Bridging the Early Learning Gap with PandaParents {Review}
Olivia has really been enjoying MESSYLEARNING FOR PRESCHOOLERS AND KINDERGARTNERS through PandaParents. PandaParents is a program geared toward children ages 3-6 that aims to bridge the early learning gap through reading and STEM activities. And despite the “Messy” in the name, it doesn’t mean your house will be covered in glitter (unless it usually already is). Messy actually stands for:
Mixed subjects and activities for integrated learning.
Engaging activities that challenge minds.
Simple 1-2-3 steps: READ, LEARN, CREATE
Smart design for creative learning.
Yeah, a new way to promote preschool STEM & early brain growth!
PandaParents is a subscription based curriculum. Each month you subscribe you receive a new course that includes: a storybook, read-aloud video, and pdf workbook. Each course is meant to be done 2-3 days a week for 20-30 minutes.
Olivia and I worked through Mommy’s Baby and began Scotty the Skunk Hears a Scary Sound. I also previewed A Jolly Jingling Journey.
We began by reading the story. Mommy’s Baby is a story about a little Panda, Amanda and her Mommy. It is time for bed, but Amanda is not tired, so they play the “Mommy baby” game, where her mom asks a series of questions and Amanda answers. At the end of the book is a list of questions that you can ask to engage your child more. Since the book is given as an ebook, I would recommend printing off the questions and doing them as you go through the story. We tried to do it afterwards and it was cumbersome having to flip back through so she could count hearts or find all the ocean animals.
After we read the story together and answered the questions, I let her watch the read-aloud. The read-aloud had different voices for Mommy and Amanda to help differentiate who was speaking. This particular book and read-aloud was not very long (about 5-10 minutes). But the other two we received were much longer (40 minutes).
Last we moved on to the workbook. The workbook comes as a very colorful pdf that you can choose to either print or have your child do the activities by just pointing at the screen and answering. I printed pages off, but because we only have a black and white printer some of the appeal was lost. This would definitely work better as a hard copy workbook. I was pleased with the different types of activities the workbook contained. There were pages to help build comprehension and cognitive skills by asking about aspects of the story or about gauging different emotions and feelings. There were other pages that brought in math through shapes, counting and patterns. There were pages geared towards science, where they taught about the different animals that Amanda pretended to be. There were also pages on coloring, tracing and matching, as well as letter recognition. The very end of the workbook had them do a creative project. In this particular one, you create a Panda Lovey like the one in the story using shapes. There really was a great variety of pages to fully engage and stimulate your child.
Scotty the Skunk was a much longer read-aloud than Mommy’s Baby and I worried that Olivia would lose interest. Not only did she not lose interest, but my 18 month old was enthralled as well. She loved pointing out all the animals throughout the story and saying their names and animal sound.
In the story of Scotty, you have different characters that bring in a more diverse learning experience. Many of the characters have a Hispanic accent and they have two character’s that introduce a couple words in Chinese and Spanish.
There are different types of activities in this workbook that work on developing the same skills. For example, this workbook had some dot-to-dot activities and letter mazes and there were two different craft ideas they could do.
In A Jolly Jingling Journey, the focus is on the letter J, as you join Davy for a magical adventure to Santa’s cabin. I was impressed with the vocabulary they presented for the letter J–words like jubilant, joyous, Jackal, journey, and joyful among others.
The workbook was once again very colorful and full of activities to help develop different skills.
I felt this curriculum met its target audience and was definitely designed with young children in mind. While my older kids and I didn’t care much for the illustration style, my five year old thought it was silly and fun. She loved the colors, which made me wish we either had a color printer or a hard copy, with the hard copy being preferable. I appreciated the variety and the simplicity in the workbook pages. I liked that the instructions were clear and easy to follow and that it was designed to engage multiple senses to aid learning.
Other’s on the Crew chose to focus on a different story, so if you are wanting to know more about Scotty or A Jingling Journey, or just their experience in general, click on over to read the reviews.
