Tiny Planets Review

Tiny Planets
http://www.tinyplanets.com/

Ages:  Toddler to Twelve

Cost:  Free for access, Keys - 10 - $1.95, 25 - $3.95, etc.

Tiny Planets just looks like fun from the minute you arrive. The graphics are stunning and immediately draw kids in. Spaceships are flying, the planets are busy.  It is a graphical feast for the eyes.  I was extremely impressed!

See what I mean?

Bing and Bong

The premise is that there are two characters called Bing and Bong who provide kids with lots of learning opportunities. There are comics, TV programs (all with Bing and Bong), books to read, and games to play. The learning section even helps kids with their letters and numbers among other things.

I wish I had access to this site years ago. My boys, when they were younger, would have really loved playing all the games and reading the material. Being 11 and 13, they have just about outgrown this format, but, were they younger, they would have spent hours playing on the site.

I like the fact that is it secure. When a parent sets up an account for his/her child, the ID is generated by the site. The kids don’t have an option to put in their real names. My son picked the ID – Stealthy Cheetah. :-) Then the parent and child get to assign a password. Parents then create a parent account that allows him/her access to the child’s account as well as the opportunity to purchase Keys that give the child access to more content such as additional stories, books, etc. Additional books or TV shows typically cost 5 or 10 Keys.  Kids can have their friends join them online, but they are only able to communicate through scripted text – no typed in information. In today’s online world, it’s important to give kids the opportunity to understand online interaction without exposing them. I like this feature.

There were a few minor issues we noticed. The first issue we had was getting logged on. The site says – “Create your Kid Account Here. “ When you click on it, you are taken to a logon page for current users. The child can just hit Play and start playing. I thought that was a bit odd. I guess they just don’t have an account then to store their accomplishments. You have to click the “Account” arrow at the top of the screen to get to sign up. Once that hurdle is overcome, the rest is pretty intuitive.

The second was just getting used to how the site is controlled. For example, kids are asked to hit the “Return” key. Most American keyboards don’t have a Return key, but my kids quickly figured out they meant the “Enter” key. Some of the games took patience to learn to control, but the kids didn’t mind.

Overall, this is an excellent site. Younger kids will really enjoying exploring the world of Bing and Bong as they learn lessons about space, character, letter, numbers, flying their spaceship, creating their own little world, the list goes on.  It's worth taking a look!

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*** I received Keys to explore this site free of charge for my honest review.