Help toddlers play, learn and grow with the HOMER Learning app
Did you know 85% of the brain develops before 5 years old but 98% of education spending focuses on after the age of 5?
This means children are not achieving their full potential because we are under-investing in a time when it really matters.
During the pandemic, parents were thrown into the role of educator and this period led to a heavy reliance on technology, specifically through apps. But even now, parents need more help than ever to keep their children on level pegging with their peers, with competition ramping up through SAT scores, the dreaded 11+ and ultimately finding a job after university.
But kids, especially before the age of 5, love to learn. Combine this love of learning and empowering parents to help enhance kids’ learning at home with the HOMER Learning play, learn and grow app* and you get kids who will continue to love learning through to adulthood!
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
What is HOMER Learning?
The HOMER Learning program was created by cofounder and president Stephanie Dua, who didn’t know where and how to teach her then 5-year-old child, Anya, to read. Stephanie felt helpless when her child felt she was the only one in her class who hadn’t grasped reading yet.
Stephanie reached out to experts across the US and found there was an enormous gap in the market for expert research-backed enhanced tools to help kids with their learning. She figured, if she had this problem, maybe others did too. Thus, the HOMER Learn and Grow app was born.
What is the HOMER Learning method?
The HOMER web app is on a mission to build confident kids and lifelong learners from ages 2 to 8 years old and understands that early learning isn’t just about readiness, but to prepare kids for their unique journey in school and in life too. So the app focuses on the HOMER Method, and achieving progress rather than perfection, which encourages individuality and motivation through each stage.
HOMER Learning’s expert-designed, four-step approach teaches children essential skills so they can transfer that knowledge in a different context. It’s a research-based framework for kids that goes beyond rote memorisation (dabbling at a skill) to deep understanding and building confidence, promoting problem-solving and enhancing the love of learning.
Keep your toddler busy with the personalised, laminated and reusable Busy Book here!*
The four-step learn with HOMER program includes:
Introducing the skill/topic
This beginning step introduces a skill or topic to the child to get them excited to learn and facilitate learning, articulate the relevant vocabulary, and support the child’s emerging schema development.
Practicing the skill/topic
The practice stage helps the child reinforce and review the skill or topic with fun practice. Practice helps to boost confidence and create background knowledge on the skill.
Applying the skill/topic
It’s really important the child can apply what they know in context. The application stage shows the child is ready to move on or transfer to a new skill and provides opportunities to show understanding in a familiar environment.
Transferring that skill in real life – ‘I did it!’ moment
The transfer stage is the gold standard of education. If a child can take what they know and transfer it to another context, then they’ve cracked that skill. For example, once they’ve finished playing a game with shapes, if they can point to a plate at the dinner table and say that’s a circle without the aid of the app, then that’s an example of transferring what they learned from the learn and grow app to the real world – which is what HOMER calls an ‘I did it!’ moment.
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
How do kids aged 2 to 8 learn with the HOMER Learn & Grow app?
HOMER’s signature app, HOMER Learn & Grow, builds across subjects with thousands of activities personalised to kids’ age learning levels, including reading, math, social and emotional learning, thinking skills and many more 21st century skills that children need.
The HOMER web app grows with your child’s learning and starts the journey with a questionnaire to gauge which stage your child is at, so HOMER places that child at the right learning level.
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
The HOMER Learning app has no ads, so it’s safe
The HOMER Learning app is ad-free so kids can learn with HOMER and enjoy safe screen time too!
HOMER Learning has proven results
Reports and feedback have shown that Homer Learning has increased early reading scores by 74% with at least 6 weeks of usage just 15 minutes per day[1].
What does HOMER Learning teach?
The categories HOMER teaches are:
Knowledge
Knowledge includes maths, literacy, science and more.
Thinking skills
This includes executive functions, problem-solving and more.
Social and emotional development
This includes awareness of self, self-management skills, relationship skills, and more
Physical development
Movement, sensory skills, healthy development and more
How to download the Homer Learn and Grow App
The HOMER app download can be found in the Apple Store or Google Play. Click here to get started*
The HOMER Learning app is available on Apple, Android, Kindle and Amazon Fire devices.
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
How do I start my child on HOMER games?
