*for ages 3-5

Do you find yourself suddenly thrust into the role of teacher? Struggling to ensure your child learns just like they would in school?

Cast those worries away with Square Panda’s handy tips to teach young learners at home.

Set Up A Special ‘Learning’ Space: Create a special learning space for them and fill it with all kinds of colourful stationery, just like a preschool or junior kg class would. This designated space puts children in the right frame of mind to study, and actually encourages them to seek out study time. But remember, children shouldn’t be hounded to study constantly; give them their space. And the best way to do that is…

Schedule. Schedule. Schedule.: Make a daily learning plan to help your little one study, but keep it flexible. Think of it like guidelines, rather than a rulebook to follow. Schedule their lessons around your own daily work; you can even break up these lessons into mini pieces to be conducted throughout the day (like teaching them about taste during breakfast, enhancing their digital literacy while you work on your laptop, introducing them to cooking instruments and new food vocabulary while cooking, and so on). Whether you are teaching them after work, during lunch, or even early in the morning, one thing you must remember is…

Mix Physical Activities With Learning: Let your creative brain loose, and come up with multiple fun multisensory activities for your children to enjoy. Everything can be a play-learn opportunity.
For example: Have to cook? Great! Hand your kids a little dough and let them make shapes from it.
Working on a spreadsheet? Get your kids actual sheets of paper and a crayon. Let them go wild doodling anything their hearts desire.
Lots of cleaning to do? Task your little ones with becoming your helpers; hand them mops and brooms and let them clean away!

Include Their Hobbies Too: They might be little, but they have their own opinions, likes, and dislikes too. Make sure to incorporate all such activities into their learning. If you draw a blank, ask your little ones what they want to do, or even learn. Then, follow their instructions to the best of your abilities.

It’s Not School, And That’s Okay: You are NOT their teacher, and their home is not school. No one expects this from you, either. This current situation demands new roles from all of us, and we must adapt as best we can. Enjoy the advantage of this unexpected time with them; take advantage and bond with your little ones.

Keep coming back here for more fun and educational articles on schooling at home during the lockdown, parenting, early literacy, and everything in between, right here.

Credits: Written by Sanjana Shukla, Illustrated by Aaron Gomes

Each time you crack open that book and read to your child, they are getting better and better at building essential reading skills. In fact, children actually acquire their reading skills through repeated exposure and practice.

*For a more in-depth look at how a child’s brain works as they try to develop their reading skill, check out this blog post.

With this in mind, Square Panda is introducing SquareTales, a unique set of digital and printable PDF books, to help develop an early reading habit in children, and promote independent reading. Additionally, each set also contains additional learning materials (rhymes, songs, and fun learning activities), absolutely free of cost, available to download from our Kids’ Library.

The SquareTales curriculum follows Square Panda‘s custom-made, research-based curriculum, introducing letters in small groups (around 4-8 new letters are introduced with each book). SquareTales engages students through endearing Square Panda characters–like Panda and Cameo, a friendly pair consisting of a little panda and an enthusiastic chameleon–and compelling storylines.

Additionally, the books are divided into groups or sets, where each book focuses only on a particular area of study (For example, Set 1, which is available for a FREE preview , focuses on word families).

Word families are groups of words that share a common pattern, such as “hat“, “mat“, and “cat“. In SquareTales, this is how we classify words into word families, making it easy for children to learn and understand them, and identify these common patterns. This gives young learners a strong grasp of the rules that make the English language.

SquareTales For Parents:
We know you are very invested in your child’s future. Which is why SquareTales has a ‘Parent Portal’, to help you monitor your child’s progress as they start reading. A ‘Parent Guide’ to help you navigate your way through our early reading app, complete with expected learning milestones, can also be found on our website.

How SquareTales Works:
Step 1: Students learn letter-sounds.
Step 2: Then they learn to blend these letter-sounds to form words (e.g. c-a-t).
Step 3: They practice each word and letter for as long as they want.
Step 4: They start reading connected text, and later, full sentences.
Step 5: They can now read a whole book!
Step 6: They practice what they learnt through instructional activities.
Step 7: They learn to read the printable PDF book corresponding to the ebook.

This is a systematic, easy-to-grasp, and effective way to learn English in a fun and engaging manner, beginning with easy letters and simple words, and graduating to the ‘book-reading’ stage very quickly!

What Children Learn With SquareTales:

• Knowledge of letter sounds and how to blend them, with guided practice.

• Learners learn to use the knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words.
• Builds vocabulary, comprehension skills, and knowledge about written conventions.
• Learners will be exposed to various CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words from each word family, for example, ‘tap’, ‘nap’, ‘sap’, from the word family ‘ap’. This teaches them to not only sound out, read, and spell these words, but also identify the phonetic pattern that marks them as a part of a specific word family.
• Learners will also be introduced to common sight words (i.e. words that don’t follow the rules of blending) like ‘the’, ‘is’, and more.

