Trials and Errors

Home learning sounds simple enough — until you're actually doing it with a four-year-old who doesn't yet know how to read in any language.

We started with worksheets. It seemed like the obvious first step. But it didn't take long to realize that sitting still at a table, tracing letters she couldn't recognize, felt like punishment to her. The moment we brought out a worksheet, her body language said it all. We quietly shelved that idea.

What did keep her at the table? Colouring. The moment crayons were involved, she could sit for a surprisingly long time, fully absorbed. We filed that away without knowing yet just how important it would become.

So we turned to apps. A few stood out — Duolingo ABC, Khan Academy Kids, and a handful of others. Each had something going for it.

Duolingo ABC was intuitive and phonics-focused, and our daughter genuinely enjoyed it. The voice recognition feature — where kids repeat sounds and words aloud — kept her engaged and giggling. But there was no natural stopping point. She'd beg for just one more level, and screen time crept up. The story library was a nice idea, but the tap-to-advance format made it hard for her to really sink into a narrative.

Khan Academy Kids was impressive — but it wasn't quite right for us. It's less of an English-learning app and more of a full early childhood curriculum built for English-speaking kids. Counting, sequencing, letter formation, shapes, emotions — all beautifully designed, but delivered in English, for kids who already understand English. For our daughter, it felt like being asked to swim before learning to float. We'd revisit it later, once her English had grown — but for now, it was a step ahead of where she was.

The apps were fun. They were colourful and clever. But we kept coming back to the same feeling: we didn't want her relationship with English to be primarily a relationship with a screen. We wanted to be in it with her — to see what she was learning, to play with it together, to let it spill out into the rest of the day.

That feeling is what pushed us toward something simpler. Something we could hold in our hands.

Yussi

Writer · Social work student, Massey University

A mother of three girls and a Korean immigrant making Mairangi Bay home — writing about starting school, home learning and everyday life on Auckland's North Shore.

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