Besides the subjects taught in school, it is beneficial for kids to take other courses outside of school to cultivate interest in learning, elevates mood and improve cognitive skills. It is maybe something that the child is able to thrive in or simply enjoys doing. With the advancement of technology and Covid situation, these courses can actually be taken online by the students themselves if they are older, guided by a parent, or a tutor via video conferencing.
yousician
(App)
Yousician Piano listens with your device’s microphone while you play piano or keyboard. The app guides you as you learn to play notes, chords and melodies and lets you know how you’re doing in real time. You’ll learn basics like finger and hand placement, and how to read sheet music, step by step from the beginning. As you progress, you’ll learn more challenging techniques like playing with both hands and moving around the keyboard.
In the Practice mode, player can adjust the tempo, choose left or/and right hand, notation style, to play along the color coded notes. You will be scored real time like a game.
Yousician Subscriptions Options:
Free Version – Lesson length is limited but can be up to 10 minutes for a session. Free 7-day Premium or Premium+ trial.
Premium Subscription – USD19.99/ RM249.90 a for yearly or USD9.99/ RM39.90 for a monthly subscription (one instrument). Unlimited lessons but only limited songs.
Premium Plus Subscription – USD179.99/ RM369.90 per year (all instruments; Guitar, Piano, Bass, Ukulele and Singing). Unlimited lessons and songs.
Chess
Chess improves memory, strategic thinking and cognitive abilities [Source: PMC – US National Library of Medicine]. More importantly, learning Chess will give the kids skills that they can take with them throughout life: strategy, tactics, creativity, perseverance and calculated risk-taking.
ChessKid.com
(Web & App)
Learn from the basic or improve your game with ChessKid‘s kid-friendly videos. Play chess with kids from around the world or with their ChessBots. Solve tricky puzzles where the player makes the next move on a chess game, then feedback will be given on whether the move is correct or not. ChessKid provides brain-stimulating challenges and hours of entertainment to kids. You can login as a Coach, Parent or Kid for different learning programs.
For beginners, start with this Tutorial video “How to Play Chess” and Lessons.
Membership
Free membership, kids can play live chess, up to 3 puzzles per day, the first 3 bot levels, access beginner content and read articles.
Basic members can access game history for games played within the past month.
Gold Membership allows full, unlimited access and unlocks all of the ChessKid educational features at all of our Levels.
SCRATCH
(Web)
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations using drag and drop coding and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively which are the essential skills for life in the 21st century. It is provided free of charge.
You can start with the Tutorials.
Drag and drop the commands to the middle box. The output is on the right screen.
Just Dance Now
(App)
Just Dance Now is the mobile app that brings you music video dancing games, without needing a console!. All you need is an internet-connected screen/ TV and your smartphone as a controller. Pick a song from the catalog of over 500 tracks, hold you smartphone in your right hand as you follow the dancer on the screen. Your movements are tracked and scored by the game, so perfect those moves to get a perfect score and you will be dancing effortlessly. There is no limit of the number of players you can dance with.
Hold the smartphone in your right hand as you dance. Your smartphone turns into a controller and tracks your moves using its accelerometer/ motion sensor/ gyroscope.
Subscription
Unlock more songs: 1 year at USD24.99/RM104.90 | 1 month at USD3.99/RM15.90
Dig Mandarin
(Web)
Dig Mandarin provides articles on Mandarin learning, along with videos, case studies, learner community and books reviews. Learn the vocabularies and grammar for the Chinese Proficiency Test or Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) – China’s only standardized Chinese test for non-native speakers, internationally recognized.
HSK Level 1 vocabulary list includes 150 required (basic) vocabulary words and phrases. The highest level HSK 6 requires listening, reading, and writing proficiency (a total of 101 items), with 5000+ commonly used words and related grammar patterns.
Start with their free Tutorials.
There are also Paid Courses for more comprehensive, fun and engaging lessons.
