The app is created by Stephanie Dua, a well-known education reformer who led the effort to improve understanding of the intent and implementation of the Common Core publishing criteria for top decision makers across the country.
“I know there’s a lot of great research on how to teach children to read,” said Dua. “But when my own daughter wanted to learn, I couldn’t find any suitable materials for parents. That’s when Learn with Homer was born. It brings the best early learning techniques together in one app.”
I get where Dua is coming from. People are always asking me which apps they should download for their kids. Little munchkins love smartphones and tablets. Anything with a touchscreen is fun. Meanwhile, parents are anxious to find something with educational value. Earlier this week I got a facebook message from a friend I hadn’t talked to in over 15 years. After a few niceties--”I hope life is treating you well”--he cut to the chase; he was looking for an app that would help his young kids start reading.
Considering I write in a very particular niche, it surprising how often people ask me about learning apps. I doubt if I wrote about digital cameras, for example, that friends would be asking me about megapixels all the time, nor seeking me out on facebook. But apps for kids--learning apps in particular--are different and not as tiny a niche as it seems. In 2009, 47% of the top selling apps in the iTunes store were aimed at young kids. According to a Joan Ganz Cooney Center report, in 2012 almost three quarters (72%) of top selling apps targeted preschoolers and elementary age children.
Still, there’s little to recommend when people ask me about early childhood literacy apps. The IOS Appstore and
Before Learn With Homer, I pointed most people in the direction of Montessori Crosswords, which combines phonics in with sounds, pictures, and an easy drag and drop interface. It’s good, but limited. Montessori Crosswords functions like an interactive practice drill. It is a good practice drill, but still it functions better for review than for actual teaching. Learn With Homer, on the other hand, features a comprehensive literacy curriculum that locates reading skills in the world.
This is what makes Learn with Homer unique: context. It does some of the same things a good kindergarten or pre-school teacher would. It is interdisciplinary in that it “combines learning to read with learning to understand the world.” What does that mean? Kids are not only learning what the letter “A” sounds like and that “alligator” starts with “A,” but also taking virtual “field trips” to the zoo, where they learn about alligators. They also draw pictures, record their own voice discussing the subject matter, and listen to stories that emphasize the letters, sounds, and ideas. Then, with an especially cool social feature, parents can track progress, look at a pinterest like board of drawings, and brag about their kids’ genius on facebook.
Anyone who has ever sat in on an exceptional kindergarten class has seen this kind of multidisciplinary teaching in action. It combines serious literacy curriculum with a plethora of different activities that reinforce the lessons with real world context.
The app held my son’s attention for about 30-40 minutes per sitting. He explored different worlds, was interested in the lessons, and found the phonics instruction really engaging. He also smiled at the little moments of praise when the app exclaims, “Wiggly ears, cheers!” He’s started using the expression.
I was thoroughly impressed with the pedagogy; it is top notch, comprehensive and remarkably complex. Phonics, deep vocabulary, and context all meet technology wisely. My only gripe is that a few of the user interface aspects could use some tweaking. For example, there were a few moments when my son wasn’t always sure how to navigate further. It wasn’t always intuitive at a five year old level. I had to show him what to tap. Honestly, this is to be expected from such an early iteration. These are precisely the kinds of things that can be easily fixed with simple animations after developers begin to get feedback.
When I spoke with Stephanie Dua, she told me that the goal was not only to create “the first comprehensive literacy app,” but also “to deliver for parents what we know to be best practices for early education” in a way that was “beautiful but not over gamified.” I think Learn With Homer succeeds. Now, when people ask me for a reading app for young kids, this will be my recommendation. It's not magic; it won't make it so your kid can skip kindergarten--after all, school is about a lot more than just language arts skills. But Learn With Homer is a great way to start working on reading with your kid, or to reinforce what he or she is already learning in school. And as always, the results will be much better if an adult plays with a child.
Learn With Homer is backed by a seed series round of 2.2 million from a prestigious list of angel investors, including: Great Oaks Venture Capital; Paul Francis, Entrepreneur and early CFO of Priceline; Tom Glocer, former CEO of
The app is free to download. It relies on in-app purchases for revenue; the first few lessons are part of the initial download, additional lessons need to be purchased.
Jordan Shapiro is author of FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss and co-editor of Occupy Psyche: Jungian and Archetypal Perspectives on a Movement. For information on his upcoming books and events click here.
