Two questions for Japan parents:
We’re in second year preschool here. We’ve been doing the Shimajiro subscription thing where we get a toy, dvd, and magazine once a month. The DVDs are a watch once and throw away thing by now, and not very long. The toy quality ranges from charming for the day to quirky $3 throwaway on Wish. I think its time for a change and boy does my wife love and appreciate change.
We are reaching the conclusion of the thing and were presented with the diverging path of hiragana tablet thing or continuing with the plan. Worth it? I’ve also seen a lot of other tablet type things and am wondering if I’m getting the worst one. I can’t find a ranking list from a reliable source so I was hoping I’d ask here. Our goal is to support their writing ability beyond what they are doing at school, and also kill time on Sundays.
I’m thinking the kids are already doing writing at school and there are cooler toys in the house, so if anything, tablet or just give it up.
Second question, for those of you who didn’t use this service, what other things do you recommend? We like to do family days in the house like furniture on Sundays and need something to keep everyone sane.
3 comments
My two sons love the Shimajiro tablet, goodies and DVD. Overall we are quite satisfied with the content.
Did smilezemi they just started doing the easy game like stuff so we unsubscribed after about a year. Otherwise if your looking for English stuff khan academy kids, brain pop, abc mouse and stuff on iPad is worth it.
Didn’t do shimajiro, but youngest has been doing smilezemi for several years (currently in 3rd grade elementary) and likes it, but we have to strongly control what she does and set daily goals of 10 lessons each day and then she can play games, but not until the 10 lessons are done.
Some of the kanji/math were beyond her in elementary 1st/2nd grade and it took a bit of time working with her to get through them….. it isn’t a “give the kid this and ignore them while they study” tool. They can cheat to get the answers if your not watching and you need to work out some of the problems/concepts with them. I do math/English and wife does kanji/Japanese.