Tiny Planets Website Review

As part of my job as one of the members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I was asked to review the website, Tiny Planets.  Tiny Planets is a safe, online environment for children aged 4-12.  Quite a bit of the content on the website is completely free for children to use so, if you are interested, you can definitely check out the website with your children on your own.

The Tiny Planets website has many different areas including Tiny Planets TV, My Tiny Planets, Tiny Planets Fun, Tiny Planets Books, Tiny Planets Learning, and Tiny Planets Labs.

• On Tiny Planets TV, children can watch full episodes of Tiny Planets with Bing and Bong.  Only one episode is free to watch, the rest much be purchased with keys.  To purchase keys, you must set up a Parent Account.  For example, 10 keys are sold for $1.95.  You can also purchase keys in greater numbers for a discount.  One episode of Tiny Planets costs 10 keys to watch.
• On My Tiny Planets, children can play games, design their own planet, and interact in limited ways with other players.
• On Tiny Planets Fun, children can play puzzle games, read comics, or print out coloring pages.
• On Tiny Planets Books, children can read Tiny Planets books online.  Two of the books are free, the rest cost 10 keys each.
• Tiny Planets Learning is designed for parents and preschool educators.  Here you will find downloadable worksheets to learn letters and numbers along with 65 activity pages that correspond with Tiny Planets videos for preschoolers.
• Tiny Planets Labs has new games that are being tested out. 

Overall, I do think the website is geared towards the lower end of the suggested age range.  My 12 year old son felt that the website was much too childish for him while my 9 year old son did enjoy playing some of the games but had no interest in the books or videos.

I think the website is difficult to navigate.  For example, I had a difficult time setting up a Cadet Account and I truly don't think I ever would have been able to do so without the instructions I received from another TOS Crew member.  As well, I had a very difficult time trying to navigate within My Tiny Planets (the area in which my younger son was the most interested).  I never could figure out how to get to the mini-games or how to move my ship.  My son, though, was able to figure it out after he spent a while exploring the site.

My favorite area of the website is Tiny Planets Learning.  There is quite a bit of good material there for parents of preschoolers.  For those who have preschool children, there are 65 different structured activities to complete with your preschooler.  If you have children who like Bing and Bong, I am sure they would enjoy the fun, educational lesson plans and activities.

Again, since much of the content on the website is free, you can try Tiny Planets for yourself and see if it is something you would like to let your children explore.

I received 25 free keys in exchange for my honest review of the Tiny Planets website.  No other compensation, monetary or otherwise, was given in exchange for my review.