Product Review
Member reviews
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"Great for developing computer skills"
I tested Education City with my 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter and it has proved to be a great introduction to the computer for her. I bought her a small laptop mouse so that she could hold it easily and she sat on my lap to use Education City. From the first time we used it she has absolutely loved it! All the activities are very clear and well explained - most of them she worked out herself but we enjoyed doing them together and talking about all the things that were happening on the screen. I'm very impressed at how much my daughter's mouse skills have improved since using this, even after a very short time. There are lots of opportunities for clicking / double clicking and moving objects around using the mouse. The clicking areas are quite large so it's great for toddlers as they don't have to click on very small points.
I'm very impressed with the activities too. We used the Nursery section and there was a good range of activities and subjects. The Letters and Sounds section was perfect for my daughter. I had wanted to do some letters/sounds activities with her at home but didn't know where to start. The activities on Education City were great. The letters and their sounds were made very clear and were repeated enough times to make sure she remembered them but not so much as to make it boring. There are also some very handy worksheets that you can print out for each letter - great for using away from the computer to reinforce what you have been doing. The Numeracy section was just as good, with lots of activities introducing children to numbers and counting. We enjoyed them all!
Education City is very easy to use. There is no need to install anything on your PC, it just runs from their website and I found it very easy to save all our personal settings - my daughter loved seeing her own name each time we logged in! I only had one problem at the start and Education City answered my email very quickly with a clear and helpful answer.
Education City has been a great introduction to IT for my daughter and I feel far more confident about developing her computer skills in preparation for school. She is also learning a lot more as the activities are so educational, but it's wonderful as my daughter just thinks that it's a fun 'game' to play on the computer. She sees it as a real treat.
I think £29.95 for a year's subscription is good value for money. I had been considering buying some software for my daughter to use but I prefer this as we can easily change levels and there are so many activities to do. My daughter is quite happy to go back and do things again as she spots different things and develops her skills even further every time she tries. We used a free trial first and this was very helpful as it gave us full access to everything Education City has to offer. I haven't subscribed yet as I noticed that it is possible to purchase gift subscriptions - so this is top of my daughter's birthday list - she'll be so pleased!
Member review by Suzanne - Mum to 2 girls
- review date 24th June 2008
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"brilliant!"
After a few hiccups logging in we managed to get up and running.
Kira - 6yrs - spent hrs doing the various activities and Cole 4yrs wouldn't let me turn the pc off!!
I thought the activities were very good but there was a colour mistake on one reception game - you had to pick various colours of rugby balls - it said brown but the ball was grey.
Cole also pointed out that he could see the bottoms of the animals on another game to do with the farm - i didnt think this was appropriate.
We have been using this most days and Kira says that she does get to use it at school too.
I have recommended it to my friend who has also signed up for a 10day trial.
Thank-you for the oppertunity to test this.
Member review by victoria - mum of 3
- review date 31st May 2008
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"Fab learning tool!"
Kian is 3 & he started nursery in April. I thought that he might find the games a bit boring or hard to do but he loved them!
The first time he asked for a go I thought he would be on it for maybe 15 mins tops cos he hasn't got the best attention span (like most 3 year olds!), but he was on it for well over an hour! He was playing game after game & getting on really well with it. I was surprised how quickly he took to it & he seemed to be learning quite a lot as he was going along too! He really loved it when he got a gold star at the end of a game.
The way it is set out is really good. You can see which sections your child has completed & what percentage they got right in each game too. All the main subjects are covered & I think it's a really good way for kids to learn at home. Much better than trying to sit them down to 'boring' paper excersises.
Value for money seems good too. I would definately consider paying for it in the future.
All in all I think it's a great site as it encourages learning through games which can only be a good thing cos we all know how much kids like computer games!
Member review by Louise - Mummy to 2 boys & pregnant with baby number 3!
- review date 28th May 2008
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"great stuff"
louis wont leave this alone he thinks it is fab
ive never got louis to sit down longer than 5 mins to do anythink he thinks is to do with school.
he really loves waiting to see what the people are gonna do after a question.
thomas is not so keen he says its boring will still play for a while i think he may be a little to young still and would rather be outside
Member review by vicki - mum of ta 3 & pink bump
- review date 26th May 2008
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"my girl saw it more as an exciting game the boring learning"
This site was fantastic!!
Tegan and Morgan think its really fun and exciting,
The first time they went on this site was the first time they had been on a computer at home but they still managed to select the activity we picked and move the mouse to select the answers to the questions. tegan went first to have a go with Morgan watching, she quickly picked up want to do as it gave her clear and simple instructions how to do the exercises.
What I really liked was the fact she was able to click a speaker in the corner and it would repeat the question. Which is really good for Tegan and Morgan ages when they get distracted easily.
