Learning is Fun With JoomaJam

I am a big believer that learning doesn’t just happen within the confines of a classroom. I also believe that learning should be fun. That is why I always try to incorporate fun whenever I’m teaching my kids, especially with my three-year-old Ziggy.

Ziggy loves music. He’s always on his tab using the music apps I’ve downloaded for him. He even demands his dad to play his CD of kiddie songs whenever we’re in the car. He loves singing and dancing to the beat of the music. At the age of three, it’s really amazing how fast he memorizes the lyrics.

That is why when I was given a chance to review an app called Joomajam, I readily agreed. I knew that JoomaJam uses music to foster learning in children so I was excited to see if Ziggy will like using it.

About JoomaJam

Here are some info about the app.

JoomaJam is a kid-tested, teacher-approved collection of educational Original Pilipino Music in bilingual format which is accompanied by a lesson plan with recommended activities and resources. JoomaJam was created with fun in mind. These songs are meant for everyone to play around and be silly with.

 

JoomaJam’s music is sure to have your child singing, tapping & jumping along while learning about themselves & the world at large and a great digital learning experience for kids.

 

A new music generation is on the rise. Some of the most-beloved OPM artists have come together to create songs that are bound to be the new Filipino traditions we carry from generation to generation. Featuring pop, rock, electronica, reggae, ska and more, JoomaJam is Filipino-centric and proud of it!

 

JoomaJam is brought to you by Ritmo Learning Lab, a start-up that lives, breathes and dreams of music, the kind that makes you dream big dreams and inspires you to do good in this world. We exist to create digital learning experience for kids that brighten everyday life.

 

Ritmo is a social enterprise that develops alternative, engaging, and culturally-relevant teaching tools. It is one of the start up organizations being supported by Kickstart Ventures Inc., an accelerator-incubator firm wholly-owned by Globe Telecom. Ritmo was founded by rockstar and lawyer Vin Dancel, former preschool teacher Carisse Escueta, media missionary Rory Morales-Gutierez, corporate lawyer Reggie Nolido, nation-builder Coco Cruz, and teacher Mikka Hipol.

The Review:

Initially, I thought that JoomaJam is the type of app that’s really just for kids. Normally, I leave Ziggy alone when he’s using his apps because I know that they’re all child-friendly and he knows how to use them on his own already. With JoomaJam though, I found out that it’s both for the child and the parents as well. Let me explain below.

When you start the app, it will lead you to this main menu. Here you’ll find the Fun Preschool Learning Tools for Parents and Other Grown-ups (see they’re for parents too!). As you scroll down, you’ll find the different lessons or themes available for your kids to learn. For now, the only themes available are Media Conversations, Saving Money and Colors, which was a bit disappointing because Ziggy loved the music videos so much that he wanted more! But more on the videos in a bit.

Anyway, you can also see that there are other themes that will be available soon such as Books, Numbers, Legs, The Right to Play, Making Friends, Good Food and Hospitals. Hope these will be made available soonest.

To choose a theme, just click it and it will open to another menu such as the one below. This menu is for the Color theme. As you can see, there are several options to choose from. The first one is the Sing-along Video, which is probably the only option your preschooler can use on his own if he doesn’t yet know how to read. There’s an option to watch and listen to the video in either English or Filipino. The Colors (or Kulay) songs feature OPM artists Barbie Almalbis and Julianne.

Ziggy loves both the English and Tagalog versions of Colors and the Saving Money theme. Here he is watching the Saving Money video. He has been playing these videos over and over again and he’s starting to memorize the lyrics already. The videos are very colorful and child-friendly.

For a sample of the video, watch this.

Aside from the Sing-along Video, you can also check out the Lesson Guide, which helps parents understand why such concepts are important for children to learn.

What I really like and find most helpful for parents like me is the JoomaJam Activities menu. It lists down several recommended activities that you can do with your child to help them learn the concept. There are cognitive, socio-emotional, physical, linguistic and creative types of activities. We have yet to try the activities though but they all look like fun. Can’t wait to start doing them!

Oh and for those kids old enough to read, they can use the Music/Lyrics menu to learn both the English and Filipino lyrics of the songs.

Another great thing about JoomaJam is that it is available for FREE for both Apple and Android devices. Click the links below download.

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ritmo.joomajam for Android smartphones
• https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/joomajam/id739671988?mt=8 for OS smartphones

Overall, I’m really happy that we got to try JoomaJam. Ziggy enjoys the videos a lot. I only hope that they’ll release more so that Ziggy will have more to choose from. I think that he’s learning so much from the videos already. For instance, before using this app, he knew what “color” meant and could identify all the basic colors already. But it was only through this app that he started learning what “kulay” meant and that there’s a Filipino translation to the different colors. I think that’s great because I believe that learning to speak Filipino is as important as learning English.

It was also such a surprise to learn that JoomaJam is not just for kids but for parents too. I find the activities and the lesson guide extremely useful especially now that we’re informally homeschooling Ziggy. I can’t wait to explore all the other upcoming themes, hopefully soon!

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JoomaJam by Ritmo Learning Lab

Website: joomajam.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Joomajam
Twitter: twitter.com/joomajamnow