After you’ve downloaded the HOMER reading web app, you need to create a HOMER Learn and Grow login.
What does the HOMER Learn and Grow app include?
Included in your trial you get:
- Unlimited access to all content in the Learn & Grow App
- Up to 4 child profiles
- Offline activities and printables
- Resources and tips from learning experts
Once you’ve set up your child’s profile and completed the questionnaire, you will be taken to a screen which has eight categories and a special circled category. We will go through each category briefly.
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
Songs
At the time of this article, ‘Songs’ has twelve categories. These are:
- Classic sing alongs
- Letters, numbers and colours (spelling the US American way, ‘colors’)
- Thomas
- Animals and Bugs
- Vehicles
- Movement
- Angelina Ballerina
- Dinosaurs
- Friendship and kindness
- Folk songs
- Confidence and growth mindset
- Holidays
Games
- A featured category
- Colors and shapes
- Listening games
- Memory games
- Brain games
Creativity
- Drawboard: Imagination
- Make your own story: Animals
- Make your own story: Make-believe
- Vehicles and construction
- Make your own story: Sports
- Make your own story: Homer and friends
- Homer drawboards
- Letter drawboards
- Make your own story: Holidays
- Create with Sumville Friends
What is HOMER Learning Creativity and how does it work?
HOMER Learning creativity includes tools to create a learning journey through the medium of art, music, dance, storytelling and more!
Your child can explore creativity and practice important skills they need for life as they play by:
- Acting out scenarios and practicing social behaviours
- Using imagination to express themselves
- Developing communication skills through play
Your child can discover art, from language development to self-expression, by using art to communicate with the world. Your child can explore:
- Developing language as they share art work
- Learning cause and effect through experimentation
- Expressing themselves through visual art
Your child can also explore their musical side and make connections to literacy, thinking, and more with musical moments. They can practice:
- Repetition, rhythm and rhyme:
- Following instructions in songs
- Building confidence with music
- Learn about topics they’re interested in
- Exploring how things work
- Discovering famous places and people
Keep your toddler busy with the personalised, laminated and reusable Busy Book here!*
Reading
- Letter hunt A and then so on through the alphabet
What is HOMER Reading and how does HOMER Reading work?
Reading is one of the most unnatural experiences for a child because it isn’t innate. Reading requires a systemic approach, from learning the alphabet, to sounding out phonics, to blended reading. This process takes time and practice.
When reading with HOMER, you have a learning path which takes you through reading. The pathway is personalised, so your child can read with HOMER and learn the right skill at the right time in the right format.
Your child will explore:
- Recognising letters as special symbols
- Exposure to the alphabet
- Identifying uppercase letters
When singing the alphabet becomes second nature, the child is then ready to learn the foundations of reading. They will explore:
- Identifying letters
- Practicing letter formation
- Auditory and visual memory
- Developing language skills
- Start learning phonics
Your child will connect the letters and sounds and begin the process of reading and spelling. They will explore:
- Reading short words and sentences
- Spelling short words
- Learning essential sight words
- Beginning fluency
Your child will build on these reading skills and then use the tools to discover the world through reading. They will explore:
- Developing more advanced fluency
- Sounding out complex words
- Reading books from their interests
- Making connections with other subjects
Math
- Counting
- Numbers
- Shapes
- Stories that add up
- Create with Sumville friends
How does HOMER Learning Math work?
Kids are born knowing how to do math! So HOMER for kids helps to build on your child’s math confidence and extend their innate skills. Developing early math skills now will help your child achieve much higher grades in maths later.
HOMER education allows your child to play with numbers and apply abstract concepts to real life. They will explore:
- Developing a love of numbers
- Building math confidence through positive experiences
They will then make connections and understanding math concepts beyond rote memory. They will explore:
- Applying mathematical thinking to other subjects
- Developing number senses through stories
- Practicing counting in songs
Your child will build critical skills and explore:
- Numbers and counting
- Shapes and their properties
- Developing spatial awareness
- Applying math to life through play
Stories
- Vehicles
- Animals
- Classics
- Nursery rhymes
- Dinosaurs
- Read and play
- Princesses
- Space
- Robots
- Monsters
- Holidays
- Superkids
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Angelina Ballerina
- Bugs
- Arts and crafts
- Ocean
- Sid the Science Kid
- Sports
Practice
- Vocabulary development
- Meet the letter
- Exploring letters
- Letter puzzles
- Letter dress up
- Power words
- Make the uppercase letter
What did we think of the HOMER learning app for kids
The HOMER web app is educational and fun at the same time. I struggle with the guilt of my toddler having excessive screen time, but research suggests educational screen time can still benefit toddlers at this age. I’ve noticed that she is more expressive when she talks and the app teaches life skills and lessons that perhaps I can’t articulate as well. For example, there is a section on entrepreneurialism, mindfulness, and movement. I’m often trying to figure out how to build on her life stills and the HOMER program for kids has a video to help!
