Last night, Oliver opened up his Valentine's Day Eve gift: the Osmo Pizza Co. Game! As soon as he saw the packaging he exclaimed "OSMO!!!!" I asked him how he knew what it was and he said because of the letters "O-S-M-O means Osmo! I've seen it before!" I'm not sure what ad he saw but he knew exactly what it was and was so excited to play with it!
The debate on whether technology is good for our littles, how much screen time to give them, and what they should learn from is a hot topic. For me, as a mother and educator, I take an all-in-moderation approach. Just like the foods that we consume, I want my child to be exposed to a little bit of everything in healthy doses. Technology is an integral part of our daily lives and quite honestly, it saves me from time to time as a busy mom who sometimes needs a time out or the entertainment to get things done! But I try to stay well aware of what my child is watching and continuously educate him on what is appropriate (so much so that he will come and tell me that he shouldn't be watching certain things because "they are not being kind" or "they used mean words." With that being said, I want my child to be a learner of the present and future (just like my students). I'm all for technology that allows my child to be creative, explore coding, learn, and think outside the box.
If you haven't heard about Osmo, it is an educational system to use on your iPad or iPhone- it has different programs you can collect that help kids learn educational concepts like coding, math, reading, art, music, etc. The particular system Oliver has is the Pizza Co. Game which centralizes its educational approach on fostering kids' social-emotional learning, money, math and owning a business. I first let Oliver explore the game as is, and it quickly introduced the premise- he is left to run a pizza shop and has to make his customers happy by getting their orders correct and giving them the correct change. While, Oliver is really good at math already, he required assistance with it. You see, the characters don't speak, captions show up on the screen and you can decipher what they are saying by their gestures and the graphics on screen. I ended up changing it to Junior Mode to see if he could do it on his own!
It was so neat to see his face light up when he realized his actions could be seen. He was able to successfully fill his customers' orders by paying attention to the graphics and visual cues! I'm a total visual and kinesthetic learner, and I think my kid is, too- we learn by seeing and doing. He was able to manipulate the pieces and pay attention to the characters' cues and expressions; this non-verbal communication is so key to relationships- I'm so glad Osmo thought of that, too! Every year on Valentines, we make or order a heart-shaped pizza and I'm already thinking his new Osmo Pizza Co. game will make an appearance! I'm excited to continue exploring this game and growing our Osmo collection!
#OsmoPizzaLove
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