Parents and Grownups!

“Recommended by Educators” on Google Play for Education, #1 in Amazon.com Education, selected as Editor’s Choice by Children’s Technology Review, 4-Starred by Common Sense, the Heckerty stories have been recommended by everyone from Yahoo to TUAW as well as featured on TV and radio. The many enthusiastic user reviews from around the world speak for themselves.

See for yourself – Download the Apps Here – You’ll be glad you did!!

 

 So what’s Heckerty’s magic?

Kids and adults obviously love the Heckerty characters and stories … but why? Where does that passion and enthusiasm come from? Heckerty is more than just a series of reading and learning apps, and e-books! It’s created by a dedicated team with exceptional experience in teaching kids, production and broadcast. The result is a series where:

  • each learning challenge is a game
  • each discovery must be fun
  • each child should be rewarded as he/she progresses and learns.

 

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The Heckerty apps, books, activities and games help kids build a solid foundation in reading, writing, and even basic math while developing critical thinking,  problem-solving skills and values. Heckerty adapts to your child’s learning style and pace; the innovative and engaging stories fuel the creative imagination of children and adults. Heckerty apps run on iOS and Android devices, and new apps come in 15 different languages. And yes, Heckerty is Common Core compliant.

Want to read some of our User Reviews?

Or look through our Media Archive?

 

Activities

We believe that the best, quickest learning comes from structured and unstructured play along with creative projects that kids enjoy.

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Visit our website’s Activities area. You’ll discover lots of creative home and classroom Heckerty projects ready for you and your kids. Come back often! We’re adding new ideas all the time.We want to make the activities as useful and relevant as possible for your kids –  do you have great projects to share, projects you’d like to see with a Heckerty twist to them? Feedback, requests or suggestions? We’d love to hear from you.Contact us here or email us at <[email protected]>to tell us what works for you and what you’d like to see from Heckerty.  We’ll try to make it happen!!

 

Social Media

Did we mention that we love social media? Well, we do — after all, sharing’s at the heart of learning and education, right?! So:

  • Do you want to know about the latest projects and activities, the newest Heckerty adventures and great tips for your kids? Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our mailing list by clicking on the “Don’t Miss Out” widget that appears on our web pages. If you have a question, email us at [email protected]
  • Have you done something interesting with Heckerty’s projects, products or characters?
  • Discovered something that might be helpful in helping kids discover storytelling and reading?
  • Have a great tip other adults or kids would benefit from?

We’d love to hear from you – so share with us and other Heckerty fans. The best suggestions will get posted to our blog and of course we’ll give you the credit you deserve! Oh, and keep an eye on our blog, Twitter and Pinterest feeds as well as other social media for great projects & ideas for your kids.  

Home Schooling?

We have resources for you, too— the quickest way to get to them is to check out our Teachers, Educators & Home Schoolers  page. Our lesson plans and activities are a great place to get specific ideas that can help your child.  

Lesson Plan Ideas?

Looking for ideas on how to get even more educational value from Heckerty? We’re making our Teachers’ Guides available to parents as well as education professionals — download them from our Teachers, Educators & Home Schoolers page.  

Getting the Most Out of Heckerty

StoryTeller mode lets students hear the whole story and become comfortable with it. Tap on the images from time to time to help them discover the animations.
Then try running the story in Read and Play mode. Let your student hear the whole page by tapping on the Heckerty face icon in the upper right or read the story themselves.

  • When the page is done, encourage your student to tap on a word in the story so they can hear it and see it. If you have purchased our optional Language Helper, you can use it to see the equivalent word in another language that you can choose.
  • Make sure your student discovers the animations by tapping on the images — you’ll find that tapping repeatedly may show other animations — kids love this!

- When your student has explored the page fully, encourage them to go on to the next page by tapping on the broomstick at the bottom right of the page or swiping to the left.
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  • Once they know how the story works, let them explore on their own — they can’t break anything or go out onto the Internet!

 Watch how they eventually start to build new sentences with the words, even though they can’t read yet.

Games Build Vocabulary & Thinking Skills

Once kids have learned to use Heckerty, here are some great games to play with them:

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  • Go to a page and say a word, then ask the child to tap on that word — many children are surprisingly quick to make the association between the shape of a written word and when it’s spoken, even if they cannot yet read. This is a great exercise for learning to read!
  • Pick individual words and play a game where you go together to a small dictionary or http://www.dictionary.com to find out what the word means. Then – after a short while – ask them about the word to help them remember it. If they don’t remember, look it up and remind them again. Soon, they’ll start remembering.
  • Another easy game to play is to name an object in the picture and ask your child to tap on the right image. You can make the game more challenging by asking your child to find things in the image that are the same color, or start with the same letter. There are lots of ways you can make up little games to help your child learn to read.
  • One cool thing to keep kids occupied when you’re busy is ask them how many different things they can see in a picture and what those things are. When they say “cat” for example, ask them to tell you all about cats, what they are and what they do. Teachers and researchers have found that well-chosen games make children behave and perform better in school. Rewards in games help kids score higher on tests and motivate them to work harder. The secret is to have games that that are fun and balanced – and that are not too easy and not too hard!

 

The Coloring Book

You’ll find a link to the coloring book on the home page of each app. There are several images to color and additional images to buy. Kids love to send out their fully colored images — but Heckerty only lets them do so with your authorization. So go ahead, encourage them to share and receive praise for their coloring skills!  

Become a Heckerty Helper!

The Heckerty Helper program is great for everyone. Parents receive free products. Kids get to know that their opinion counts. Parents like it that the kids have to write up the reviews and we love the feedback on our products! We receive great feedback and ideas to make our products better suited to your needs. Contact us here to tell us you’d like to join the Heckerty Helper team — we’d love to have you join us!  

Parental Advisory Panel

Want to be part of our parental advisory panel? We’re looking for parents that care and want to help their kids learn effectively. Email us — we promise to listen carefully to suggestions and requests from panel members.  

One More Thing

We can’t say this often enough — we’d love to hear from you! Write to us using our Contact page or send email to [email protected].