Heart Street Market: A Must Have Multicultural Learning App
From the makers of the incredibly gorgeous Heart Street Market dolls, this multicultural company is now taking the fight for girls education to the screens. Hearts for Hearts Girls has launched an incredibly fun multicultural app for kids!
Great detail in the graphics make the game colorful and engaging. Most importantly, the games themselves are centered around empowering young girls to support each other in building each other’s communities.
Bonus: Scroll to the end to enter the giveaway for the app.
Disclaimer: I was given a free download of the app in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Heart Street Market: Multicultural App for Kids
Those of us with daughters (and feminist parents/allies of sons) often commiserate about the type of games that are marketed. The hair salon and rainbow princess games are not cutting it (and perpetuating harmful stereotypes).
Hearts for Hearts Girls has a very similar mission to mine. Their mission is “to empower girls to become agents of change in their communities, their countries, and around the world. We want to change the world one heart at a time, and you can be a part of that dream!”
The Girls of Heart Street Market
Within the game, children can choose among 4 different characters who live in communities around the globe –
- Rahel from Ethiopia
- Dell from the USA (Appalachia)
- Consuelo from Mexico
- Nahji from India
Each of them has an important story to tell about life in her country, inspired by the stories of real girls who are strong, smart, courageous, and determined to rise above challenging circumstances.
Hearts for Hearts Girls is partnered with World Vision which hosts programs that support gender equality, education, infrastructure, and humanitarian aid.
Heart Street Market is A Global Gift
The specific cities in this app were chosen intentionally. Heart Street Market donates a percentage of their profits to the programs in the cities where World Vision is working. By purchasing this app for a child or classroom, there is a gift within the gift.
In each community, you choose missions (games) – such as making music or playing soccer– that help build bring each neighborhood to life. With each game you win, you build part of structure. Intertwined are historical facts about the culture of the place and the story of the character that lives there.
There are an incredible 100+ missions for more than 40 hours of exploring and playing!
Multicultural Education
Now most apps have to give and take with their ability to go into great detail based on size, speed, etc. Of course not all the cultural information is possible to place within the app, so the Heart Street Market website has an extensive library of resources that coincide with the game to learn more.
As I have said many times, technology is not the enemy, but any technology that encourages MORE reading is one I will wholeheartedly promote.
There was a review of Heart Street Market on a popular site that mentioned that the shopping aspect overshadowed the cultural education piece. I whole heartedly disagree for two reasons.
First, as someone who has lived in 6 different countries, and traveled to over 50 more, shopping and food is the heart and soul of the community.
Shopping and learning the local cuisine is the first thing you do when you move to a new place. Secondly, food overcomes language barriers. Even when we don’t speak the local language, we can bond and connect over a table of food. Food and shopping are THE most important pieces in integrating into the community.
To say that the cultural aspects are overshadowed by learning different types of local dishes and shopping at the bazaar is ludicrous. It is the epicenter and surely anyone who has traveled as an expat would understand it’s great significance.
(Read on for my favorite multicultural books about Sunday Dinner.)
Why Girls in Education?
It’s an undeniable fact that girls in many countries struggle against a lack of education, medical care, decent housing, and clean water and food. When we meet these basic needs, those girls achieve amazing things for themselves and their families. Sometimes, all they need is a little help.
Hearts For Hearts Girls believes that giving our children a positive, uplifting perspective on the people and cultures with which we share this earth is more important than ever. Our brand shines a better light on the world.
It offers a way for young girls to gain knowledge, inspiration, empathy and—most of all—empowerment. They CAN do something! They CAN make a difference. And that, in itself, is a unique and wonderful feeling for anyone.
Multicultural Fashion
Another huge part of learning the culture is learning about traditional dresses and clothing. Kids will enjoy dressing up the 4 girls in more than 25 mix and match fashions. Additionally, they are fabrics and templates for kids to create their own.
As you shop, build, and travel, the wonderful global music can transport you to really feel as though you are physically there in the local communities. I strongly believe music is the perfect vehicle for raising globally minded kids and inspire children to read more about the world.
As I said, this app is not “for girls”, instead this is the perfect multi-faceted and enjoyable game for all kids.
I highly recommend Heart Street Market as a fun way to enjoy global learning and using technology as a way to play with purpose.
Download the app on Google Play and iTunes
Follow Heart Street Market on Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook
Enter the App Giveaway
10 lucky winners will win a free download of the Heart Street Market. Enter by 4/17 at midnight.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
For more recommendations for multicultural books and dolls: check out this amazing article on Raising Biracial Babies!
Teaching Kids to Read Ages 0-5
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Purchase the course today to raise readers with a global worldview from birth!
Read Your World
We invite you to join our Facebook group: Read Your World: Resources for Multiracial and Multicultural Families!
This is a supportive group to encourage literacy first and foremost. We want to engage children with reading strategies that foster a love of books. However, choosing quality books that are also diverse is instrumental in raising readers as well as raising activists. Teaching kids how to read and what to read is vital to help children reach their ultimate goals.
We want you to ask questions, share advice, and challenge our thinking to give our unique families the safe space to connect and grow. This group is multiracial, multilingual, multicultural, and multi-talented. Through the people in this group, you will hopefully feel a little more interconnected to the world than you were before.
Join us at Biracial Bookworms
Join us as we raise and teach children to be readers, activists, and leaders!
04/12/2018 @ 11:59 pm
This app is a great paring with the multicultural dolls. My daughter has Rahel and this app helps give her a deeper appreciation for the rich culture of the doll’s “storied” origin. Apps should be educational and purposeful and this one allows girls to engage in learning in an safe environment where they can see diverse characters bravely facing challenges and proudly displaying their heritage.