Please take a moment to read the short story of how ABCya! began.

About the Author

I am a web developer turned computer teacher and am presently in my sixth year teaching grades kindergarten through eight. My first teaching assignment was in the fall of 2003 for a public school in New Jersey. I remember feeling nervous and scared throughout the days leading up to the start of the school year. Before starting my teaching career, my work days had been spent in isolation developing media for print and the web. In just two days I was going to have a lab full of five-year-olds sitting at computers!

First Days of School

My first inclination was to turn on the computers to see what types of software they had on them. After a few beeps and a Novel login screen I was presented with an almost empty desktop except for 2 icons: Microsoft Office Suite and Type to Learn. Where was the great children's software I read about in magazines? I made a bee-line to the principal's office and explained that I needed some software to be used as a teaching tool. I was greeted with a smile and a line that sounding something like, "You just came from private business right? Well, we don't have any money for software. Sorry." Though disappointed, I did not yet despair. I thought to myself, "No problem. I will just look to the web to find what I need. There is lots of free stuff out there."

What I found

After a few days of searching I found myself in a never ending labyrinth of sites loaded with pop up ads, violence, nested links, difficult navigation, and huge subscription fees! With only a few days left before school I decided to take matters into my own hands. I knocked on teacher's doors, asked for lesson plans and text books and studied the different activities. When I returned home I powered up my G3 Macintosh and jumped right into Macromedia Flash MX. I spent hours upon hours developing activities I could use in class with my soon to be students.

Getting it Right

The school year finally started and I eagerly began directing students to the activities that I developed. I'd like to say that things went perfectly, but that was not the case. Developing a user interface for five and six year old students requires more thought and intuition than developing for adults. I watched as kids could not click the appropriate buttons to neither close nor maximize the browser windows. I also realized for the first time that young students can not yet read the instructions necessary to do the activities! What was I thinking?! I could not wait to go home and use my new-found observations to renovate my site to be more child-friendly. I repeated this process for the next 180 days of school and eventually I became pretty good at getting it right the first time.

ABCya! Goes Live

Throughout my first year of teaching, I used my activities a few times a week whenever they were applicable to the lesson. Teachers who stopped by my room would ask me how to get to my activities and so I registered a domain name and put them on a web site that I called ABCya! or www.abcya.com. I soon began to realize that my web site was getting more and more attention throughout our school. I received a lot of compliments from administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, and of course the students.

Over the course of the next few years I developed more and more activities. As time went on I began to receive emails with feedback from teachers and parents from outside of my school district. I realized that people from outside my school where using my site! This was a great feeling!

Proudest Moment

My proudest moment was in 2006 when I was searching on Google for educational computer activities to use in my classroom. I entered a few different search terms and the number one result was: ABCya! What a surprise! It was at that moment I thought that I might actually have something great. I continued adding new activities and refining older activities while giving the web site a new look. I began studying my analytic data and focused on where I was making the most impact.

ABCya! Here & Now

Today ABCya! can be found on the first page of results on most search engines when looking for educational web sites for children. It is linked to by over 10,000 educational web sites and receives over one million visits per month. Additionally, ABCya! has received praise from numerous educational publications in print and on the web. What I am most proud of is the fact that visitors return to my site several times a month.

Wisdom of the Crowds

I use crowd sourcing for feedback to make the site better. The goal is to get feedback on current activities and to get ideas for new activities. I will often create what people ask for. I promote ABCya! as a perpetual beta. The site will never be perfect or error free – that's nearly impossible as a one man show. I depend on visitor input to drive the site's appearance. ABCya! visotors are the copywriters, spell checkers, content checkers, etc.

Thank You Very Much

Thank you for visiting ABCya! Look for new educational games and activities in 2010 as well as continual improvements to our current offerings. If you enjoy ABCya! and would like a free ABCya! mouse pad, please send an email to info@abcya.com and include your mailing address.

Last but not Least

Oh I almost forgot: Please remember to email ABCya! at info@abcya.com with questions or comments, I listen to what you have to say. If something is missing or needs to be fixed please let me know, it will help me to better serve you.