We’re not a screen-free family.The truth is, many days I wish we were. But I begrudgingly admit that it’s just not feasible– not for us, anyways. Between trying to stay in touch with my husband while he’s in various locations across the globe, to his teaching homeschooled kids from around the nation, to paring my daughter’s 75 pounds of medical textbooks down to a single, backpack-friendly volume, to utilizing all of the amazing “you are here!” options available all over the web… we do screens. That’s life in 2016.
What we don’t do are excessive screens. Now, every family’s definition of “excessive” varies, and I’m not anyone’s Holy Spirit. What I am is a homeschooling mother who gets to pray with her husband over our family’s values and vision, set reasonable limits, and enforce them in her own home. What that looks like real-time here varies by age. A pretty big given, however, is that our younger kids get to view probably one well-loved family classic film per month, maybe a couple Torchlighters dvds in that same period, and no access to iPad or online games or media.
However, on occasion I find myself wanting to drill a specific concept or reinforce a skill, and turning to technology to help me out. I grab my iPad, scan my list of recommended apps, type a search term into the App Store, and hope for the best. And while I’m usually disappointed and revert to my tried-and-true methods (sorry, but a deck of cards and a couple of real live people trump time with a computer for educational value just about any day), sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised with the electronic offerings that the world of screens has brought into our home.
Tiggly Words and Tiggly Math are a couple of those surprises.
Designed to introduce and sharpen preschool and kindgergarten skills, Tiggly pairs hands-on manipulatives with fun, interactive games to create an unbeatable learning tool. The chunky, sturdy pieces are perfect for small hands, the directions are simply spoken and clear, and the game designs are uncluttered yet engaging. Not only that, the folks at Tiggly have nailed the art of targeting a purpose and masterfully fulfilling it– something most apps, quite honestly, fail to deliver.
Tiggly Words takes phonics practice from the page to your hands with five colorful vowel manipulatives. Buy the pack, download one of the four free apps, and go. Simon, age 3, doesn’t watch Sesame Street, but he loved the Alphabet Kitchen, which let him punch out letter-shaped cookies. Phineas played Story Maker, swapping vowels in c-v-c words to discover the sounds. He also loved the Submarine and Doctor apps, though they were beyond his learning level. Using Tiggly Words, my kids practiced letter sounds, building words, spelling patterns, and encoding skills. The whole time, they were having enough fun that they thought they were just, well … playing. Score!
Tiggly Math is nearly identical, but allows children to explore numbers, patterns, and counting with the same durable, rubbery manipulatives. There are three apps for Tiggly Math, and each is the same quality “edutainment” that a parent wants when handing their child a learning tool, not just a game. Tiggly Chef captured everyone’s attention, from Phineas all they way down to Simon. Counting strawberries and adding ingredients was team fun, too; multiple kids can play these apps at once, which is a big bonus for large families. Taking turns is easy when everyone has a chunky bar of number spaces in their hand!
My kids tried Tiggly on our full-sized iPads and our minis, and both handled the size of the manipulatives just fine. We did find that one of the apps was slightly buggy, shutting down a few times during play. There’s a chance that was actually an iPad issue, though, and not the app itself, but I thought it was worth a mention.
I’d personally peg these apps for neurotyoical kids aged 3-7, but happily note that the characters of most of the apps are not “babyish” (with the obvious expception of Sesame Street) so older kids needing continual learning support won’t feel talked down to by playing.
Both Tiggly Words and Tiggly Math are part of the 2016 Timberdoodle PreK Curriculum Kit. Separately, they sell for $29.99. Remember, that’s for a set of the manipulatives and all of the apps. There are no in-app purchases required to access all levels of play.
Tiggly has definitely earned a place in our learning toolbox as a guilt-free skills review for multiple ages.
