Digital creative outlets that will empower your child

Is there a secret recipe for being a good parent and making sure your kids are happy and independent? I guess there is. It turns out that Gen Alpha children will easily adopt new knowledge if presented in their native language. The language of digital technologies. If I am being honest, I am still trying to figure out how to use the language of digital technologies to solve the latest challenges my kid’s face – potty training and tying shoelaces. But while I google the solution to those particular issues, I invite you to hop aboard on my latest quest. What are the best digital creative outlets that will empower our children? Or as George Carlin would put it – I think every day all children should have 3 hours of daydreaming. Just daydreaming. 

Speaking by doing

If you are a parent of a generation Alpha kid, you probably have been a witness of their effort to learn something new almost every day. 

The moment my oldest son learnt that people around the globe are not speaking the same language, a whole new chapter of our lives began. Ever since, he tries to learn at least one new expression in a foreign language per day. Yesterday he taught me how to say: “The doors are closing. Please mind the gap!” on Japanese, and no I cannot repeat a single word he taught me. 

To learn a new word in a foreign language, he needs video and audio examples of usage of that word. So he turned to Alexa (and me!) and enlisted help from YouTube videos and some kids-friendly applications. 

Dualingo

Quickly Duolingo became his best foreign language tutor. Duolingo will help your child explore and learn many different languages ranging from Spanish and French to Russian and Japanese. The learning plan is fully adapted to Gen Alphas’ needs. This app is rich in visual content while presenting a new expression, and also it has competitive content. While using the app, kids will earn points for correct answers and race against the clock to level up. The lessons have been broken down into bite-sized yet effective pieces. 

Stories by Gus on the Go

Learning a new language has never been so fun and simple. If you want to experiment with a few more apps for learning a new foreign language, then you can try Stories by Gus on the Go. Children play their way through games and lessons based on timeless story tales such as The Three Little Pigs, while learning a new language.

Little Pim

Another fun app for learning a language is Little Pim. Here you kid will follow Little Pim, the adorable cartoon panda bear who serves as the teacher.  With Little Pim, kids can learn 360 words and phrases, providing the essential building blocks for language learning.

A future movie director

Recording a video is great for your kid. It can boost their confidence and creativity. While preparing for video recording, they have to choose the topic, figuring out what the narrative arcs would be and how to make an introduction and how to do a sign-off. What is even more impressive is their ability to explain and entertain while making video content. Gen Alphas are getting a broadcasting crash course whether in front of a camera or behind it.

And new technology is an instrument which can help them become the future Peter Jackson.

Animotica Video Editor 

This is one of the greatest inventions of new technology. The application can help your child to use it as a video editor, movie maker, and slideshow video maker. Free of charge. While using Animotica, kids can trim, split, combine video and photos, add music and voice overs, scale, rotate, adjust color and so much more. The app doesn’t require advanced video editing skills.

Stop Motion Studio

Even though my kids are the Animotica fans, you can also check some of the very good video-making apps, such as Stop Motion Studio. This app lets kids shoot, edit and boost their animations with effects, music and voice-overs. Using Stop Motion Studio your kids can create terrific stop action movies with their toys.

iMovie 

iMovie helps kids to easily create professional-looking videos and with fun templates lets kids create Hollywood-style movie trailers using their videos. While this app might be more suited for older kids, iMovie might be a great opportunity for a parent-child project.

Funny maths

The world of mathematics is personally my favorite magical place. I was worried that my kids will not share the same enthusiasm for maths as I do. But they do like numbers. They like counting stuff. They like calculations (especially the one where I ask how many candies do they have after I give them an additional two). 

We started with small stuff like counting houses and cars, but they always wanted to go one step further. They look for practical math. And digital technologies make my kids love math.

Digital technology provides dynamic opportunities for instruction in math and STEM courses. Using the technology, the learning process is more focused on engaging and interactive media. Children have additional support through the creation of customized learning experiences. Multimedia brings learning to life! 

Technology also provides additional opportunities for learners to see and interact with mathematical concepts. Students can explore and make discoveries with games, simulations and digital tools.

In order to change the teaching method in math, the team at Stanford Graduate School of Education’s youcubed, are representing all mathematical concepts visually, including visual activities at all grade levels.

Students can explore and make discoveries with games, simulations and digital tools. And while we are still on the topic of maths, here’s one excellent platform. Desmos is a platform for teachers and students is the web-based graphing calculator. Desmos classroom activities page is a great starting point to introduce mathematics while playing with and testing mathematical ideas and also sharing and collaborating. 

Sky is the limit

These are just some of the examples of how kids can use digital technologies to their benefit. And the new opportunities are opening every day. I have never thought that I would organise a virtual birthday party for my son during COVID-19 pandemic isolation. And he found it so amazing that he begged to repeat it for his next birthday. I am also a witness of how kids can boost their self-esteem and their creativity by participating in TikTok dance challenges. And on other hand, their social skills can be improved with the multiplayer video games such as Minecraft or Animal Crossing.

Sky is the limit. 

And just for the record, we solved the biggest problem in our family. With the little extra help of the digital friend, now we know how to tie a shoelace and how to use potty.