Additional Skills Developed By SquareTale’s Instructional Activities:
– Vocabulary building
– Sight word identification
– Story sequencing

The Benefits Of Teaching With Square Tales

• To make reading and learning easier, all the books (of initial sets) are arranged in terms of word families. The learning level gradually increases, book by book, to help learners stay challenged and engaged. 
• Similarly, in terms of a roadmap, each book series deals with a different, slightly more challenging theme, for example, the first series deals with word families, the next one deals with a more challenging theme, and so on. 
• SquareTales builds the essential components of reading we focus on— phonemic awareness, phonics, listening comprehension, and vocabulary.

With the first set of learning books (5 in-app digital books) completely FREE, what are you waiting for? Download the app today!

*Subscribe to SquareTales…

Monthly: At just 199/month (including GST)
Yearly: At just 1799/year (including GST)

…once your FREE digital books are done, and unlock all the new reading kits (which include digital books, printable PDF books, and activities) monthly. As the curriculum advances, so does your child’s learning and reading!

Found this article helpful? Comment below; like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

– By Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

The fact that becoming literate opens doors and avenues previously unexplored is known to all. It is the ultimate goal for all parents and teachers, something they spend their lives and careers striving to achieve. Learning to be literate is more than simply having knowledge of the alphabet and the language, however. Literacy also involves developing cognitive skills, preferably during the preschool and kindergarten years.

That’s why so much of early education is play alongside learning. Research supports the ‘learning through play’ method, with esteemed psychologist Lev Vygotsky, in his article, Play And Its Role In The Mental Development Of The Child, examining the different components of play and the way they affect a little learner’s just-developing mental functions, and thus concluding that play might not be the primary activity, but, in a certain way, it is the main reason for a child’s development in the preschool years.

*At the time Vygotsky conducted his research, in Russia, formal schooling started around the age of 7. So it is fair to include both preschoolers and kindergarteners in his findings.

**Vygotsky only looked at play in terms of role-play (kids putting themselves in imaginary situations, kids taking on and acting out roles, and following a set of rules determined by that role).

If you need more reasons to convince you learning through play is essential, read on…

1) Play Develops Their Senses: An educational game succeeds in stimulating a young learner’s senses the way simple learning cannot. Using props and educational toys that encourage kids to use multiple senses, including tactile ones, enhances their retention and learning.

2) Play Helps Power Their Mind: Imagine a large battery which you can plug, and voila, your kids’ brains are that much smarter. A learning game is exactly that battery, sparking more engagement and learning in a beginner learner’s mind. Not only are their cognitive skills much more developed, they also exhibit signs of critical thinking, and can understand cause and effect.

3) Learning Games Prompt Physical Play: Not every educational game has users sit passively to learn; the ones catering to a younger audience almost always incorporate an element of kinesthetic learning-whether it is dancing, or singing, or simply getting up and moving around. Boosting large and small motor skills, these games are perfect for added reinforcement of regular learning.

4) Games Boost Creativity: When kids play a learning game, their minds are almost always actively engaged. Whether it is the animated gameplay or the engaging activities in each game, young learners can explore and expand their minds to a greater extent.

Did you know the Square Panda Lagoon game encourages early learners to explore and experiment with making words?

5) Games Are A Confidence Booster: There is a tiny frown of concentration on your kid’s face, which clears away as soon as she realises the letter she was trying to identify is, in fact, the letter ‘A’. The more she gets answers and concepts right, the higher her confidence soars. The bite-sized lessons masquerading as games, and the colourful components both serve to make education simpler and a lot more fun. Finding this stimulating, kids’ success rates increase, which in turn raises their confidence in themselves and their learning ability.

6) Playing Games Helps Kids Play Well With Others: Whether in school or at home, playing these educational games have a positive effect on children’s social and emotional well-being. Playing these games (and sometimes losing) helps them with their emotional maturity; because they are pushed to interact with people—friends, peers, adults around them—these games can also develop their social skills. All this interaction has the added benefit of improving kids’ communication skills as well.

Playing, Learning, And The World: Governments around the world have started to recognise and acknowledge the importance of learning through play, and are taking steps (strides, in some countries), to incorporate a ‘play’ element for their young.

• Early childhood development was studied as early as the 1980s, with a study being conducted on children in an underprivileged Kingston neighbourhood in Jamaica. Mothers were taught to interact and bond with their children via play, by community health workers. Focused on reducing developmental delays in at-risk kids, this program was found to have a great effect on the earnings of those kids as adults.

• A global experiment was conducted by BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, to bring play to the world’s most underprivileged communities. Derived from BRAC’s 40 years of building schools for the at-risk members of Bangladeshi society, this program’s curriculum was created by a team of global scholars. Faced with stiff opposition in many communities who feel the ‘play and learn’ model is frivolous and cannot add value to learning, they soon change their minds when they see the results of such play in their now skilled and cognitively-developed children.

