With the help of a $15,000 grant from OCDE, the Children and Families Commission of Orange County has unveiled a free mobile app packed with activities to help children’s development in health and school readiness. It’s called Kid Builders, and it’s a digital offshoot of the popular Kid Builders book series.
The books’ activities, reviewed by the Orange County Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, were created as an easy and effective way to help children grow in six areas: body, health, mind, relationships, safety and words.
The app takes these valuable activities off the printed page and puts them on parents’ smart devices, making it easier to put learning directly in the hands of children ages 0 to 5. And they can be accessed from anywhere and at any time of the day.
“The app’s activities are creative and fun, but even more important, they were designed in a way that makes it simple and practical for parents and caregivers to incorporate them into kids’ and families’ daily schedules,” said Jamie McDonald, executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Orange County Chapter.
The commission continues to receive requests for the printed Kid Builders books, which proved to be the catalyst for the creation of an interactive, mobile application.
“We were very impressed by the popularity and positive impacts of the Commission’s Kid Builders books, and this app seemed like a logical extension of what we felt was a very creative educational resource,” said Dr. Al Mijares, Orange County superintendent of schools. “It’s critically important that young children adopt healthy eating, exercise and other lifestyle behaviors. By emphasizing activities that are fun and geared toward the entire family, the new mobile app promises to be a valuable tool in helping our children grow up healthy.”
The app has easy navigation and features to track children’s progress. Parents can input their child’s name and age and use the app to work through a series of modules and activities in each of the six developmental categories. Parents with more than one child can create individual profiles for each child and track their progress.
The app is available to both iPhone and Android users in the Apple and Android app stores, and it’s available in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. You can also access it online here.