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Is ABC Mouse Worth It? An Unsponsored Review

I get SO many questions from readers asking if we’ve ever tried ABC Mouse.  If you’re like most parents, ABC Mouse is a commercial that’s constantly on your TV or popping up in the banner ads on your computer.  It’s easy to just gloss over them or think they’re probably ridiculously priced – not to mention the fact that it’s 100% screentime which we hear is so horrible these days.  I started to wonder is ABC Mouse worth it?  And looked up the cost…

Is ABC Mouse Worth it?

I’ll give you the short answer (ABSOLUTELY, YES) before moving on to the why…


I should back up here and say that we initially started looking at ABC Mouse because our 2 year old son was finally starting to have word explosions after completely stopping all attempts at verbal communication at 15 months. 

We went to a speech therapist who got us back on the right track and encouraged us to find ways to increase his curiosity.

If you’ve followed us for any length of time, you know this isn’t too difficult since we travel almost constantly and never miss an opportunity for adventure.

Through some online searches, we found even colorful movies could be helpful in getting young toddlers interested in speaking if you sit with them and have dialogue through the entire movie (something that worked WONDERS for us!)

Finally, after a random conversation with a lady in the parking lot of a grocery store (I never pass up an opportunity for adult conversation!) about toddler development and interaction – yet again, ABC Mouse came up. 

She said she uses it with her kids and recommends it to anyone who will listen.

I decided to hop online and see how expensive this program was and what it was all about.

When I realized you get 30 days to try it for FREE, I had officially run out of excuses to give it a shot.

I downloaded the app the second I got back to our hotel room, signed up for the free trial, and excitedly sat down with our 2 year old explaining we were going to “play school on mommy’s phone.”

Our Experience

Like any mom who values her ridiculously expensive smart phone, I’d never let my son even hold my phone before, so he was almost clueless as to how to use the functions on ABC Mouse.

Let me be clear – there’s something evolutionary about freaking touch screens when a 2 year old can learn how to use a phone as fast as our child did.

Within the first session of using ABC Mouse, he understood that touching the screen made things happen.

A month later, he could figure out things faster than I could.

It’s ridiculous…and kind of awesome…but mostly scary.  Okay, moving on.

How Much Is ABC Mouse?

You can try it free for 30 days like we did (click here to try it out) or right now you can get your first 2 months for just $5.

After your promotional period, it’s just $9.95 per month.  I truly think that’s a phenomenal deal for the plethora of resources you get.

Let me be clear that this post is NOT sponsored by ABC Mouse – even though I’m speaking so highly of this service that it probably sounds like they’re paying me. 

It’s really just made this much of a difference in our young son’s education already.

What we love about ABC Mouse

ABC Mouse puts you on a path of learning that you decide for your child. 

Our son’s path currently includes puzzles, coloring pages (all done on his tablet), books, and more.

He has his own little room on ABC Mouse that he saves up tickets to buy things for. 

He has a rug, a table, and a treasured soccer ball.  It’s basically the equivalent of reward stickers, but online and it teaches the very basics of saving up for something that you want – something this frugal living mama ABSOLUTELY LOVES.

There are SO many things to keep a young kid interactive with the platform – he has two hamsters and a cat that he has to feed, water, and bathe (hello responsibility without actual vet bills!), he’s currently saving for a puppy.

There is a zoo where he can interact with the animals and learn facts about them, hear the noises they make…and his new favorite thing is teaching his younger brother (20 months) all about the animals he sees and having him make the animal noises with him.

Aside from the animals, the solar system is our new obsession.


ABCmouse.com

Mommy to mommy (or daddy or…) I seriously can’t recommend ABC Mouse enough.  I love the doors that it opens for our little worldschooling family.

Now that we’re interested in the solar system, we’re planning a family trip to the local planetarium before our newest family member arrives.

The best part about the platform is how engaging it is and simple enough for little minds to operate on their own. 

