TOS REVIEW: Tiny Planets Universe

Tiny Planets provides award-winning educational entertainment set in space exploration and discovery, inspiring creativity and critical thinking in youth ages 4 to 12. From the designers of the website.

Through the TOS Crew I was asked to review the website Tiny Planets. My kids are ages 11 and 14 so I worried that this would be something they would look at once or twice and say, "no way!" Perhaps I have really good children ;) or maybe Tiny Planets is just so good that they were hooked. Perhaps a bit of both. :)

On Tiny Planets you can watch TV, play games, make your own planet, and customize your ship. There are a lot of free features of Tiny Planets to enjoy but in order to do most of the games you need to purchase keys. Keys can be purchased from the Parent's Account in increments of

• 10 for $1.95 
• 25 for $3.95
• 85 for $9.95
• 250 for $25.95
• 600 for $49.95.

At Bong's corner you find downloadable comics, coloring pages and posters. Some things can be purchased for 2 keys but generally 5 keys. The games usually cost about 10 keys per game (so $1.95); but at Bing's corner there are 'minigames' that can be played for free.

From the designers of Tiny Planets:

Tiny Planets Home is your central location to access all our Tiny Planets web sites. The Tiny Planets online content has won two BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards Interactive Best Entertainment Website and Best Children's Interactive. We're quite proud of that!

On Tiny Planets TV you can watch any of the Tiny Planets television episodes. This series was co-created with Sesame Workshop and emphasizes science education and early learning goals, such as social and emotional development, language and literacy, problem-solving and reasoning, knowledge and understanding of our world, and creative development. Tiny Planets has been a favorite in nearly 100 TV territories around the world, and its the only television program to be endorsed by Montessori Centre International. Thank you Montessori!

My Tiny Planets is a new online community and virtual world that combines social elements and gaming to create an engaging fictional outer-space exploration experience. Children adopt and care for their own planet, solve galactic missions with Bing and Bong, sharpen their wits with fast-paced mini-games, navigate their spaceships and avoid wormholes, nurture exotic plants in a biodome, recycle and collect water during rainstorms, help keep neighboring planets clean, all the while racking up achievements and special badges for their accomplishments.

On Tiny Planets Fun your child can take a few moments to enjoy brainy puzzle games (like fractions, sound and seek, and symmetry), as well as coloring books and comics.

On Tiny Planets Books you'll find interactive story books for younger children featuring Bing and Bong, their endearing friends the locals and the flockers, and all the planets in the Universe of Tiny Planets. Read these books with your child, or teach your child to read on her own!

Tiny Planets Learning is our site for parents, homeschoolers, and educators. Here you'll find lesson plans that include educational activities and science experiments to do at home. Also, you'll see how every episode in the Tiny Planets television series maps to early learning educational goals. We hope you'll find value in the lesson plans to help your children understand and explore our exciting world, while enhancing their curiosity and creativity.

Tiny Planets Labs is our playground for things to come! We participate in several EU University research projects, keeping us technologically sharp. When we create new games, we put them on our labs site to test them out. Let us know what you think!

Tiny Planets Blog is where parents and cadets go to to find parenting tips, science experiments, space history, astronomy facts as well as MTP tips and tricks. Please take a moment to explore our ever-growing catalog of facts and fun. You can access the blog from all of the planets. Just click on the arrow that says "What's New."�

What my kids said:

Pros are that it is fun. The minigames are fun. It is something to do when you have a few minutes.  It is fairly easy to get stars which is supposed to be like money to use to make your own ship and planet. It is cool to make your own planet. (Both said that their planet was the coolest!)

Cons are that Bing and Bong are never home; there are no missions to do; it continuously logs you off.

Bottomline:
This site is flashy and bright (possibly good for younger kids and some older) and it is not something that *I* would generally use for educational purposes. I do let the kids play on the games in between subjects when doing school or just randomly on the weekends because it is clean fun. It is not something that I feel that I could confidently recommend to others as an educational supplement to school. But for fun and possible educational side-effects (may some how pick up information while playing on this site) then I would direct other homeschoolers to this site. A little side note we did not use any keys while doing this review. Using keys could dramatically change the experience.

 Want to read what others wrote about this website? Visit the TOS Crew blog.



**Disclaimer: I was asked to review this website as part of the TOS Crew; I received no compensation for doing so. I was required to give an honest review. All opinions are mine or my family's. See more Disclosure/Policies**