How Are Your Little Kids Doing Post-Pandemic? Elmo and Big Bird Want to Help
Pandemic-era quarantines and lockdowns presented unique challenges for parents of young children, but a new app developed in partnership with Sesame Workshop aims to help kids play catch-up on any skills they may have lost during the last two years.
Learn With Sesame(Opens in a new window) includes two dozen guided and free play learning experiences that allow children aged 2 to 5 to explore different parts of the neighborhood. At the Playground, they'll practice kindness and empathy. At Hooper's Store, it's all about exploration of new foods. The Community Center focuses on conflict resolution.
The app comes from Sesame Workshop(Opens in a new window), the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, and educational company BEGiN(Opens in a new window). After a beta test, it's now available more widely in the Google Play(Opens in a new window) and Apple(Opens in a new window) app stores.
The app is free to download, and the freemium version includes a content experience around one particular learning theme (Navigating Social Spaces in this case), plus an interactive story, a Face It Place It sticker board, and two videos.
A paid membership unlocks five more content experiences (Taking Turns & Collaborative Play, Conflict Resolution, Kindness & Empathy, Bedtime Routines and Trying New Foods). A bundle with Learn With Sesame premium content and BEGiN's HOMER Learn & Grow(Opens in a new window) service is $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year, a 50% discount.
“The pandemic created an inconsistent learning environment, and shutdowns disrupted 1.6 billion students’ education worldwide at its peak," says Neal Shenoy, CEO and Co-Founder of BEGiN. "Left unaddressed, this situation could result in long-term learning
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