Zoobean: Curating Educational Materials to meet Your Child’s Unique Needs

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I recently had the opportunity to review a brand new resource for parent educators–the Zoobean Expert!

The Zoobean Expert is a website that helps you, the parent, curate educational materials to meet your child’s unique needs. Zoobean accomplishes this in a few simple steps:

1. You build your child’s profile, indicating his or her interests, reading level and the types of genres they enjoy reading.

2. A Zoobean Expert will curate a SmartList for your child, where recommendations and reading guides will be added.

3. You can then connect to your personal expert to refine your child’s interests and reading level or to just ask questions related to building your child’s literacy.

4. In addition to these, parents may choose from a variety of “kits” or themed lessons that incorporate book, app, music and video suggestions as well as action steps for a certain topic.

The Kits come in a variety of topics. Zoobean experts add Kits weekly for kids ages 0-8, like “Fascination with Transportation,” “Exploring Egypt,” and “Magical, Mystical Creatures.”

The first kit I chose was “Gardening.” I was very impressed with the book and app suggestion, links to YouTube videos as well as other multimedia resources and the instructions for how to really live out the gardening unit–like constructing our own garden, joining a CSA (which we have this summer!) and keeping a gardening journal.

Benefits of the Zoobean Expert

I am still learning about all the features of my Zoobean Expert membership, but two really stand out to me so far:

1. Personal Expert:

After you build your child’s profile (indicating reading level, age, and interests), an actual real, live expert emails you to gather more information about your child’s interests and reading level.

I was floored when my personal expert emailed me within hours of signing up! He even gave me his phone number!

From there, every week, your personal expert adds a recommended app and/or book to your child’s “SmartList” along with a reading guide.

You may reach out to your personal expert any time with questions about things like having a child who is a “reluctant reader,” who is “young and gifted,” or who is obsessed with something (princesses? horses?) you want to indulge…and make it educational.

2. Unlimited Kits

The kits I mentioned earlier are put together by the Zoobean experts, who are also educators and librarians. These “kits” are more like in-depth lesson plans. They give you a plethora of ideas to implement with your child!

Who needs the Zoobean Expert?

From what I have gathered thus far, I think the Zoobean Expert would be perfect for three different sets of parents:

1. Parents of preschoolers who want their child to get a head start on learning.

2. Parents of school-age children who attend public of private school and who want to supplement either during the school year or, especially, during the summer when many children experience summer learning loss.

3. Parents who homeschool who needs some direction for themed lessons.

My 6-year-old will be starting kindergarten this fall. She will be attending a university model school where she will be at school three days and homeschooled for two days. I can see the Zoobean Expert being extremely helpful for our homeschool days!

The cost of Zoobean Expert subscription is $25/year, which I feel is very reasonable considering all that you get.

Use code EXPERTHOMEMAKER to get $10 off an Expert membership or use code HUMBLEDHOME to get 20% off the home delivery service. Redeem by clicking on the coupon below or by clicking here.

Want to WIN a Zoobean Expert subscription?!

Win a 3-month home delivery membership by entering via Rafflecopter below!

What’s the most compelling book or app you’ve read/used with your child? 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of ZooBean. The opinions and text are all mine.