Edurino – Fun Digital Learning For 4 – 8 Year Olds!

If you’re looking for an extremely safe way of using digital learning for younger children then the Edurino app is a great place to start. There are no adverts or in app purchase options making it as child friendly as you’d hope for a learning tool aimed at children between the ages of 4 and 8 years old. Edurino has been developed by early years educators and parents and our immediate thoughts have been very positive.

So, how does it work?

You download the app which is available at the App Store, Google Play or Amazon to a device like a tablet or a phone and begin by registering as the parent and creating your child’s avatar of which he or she can choose how they look, what they wear and the accessories they’d like to have with them – just a bit of fun but actually that was a really fun moment with Raffie (age 6) who spent a great deal of time getting his hair right and choosing the most fun outfit he could find. Next up you get to set each child (Multiple children can have a profile under the same account) a time limit for play and then you’re ready to go. It was incredibly simple and Raffie was playing within about 5 minutes of us downloading the app, which is the only time you need to use the internet to play.

The app is free to download and use but in order to unlock the content you need to buy an Edurino Starter Set comprising of the ergonomic pen (which has been designed by occupational therapists in a shape which works for right and left handed people and promotes pen control with its unique shape) and one of the 3 figures which are currently on sale. Each figure, which can also be bought separately, owns a different lesson plan and by using the character figures you unlock their level by placing them on the glowing circle.

Raffie immediately got stuck into numbers and shapes with Robin, a racoon who needs his world rebuilding to bring numbers and shapes to life. There are four levels, each with a number of games and tasks to be completed and Raffie diligently got to work concentrating hard and working his way through them all. He really enjoyed it and immediately wanted to move onto the next character we have, Niki, who unlocks word games to help with reading learning. He hadn’t realised at all that he was completing learning tasks and instead thought he was having fun on a video game… Pretty impressive!

There’s currently a third character on sale, Luca who teaches children about early coding, and more to be released very soon. It’s a pretty impressive piece of kit and Raffie has enjoyed using it very much, while I think the way it works, parental control aspect including that we can log in to see progress, and price point for one of the starter kits is very reasonable at £44.99. Each character costs £24.99 and with each one you will unlock (within the characters designated learning topic) 40 + games. There are 20 topic specific games found on the character’s map and then in the free play area (which crosses all characters) there are more games to play.

Repeat play is invited, this isn’t a one hit wonder but more an opportunity to revisit the games your child loves the most and practice, practice, practice. Because there are different difficulty levels to choose from the children can progressively get better at playing the same games and as time goes on more content will be added to the free play area. And currently Niki, is expecting a little update with more games added to his character so the items have legs.

Not only this but small world play and creating stories of your own is encouraged with the characters for off-screen play too. There’s a world of opportunity for learning, play and fun with Edurino!

My husband was so impressed with the actual content that he wants to take it into his classroom where it will of course come into itself catering for a whole class, and, actually if you, like me, have more than one child then the cost spreading of multiple children being able to use the equipment is very beneficial. Jonny thought it would be a great reward for kids in his class, to be given set times of 10 minutes when they’ve done really well and deserve a treat, still learning of course. Because you can set the time limits and because the timer won’t let the child continue after this point it would work really well in the classroom.

All in all it’s a pretty impressive set up with a lot of learning potential delivered in a fun and engaging way for children. The hidden veg of extra learning if you will. Raffie has enjoyed it all with a very keenly interested baby sister looking over his shoulder the whole time, wanting in on the act too! And though the app is aimed at children aged 4-8 years old, Posie at 2 and a half has also been enjoying it with a little help from me. The first thing she did this morning was ask if she could use the pen now. So we were early birds compared to everyone else, I downloaded the account to my phone, and we sat and did some of the easier beginning tasks with the character Robin. I was surprised at how well she did actually so we will do more when Raffie isn’t here because he firmly thinks it’s his domain now.

Collaboration.