I also like that fact that even know there learning exercises Tegan and Morgan found them fun, bright and things like animals used in the exercises which they loved and found in fascinating. My girls saw them more as games then learning, fun then boring so they loved doing them. I have never seen tegan and Morgan spend so long on anything without there attention span running thin and walking of to play with something else.
They were so happy and excited with this game (as they call it), they were telling all tegans friends at nursery about it, so I ended up telling the parents about this site.
I can say I recommend this site to anyone with children 2 and upwards and starting to learn or already learning. I think this site is going to be a thriving success with parents and schools and will helps children to focus and concentrate on school work using things they find exciting for there age group.
Tegan enjoyed green bottles on the wall every much and was very good at it to, which was shocking as nursery told me she seems to struggle counting objects but here she was getting 5/6 or 6/6 on here first and second go. I think the song ten green bottles may have rang a bell to her as she was trying to sing it while answering the question.
Morgan liked the one where you have to place the animals in the right home she was very good at this and got 5/6 on here first go but she did use nearly all the time given to do the exercise, so she wanted to do it again an again as she knows all about animal and there home, she has been to a farm since and she remembered some of animals houses like a hen lives in a hut an a pig lives in a sty which I am really proud that she remembered as shes only 2.
Again I was very happy to see a good range of topics for all ages, which were also clear to the child or parent of young ones what the child has to do in the exercises.
thank you education city for letting us test your site it fantastic and will help loads of children learn more
Member review by leanne - mother of three children 2girls and a cheeky little baby boy
- review date 26th May 2008
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"Great website for school children"
Emily uses Education city for her school work as her school has access to it.
She has homework set on it and i have found she is keen and eager to do this homework on the site but wount do her paper homeework!!
its fun,bright and emily loves it.
She calls it her site!!and goes on it most weekends..she has homework set on it every week,and her teacher can track how they are doing on the main comuter at school which i found was fantastic.
I love this site and it has defiently helped emily with her maths.
When she has completed a task she prints of the certifcates and takes them to school to show her teacher..shes always very proud of how well she has done on it.
luckily we dont have to pay for it as the school does.
But im going to look into getting it next year if the school doesnt continue with it as its good value for money.
really really great eductaional website which id=s a winner in this house!!
emily says
" i really like eductaion city,my favourite game is the one with the circuits.you have to put them together and i like this a lot"
Member review by louise - mum to three gorgeous girlsxx
- review date 24th May 2008
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"WOW! jake loves it!"
Well jake absolutely loves this site, OMG the first day he went on it he did an hour then stopped for dinner ate everything and then went on for another hour!! He even had to show his dad all over again when he came in from work. Jake is nearly seven. He managed to move around the site picking and choosing as he pleased without any help from me after i showed him initially what to do. So its definetley kiddy friendly and adult friendly! Its is extremely colourful and bright.
All weekend he has been asking to go back on and actually cried on friday night as he wanted to go on it at 9pm and i said no, but has been on again over the weekend.
This is a godsend as far as im concerned, as fantastic if you struggle to get your child to do much after school as we do other than read his books.
Numeracy - jake seemed to run out of time on some of the maths and would get frustrated but he would click play again, obviously this will help him with his speed. Good range of games and fun activities linked to this, some questions i did have to read it too him again but think this due to lack of concentration at the beginning, hes been on it more he realises he has to listen carefully. Loved the football games esp as he worked out to score a goal!! Which is always good. Thought Granny game was hilarious, nice to hear him laughing whilst doing work, Im sure this doesnt happen at school.
Literacy - Again very good range of literacy topics
Manu on Mars was a hit and good shows child where they have gone wrong, certainly not off putting for them and also jake liked to put eachword into the box to see what the word would look like
before he made his decision.
Some games actually spell word first and then it disapears so it does help them, but then jake started to memorise the word and then spell it which im sure still helps.
Science - Great again, Animal House and Woodland wanders, jake really enjoyed these, both being informative about wildlife, laughed at options about shark in a tree ! He even recited some of the info to his dad later when they were digging in the garden it has obviously sunk in.
Languages havent done.
Jake has only tipped the edge on this site and still has plenty more games to try, but i am honestly pleased that he is enjoying it as that is half the battle. Even his sister ellie who is nearly 2 was trying to get in on the act.
Jake would also purposely get things wrong to see what happened, it was nice to hear him laughing and eager to use again and again.
Its great there is 2 options at beginning of each game so you can be more specific as to what they want/need to concentrate on.
Printable certificates and being able view your sucess is great.
I do wonder what happens when you fill the stars on my success chart and also on each gaame can it be cleared to start again or is that game then not accessable???.
This site is definetley something i am considering purchasing
for jake to continue with, wish that his school also had introduced it, like a friend of mine, her daughter has access via school.
Also the team at Education City replied very quickly to email queries.
Member review by chontelle - mum of 2 ellie and jake
- review date 12th May 2008
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