Pick An Educational Toy That Delivers

Why go for a simple learning tool when you can have one that develops your child’s early literacy skills AND cognitive skills (plus a host of other essential life skills) through cool educational games? Not only that, our learning games are perfect for beginner learners as young as 2 years of age!

– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

Learning comes naturally to kids, but when it comes to reading, the process slows down. Reading is an important element for early learners with a structured process which needs to be taught. It gradually seeps inside a young mind. Mostly, Educators have extensive concern for the achievement in initial reading experiences in kids. Today’s educators need the ingredients of effective educational programs to teach kids to read.

Yes, the teachers’ require to place reading instruction on solid footing. Reading is subsumed by early literacy. Here, a few substantial approaches have shed light on the reading acquisition processes and effective instructional approaches.

WHAT IS READING READINESS?

Reading readiness is the first step a child takes towards understanding early reading skills. It is the stage in development when, through the learning experience and maturation, they learn to read effectively.

According to the Ontario Government (2003), the acquisition of language is natural, but the process of learning to read is not—reading must be taught.

Did you know, that there are multiple methods and skills to determine when trying to build reading readiness capabilities in kids? Let us help you identify that the child is reading ready.

Learn Early Reading Readiness Skills

YOUNG MIND NEEDS TO LEARN THESE READING READINESS SKILLS:

Kids should be well-versed with these six critical skills before they attempt to master formal reading.

Improve Print Awareness Concepts: Kids know that the text represents spoken words. They become aware of the directions, left or right. Do kids know, how to hold a book or pen? Foster their fascination with book reading, developing a sense of rhythm and rhyme, analyse patterns. Their reading skills are emerging and they learn to predict word patterns.

Understand using Phonological Awareness: It is sensitivity to the sound structure of language. Phonological awareness has an ability to listen and identify special sounds (syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes) and letters in spoken words. Kids understand letters, vowels, constants, and two letters words to make new sounds. Phonological awareness increases their skills by playing with words; changing sounds or syllables. Little learners will eventually stump us with their literacy achievement.

Explore with Phonemic Awareness: Having phonemic awareness helps to create reading readiness skills in early learners. It is the first thread in the tapestry of reading. Here, the child’s ability evolves, as they listen and know how to manipulate the smallest mental units of sound—phonemes in the spoken language.
For example: When a child plays Lagoon Game, in its exploratory mode; they identify familiar sounds across a group of words, like color, cake, candy. Even can create a new word, recognise all individual phonemes in a single word, like a dog -> d,o,g.

How Does Phonics Instructions Improve Reading?

Reading fluency will foster confidence in the students. The main focus of phonics is to make children aware of the relationship between the letters of written language (graphemes) and the individual sounds of spoken language (phonemes). These instructions can be given systematically or incidentally. Children will learn to recognise words accurately and decode new words.

Discover the Alphabetic Principle (Letter Knowledge): It is an abstract concept where students receives clarity about the symbols i.e. letters and combinations of letters to represent the speech sounds in their elemental forms. The sounds are anchored to letters or strings of letters is known as the ‘Alphabetic Principle.’ In the reading development, children learn to use the alphabetic principle fluently. Using explicit phonics instruction—they understand the primary purpose of reading. The students’ grows and gains knowledge using the phonogram techniques further, they are shown, how to blend phonograms into words. After that, they’re trained to create blending practice using one-syllable consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Systematically, they learn how to read by recognition and naming of letter names and letter sounds.
For instance, Little learners can touch, feel and lay the ‘Smart Letters’ in the Square Panda Playset. It even engages kids in an ergonomically important ‘look-away’ time-span. Kid’s are placed in the optimally learning zone, to challenge their potential.

Motivation is the Key: There are various signs which reflects the kids are more interested in reading. If they frequently request for more read-aloud time and show enthusiasm for books or worksheets. Teachers and Parents can include various activities in kids daily routine to develop their interest in reading. Make reading an interactive and fun learning experience, which sparks their attention. Kids have short attention span- so read short story books with illustrative elements like bright colors, flags or different textures are good for keeping them engaged and motivated.

Display Listening Comprehension: Kid’s should be able to retell the story, answer the simple questions and ask more questions during the read-aloud.
For instance: In the mid-story section, a Child asked the Teacher; Why did the Panda laugh? It gives us an insight that child was paying attention and listening to the story.

Learn Reading Readiness Skills With Square Panda

After following the quick analyses, determine how the child is moving from learning to read and slowly towards the goal of reading to learn. Be sure your students are getting comfortable with these concepts before beginning the actual reading instructions. Reading readiness isn’t just about early literacy skills. It covers a set of four major competencies such as social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of the child. Build a culture at school and home, which evokes their interest in effective reading. Focus on making enjoyable reading activities rather than it being only academic centric.

