TOS Crew Review - Tiny Planets

Tiny Planets Universe is a website that provides award-winning educational entertainment set in space exploration and discovery, inspiring creativity and critical thinking in youth ages 4 to 12.

Here is what the creators of Tiny Planets have to say about their purpose and goals:

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. With Bing and Bong, children are encouraged to think for themselves, assume social responsibility, take care of our planet and learn about the mysteries of space.

Inspire your child to take care of our planet!

Our tiny planet Earth needs care and attention from us and our children. There are so many ways we can make a positive impact on our environment from saving energy (take a walk or ride a bike!), to saving water (turn off the tap when brushing teeth!), to recycling our trash, to planting trees, to starting a compost pile. Take your pick!

There are many ways we can choose to "go green" yet it takes time, energy and new habits -- which is really tough for us adults! By sharing these ideas with our children now and by reinforcing them in a fun game like My Tiny Planets new habits can be established, which is exactly what our planet needs.

In our online community and virtual world My Tiny Planets, kids adopt a planet of their own, name it, and take care of it. They grow plants in their planet biodome, releasing oxygen to keep their planet healthy. They choose landscapes, skies, buildings and scenery, making their planet ever more beautiful. And, when flying in space, they play Trash Blasters to rid the universe of junk. And, how do you log out of My Tiny Planets? By clicking off the light switch, of course!

While we think My Tiny Planets is infinite fun (what's not to like about space missions with Bing and Bong?), it's our hope that My Tiny Planets will educate and inspire this next generation of inquisitive youth to explore the wonders of space and be stewards of our fragile planet, Earth.

Family fun and safe for everyone!

From award-winning TV programming to brain games to lesson plans to community fun, Tiny Planets offers an engaging experience for everyone in the family. And, not only are the Tiny Planets sites infinite fun, they're safe and easy to use.

We've designed our ad-free sites so they're easily navigated by small hands and there's no scary content to which children can stray. So, when your child is leafing through an interactive book on Tiny Planets Books, she can safely find more books to read. Or, when your son is watching a Tiny Planets episode on Tiny Planets TV, he can safely skip to another episode.

In our virtual world My Tiny Planets, we've created an interactive environment that's fun with friends, yet there's no free-form chat. Instead, your child communicates with other players by using emoticons and speech bubbles that contain fun phrases we've programmed into the game. And, your child chooses his cadet name and planet names from our auto name generators. Since your child never enters text into My Tiny Planets, the game experience is completely safe!

In addition, we've certified our sites with ICRA, a rating system provided by the Family Online Safety Institute, an international, non-profit organization of Internet leaders working to develop a safer Internet.

Be entertained for free or buy KEYs for your family account to unlock special goodies on all the Tiny Planets sites!

Much of the fun on Tiny Planets is on us, totally free. So, enjoy! We do offer some of our content for a fee, like various episodes on Tiny Planets TV or premium avatar accessories in My Tiny Planets. In fact, in My Tiny Planets you can really amp up the fun by "going pro" on mini-games (which puts your top score up on the leaderboard), acquiring spiffy spaceships, and totally decking out your planet with outrageously creative buildings or amazing atmospheres.

We've made it easy to unlock these special features with KEYs. To buy KEYs, you'll need to set up a parent account, and then link that parent account to your children's player accounts. With your parent account you can purchase KEYs and then allocate them to any of your children. We've set up accounts in this manner to make sure that purchasing control is in your hands, not your child's!

KEYs are sold in packages through our payment provider, Social Gold. Purchase KEYs when you need them, or opt for a monthly allotment. Whichever way you choose, we hope you'll find the process convenient. Of course, spending KEYs is always fun!

The pricing for these KEYs are as follows (and, as mentioned above, the KEYs are NOT required to enjoy many of the website's features - only to enhance the experience!)

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

To begin enjoying Tiny Planets, each child signs up for an account and receives a "Cadet name" which allows them access to the different areas of the Tiny Planets Universe. There are several regions to explore, including:

• Tiny Planets Home is the central location to access all the 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."
  

• 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 it's the only television program to be endorsed by Montessori Centre International.

• 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 the 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.
  

• Tiny Planets Labs is the playground for things to come! When the creators of Tiny Planets create new games, they put them on their labs site to test them out.
  

• Tiny Planets Blog is where parents and cadets go to to find parenting tips, science experiments, space history, astronomy facts as well as My Tiny Planets tips and tricks.
  

As you can see, there is no lack of activities for children to explore and learn about our planet using Tiny Planets Universe! See what other Crew members thought of Tiny Planets by visiting the TOS Homeschool Crew blog!

Disclaimer: I was given this product specifically for the purpose of reviewing here on my blog as a member of TOS Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation in regards to this review.