Thursday, September 12, 2013

PowerMyLearning Educational Games & Learning Activites for Kids


PowerMyLearning is a free online learning platform for K-12 students, their parents and educators, it was developed by the national nonprofit CFY. PowerMyLearning makes thousands of publicly available online learning activities from across the web, making them easily accessible and usable, creating an unbiased go-to destination. PowerMyLearning offers carefully curated academic games, videos and interactives aligned to the Common Core State Standards across a wide range of subjects like math, English Language Arts, science, social studies, technology and more! How is this online platform free? It is generously supported and funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. CFY has unique experience in selecting activities with the greatest educational values, this is possibly by them having more then a decade of experience working hands on with more then 50,000 students as well as their parents and educators in more then 100 schools across the country.



I set up an account for myself as a parent and an account for Jedilynn as a student under my account. I am able to see her Recently Played Games (sorry, took the screen shot before she started playing her games), it shows me her playing points that she has earned and even has "Recent Class Assignments". This would be a really good platform to help keep parents and educators all on the same page about the student's learning. I know as an involved parent myself, I'd love to be able to go take a quick look at the end of the day or week and view my child's progress as well as the new knowledge she she is gaining.

 

I love that you and/or your child can search for games and such per their grade level range. Each game has a little description below the image, the subject it focuses on, as well as an overall rating. So you get to read a little about the game as well knowing which subject it is focused on, with out having to guess by the image. The overall rating is also great as I personally like to see what others rate things, granted not everyone's opinion or experience is the same as the next a rating is usually a general gist of how well something is. This is all visible while browsing through the games, you do not have to click on each game to gain information about it, which helps speed up the process of choosing one for your child to play.

Jedilynn's Experience with PowerMyLearning
Jedilynn is 7 years old and just began her adventure in the second grade this year! I was a little worried about her losing some of her knowledge over summer break if she didn't keep her brain busy, but I also wanted her to have fun while using the knowledge she has gained in the previous years of school. While she does like to do pages in workbooks, those become boring and she ends up loosing interest in them. I was quite excited when I heard about PowerMyLearning so I took a look around the website. I played a few of their games in Jedilynn's age and grade range before introducing the program to her. I wanted to make sure it was up to par and would be to her advantage to use through out summer break as well as even during the school year. It was up to my standards and I even had fun and learned things from playing some of their games and I'm a high school graduate and attended some college. So, I introduced my daughter to PowerMyLearning and this was her experience with the program.




Each game or activity provides clear instructions for a child who is learning to read or who has already became proficient in reading to easily read on their own and follow. Jedilynn read the instructions and completed the task(s) asked of her. I like to allow her time to figure things out on her own and may correct her on minor things every now and then, but mostly she does activities and games like this on her own. Once she completed the level, before she clicked "Done", I asked her if she enjoyed the activity and she responded "YES!". She wanted to continue on! Awesome, because I know my daughter, she is very blunt and will definitely let you know if she becomes bored with something. So we continued...
She received a complimenting and encouraging message letting her know that she correctly completed the task(s) asked of her. She then continued on, excitedly to more tables and charts.


The next task Jedilynn had to complete was the above pictogram. This one did take a little bit of me explaining it to her for her to get it, but it was getting close to the time that great grandma was coming to get her so I fully believe she was just rushing to try and get through it. Anyhow, after I helped her understand that the 1/2 circle was equal to half of the full circle she completed the pictogram with no problems.



This is the message she received, another encouraging as well as complimenting message. She was again excited to continue on to more tables and charts.

I strongly feel as though this program has helped Jedilynn to not only hold onto the knowledge she already has, but to also help her learn more useful information as well as help prepare her for things they may begin to work on in school this year. She asks many times a week, if not nightly, to play on PowerMyLearning. I much rather have my child having fun while learning rather then becoming bored with a boring old pencil and piece of paper, not saying that those two crucial learning tools are bad or that we do not use them, but a platform such as PowerMyLearning every now and then is a plus to success. Jedilynn is a very smart girl and has always been advanced for her age, but the school district we are in is not quite up to par with her learning level, but it is at the level it is to help all students in our district, not just my daughter. I completely understand this and it is a key part of us utilizing various other learning resources such as PowerMyLearning.

PowerMyLearning is free to join and use! I highly recommend you taking a look at their website for yourself and even play a couple games to see if it is up to your standards. I highly doubt you'll be disappointed and I'm sure your child will enjoy it.

Connect with PowerMyLearning
You can join for free on their website.
Facebook
Twitter @PowerMyLearning
Pinterest

 Do you think your child could benefit from PowerMyLearning? What do you like most about this online learning platform?

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, however, that does not affect or alter our honest opinion of this service in anyway. The opinions and experiences expressed in this publication are 100% our own and may differ from those of your own. 

16 comments:

  1. I hadn't heard of PowerMyLearning Before! It really is a great idea! I find our kids learn a lot from programs that are also fun!

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  2. I hadn't heard of this educational company before, but I think my kiddos might enjoy it. I'll have to check it out!

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  3. I really like that there is such a positive reinforcement for work well done with this program. And, completely agree that being apprised of your student's progress is really important! Interesting program, thanks for sharing it!

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  4. This looks like such a wonderful program! My friend Ave was looking for something to start her kid in the right track towards reading. I will recommend your review. Thanks! :)

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  5. This looks great! My daughter is too young for it right now but I look forward to using it. I love that it's free!

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  6. I've been seeing this a lot lately. My daughter is a little too young for this. I did get her ABC Mouse but even that she's not too interested in. Will have to check this out for her when she's a little older. It is great for my 8yr old though and I love that it's totally free. Nothing better than free.

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  7. I've never heard of PowerMyLearning but it seems really fun and I'm sure kids love it! I may have to look into it very soon! Thanks for the wonderful review :)

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  8. I haven't heard of this before, but it really looks creative! Will share :D

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  9. This looks like an awesome progam!

    Carly
    www.lipglossandcrayons.com

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  10. that's pretty nifty. gonna have to check this out.

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  11. Never heard of this before, but sounds pretty awesome

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  12. I love finding new places for my kids to play games but learn at the same time! I am checking it out! Thanks!

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  13. This is so cute! My son's not school-aged yet, but we plan to homeschool, so I'm bookmarking anything I find that will help.

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  14. My daughter is 18 months old - so not ready yet - but I am so impressed with how technology is embraced in the school system these days. I graduated HS in 2004 and we still had computer labs. Nowadays, my friend who is a HS tech teacher, got a grant for EACH STUDENT in her HS to get an ipad or mac laptop for the duration of their high school years - with the option of monthly payments to keep it after graduation. Woah!

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    1. Oh I know! I graduated in 2007 (a year early) and students getting their own laptops or tablets were just beginning to happen in the private and better school districts. The advancements in technology are quite amazing!

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  15. THis sounds great! My kids love playing educational games on the computer, so I know they would love this!

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