QUICK TIPS TO RAISE STRONG READERS:

Prepare your students well, make them aware of the sounds of the phonograms, letter names, etc. They should be able to:

• Recite the alphabets, rhymes, etc.
• Recognise the alphabetic letters
• Re-tell a story
• Make them familiar with blends
• Place the letters
• Read there name
• Practice reading words aloud
• Use correct sounds when speaking the letters
• Understand the progression of text is placed left to right and top to bottom

Young minds are going through major development changes, in such a situation grasping reading skills quickly might seem impossible. Understanding reading readiness will enable you to teach more calmly and successfully turn your reluctant learners into avid readers for life. Most kid’s don’t develop the basic foundation of reading skills by themselves, Square Panda’s multisensory reading platform strikes a good balance here. With our tailor-made curriculum, now every child can learn to read well.

Phonics Instructions For Early Learners

Learn more about how to augment reading readiness into your child’s play. Square Panda can help you access using the multisensory techniques. Take a look at our library of games to engage early learners.

If we’ve hit your nerve and you require more insight about how to develop reading skills in your kids, leave us a comment below. Connect with us on our Facebook and LinkedIn to know more.

–Nidhi Parikh, SEO Content Writer, Square Panda India

He’s got an impressive 24+ years of experience, in multiple disciplines, no less, under his belt. The shot caller at Square Panda India, he was recently promoted to Global CTO. 

He is passionate about his family, basketball, and making a social impact.

Introducing our MD and Global CTO, Ashish Jhalani, who very kindly agreed to sit down with us for a special interview, where he divulges details about his journey to Square Panda, early education, and his favourite character from our games.

Watch the interview here, or read the transcript below:

FROM ECOMMERCE TO EDUCATION. WHAT INSPIRED THAT TRANSITION?

“I spent almost all my life in the e-commerce field since I first started working. Transferring to education was a big decision, but it kind of comes down to wanting to do something more than just build businesses and have an impact on a very little number of people. Here in education, it gives me an opportunity to impact millions of kids, especially here at Square Panda, with us having a presence in the US, in China, and in India, and then obviously, in each one of these countries there are millions of kids that are in need of literacy, and it gives me an opportunity to reach to all of those kids. So yeah, it is more of a social kind of a move at this point. You want to make an impact and not just build businesses, but here, it gives me an opportunity to do both.”

WOULD YOU HAVE USED SQUARE PANDA, HAD IT BEEN AVAILABLE WHEN YOUR CHILDREN WERE YOUNGER? WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR DECISION EITHER WAY?

“At first, challenges: would I want screen time for them? NO! Or yes. But if we looked at the product, I think I would want to use it for my kids. One, because I was a second language learner, my wife was a second language learner, and we wanted our children to obviously learn better than we did. So, I think I would have chosen Square Panda as one of the products for my children to learn from. I myself used different tools initially to learn English, so I think I would use something for my kids as well.” 

AI (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE) AND MI (MACHINE LEARNING), THESE TERMS ARE NOW BEING USED IN THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL SPHERES, EDUCATION. HOW DOES SQUARE PANDA TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS TREND?

“AI and MI are hot topics at this point, be it education or finance. But in education, specially, we are talking about how can AI and MI help. Here at Square Panda, we take ‘first steps’ (referencing the fact that our educational games create a foundation to language learning and early literacy); all of our games are adaptive games. As children are playing these games and learning, each child learns differently. So if your child is making a mistake with a certain letter, word, etc., we recognise that. Obviously, our games ensure that the child has enough practice and enough repetition to learn that particular issue that they were having. That’s just one step. As we build our products further, we are building more algorithms to understand the demographics of the child, to understand what their patterns of learning are, and have them integrated against the new products, the new games, and the new curriculums that we are building up.”

WHAT IS THE SQUARE PANDA MISSION STATEMENT?

“Our mission here at Square Panda is very simple. We want to empower all kids with the power of literacy. We want every child to have education, we want every child to learn a language, and a language that is common across the globe.”

WHAT ARE THE GOALS SQUARE PANDA HAS?

“The goals Square Panda has is to make education and literacy, affordable and reachable to the masses across the world, may it be in China, may it be in India. We want to make sure that every child gets an opportunity to be literate, learn the language of English—which is a primary language across the world—and find better jobs as they grow up.”

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTER FROM OUR GAMES?

“My favourite character in our games is obviously Square Panda. He has got this unique thing–pandas are never square, but he is square…and I like that. So, yeah, my favourite character is Square Panda.”

WHAT SETS SQUARE PANDA APART FROM OTHER EARLY LEARNING SYSTEMS?

“What sets us apart at Square Panda is realistically, our ability to be adaptive. Like I said, every child learns differently. That’s what Square Panda is all about. Now, obviously, we have many other important aspects too, but what differentiates us; one being ‘multisensory’. Our playset is unique in what it offers. It gives the child (the ability) to still continue to develop motor skills, etc. while using the digital adaptive platform. Now, let’s not discount the amount of research that has gone into building our curriculum. Though the user is seeing the games, the children playing it interact with the game, there is a large amount of curriculum that helps them learn, and there are learning goals for everything that the child is doing in our games.

