If you've watched any children's television at all recently, you are no doubt familiar with the commercials for ABCmouse.com, an online "early learning" program designed for preschoolers. A quick look at their website revealed nothing innovative or spectacular for all of the hype. Admittedly, though, I went there already having a negative bias due to their sketchy advertising. ABCmouse.com touts "A full online curriculum for preschool and Kindergarten", for ages 3 through 6. The cost is $7.95 per month or $79.00 per year, similar to other paid learning sites. My issue isn't so much with their cost or the curriculum, which appears average across the board, but with their advertising.
The ad that I've seen most consistently features an adorable little girl named Aaliyah. The first thing that caught my attention was, "...my two year-old granddaughter, reading, writing..." Most children learn to read at 5 to 6 years, somewhere between Kindergarten and second grade. My children started very early, reading books just after their 4th birthdays, having mastered many sight words when they were 3. Now, I realize that there are outliers, opposite ends of the bell curve, but most people are astounded when I mention the age my children were when they began reading. I have a video of my son at 4 years, 2 months, reading a book called Thank You, Bear. Now, someone is going to convince me that a 2 year-old child is reading, and writing, when every other child her age is still working to develop language and motor skills? Oh, and that ABCmouse.com was responsible for this reality-defying child genius? Oh, please.
As if that weren't obviously fake enough, another thing caught my attention. The woman providing this absolutely amazing testimonial refers to Aaliyah as "my child" at the beginning, but "my 2 year-old granddaughter" at the end of the commercial. That screams fake testimonial as much as a toddler reading and writing. Further, the website states that it is intended for ages 3 through 6, and the woman claims that her child/grandchild started at 1 1/2 years. I'm impressed with a baby who has enough motor coordination to use the computer well enough to enjoy a website with learning activities intended for children twice her age or older! Someone should take this child in for study, because surely this is a new step in human evolution, a super being, and she should be studying at Harvard by Kindergarten!
Just when I thought ABCmouse.com couldn't possibly annoy me any further, I saw a new commercial this morning. I tried to find it on YouTube so I could provide a link to it here, but I think it's too new. It features another little girl named Tyvena. Her father is explaining how he is not a teacher, and ABCmouse.com is like having a teacher in the house. He goes on to say more disparaging comments about parents, making it sound like we're incapable of doing anything for our children except hoping for the best and getting them into school and education-related things as soon as possible.
These commercials discredit the site, I don't care how helpful it might be. Further, while my children do attend a web-based school and I can speak the many virtues of the internet and its resources, why do people want to have their 1 1/2 year-old child online? My children read very early, in my opinion, and it was because we read to them daily, took them to the library, and encouraged them. Parents are teachers, the first and most important teachers children have. To have some for-profit internet education site saying that parents aren't teachers, and that their sketchy business can turn babies into geniuses, makes me angry for every parent who takes that message to heart and every child who gets ripped off as much as their parents who have lost belief in their ability to be a hugely positive force in their child(ren)'s learning experience.
It all sounds like a bad diet scheme or something, touting everything from toddlers reading and writing to bringing parents and children closer together, fixing problems and producing results that even professionals couldn't. Now those are some lofty claims for a website which, to me, doesn't appear to differ in any way from a plethora of similar free online resources. The claims may sound amazing, but there is nothing that website can accomplish that another early learning website, or better yet - time with your child in a library - couldn't accomplish.
Watch Aaliyah's commercial here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rptW5Hp9psg
Recommended reading:
Thank You, Bear by Greg Foley
Online resources:
abcya.com - "the leader in free educational kids computer games", for grades K-5
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