Skip to main content

Tiny Planets Review (TOS Homeschool Crew)


Today's review is for the educational website Tiny Planets (www.tinyplanets.com)that is based upon the television show of the same name. In a space exploration setting, children ages 4 to 12 can discover and create to their hearts content. Parents, rest assured, this is an educational website that will challenge your children as they play along with the characters Bing and Bong. The television program Tiny Planets is the only tv program to be endorsed by Montessori Centre International - just in case you wondered if it was really an educational website!

After signing each of your children up for their own Cadet account, you can access the Tiny Planets universe ~ places like Tiny Planets TV, My Tiny Planets (an online community and virtual world), Tiny Planets Fun, Tiny Planets Books, and Tiny Planets Learning. Some of the things my children did on TinyPlanets.com include adopting and naming their own planets, taking care of said planet (growing plants, releasing oxygen, choosing landscape, buildings, and scenery, and more), having silly but fun adventures with Bing and Bong, visited with other Cadets (with emoticons and pre-programmed phrases - no free chat on Tiny Planets!), tried out new games in the Tiny Planets Lab, and spent most of their time hanging out in Bing and Bong's corners of the website.

The first time my 10-year-old logged on to play, she spent about 45 minutes at the site and was easily entertained for that time span. She probably would have played longer, but we limit the amount of time our children are aloud to "play" online and 45 minutes was more than enough time for one sitting! Her favorite spot was Bing's Corner - they have a good selection of games & while my 10-year-old liked most every game she played, my 12-year-old felt some of the games were a little easy for her. My 12-year-old daughter liked the comics and puzzles at Bong's Corner. These can be printed out or saved as a file on your computer. The puzzles could be printed out and taken with when traveling (or when driving around town for day-to-day activities). And the color pages (kind of like comic strips) are detailed and challenging enough they could count as homeschool art for elementary students. The Tiny Planets Labs have games that are better geared toward older children; both my 10 and 12-year-olds were challenged by these games.

My honest opinion of the Tiny Planets website is that it is a good option for kids who want to spend some time online. I like the features available for parents and I am pretty impressed with the amount of material on this site. There are some features that must be paid for (called Keys) but most of the site is free of charge.

And since it is almost Christmas, why not look at www.TinyPlanets.com in the next few days to keep your kiddos occupied as you finish up your holiday chores? You might be amazed how much a mom can accomplish while her little students spend some time on Tiny Planets!

Thanks for reading my multiple reviews this week - lots of good homeschool stuff for me to talk about!! Enjoy your last weekend of Advent before Christmas & have fun checking out Tiny Planets ! (Access to this website was given to me free of charge for review purposes.)

Day 62 done :)

Jan L. Burt
www.homeschoolingmothersbiblestudy.com

P.S. ~ Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of my book "The Homeschooling Mother's Bible Study: God's Encouragement for Homeschooling Mothers" can leave a comment and receive a copy for only $10 flat(no extra charge for shipping). This is a short-term offer & my Christmas gift to encourage homeschooling moms...so leave me a comment!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

A Homeschool Mom's Devotional by award-winning podcaster Jan L. Burt

Colossians 4:17 tells the reader to "be sure to carry out the work the Lord gave you". How can this be applied to the enormously busy lifestyle of a homeschool mom? First of all, we must always remember that the Word of God has the answer for our every need and we can trust fully in God to use His Word to lead us, guide us, correct us, and bless us. Keeping that in mind, let's consider what this verse is saying. We are told to carry out, or complete, the work the Lord has given us. We are wives, mothers, homeschoolers. Those three BIG job descriptions come immediately to mind when I think of homeschooling mothers. Applying God's Word to our life means carrying out our work as wives, as mothers, and as homeschoolers. When I am exhausted from another long day (or long week, long month, long year, etc.) I still must honor the Lord by blessing my husband. Maybe that means having a hot meal on the table when he arrives home from work. Perhaps your husband
6 comments
Read more

I Gotta Let You Know Two Very Important Things (Seriously, They Are Truly Important For You To Know...)

 First, a big --- fat --- hefty dose of encouragement for you, my wonderful homeschooling friend.  As you get ready to roll into the fall of 2020...stop for just one moment and hear what God's Word has to say to you right here, right now, on the brink of the last stretch of what has possibly been the most turn-your-whole-world-upside-down year ever.  Psalm 125:2 - As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore.   You are surrounded.  Completely & totally, that's exactly how surrounded you are.  Going into the great unknown as, say, a working mom whose children are going to be doing school online at home (or a working mom homeschooling and working from home for just the next several months, but not planning on continuing to home educate after things "normalize" again).  This is God's promise just for you as you embark upon this season of life. I really, truly believe He wants you to know that He has you surrounded
1 comment
Read more

My Preferred Bible Reading Plan

We all know that reading our Bibles is a key part of living a healthy life as a follower of Jesus. But busy homeschool moms may, at times, struggle to know what part of the Bible to read on any given day. Some people read the Bible through, Genesis to Revelation, and when they finish simply start over. Others have reading plans that follow along with the sermons their pastor is currently preaching. And yet others find themselves "stuck in the Psalms", since they're not quite sure what to read. I'm not going to tell you how many chapters a day you should read, or that you need to do exactly what I do. I'm just going to share what has worked for me, and hopefully encourage you to get into the Word using some type of plan ~ because every homeschool mom knows what happens to our plans when we fail to create a plan, right?! I use a prayer and Bible reading guide called "Prayer Point" , published by Samaritan's Purse. About every 8 weeks, I receive a
3 comments
Read more

Schoolhouse Review Crew ~ A Thomas Jefferson Education (This Week in History)

Rachel DeMille, of Thomas Jefferson Education , promotes a fascinating educational philosophy (based on The Seven Keys of Great Teaching ). Her website, www.TJEd.org , provides a thorough explanation of this philosophy. It's also an excellent history resource that I hope my blog readers will consider using in their homeschools. I really love what Rachel is doing! I am not reviewing everything available at the website - trust me, there is quite a bit to be found there! What I am reviewing is " This Week in History ", a resource that covers a wide variety of subjects and topics on a daily basis in an engaging and interesting manner. I have used this as a part of our history curriculum, but it really is so much more than history.  Each week I receive an email with the current week's " This Week in History ". I am also able to access this information at the website, along an archive that covers the current year. And I also receive daily emails, called &q
1 comment
Read more

Do You Homeschool? Then You Need to Read This Article!

Whether you have been homeschooling for a month, a year, or a decade, you've inevitably faced the "questions". Questions about socialization, college, athletics, driver's ed, high-school biology, etc. etc. etc. and so on..... It seems as if homeschoolers are ripe for questions from day one; but the flip side seems to be that there really is no flip side. We are expected to patiently answer any and all questions, smiling politely and pretending we've never heard this line of questioning before. But when we try to ask a few questions about, say, public schools as a whole or the issue of private schools being used as a last-ditch landing spot for students expelled from public school, well...ahem...we're pretty much told to keep quiet. No one wants to hear our questions, and often times no one really wants to hear our answers to their questions. They just kind of want us to....go....away. I'm not planning on going away any time soon. And neither are my fiv
4 comments
Read more