I love that we can use it to create interest in topics and then get hands on experience as a family (like our solar system / planetarium idea)

I also love that it’s cheap!  I mean even for amazing results, at this age (2 or 3 years old) do you really want to put a ton of money into an online membership?

Of course not!

You want your kids outside playing and exploring the world with their own 2 hands.

In our house, we’re using ABC Mouse in conjunction with that and it’s working beautifully.

We travel a ton and instead of just having movies on a DVD player in the backseat, our toddler is on his tablet “playing school” and learning with ABC Mouse.

Every single day, without fail, he says something that makes me wonder how he knows this word or concept. 

It might be an animal, a word we don’t often use, a story, a person’s name…

It always ends up being something he picked up from ABC Mouse. 

This excites me as a mom because it shows me that he’s actually engaged with the material and is truly learning something while he plays. 

He isn’t just passing the time in the backseat on our road trips, he’s gaining knowledge and curiousity for the world around him…something I can’t put a price on.

My best advice if you’re skeptical is to sign up for the ABC Mouse 30-day free trial and just give it a try.  Set a reminder in your phone before the 30 days are up (because what parent just remembers to cancel these things??) and if you don’t love it like we do, go ahead and cancel.

I bet your little one will love it as much as we do in our family.

What I Don’t Love About ABC Mouse

The only complaint I have is about their app’s availability. 

We quickly got tired of letting our son use our phones to “play school” when he wanted to use ABC Mouse. 

It was a hassle when traveling because I don’t love the idea of my toddler alone in the backseat with my smart phone.

Our solution was to dust off an old tablet we had from some promo Verizon ran years ago. 

Much to our dismay, the ABC Mouse app isn’t supported by our device.

A quick Google search revealed that this is actually a common issue among parents who are hoping to use an old tablet for ABC Mouse purposes.  It’s pretty difficult to find a tablet that it will work on.

Our solution was to pick up the Amazon Fire 7 Kid’s Edition Tablet for each of our boys. 

Even though the 8 is out, we bought two of the 7’s for our sons.  It came down to price. 

Our oldest son is just 3 years old…it wasn’t worth the extra $60 total for two of the Amazon Fire 8’s.

I’ll do a thorough review of the tablets after we’ve used them for a while. 

For now, they were inexpensive, they’re a great deal because you get a year of FreeTime included plus the protective cover for the tablets. 

The main reason we bought them is to use ABC Mouse, but everyone we’ve asked has had nothing but great things to say about these tablets so far. 

I’m sure we’ll use them for far more than just ABC Mouse in the years to come.

Is ABC Mouse Good for 2 Year Olds

There are so many benefits to ABC Mouse for our son that I can’t sing its praises highly enough.

Initially, I assumed my son would be far too young to get anything out of it.

Through ABC Mouse, my 2 year old not only has a leg up on our brand new to homeschooling, but he’s developing an appreciation for structure as well.

He gets a huge kick out of progressing down the path in his profile.

This hunger for progress is something I hope he continues to build on in our homeschool journey together.

How this post came to be…

I know you’re not used to me selling or promoting things on my site, so I feel the need to kind of explain myself…

Now that our 2nd son is 20 months old, he’s very curious about his big brother’s “school” and wants to play too. 

We figured it can’t hurt to buy him his own tablet and membership with ABC Mouse.

I emailed them to ask how to add another sibling to our account, what the price would be, and to spill my guts about how thankful I am for this resource that is such an amazing value and has added so much curiosity to my family. 

They responded that each membership comes with 3 profiles so it won’t cost us a dime to add our 2nd son (SCORE!) and put me in touch with someone who works with blogger’s to help spread the word about their product. (No, they’re not paying me. )

If someone signs up through one of my links, I may get a small commission, but I was planning on shouting this from the rooftops anyway for FREE – DOUBLE SCORE!)

Do you use and love ABC Mouse as much as we do?  What do your kids love most about it?  Let me know in the comments!

Is ABC Mouse Worth it?