Friday, December 17, 2010

Tiny Planets

www.tinyplanets.com

imageAs a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was asked to look at the Tiny planets website. 

Tiny Planets provides educational entertainment set in space exploration and discovery, inspiring creativity and critical thinking in children ages 4 to 12.  More specifically, Tiny Planets features the cosmic adventures of Bing and Bong, two whimsical aliens who travel the Universe of Tiny Planets together on their gadget-loaded plush sofa.

I asked my eldest son to discover the world of tiny planets on afternoon imageand after playing with it a bit he came to me with these comments:  “It is not what I was expecting.   It is too easy and more for the younger kids.”  Note that he is 9 years old and consequently should be within the age range for this site.

I then decided to explore myself the content of it.    You can explore different planets in this website.   Here’s the different planets that you can explore!

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Create your very own planet in the universe of Tiny Planets!  Build your landscape, buy spaceships and play with friends in this fun, safe virtual world!

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Watch your favourite episodes of Tiny Planets on Tiny Planets TV!  You can sign p with your Space Cadet account here and exchange episodes for KEYS purchased via your parents account!

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If you’re looking for the Tiny Planets lesson plans and Early Learning Goals information then look no further – they’re here.  Perfect for parents and educators.

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This is where we try out stuff, including the brand new Moon Explorer activity – it’s rocket science for kids!

 

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There are loads of fun, games, downloads and TV episodes on this site, including coloring activities, comics and puzzles too!

 

 

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Take a look at the interactive books on Tiny Planets Books – there’s adventure from loads of the Tiny Planets episodes and more stuff coming soon!

 

I personally like the Labs and the Learning sections as they give me – the parent – some lesson plans and fun exploration to do with the kids.   You also have the possibility of watching some episodes from the TV show but to access more of them you will have to buy them.   Not my piece of cake to be honest.   As much as I find Bing and Bong cute I would not personally pay an amount to access to more episodes or hidden pages.

The whole concept of having my kids travelling on a social network is not something I am willing to do right now.   I treasure my kids too much to let them loose in an environment where I can not control who will be there.    Besides, it is well recognize that too much television and computer is not good for any kids.   In our household, we limit the time spend on these.

On the other hand, if you are looking for fun coloring activities, puzzles, lesson plans and science projects, I would recommend this site as I find it to be well done.  The characters are extremely cute and the kids will learn from their time spend on the website.

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Disclaimer: Thanks to Tiny Planets for allowing me to access the featured website for review purpose through the TOS Homeschool Crew. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way.  All opinions expressed here are only my own.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post! Really interesting.

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  2. Thank you for your thoughtful and honest review. Your experiences and thoughts are definitely being taken into consideration as we continue to develop our website.

    You mentioned that you liked the lesson plans and science experiments. In 2011 we'll be adding more astronomical experiments and for kids and their families to enjoy. You'll new ones every Thursday at www.tinyplanetsblog.com.

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