Blog Archives

On Wednesday, Age of Learning announced that we would make our award-winning ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy curriculum available free to tens of thousands of low-income families as part of ConnectHome, a new White House initiative that brings together communities, the private sector, and federal agencies to increase access to digital learning and information resources to families across the country. In support of the White House announcement, we participated in a special event at Durant High School in Durant, OK—part of the Choctaw Tribal Nation, one of the 28 communities being served by the initiative—where President Obama shared remarks about ConnectHome.

This past weekend at the 2015 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference we launched a major expansion to our ABCmouse for LibrariesTM product, which gives children visiting public libraries free access to ABCmouse Early Learning Academy—the leading and most comprehensive online early learning resource for children ages 2–7+. The enhanced product now includes support for iPad and Android tablets, an all-new 1st grade curriculum that will include thousands of new learning activities, and added tools to improve librarians’ and patrons’ experience using ABCmouse. The already popular ABCmouse for Libraries will now help more young children learn, and better strengthen the library-school-home connection.

At our ALA conference booth, award-winning science author and Age of Learning Science Advisor Steve Tomecek demonstrated the new ABCmouse for Libraries features and content to a large and enthusiastic audience of librarians. Steve shared some of the new learning activities and culminated with a simple hands-on science activity that got the crowd engaged.

A new ABCmouse English Language Learning app for children ages 3–8 has officially launched in China, marking the first international expansion of the award-winning ABCmouse brand. Serving millions of children in the U.S., ABCmouse is the leading and most comprehensive early education resource online. ABCmouse is regularly the No. 1 children’s learning iPad and iPhone app in both the Kids category and the Education category in Apple’s U.S. App Store. To date, children have completed more than one billion ABCmouse learning activities.

Developed by language learning experts in collaboration with a highly talented creative team, the ABCmouse English Language Learning app features 25 thoughtfully and creatively designed English language learning lessons, and will ultimately include more than 150 lessons that help children learn to speak more than 1,000 English words and to understand more than 2,500 English words and phrases. The new app is now available to families in China exclusively in Apple’s China App Store for use on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Age of Learning and Head Start share a commitment to helping every child learn, regardless of their family’s financial circumstances. That’s why we have been a consistent supporter of Head Start, offering free access to our complete, award-winning ABCmouse.com curriculum for all Head Start programs, and serving thousands of Head Start classrooms to date.

Age of Learning was recently a proud sponsor at the 2015 National Head Start Association conference in Washington, D.C., which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Head Start program. Dr. Rebecca Palacios, Senior Curriculum Advisor at Age of Learning, was invited to address the more than 5,000 people attending the conference. Speaking prior to Cornell Brooks, President and CEO of the NAACP, and “father of Head Start” Edward Zigler, Dr. Palacios delivered personal and inspirational words that resonated with the large audience of Head Start Directors, teachers, and other supporters.

I am delighted to share my thoughts about a major milestone that we recently celebrated at Age of Learning, when a five-year-old boy in Tennessee completed a mathematics learning activity on ABCmouse.com called Ring It Up.

Why is that worth noting? Because it was the 1,000,000,000th learning activity completed on ABCmouse.com. Yes, that’s one billion with a b.

That’s a big number, but what’s most important is what it represents. Ever since we launched ABCmouse.com, our goal has been to help children learn. More specifically, we set out to “help children build a strong foundation for future academic success.” And our commitment to that goal is stronger than ever—we are hard at work expanding our curriculum and creating new ways to “Bring Learning to Life” for children throughout the U.S. and around the world.

This case study focuses on two families with children at different stages of development. After finding numerous education websites and apps ineffective, both families turned to ABCmouse.com because of its comprehensive academic curriculum and found the outcomes they had been seeking. Both families discovered that the benefits of using ABCmouse.com transcended academics and contributed to major gains they hadn’t anticipated, but eagerly welcomed, in their children’s approaches to learning, including motivation, focus, engagement, and self-confidence as learners. The families’ experiences echo the results of a comprehensive 2014 survey of nearly 5,000 parents with children using ABCmouse.com, also cited in this case study.

Age of Learning regularly commissions research by independent early education experts to evaluate the effectiveness of ABCmouse.com. The summary below highlights key findings from three large-scale studies of the effects of ABCmouse.com usage by children in school and at home, in a range of geographic and socio-economic settings.