Yesterday morning, as Taylor Swift was once again shaking it off (blasting from Florence’s iPad), Florence uttered those inevitable words (at 6am in half term, before anyone else was even remotely ready to make the day work) ‘I’m bored’ and then I remembered that we have this great new app I wanted her to play with – a few more moments of peace could be bought perhaps?
I smartly input the website address for Education Quizzes, logged her in and sent her on her way to have a play with this much talked about and recommended ‘at home’ education tool…
The reverie of losing Taylor’s ‘not so’ dulcet tones at such a tender age of the early morning was welcome and to boot Florence became totally engrossed in her iPad, quietly leaving us to snooze for another half an hour before her brother broke the slumber peace once again and we all had to get up. Obviously being engrossed in her iPad is not a new phenomenon for Florence as she is always (when allowed) engrossed in something while using it. Be it watching that incredibly annoying Northern family who seem to practically LIVE at Disney World and make Florence think we are the dullest family in the whole world for never having been, a boy who likes to dance on a potato to much hilarity from my kids or watching something on Netflix that she loves, Florence is always very happy to be on her iPad and actually, in moments of needing some more sleep, so am I (just for the record, I hate people who use technology as a baby sitter but… Needs must and come on, 6am?)!
I’m obviously aware that it’s not great to be pootling about watching drivel ALL the time so we absolutely don’t allow screen time 24/7 and we do also try to encourage the children to use useful apps and websites which may assist their learning. However, lots of the time homework apps and the like are just that, home work, and not terribly exciting for the children. Who wants to do more work once they get home from a day in the office? Not me I can tell you and I can’t blame the children for feeling the exact same way about school work. I love nothing more than switching off and watching something easy after a full day of stretching my brain so I can’t expect the kiddos to get mega excited about MORE learning but… Sometimes you find a tool which just happens to have the genius of being able to offer both fun AND education.
Lots of these types of things ‘say’ they do but kids aren’t easily fooled, especially not mine at any rate and often they discard such activities soon after they are started. But this time that doesn’t seem to be happening… By 9.30am, some three and a half hours since she began ‘playing’ and she was STILL loving this site having only had a few breaks for breakfast, shower and getting dressed. Florence does actually LOVE learning and writes masses of stories in her note pads just for fun which is fabulous. She also is rather fond of some extra maths and a quiz element is JUST up her street but what else is it that has grabbed her attention on this?
Well… I think she is ACTUALLY learning something! And this is what’s exciting for her. She kind of reached the curriculum boundary end some time ago for her year at school and in her school at least, I feel, they don’t seem to want to push her further so she ends up drifting… She hasn’t gone off going in because of it as she loves to see her pals but she is incredibly bored at times and needs something more.
‘Can I have a go at Key stage 2?’ she has asked me about the Education Quizzes site, keen to move onto the next level and LOVING that she doesn’t automatically know the answer to all the questions at this next stage up. And I could see that spark in her face of enjoying having to work a bit harder. I feel our school is rather laid back and focuses quite heavily on playing outside which is fabulous, especially for lots of children, and there are many elements which Florence (and I) adore. But… She just needs something extra and without any scope for advancing past her level when there we have had to think of ways to help her achieve what she wants at home instead. There’s a fine line I know, her old school was absolutely too strongly in the other direction in my opinion and this could be quite damaging, they are just children after all and need to be allowed to be just children! Because of this, of Florence’s personality (even as a tiny baby she strove to be doing the next thing and was never content just being able to do what she could do easily) Education Quizzes is a fantastic resource for her.
It’s written by teachers which gives a wealth of knowledge across all the different stages (it has quizzes from Key stage 1 up to G.C.S.E level) and when I asked a teacher friend of mine what she thought last night she said it was incredibly well devised and she wishes they had it in her school as well! Actually this is something that Education Quizzes offers to schools as a package and then the children, at a heavily discounted to schools rate, can all have access both when at school and home. I told my friend about this and she was excited to look into the possibilities for being able to provide it to her school.
The same friend gave Florence some great advice a while back while still at her old school, Florence was upset that she didn’t understand something and the advice was ‘if you are not getting things wrong then you are NOT learning’ she went on to tell us that at her school they have a board where all the ‘wrong’ work gets displayed because it’s a triumph to show they made a mistake and now know the right answers. I’m not sure Florence has much of a chance to get things wrong these days at her new school so something like Education Quizzes, where she can push herself at her own choice and pace is just brilliant for her and my friend agrees.
It’s also pretty helpful for me as a Mother. I have already experienced Florence coming home with work to do that I didn’t fully understand myself (at her old school this happened all the time). On Education Quizzes there is a section dedicated to the grown ups and another for teachers using the tool too. If schools bought this for their pupils then children like Florence could be given the option, instead of free reading because they have read everything else they are supposed to have done, to use Education Quizzes… And children who may be struggling could also take time on their own to work through some things and very visually see what and how they are getting things wrong and thus learning. It’s a thought isn’t it! For £9.95 a month (individual prices – schools can get it for as little as £2 per pupil depending on how many there are in the school) it’s definitely worth an investment, especially, if like us you are thinking about some home tutoring to bulk out what they do at school or help with a particular problem. It covers all areas of education from languages and religious studies to maths, physical education and more.
To say I’m impressed is a little understating and I think we shall be turning to this website fairly often. Children do need to be able to read competently to go off and use it on their own but for my daughter this is the perfect asset to assisting with a bit more education to enrich her learning.
Taylor was back at full pelt as soon as we got on the road to visit friends yesterday and became out of WiFi range and of course that Northern family made a reappearance again once we got home but… So did Education Quizzes which means Florence enjoys using the tool and this is exactly what I had hoped for (well, and another half an hour snoozing of course)!
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