*Gifted Product *If you are a regular follower of our blog then you will know that we love our kids to learn through play. Our children are also given screen time most days and enjoy their technology time, just like we do! In our home there is most definitely a time and a place for screen time and technology to be part of our kids’ play. I have to admit it can be tricky to find a balance of apps and games that we think the children can have fun on whilst still be learning important creative and reasoning skills. We were asked to try out Osmo in exchange for a review. We were really keen to see if Osmo and the Osmo detective agency game could provide us with that balance of hands on learning through play with technology time.
How does Osmo Work
Osmo has a varied selection of learning games and educational packs. To play with any of these you firstly need the Osmo base and scanner for either a compatible iPad or Kindle. Simply place your compatible device onto the base and pop on the red reflector over the device’s camera and your child can get learning!
Once your Osmo is set up and the Osmo apps are downloaded the base kit scans the table to make your child’s creations come to life. Players progress through the games by interacting with the device with games pieces such as a pen, magnifying glass or puzzle pieces. Basically keeping your child’s hands busy instead of just swiping at a screen!
The base kit also comes with free downloads; Osmo masterpiece app and Osmo newton app. I will share some more information on these two apps further down in this post.
Osmo Detective Agency age 5+
Teddy is at an age where he loves to play spies so he was excited the moment he opened the Osmo detective agency! The game consists of a suitcase storage box with board maps. There are 6 city maps such as Beijing, Paris, and Cairo as well as Osmo World and The World. Simply set the age level and then let your child loose with the magnifying glass to spot clues and solve the mysteries.
The premise of this game is your child follows the prompts from the on screen words and images and studies the map to be able to recognise historical artefacts and landmarks from around the World. Once you spot the clues, use the magnifying glass to hover over the map so the scanner can pick up their finds and earn rewards.
From a parent’s perspective we like that our children are learning fun geographical and historical facts throughout play. Teddy in particular loves the facts such as temperature can increase the Eiffel Tower’s height by 6 inches!
We found that we can enjoy playing this game together, with a sibling or independently. It encourages children to problem solve, improve observational skills and be hands on. Fun features of the game also include helpful hints for when spotting becomes tricky such as the metal detector beep function which we found amusing!
Osmo Base Free App Play
I previously mentioned that the Osmo base comes with two free apps that you can upload from the App Store. We have explored both these apps as well.
Osmo Masterpiece
Using an Osmo creative board or just a piece of paper a child can pick from a wide selection of drawings. With self portraits, medieval, space, nature, cartoons, writing and lots more there is a fun and detailed subject matter for every child to create. The outline is displayed on the screen, so your child can then interactively line their pen up and copy the outline to paper.
Osmo Newton
A physics game in motion. Using a pen or tangram puzzle pieces these fast paced games are great fun for a good challenge. The added dimensions of numerous difficulty levels keeps this apps longevity going. We had fun challenging each other to play this. We found our older children really enjoyed the challenge of this app.
Osmo key Skills
The kits and games that you can purchase with Osmo help with several areas of learning such as
- Coding
- Critical thinking
- Drawing
- Geography
- Imaginative Play
- Literacy
- Maths
- Puzzles
- Science
To develop all of these important skills Osmo developed games such as the Disney drawing games; the pizza game, detective agency, master drawing, hot wheels, and their little genius range of games and more.
Our Overall Osmo Review
- We give them the thumbs up for mainly using cardboard packaging on the products. Only having a small amount of necessary plastic packaging to keep the scanner protected in transit.
- The kids really do have fun on it!
- Age range suitability in our opinion is from age 3 -12. Our 3 year old enjoys playing on it with the help of her siblings. Our older children 14 and 11 also enjoy supporting the play of their younger siblings and also having a go independently on it.
- Osmo encourages both independent play and working as a team to pair up and find the clues on the detective games.
- Osmo gets the learning through play thumbs up from us adults.
- It really does have a place as a home learning resource.
- Osmo have a downloadable app for parents. You can simply log on and see how they’re learning / progressing with play.
- The Osmo kits are a little on the top side of our family budget so we would pitch them at a Birthday / Christmas gift or a durable investment for a home learning household.
- Some of the games are more affordable and a price that children could also save up their pocket money to purchase. We have already added some games to our son’s birthday wish list.
Osmo and the Osmo detective agency overall definitely gets the thumbs up from both children and adults in our house. We are keen to see going forward what Stem learning potential we can get from Osmo.
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