Osmo and our verdict

After a long and hard (over many months) thought process, I finally decided to purchase the Osmo kit for iPad.

I was wary, I'm not too keen on excessive gadget use, nor do I like anything that's new and uses the internet. See, I have, what you would call, techno phobia, and with everything about hackers, viruses and what not I feel a little lost.

I read a few (lots) of reviews, heard and read about the educational benefits, and watched smiling children playing with their iPads (albeit via YouTube).

Yesterday was the big day, it was time to set up our lovely new toy! Set up was very easy (even for me), and didn't take much time at all. It's as simple as downloading the apps, setting an account and off you go. The great thing about Osmo is that it can be played offline. This, alone, is a huge thing for me. I don't have to hawk eye watch little fingers accidentally join an online community or worse.

The games are fantastic, it's a mixture of the real world and the virtual world. We've played words, tangram and masterpiece.

The games work with ease. Use the stand and 'reflector' (the red little piece with mirror, slots on to camera in order to pick up movements).

For games such as words, numbers and tangram (and others) pieces are provided that are used. So, in the words game use the letter tiles in the space directly in front of the iPad for it to register the letters. It is works so well, letters are recognised whether upside down or not. The kids find it absolutely fascinating how it registers what is being placed in the area in front. Tangram uses shaped tiles (also provided). It is absolutely amusing when the shapes on the screen get a little trickier. Initially the tiles to use are obvious, the colour shows along with which one slots where. However, as difficulty increases, the pictures are blacked out, and you have to work out which piece goes where. Lots of adjustments and giggles!

Masterpiece doesn't require any extra pieces, just a clean white paper. Little person has had hours of fun, creating masterpieces (haaahaa). Simply follow the picture outline on the screen (sounds simple, I won't be uploading my first attempt!)

We haven't fully used our Osmo kit, there is so much more we can do. So was it worth it? Yes, every single penny. I'm hoping to use it more, especially for coding...this has, in all, turned out to be a valuable purchase.