Kids and Technology VR experience

Happy weekend @motherhood hope you have all been having a wonderful end to the week with your families as I am with mine. Life gets so busy with work, education and the hustle and bustle of just trying to make it through each day. With it, comes the goal of trying to find new and exciting ways to both entertain and educate the kids in a meaningful way.

Technology plays a large role in supporting education but can also become a distraction and a negative if it isn't utilised in a way that leads to positive outcomes. One of the recent technology devices we've added is Virtual Reality (VR).

Our family has been late to the VR developments as the technology while still relatively new has been available for quite some time. However, initial launches of the technology was quite expensive and the availability of educational games and applications extremely limited as the technology was still new and the sector needed to grow and develop.

However, today there are a lot of free apps availabile on both Google and Apple playstores that no longer require a specialised VR headset but rather a frame that holds your phone transforming it into a cheap and effective VR system.

TEMU Cheap Buys
Having recently been introduced to TEMU which is a relatively cheap online store with a lot of stuff I found to be not necessary and brings in gaming and shopping with a twist of gambling. It did offer me my first 8 purchases for the price of 2 and FREE shipping.

I immediately noticed VR holders which I decided to grab two of them and having recently finished my mobile phone plan i was eligible for a new phone upgrade for free alongside my current plan.

Once the Temu items arrived which were relatively quick considering the items were from an international store. I was surprised to see that the goggles came with Bluetooth connected controllers that seamlessly connected to the phone and provided a wonderful integrated solution for using the VR apps.

Underwater discovery and Space Travel
While there are an abundance of VR apps on the android store most of which are poorly developed and over priced or filled with ads that interfere with the experience and force you to purchase the full app. There were still quite a few educational developed apps that I managed to find for the kids.

One of which was a marine and aquatic environment where the kids were able to move around either an underwater environment filled with life.

The 360degree experience was amazing even i was blown away with the level of detail and the ingame reaction to movement as we moved around looking at all different places. Unlike viewing through a flat screen utilising a VR experience gave a whole new way of being involved.

The fish and many aquatic plants and animals came with names that the kids could learn about.

The other app we downloaded was a space exploration one where you could travel to different planets and even land on the moon and look back at the Earth. We found that really amazing as it also provided star constellations with names and images.

stars and the sun
We could also expand beyond our own solar system and look back at it while moving around and getting a view of our sun, stars and moon from a position unable to in real life. Many other apps we have used also do this but the ability for an immersive experience that puts you amongst it is a totally new level of detail and makes learning fun.

I'd anticipate that the experience would be similar as it was when TV technology was first released and making the jump from books to screens.

The Force Awakens
Of course just like every dad what would a purchase be without the addition of another cheap lightsaber that will probably only last a few hours but still fun nonetheless.

Anyway, great purchases and a lot of fun!