on color, shape and size, using cognitive flexibility as the sorting rules periodically change.
• VISUAL-MOTOR COORDINATION: While feeding the flying “nom nom” critters, combine the use of several visual-motor coordination skills such as visual processing, motor planning and motor control.
• ATTENTION: While playing hide and seek, keep track of multiple darting critters as they hide, in order to find them – requiring a specific type of attention called divided attention.
While playing the games your child is using both sides of the brain for thinking and completing tasks. I even felt led to use different hands for different sides of the screen. I’m impressed with the amount of attention LumiKids placed in making sure every aspect of this app is educational and helping with childhood development. Parents can easily see the educational benefit, while kids simply – have fun.
Kids will love exploring this interactive park filled with surprises to make them giggle and designed by child development experts to keep them challenged.
The sorting game was tricky! When the child begins playing this game they are sorting by color. After a few rounds, the app tosses in sorting by shape instead. The next challenge is spotting the pattern that tells the player if they are going to sort by color or shape. I noticed that you begin sorting by shape when the shapes contain a color that is not the same as the “container” to place them in. Shhhh – don’t tell the kids!
The characters and the music are very well suited for the children in the targeted age group. The main screen of the park has a mixture of funny creatures and kids playing in the park. As you move past the characters some of them have a sign that appear above them inviting you in to play a game.
Award Winning App!
LumiKids Park has been recognized as a Winner of the 2015 KAPi Award: Best App for Younger Children and Winner of Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award for Excellence in Design. LumiKids Park is also KidSafe COPPA Certified.
I recommend LumiKids Park to any parent of a toddler or preschooler. My son has a SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) and spent several months in Occupational Therapy. This app focuses on several of the skills his therapist was working with him on. He was engaged and had fun problem solving. I look forward to seeing what Lumikids has to offer with there future apps for children.
Learn more about LumiKids Park HERE.
Download this FREE app at the iTunes App Store HERE.
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