What sets Square Panda apart in most cases is the innovation we bring. We currently have our meta game out—‘SquareLand’—where we are continuously adding more interactions, more engagements to the product, where we can complete the learning goals of each early learner. In addition to that, we have products such as ‘Buddy Reader’ that is coming out that will help children read better. In the future, we have other products that will help the child complete their full cycle of learning–from reading, to writing and recognising letters, etc. So, Square Panda is an innovative company; we are going to constantly be innovating new things. Not everything can be talked about, but there are things that are continuously in the pipeline to be introduced to the markets in India, in China, and in the US.”

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Check out our website for more articles, videos, and educational games!

– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

Managing children’s progress is tiresome. It requires a considerable time and effort to track and analyse growth. In today’s times, early literacy matters, multiple educators and parents are seeking methods for more productive child experience.

In the quest for good school records, often parents and teachers neglect and ignore their children early educational needs. Scorning the child’s requirement will not help in any manner. Every child wants a special treatment or learning tool to support them. Using interactive early learning games promotes’ self-learning and motivates the kids’ to learn to read.

Square Panda’s Playground is a digital foundation for successful early literacy and language management. It has multisensory instructions, which triggers the young brains to process information; it gains deeper cognition and strengthens the little learner’s levels.

A blend of tactile letters combined with a multisensory experience uses different senses; enhances learning through play. It aids the curriculum milestones and goals in each of the classic legacy games. These mini-games adapt to the learner’s level and make them well-versed of phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, builds vocabulary and much more. Here the students achieve endless engagement, reiteration and exposure to early literacy.

Square Panda has a backbone of a deep neuroscience-based researched approach. The Teachers and Parents’ Evaluation Portal is an innovative and adaptive platform syncronised with current learning levels. Learn how to turn your average learners into smarter thinkers using Square Panda Games. Discover the ‘Playground’ and bring forward the key to successful learning.

AMAZING THINGS YOU’LL FIND IN THE SQUARE PANDA PLAYGROUND:

• • Teachers can explore the players i.e. students, customise their account, add more players, discover the badges and suggest words.
  • Square Panda’s Word Bank gives an opportunity to expand children’s vocabulary.
  • The average volume of the words in the bank:
    -Real word dictionary: 58k+ real words.
    -Phonemic dictionary: 85k+ real/nonsense or silly words pronunciations.
  • Teaching aids like flashcards, storybooks and workbooks will quicken the learning process.
  • Give them access to our open-ended exploratory play.
  • Add customise words and pictures into a child’s personalised, and private database.
  • New Classroom playset comes with a built-in ‘QR Code’, which allows quick scan.
  • Badges: Easily track the children’s accomplishments across each Square Panda’s game level and watch the badges fill with color as they enter words in different milestones.
    • Big Badges: It consists of detailed progress mapping for each curriculum milestone.
    • Mini Badges: The child earns mini badges when they spell- name, numbers and words correctly.
  • View words list and letter history. Discover every word your students have spelt the most across Square Panda learning games.
  • The word list consists of:
    • Real words played
    • Nonsense words played
    • Letters that the child played
    • Letter orientation
    • Letter mixups and areas of confusion
  • Use easy-to-read reports to track and trace students’ milestones progress.
  • Administrators can check their students time spent, the fidelity of implementation and give a real-time assessment in the form of feedback.
  • Lost Letter: Missing a few letters? Simply report them here, and the games will react intelligently, so the children can continue to learn to play.
  • Access the NewsFeed: It helps to stay plugged to all the latest updates in early education and literacy.

LISTEN TO SQUARE PANDA’S CO-FOUNDER- ANDY BUTLER AS HE UNCOVERS THE SECRETS OF OUR ‘PORTAL’.

GIVE THEM POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT:

Square Panda has a distinct administrators’ portal where they can control over the deployment within the classroom. Educators can measure their students progress with a multivariable grid of phonics skills. The reports provide a window into the students progress. It helps in boosting a positive screen time with educational elements.

HERE ARE SOME QUICK STEPS TO LOGIN THE PORTAL:

THE PARENTS PORTAL VIDEO:

THE TEACHERS PORTAL VIDEO:

Parents and Teachers can take full charge of the playground via a portal. Using their login id and password they can access every element to make early learning fun. The playground has coupled language learning with a sequence program to nurture and polish the children skills. Learning through play gives children the ability to experience the best of both worlds.

Now convert your kids’ reading time into fun time with Square Panda’s Playset and keep unproductivity at bay.

Want to become a Square Panda-Powered School? Connect with us via LinkedIn.

–Nidhi Parikh, SEO Content Writer, Square Panda India

You know how there is a manual inside every device and product you own/purchase? The one that is extremely important and holds the guide to using said device or product properly? We decided our Square Panda users needed one user guide of their very own, to guide them along their journey to early education and literacy.

