Miss Humblebee’s Academy Review

Disclaimer: I received a free one month trial of Miss Humblebee’s Academy in order to write this review. All opinions are my own.

I’ve written before about my struggle to find balance with the boys’ screen time. So when we were given the opportunity to try out an online preschool program, I was at once wary and excited. More screen time? Ugh. Educational screen time? Yay!

Miss Humblebee’s Academy Overview

Miss Humblebee’s Academy is a full online curriculum with the goal of preparing children for kindergarten. It is an interactive program with over 700 lessons in math, science, social studies, language, literacy, art, and music.

Children can move sequentially through the program, advancing through lessons that gradually get harder as they go, or can choose their own path in order to focus either on areas of interest or areas in which they need more practice.

Each week parents are emailed detailed progress reports that show the amount of time spent on each subject area, the number and percentage of lessons completed, and the correct versus incorrect answers complete with a performance ratio.

The Time Allocation Progress Report gives parents an excellent way to track what their child spends the most (and least) time on. Parents can then choose certain lessons for their child to do in order to better round out the time spent on each subject.

The progress reports detail how many questions your child has answered, as well as how many he has gotten correct or incorrect. From looking at this, I might decide to focus my time with Samuel on reading activities (which I should point out are pre-reading activities at the preschool level). The art activities were a bit difficult to do on the tablet due to the small areas that needed to be highlighted. If possible, I would suggest using a computer for the art lessons for better accuracy.

The key that explains the performance ratio number.

Miss Humblebee’s Academy can be taken anywhere as it is compatible with any smart tablet device.

What did we think?

When I told Samuel that I wanted him to use the iPad, he was understandably excited. His excitement only increased as he familiarized himself with the program.

This is my boy when he’s absorbed in something: Total concentration

The graphics are very cute and he loved the fact that each lesson earns coins that can be ‘spent’ on virtual stickers to create your own underwater scene.

I walked through the first few lessons with him as we both got familiar with it, but he quickly caught on to how it worked and was able to do it all on his own. There were occasional glitches and slowdowns, but it’s entirely possible that our internet connection was to blame.

Samuel’s favorite subjects were art and music (the music was adorable and much of it is exclusive to Miss Humblebee’s), but he really enjoyed everything he did. Letter recognition is something we’ve been working on and the program did an excellent job of reinforcing that learning.

I was very pleased with how detailed the progress reports were. It was nice to be able to look at them to see the specific areas that I need to focus on with him as well as discover the areas in which he excels.

Bottom Line

Although I would never suggest using a computer-based program as your child’s sole means of learning, Miss Humblebee’s Academy is a great program to use if you are looking for something to supplement your child’s education.

While it won’t take the place of hands-on activities, it is a great resource to help you focus your attention on the areas you want to work on with your child. And let’s be honest, it’s also nice to be able to hand your child the iPad without feeling guilty!

If you have a preschool aged child, I encourage you to check out the Miss Humblebee’s Academy website for more information. You can also find Miss Humblebee on Facebook and Twitter.