Osmo is a great way to make screen time a lot more hands on, and allow kids to get more out of using their iPads (or fire tablets). We were sent the Creative Starter Kit to try out with the kids and it’s a great tool for the times we are in right now with school closures, and parents needing to find ways to keep children occupied, and their minds active.
The Osmo creative starter set includes an Osmo base, which you can use with any Osmo games if you expand your collection further (there are lots available!) and a creative board with a set of four dry wipe pens and a pencil case to keep them in – which also functions as a wipe cloth for the board.
The base works with a reflector that attaches on top of your iPad camera, allowing the drawings on the creative board to be imported into the app, and become part of the games.
There are three games included within the Osmo Creative set, which are:
Monster
This is a fun game which appeals more to the younger players. The friendly monster, who you can see above, encourages kids to draw items for his bedroom or for his adventures and so on. Once you draw them, he will “pull” them into the screen and they come to life in the game. When kids draw him a bed for example, then he will sit on it. Or he asks them to draw a design, and he will print it all over the back of the screen for his wallpaper. It’s very cool, and very simple to use as the monster verbally guides you through the whole process.
Masterpiece
This was our favourite of the games. It is so effective in helping kids to draw detailed pictures and once they have drawn the picture, you can watch back a speeded up video of them drawing it – which we loved! It really helps the kids drawing confidence when they watch back those videos and then see their end results.
This game works by showing the lines on the screen for the children to copy. It’s a little harder than simple tracing, but once you get the hang of it the lines are an extremely useful guide and help them draw anything and everything. There is a huge library of pictures that they can use, set in themed groupings, but you can also import your own images to use as a base, or even take photos and use those. You can also find images of famous characters like Pokemon or Disney characters to use, which was great for us.
This is something that will definitely get a lot of use here!
Newton
The final game is Newton, this one is a bit different as it is an engineering puzzle, so helps to develop kids logic skills and gets them thinking. In the game, you need to guide the ball, by either drawing lines or placing objects on to the creative pad. When the ball hits the line, it can roll down, or bounce off and so on, so they use these to control it’s path – and start developing early Physics skills as they play!
There are 60 levels included within Newton, to keep them busy for a while. My 8 year old enjoyed doing this, and puzzling them out. This game is great for some fun hands on learning!
I would recommend the Osmo Creative kit, especially if you have children who enjoy drawing or you are looking for a way to make screen time a little more meaningful and hands on. This kit can be best enjoyed by children of around 5-11 I would say, and if you have a younger child then take a look at the Little Genius Starter kit (we also have this for our 3 year old, and it’s just as much fun!)
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See our Masterpiece video below, from our instagram.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Wow. That Osmo kit does look like fun and stimulating creativity is always a good thing.
Anna, your review of the Osmo Creative Starter Kit is fantastic! It’s great to see how this hands-on tool can enhance screen time for kids and keep them engaged with meaningful activities. The Masterpiece game sounds particularly impressive, helping children build their drawing skills. Thank you for sharing this valuable recommendation!