Hello Beautiful People, Our group chose a great software for kids to play on the internet, our group presentation which we had to review and present to our teacher and classmates for our Leadership in Technological World course, This software is called “Peep in the Big Wide World”, which the site stated is for ages 2-5 years of age. This software has 15 sub games which include making patterns, numbers, counting, hide and seek, mixing colors, finding shapes, making music and etc. From the entire 15 sub games my group and I all agreed to choose the game called “Trash Stash”, which as a group we agreed that it was appropriate for ages 4-5 years of age. “Trash Stash” consists with two main characters which are the raccoon and the red bird.
The kids are asked to classify and match items that the raccoon throws from his tree house hole on to the grass, where the items are scattered on the grass, and there is a round brown patch that is divided into four spaces where there is a voice in the background of the software game that tells the children what they have to do such as based on dimensions, color, shape, categories, letters and also numbers. As the child continues on to the next level it begins to get more challenging, as the first level starts with finding all items that are blue to even finding items that grown on trees. It’s a never ending game and it continues on and on until the child is ready to discontinue to the game. The reason why we chose this software because It is very engaging it has bright colors, a story line in the beginning of every game you place in this software, which the children can find humor in them as well as this software has cartoon characters that are familiar to a lot of children that are familiar with the TVO kids channel and watch the characters on television, which will allow the children to connect to the characters that they see on the screen to the computer screen. Another good reason why we chose this software because the items are easy to distinguish and is vivid as well as the kids are not distracted from anything else such as the background of the actual site is blurred out so there main focus is only the actual software game, and the voice in the background that gives the kids instructions is clear, and always repeating her instructions when the child is stuck on something. I believe the best features of this software for the childcare profession, base on the kindergarten curriculum program and learning outcomes we as an ECE profession believe that children learn best through play, with this particular software the child learns how to sort and classify and go through trial and error. Also the great aspect of this software is that is based in a natural environment where it is based in a park where there are grass, trees, sky, animals and objects to pick from where the child encounters in their everyday life, it allows them to relate and what they recognize in their own community. Teachers or parents can also be involved in the game while the children are playing which can assist and ask open ended questions to allow the child to understand and make connections such as if they are looking for objects that grow from the tree parents and teachers can ask them as well what other things that we know can grow from trees to start an open discussion to get the children to expand their minds and think outside of the box, and a great way to bond and connect with one another during play time, so that the child is not just focus on the computer screen. While we reviewed this software we came across some of the limitations of the software is that if the child would want to play this game it is not easy to access the software because there are many steps to get into the game unless the child has it bookmarked. Another thing is that once the child starts to play the game there is no back button or can skip the levels if the child wants to continue on the next day would have to start from level one all over again which can burn the child out from playing the second or third time.
If I was to recommend this software to a child care professional that wished to use this software, I would first give them the go ahead because I believe it is a great software to bring into the childcare because it is engaging , each sub game has different instructions and components that the child can be able to learn and enjoy from , it allows the child to practice many subjects that he or she can find challenging in this software has a fun guide to learn, but the only tip I can truly give to a childcare professional is not to rely too much on this software and just leave the child off stray with it , it is always best to have a child and adult interaction especially when allowing the child to access a game on the internet , that the child is able to know the purpose for playing the game and that it is offered for every child and should play in partners so the children can still interact and help each other out as well. Overall I personally enjoyed this game and do recommend this game for other parents, teachers, ECE’s and etc to give it a try.