I’ve always felt like knowing a second (or third!) language is an important life skill, but especially as a full-time travel family that homeschools our kids, we place a lot of emphasis on second language acquisition. We just spent 6 months living and traveling in Mexico with our RV, and that made our kids more motivated than ever to work on their Spanish.
That’s why I was so excited to learn about the Dex Camera!
Dex reached out asking us to write about their new kid language learning toy, and I couldn’t have been more pleased to check it out and share about Dex right after our adventure in Mexico. My only regret is that we didn’t have one before we went to Mexico because it would have been SO helpful as we all learned Spanish!
This Dex Camera is truly so cool, and such an amazing tool to add to our homeschool toolkit. The basic idea of a Dex Camera is that kids can take pictures of anything in the world, and the camera recognizes the object and names it in the second language. Kids repeat the word until the Dex hears them pronouncing it correctly. It is a super fun and easy way for children to practice second language acquisition!
It offers learning in 16 languages and 30+ dialects, including Spanish, English, Mandarin, Arabic, Korean, Hindi, French, Russian, Japanese, German, Italian, Cantonese, Polish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Portuguese. When we went to set it up, it asked us to choose which dialect of Spanish we were learning! I was so excited to see it give us the option to continue our Mexican Spanish journey, instead of so many apps and programs that simply default to Spain’s dialect.
What I couldn’t tell before receiving the Dex was how dynamic the language learning is with this product. My favorite thing about the Dex is that it doesn’t simply take a photo of a dog, tell you it’s a “perro,” and move on. It registers that you’ve taken a picture of a dog and tells you it’s a “perro.” Then it iterates on that vocabulary and gives you a whole bunch of related words – this dog is friendly, in Spanish that’s “amistoso.” The dog is brown, can you say “marrón?” It looks like the dog has a leash, that word is “correa.” And so on. It builds on the successes kids have had and gives related words, which works so much better for second language acquisition than some traditional apps that are static and teach memorization of vocabulary that kids might not care about.
Another super cool feature of the Dex Camera is the customized scavenger hunt that parents can set up using the companion app. With a subscription plan, the Dex offers the ability to create a list of vocabulary to hunt for on a customized outing, like a hike in Yosemite, for example. Parents can set a list of things to hunt for, like “flower,” “backpack,” “rock,” “trail,” etc., and once kids find the item, they can learn how to say it in their second language. With the customizable list option, families can use it on all types of outings like trips to the playground, museum days, grocery shopping runs, and more. My kids love every outing more when there’s a scavenger hunt involved, and it truly is a next level scavenger hunt!
A few more things to love about the Dex Camera:
- Tailored to kids’ ages and abilities – I was able to set my middle kid’s age and choose Intermediate language ability after our time in Mexico gave us a head start
- Long battery life – my kids used it for over an hour, and it still had 80% battery left!
- Works on Wifi or LTE (with subscription plan)
- Takes crystal clear photos – seriously a nicer camera than my kids’ other digital camera!
- Feels good to hold – this is a smallish thing, but I appreciate when a product is well-designed and ergonomic
I’m also truly impressed by the Dex Camera’s ability to recognize objects. It figured out that my kids took a picture of the packing peanuts that it was shipped with, which then gave them several vocab words about shipping like cardboard box! I keep telling them that it might not know what that object is, and I keep being proven wrong haha.
The Dex Camera isn’t cheap, but I do feel like it’s a great investment for families that prioritize second language acquisition for kids. To me, this product fits right in with one of our all-time favorite kids toys, Yoto Players, in that I feel really good about the time my kids spend playing with it, especially as a homeschool family.
The Dex is intended for children ages 3-8, and I love how independently my 5 and 8 year olds can learn with it, while my 10 year old is still enjoying it, too. I foresee the Dex Camera earning its space in our tiny RV home and on backpacking trips around the world for years to come!
Dex camera was gifted to us, and this post is sponsored by Dex. All opinions are my own.
For more posts about our life homeschooling and traveling fulltime with three kids, check out these posts:
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