Give Your Kids Real-Time Play And Virtual Fun With Osmo

Keep them motivated to learn through these innovative games and starter kits.

Throughout this year, parents across the world have argued the merits and misses of online learning, real versus virtual interaction and how fine motor skill development is now being reduced to a few swipes, taps and pinches on a screen. Wouldn’t we all love to have the best of both worlds? Well, with Osmo, that’s not a distant dream at all!

Osmo combines the best of physical play and tactile learning with real-time information and the vast resources of the internet. It takes hands-on tools and objects that children use and allows these to be projected into a digital world, making the learning process far more interesting, challenging and interactive.

So, how does it do this? Each Osmo kit comes with a base (to slot the tablet into), a reflector and all relevant game materials for that kit, including toys, cards and other playing apparatus. You also need to download the Osmo app onto your child’s iPad. As your child plays, the Osmo reflector bounces an image of the player’s game piece arrangement or drawing into the camera. The Osmo app then processes this image and either recreates the image on the screen or translates its effect onto the story in the digital world.

While this sounds fascinating, you might wonder how this helps your child learn. All games by Osmo help teach abstract concepts by connecting them to objects and actions in the physical world. For instance, children understand the basics of coding by connecting and arranging physical coding blocks and seeing it work in real-time. For your young foodies, try the Pizza Starter Kit. They will need to use their mental Maths skills to make quick calculations with topping and money tiles and hand over the correct change to waiting customers. Disney Princess-obsessed kids will be thrilled to learn the basics of drawing, as the reflector captures their creations and brings them to life on the screen. Our favourite though has got to be Detective Agency. This innovative pretend play experience combines a classic search-and-find game with digital fun, and while your young Sherlocks and Miss Marples solve mysteries, they get to take a virtual tour around the world and learn about geography, landmarks, and local culture!

Whenever it comes to cameras and digital devices, your child’s security will naturally come first. Don’t worry! The reflector only captures a small area in front of the device, so nothing personal or private goes onto the web. And with the fun that these kits provide, kids are more motivated to learn and less tempted to stray onto sites they shouldn’t be on. You can also monitor your kids’ activities and facilitate learning through the OSMO Parent app. Osmo is currently being used in more than 30,000 classrooms around the world, so you know this is a teacher-approved way to get kids to collaborate, create, think critically and communicate.

Osmo has plenty of kits and packs to suit 3 to 12-year-olds. Once you buy one kit, you can keep it fresh and fun for years by adding on new apps and games. This makes it a value-for-money learning tool for kids (and you’ll soon find yourself joining in the fun as well!).

Get 15% off your purchase of any Osmo kit at its authorised online store with the discount code “osmo15Sassymama”.

Osmo, www.revoit-asia.com