We recommend every first-time user read our cheat sheet of instructions, before using our playset and Smart Letters.

Firstly, let us explain the terms we use while referring to the Square Panda phonics playset:

Your guide to using the Square Panda Playset:

Your guide to using the Square Panda Smart Letters:

Why Coloured Letters?

According to a study conducted in 2002, learners performed much better when they were introduced to ‘realistic’ coloured objects, rather than simple black-and-white or even random coloured objects.

Young learners use colour and shape to identify things and describe them. It offers learners a sense of security and stimulation when they are taught using one or two colours. A riot of them, however, seems to make beginner learners anxious and overstimulated.

Yellow (in small amounts) is a happy colour, and boosts growth and development. It can also help stimulate the memory and improve concentration.

The combination of blue and red, purple takes on both their qualities, soothing and calming like blue, and attracting attention, energising the mind, and increasing athletic ability like red.

Caring For Your Playset, Smart Letters:

• Like any other electronic device, taking our playset and the letters for a swim is not the best idea! We did design them to be durable, but if they get wet, dry them off with a cloth as soon as possible.
  Letters not reading correctly? They may have something stuck to their bottom side. Clean the letters with a damp cloth and then dry them thoroughly. Make sure to keep the letter slots of the tray just as clean, as small bits of food or other debris can affect the reading of the letters. If your letters are still giving you a problem, contact us, and we’ll do our best to solve your problem.
  Remember, the settings button uses a ‘long press’ function. We thought that might be enough to fool kids, and prevent them from accessing the settings page. We applied the same reasoning to the ‘adults only’ menu, asking for a code which is entirely in words. The assumption was that if your kids can read those, then they are probably ready for more advanced learning tools.

Come back next week for an in-depth look at our incredible progress monitoring tools for kids…

– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

Boredom teaches everyone that life isn’t a themed amusement park. Even young brains get easily stuck in the whirlpool of boredom, and it fills the teachers and parents’ mind with a cascade of guilt and accountability. The problem with the current education scenario is that it has somewhat submerged under the heavy load of papers with no fun elements. Learning should have a high ratio of fun quotient.

Children’s brains can easily drift into an elaborate fantasy realm which captures their attention. But, there’s a hope to channel learning equation for kids, all thanks to a new breed of early educational games apps. These apps are popularly known as ‘gamification’ in which educational and game elements are added together to generate a child’s productivity level. Gamification is the new trend in recent times, and multiple brain games for kids have changed the learning environment.

NOW EXACTLY WHAT IS GAMIFICATION?

Understand Gamification And Game-Based Learning.

For starters, gamification of learning is an educational approach which is inspiring students’ to learn using the elements of the game.  A young brain gets motivated using the lessons blended with gaming elements. This makes education more fun-filled. Often, gamification and game-based learning are used interchangeably, but it does not mean they are similar.
In the gamifying standard psychological tasks, the research has highlighted game elements can improve the task accessibility, build engagement using a system, and inspiring long-term participation. Yes, gamification is already spreading its roots in a variety of settings; there are game-based early educational platforms, multisensory systems for early learners, and as they level-up chances of winning increases. A slew of research studies have verified the connection between improvement in the engagement and better learning experience to kids. The core idea is to boost the child’s productivity using the concepts of gamified and game-based learning platform.

The gaming elements in game-based learning:

Gaming Elements In Learning

BLOOM OF GAMIFICATION IN EDUCATION

Nick Pelling (a British computer programmer, and entrepreneur) coined the word ‘gamification’ in 2002. He stated, gamification as ‘applying game-like accelerated user interface design to make electronic transactions both enjoyable and fast.’ Thus, games started to begin developed as a learning machine. Now, the gamification concept is implemented in the cultures of education, and it provides maximum value to the students.

HOW DO CLASSROOMS TAKE ADVANTAGES OF GAMIFYING EDUCATION?

The biggest challenge for the teachers is to gain their student’s interest to interact and engage them. For doing so, the teacher’s needs to redefine the course materials or the teaching techniques which will fuel efficient learners. Gamification would chalk out the right direction to encourage students by easily involving them in the classroom activities and learn well.

GAMIFY TO IMPROVE GRADES

Games are gradually turning into verified educative tools which delivers the best to raise the kid’s interest. Following a standard set of the curriculum will improve the transformation of involving preschoolers. Gamification reinforces the context which will profoundly impact classroom management. Students will develop an interest to attend regular classes. The educational games will keep the class actively hooked, engage preschoolers cognitively, emotionally and socially.

For example: If we develop a game that transforms the base of education by adding rewards or bonus points for every correct answer, then children will gain more interest to participate in each of the activities conducted.

Teachers needs to integrate educational games into the curriculum to enhance the involvement of the students. Grades will be surely rising. Moreover, a gamified classroom is a dynamic approach to teach kids.

