HiMama is an early years education app that allows parents to stay up to date with their children’s preschool education. Teachers and daycare providers upload reports to the HiMama app so that parents know exactly how their children are progressing.
Why we love it
HiMama is a neat little app. You know how you can get webcams on collars for your pets? Well, it’s the early-years educational equivalent for those other messy, noisy beings in your life – children.
All jokes aside, HiMama is groundbreaking in that it provides the means for parents to monitor the development of their children’s preschool education in real time. Teachers and daycare providers are able to upload pictures direct to the app, so parents at work can stay up to date with their child’s learning. Can Jimmy name the color of that fire truck? Yup. Can little Madison do her two times table? You betcha. HiMama keeps you updated of all these little wonders, right as they happen.
Outside of parental concerns for their little darlings’ education, HiMama address a very important political issue – preschool education. The app champions the need for early years education, which has been proven to greatly benefit adults in later life. Children who receive better early years education have gone on to demonstrate increased earnings; lower arrests; lower welfare dependency, and decreases in behavior that could put their health at risk
“But,” goes the cry, “Why can’t kids just be KIDS? What NEXT? Learning from the WOMB?” And, to be honest, they have a point. Just recently, a report from Lego said that children benefited from “learning through play” until the age of eight. That’s a full five years after Ron and HiMama team believe we should start monitoring our children’s potential.
Obviously, HiMama are not endorsing a Victorian era belief that children should be treated like adults, or even that young children should be treated like, well, older children, but there is a decent argument to suggest that monitoring development and increasing pressure on children from younger and younger ages is unfair at best and damaging at worst.
However, while these are valid concerns, they shouldn’t be taken too seriously. In reality the methods of learning and classroom engagement are dictated by trained professionals who know what they’re doing. If the daycare provider you use teaches through play, then you’re meeting the best of both worlds. The only other slight frustration is that HiMama is not necessarily available in every daycare or preschool center so, if you want to make the most of this app, it’s time to get searching for educators who use it.
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Keep up with your child’s progress via HiMama, the #earlyyears development app
