Idaho to Offer Pre-Kindergarten Children Free Reading-Readiness Program

As the proud father of a two-year-old, I'm always thinking of ways I can make sure my daughter is prepared to succeed in life. One of the few pitfalls of living in Idaho would have to be the low ranking education system. According to usnews Idaho ranks 30th in the nation but I've heard we are much lower. Regardless of where we actually list I'm definitely pro-active when it comes to the education of my child. So when I saw that Idaho would begin to offer a free reading-readiness program, it got my attention.

From The Daily Fly

BOISE, ID - Beginning next week all 4-year-olds in the state of Idaho will have access to a free online animated, interactive, reading-readiness program dubbed "Smarty Ants" through a five-year grant agreement between the State Department of Education and the online literacy program Achieve 3000.

Now, from some the comments I read, there seems to be mixed feelings about children having more "screen time" for education. One teacher even posting:

As an early childhood educator, this is extremely upsetting to me! Children do not need more screen time, and they certainly don’t need to be plopped down in front of a screen in the name of education.

I understand the need to have a variety of different learning methods but I don't necessarily have a problem with this. Let's face it, children are learning differently than we did. I've noticed Phoenyx has already gained a significant amount of knowledge from her I-pad apps. As long as she has a variety of different ways to learn, I'm ok with this.