If you want to know, how to boost a child’s productivity; here’s the lay low of how teachers can seamlessly use the gamification in early education to increase a child’s productivity level.

– GAMIFY TO RAISE ENTHUSIASM: Gamification brings in the fun element in learning any subject, even the uninspired or struggling children can be motivated to reach the next level. Early learners enjoy themselves to participate in games and without realising the fact that they are actually practicing learning. These kids begin to focus on improving schoolwork and improving skills in the class.

– Square Panda’s multisensory learning games, like Letter Lab, Lagoon, Bowling, and Space Cows, inspires kids to explore their potential while they learn to read.

– AIDS COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Numerous studies have reflected that cognitive development turns young brains into more profound learners. Neuroscience theorists believe adding gamified teaching content will stimulate cognitive skills. These skills will help to solve problems, perform strategic planning, thinking and processing the material.

It will produce a stimulating environment for the brain to find answers to questions. Gamification will create a positive effect on their cognitive functions, and achieve autonomy.

– GAMIFICATION GENERATES TEAMWORK: Preschoolers will learn to collaborate with their classmates by working together as a team. They are constantly learning something new.

-GAMIFICATION INCREASES ATTENTION SPAN: It is the cold truth: a game will capture students’ attention more than anything else. Games offers unique experiences to the participants. They will like to spend more time learning.

WHAT DOES GAMIFICATION BRING TO EDUCATION?

Let’s listen to our experts’ advice.

KNOW THE SQUARE PANDA WAY OF LEARNING

The future of learning is in the child’s early development. Kill their boredom with curiosity and advance their interest in fun learning games!

Square Panda’s neuroscience research-based multisensory learning platform to absorb the elements of phonemes, phonological awareness, vocabulary, rhymes, etc. Each lesson guides early learners with personalised gameplay.

If you are searching for the best practices for gamifying the delivery of education, then drop down your comments and we’ll help you attain your goals.

Learn how to teach your kids the multisensory way, watch the video here.

You can also connect with us on Facebook and Linkedin for more information.

–Nidhi Parikh, SEO Content Writer, Square Panda India

‘Screen Time’, or the time spent by a person in front of a screen, is growing by leaps and bounds every day.

Photo by Vidmir Raic from Pixabay

Guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend no digital exposure until children are 18 months of age, and exposure with adult engagement at least until they are 5 years old. We at Square Panda follow their instructions, endorsing the use of our literacy platform for children above 2 years of age. We are also great believers of learning via screen time, for the following reasons:

WE LIVE IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Digital media has invaded every part of our lives, in offices, homes, and even schools. In such a scenario, ensuring children are digitally literate is not just smart, it is also staying a step ahead of the times. Supervised screen time, can, if handled correctly, can increase children’s confidence and prepare them for their future.

PUTTING THE ‘SELF’ IN ‘SELF-CONTROL’

An overuse of anything, be it screens or even play time, is never a good thing. With that said, parents and teachers should try to encourage children to self-regulate the time they spend in front of a device. Teaching them moderation through methods like fear (you can scare them away from too much screen time by showing them its adverse effects), and positive motivation (entice them away from the device by introducing them to something they enjoy more), can have unexpected benefits. Because they are setting their own (moderate) time in front of a device, they become more independent, confident, and self-assured. They are gradually able to identify their own needs and wants, and figure out a way to meet them.

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF SCREEN TIME

Research has proven that screen time can actually help, rather than hinder, development of young children. Screen time has also received a ‘thumbs-up’ from child media expert and Vice President of PBS KIDS Digital, Sara DeWitt, who believes screen time can be beneficial if used correctly.

• In light of fear that excess screen time can cause obesity, look to videos, apps, and activities that encourage children to move rather than stare passively at the screen. Square Panda’s games, like Jiggity Jamble and Monster Rhymes, motivate kids to use their bodies while learning English.
  Talking to kids about their pastimes, and more specifically, their favoured games, has a way of opening up the conversation to new avenues. Experts even suggest this can lead to enhanced social and emotional interactions.
  Parents and teachers can control the content, choosing only those programs/products that have a high quality of educational age-appropriate content. And there are a lot of high-quality educational products out there!

SCREEN TIME WITH A DIFFERENCE

For more such images, check out our Instagram and Facebook pages.

We ask parents and teachers across India to say a big, resounding ‘YES’ to screen time with us, because our early literacy system has 40% less screen time with our multisensory approach; kids constantly look away from the screen to search for and pick up Smart Letters while playing with games. Unlike other digital experiences, Square Panda’s phonics-based early education platform qualifies—and many parents would agree with us here—as ‘good Screen Time’. With a product that is research-based (we’ve got our own team of experts in the field of early education, working alongside educators) and has proven results in many schools and homes across America and China, Square Panda’s vast library of educational games makes a child’s time in front of a device more productive.

For more such images, visit our Instagram and Facebook pages.

