Ask HN: what do you think of these flash cards I made for young kids?

http://www.kangadoo.com/

by epi0Bauqu • 17 years ago

13 27 17 years ago

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

Works best full screen (F11 on Win).

My son (4mo) and his cousin (14mo) really like these. However, I'd love to get some feedback from a wider audience before I start making a bunch more.

michael_dorfman• 17 years ago

Nice! How about adding a spoken version of the animal name, for pre-readers?

nico• 17 years ago

They look really nice, good job!

Maybe it's my connection, but the cards are going by a little fast, it skips to the next card before the image has finished loading. You could add a speed option and/or a pause button.

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

Yeah, once they load once, they should be cached thereafter. I've seen this issue too though. A pause would certainly be good. I'll put that on the list--thanks!

tokenadult4• 17 years ago

What is the rationale for making flash cards at all? (This is a serious question; I've never seen a need for flash cards, in my youth or in my children's youth.)

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

A few reasons. First and foremost, I want to offer my children the opportunity to learn as much as possible, up to their interest and abilities. Studies show kids learn best via repetition and pick up language faster the more you talk to them (surprise surprise). Flash cards address both those learning modes by both repeating words and giving you prompts to expound about them, i.e. "a beaver swims in the water." Quite simply, by using them I find I talk to my son more and in a more directed (learning appropriate) way.

Second, as a stay-at-home dad who also works on startups, I am searching for good (educationally-oriented) ways to entertain and occupy my son. I have a two-28"-monitor setup. I found I could put these up on one and still get some casual things done, e.g. reading email, on the other monitor.

Third, I really like big full screen images, and haven't seen any flash cards to date that use them effectively.

jacobolus• 17 years ago

Why don't you buy some good children’s books with images of animals in them? A story is significantly more interesting than a flash card.

tokenadult4• 17 years ago

Studies show kids learn best via repetition and pick up language faster the more you talk to them (surprise surprise).

Do those studies specifically compare flash cards to the children's books (which I like a great deal) already mentioned to you in another reply? Do they use an experimental rather than correlational study design?

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

What are the citations for the studies you have in mind?

tokenadult4• 17 years ago

I am searching for good (educationally-oriented) ways to entertain and occupy my son.

I hear you on that, as a homeschooling father of four children with a home-based business. But my friendly suggestion would be that very young children are not best served by screen time

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522

but by their own auditory, visual, and especially tactile experience in their home environment from doing their own activities. (You mention your son--your first?--being four months old, so I suppose he is not walking yet, but he can already move and touch things.)

rawr• 17 years ago

Things kids are forced to do (flashcards) they will hate.

Things kids are allowed to do (watch National Geographic) they will enjoy.

Do you really want your kids to hate nature?

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

Wow, my son and every kid I've shared these with loves them. Do you have kids? If so, please try it out and let me know.

Maybe flash cards is the wrong word to use?

The idea is not to make them memorize anything, i.e. not fun. The idea is to show them pictures of stuff they like, i.e. fun. The vocab building is just a by-product of the activity.

nollidge• 17 years ago

Who said anything about force?

foulmouthboy• 17 years ago

Kids hate flashcards?

markcmyers• 17 years ago

Very nice. I'm guessing little kids will love it. I found some of the labels hard to read because there was too little contrast with the pic. To me the robin didn't look like a robin.

Adrenalist• 17 years ago

I have a 3 kids between the ages of 2 years and 11 years. My youngest would definitely enjoy these and I think it's a good start.

It's a very simple idea, so I think you'll need to add some features (pause button, music, more card sets, etc.) to encourage parents to visit often.

Also, I love the domain name and can see that this project was created while scratching your own itch (which is a great way to stay motivated).

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

Thanks. Yeah, I have about 20 ideas for new card sets--if you or anyone else has any I'll add them to my list.

m_eiman• 17 years ago

Tiny tips for a better user experience: load the pictures in the background and display a spinner while they're loading; load the next/prev images while the user is looking at an image to minimize waiting.

PostOnce• 17 years ago

The images don't need to be that big, I think. Or you could possibly have a resolution option (small/med/large). Depending on your monitor, 30" flash cards?

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

You can resize the window to your liking. However, the bigness was sort of the point--attracts and keeps my 4mo old's attention. Have you tried it big vs small with your young kids? I'd be very interested to know what happens.

alex_c• 17 years ago

Should be "caterpillar"? Don't want to teach kids the wrong spelling ;)

epi0Bauqu10• 17 years ago

Absolutely, will switch :). It should also be 'opossum' I've realized.

ujjwalg• 17 years ago

I think if you can add colors, numbers, alphabets with spoken versions will be great. You should check out the apps on iPhone for kids. Some of them are just off the hook.

Ask HN: what do you think of these flash cards I made for young kids?

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