We had an ‘I did it!’ moment when she tried out phonetically sounding words and her counting skills shot up from 1 to 10 to 1 to 20!
The topics are fun and based on life skills, like sorting the washing according to colours, so it’s not boring and it applies to everyday life so my toddler can understand the concept behind it.
What’s more, you get to see your child’s progress. So it’s not absent-minded playing but your child is actually working towards goals and milestones.
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
Pros of using HOMER Learn & Grow app
The HOMER software is very easy to use, so there’s no maze you have to get through or hundreds of passwords to crack before you get to the good stuff. It provides the perfect amount of child care because it keeps my toddler very busy and she gets to learn preschool skills from the curriculum before she starts nursery. Also the app is built so that the parent can engage with the child and you can play, learn and grow together.
You get a 30-day risk-free trial with unlimited access as soon as you create a HOMER login. My toddler focused on a few play and grow videos in the app like the dinosaur section (she loves dinosaurs!) but when she wants to enjoy other sections in the app, she can whenever she’s ready. The whole family can enjoy some videos like the stretching video, which I often got involved in because moving about is a nice way to spend time with the kids.
Cons of using HOMER Learn & Grow app
The app uses American English as it’s based in the US. So if you’re in the UK, your child will learn American English, which may confuse them at school. For example, the word ‘MOM’, is spelled using American English, but in the UK we spell the word differently, i.e. ‘MUM’. I’ve also noticed a slight American twang in my child’s accent. This isn’t a problem per se, but it just means that she will have to re-learn certain words and colours, which may confuse a child of her age.
It would be great to have an option to switch to UK English and have a UK native person speaking the parts where they teach certain words and skills, especially with reading and the alphabet (‘Zed’ rather than ‘Zee’ for the letter ‘Z’). Other skills don’t require the UK accent and can stay the same.
So, why try HOMER?
- There are literally thousands of brain-boosting, playful learning activities to make screen time educational and fun.
- The app has a kid-friendly design that builds confidence through independent play.
- The games are research-based to build skills in reading, math, creativity, social-emotional learning, and more!
- I’ve seen the results in my toddler – her phonetics, spelling and maths are really coming on and she hasn’t even turned three yet – it works!
If you want to learn more, Common Sense Media published a Homer app review which you can find here.
Ready to kickstart your child’s learning journey?
Join HOMER for just $36/year ($3/month) with an Annual Membership—that’s 70% off (8 months free)! Plus, you’ll get a free 30-day trial!
FAQ
Is HOMER reading app good?
Yes, the reading section of the app is tailormade to your child and only progresses when your child is ready to move on.
How much does HOMER reading cost?
Questions also asked are: ‘How many does HOMER reading app cost?’ ‘How much is HOMER reading?’ and ‘Is HOMER reading app free?’ The reading section comes as part of the HOMER play, learn and grow app and you can access a risk-free 30 day trial here* with a special discount for readers.
How do I cancel HOMER reading?
If you want to know how to cancel HOMER reading app, follow the instructions below:
- Visit the website and sign in.
- Tap or click your email address in the top right corner.
- Select ‘Settings’ from the dropdown menu.
- Click on ‘Manage Membership’.
- Select ‘To turn off, begin cancellation process’.
- Click ‘Continue’ at the bottom of the page.
[1] A double-blind study by Dr Susan Neumann, former undersecretary of education and professor of early childhood education at New York University.
*This post is sponsored by HOMER learning, but all thoughts are 100% our own. Links marked with a ‘*’ are affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you click through to buy.