We think an introduction to the digital world is essential in today’s day and age, but we highly recommend a balanced use of screen time, with children going outdoors as regularly as they learn and play indoors.

What Do You Think:

Take this poll and let us know your thoughts about ‘Screen Time’ in your homes and classrooms:

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– Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India

Ever imagined the preschoolers surpassing all the milestones and reaching their ultimate potential? Young brains requires milestones to develop their base foundation skills. 
Teachers, Parents, and Caregivers, always wonder about how to encourage the child by directing them in the right path. Now you can trigger the accurate emotions, set them on course for effective and engaging learning. Evolve their cognition’s easily.

“Cognitive Development pertains improving the skills in terms of understanding the concepts, perception, learning, thinking and processing information in the brain.”

In simpler terms, Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes while cognitive development refers to long-term changes in these processes. Here’s a better explanation by Piaget in his popular Psychological theory.
According to Jean Piaget’s (a renowned Swiss Psychologist) Theory of Cognitive Development, the children move through four different stages of brain development. The theory focuses on understanding, how young brains acquire knowledge and the nature of intelligence. As children take an active role in the learning process, make constant observations, and perform experiments their skills grows. Infact, interacting with other people adds more knowledge. He believed, cognitive development is a process which happens due to biological maturation.

Piaget’s Period Of Cognitive Development

Everyone knows, the preschool years are the most exciting and enthusiastic as a child is immersed in a highly social world. These social and cultural influences are providing the context and building the cognitive growth foundation. So, how can kids’ keep every detail in mind and solve problems? When they read a book, speak and watch a video, their young brains hold onto everything as processed info. The psychologists calls it the working memory. It underpins the child’s ability to learn. Working memory generates proper guidance to enhance the child’s decision-making process and behavior.

Yes, children’s thinking ability is tremendously developing by leaps and bounds. Especially at the age of three-five, every child’s brain begins to grow cognitively, and they require teachers to provide support and guidelines. Mentoring them with educational tools will engage the preschoolers’ thinking abilities and give a boundless exposure to their potentials.  

Square Panda inspires early learning by triggering the correct cognitive cords. There are various hallmarks in the pedagogy, which teachers must use to encourage and educate the early learners.

Here are some hallmarks on how to train the preschoolers through the lens of cognitive development.

1.Simple Reasoning and Problem-solving-

Young brains have thousands of questions and need explanations on how things work around. Teachers should pose and read aloud some thought-provoking questions for preschoolers to understand the natural causes of any phenomena, this will stimulate their cognitive abilities. Reasoning and problem solving is a technique which teachers can use to help students understand how and why things work.
For instance, Teachers can evolve their students curiosity levels by reading the different “how to” children books or guides. 

2.Growth of Social and Emotional Cognition-

Social Cognition refers to thinking about social situations and keeping emotions in control. Your child is a social being and in the pre-school years, children begin to expand their cognitive skills, and knows, how the social world works. Using the method of learning to play, they are able to grasp other people’s behaviors, displays their theory of mind and gain greater perspectives on the working of the world. Throughout their preschool years, their young brains learns to increase communication abilities and advances their cognitive workings.

3. Recollection and Boosting Memory-

Improving the capacity for memory and recollection is vital for young brains. Going hand in hand with metacognition, the children will recall their previous knowledge of different concepts. Metacognitive skills allow children to learn how to solve problems and generate thinking of their own. Using the mnemonic strategies is rudimentary in young children. Preschoolers should be able to exhibit their abilities to recall things, people, story, Etc. They should be able to address their family members.

Let’s use an example- A teacher can involve the students in book-reading or drawing activities which stimulate their ability to reflect on their own thinking. Then the teachers should ask them what they have learned from the book. It will aid the teachers to evaluate individual students learning capacity and the students will learn to recall, the teacher does the repetition of significant concepts in the story. 

4. Encourage Symbolic Play-

Symbolic representation is one of the major hallmarks of influencing the preschoolers. Their young brains begin to understand and decode the difference between things whether they are real or not. Children mostly recognises the characters in books or stories. Teachers should engage them in a symbolic play, it will inspire the children to participate in the make-believe/ pretend play. They learn the significance of real and fantasy.

For example- 

Children must be involved in the pretend to play as if they are the characters in the storybooks being read to them. Just like how in the Lagoon game, the Cameo- the chameleon’s character uses intonation, shows emotion and expression to indulge the child’s mind.

Conclusion-

Pedagogy could always nourish the child’s cognitive capabilities by optimally using all of the above hallmarks and approaches. Shape their actions, judgment, and build stronger motor skills using the learning theories and advanced phonics system.

Square Panda has some powerful findings on early childhood learning and program effectiveness.  We are helping kids ages 2 to 8 to learn to develop their Multisensory reading abilities i.e. reading using touch, sight, and sound.

Do you have the readiness to implement a cognitively rich experience for preschool children? Express your views and write to us in the comment section below.

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– Nidhi Parikh, SEO Content Writer, Square Panda India