For parents
Why children need more than letters and numbers
BilimGoo ·
Reading and mathematics are important foundations. Children also need opportunities to discover the wider world: places, people, nature, space and the human body.
Discovering the wider world
Research on knowledge-rich learning offers a useful perspective. In two randomized trials involving 1,194 kindergarten children, lessons connecting stories with science and social studies improved vocabulary taught in the curriculum and subject knowledge.
Learning about the world can give children ideas and vocabulary to connect with related learning. A country’s flag can become a starting point for exploring its location and people. A planet can lead to questions about Earth, the Sun and our solar system.
At BilimGoo, this is why our activities go beyond mathematics and letters. Our geography, space and anatomy games aim to encourage curiosity and introduce connected knowledge.
Practising recall can help learners remember the facts they study. But we should not assume that memorizing flags improves general memory or intelligence. The research cited here did not test BilimGoo.
Our goal is simple: help children understand more of the world, one discovery at a time.
References
- Cabell, S. Q., Kim, J. S., White, T. G., Gale, C. J., Edwards, A. A., Hwang, H. J., Petscher, Y., & Raines, R. M. (2025). Impact of a content-rich literacy curriculum on kindergarteners’ vocabulary, listening comprehension, and content knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 117(2), 153–175. DOI: 10.1037/edu0000916. First published online in 2024.
- Schneider, M., & Simonsmeier, B. A. (2025). How does prior knowledge affect learning? A review of 16 mechanisms and a framework for future research. Learning and Individual Differences, 122, 102744. DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2025.102744.
- Butowska-Buczyńska, E., Kliś, P., Zawadzka, K., & Hanczakowski, M. (2024). The role of variable retrieval in effective learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(44), e2413511121. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2413511121.