Big I.Q. Kids - online educational fun for kids!

     Online, independent learning can be a fun way to change up your homeschooling program in the middle of the winter when everyone's feeling "blah," or is stuck inside due to poor weather outside. 

     As members of the TOS Crew, we received two independent memberships for my girls to give BigIQkids.com a try!

     According to the BigIQkids.com website, BigIQkids is designed for students in grades K-8, to promote spelling efficiency, vocabulary building, math fact mastery, and U.S. geography knowledge via multimedia reinforcement and independent learning.

     The girls decided to give BigIQkids a try.  They logged in with the log-in names and passwords with which we were provided.  They found it fairly easy to navigate around the website.  It is very colorful, which is wonderful if color and artwork stimulate your children to work harder and spend more time on a subject.  For students who are visually impaired or highly distractible, this might not be the best website for them, as BigIQkids.com is a very graphic-rich site.

     BigIQkids.com contains characters throughout the program who provide directions and guidance using computer-generated voices.  While they do sound a bit robotic, my girls didn't seem to mind that very much, unless a spelling word was difficult to discern.  It's nice that the character who is speaking and providing directions can have their speech halted or repeated, depending on what action is needed. 

     Parents are able to change the skill levels for their children, from "Pre-K" through "4th grade and above".  Parents also receive emails about their children's progress, which is nice.

     Children are encouraged to do one small lesson in each of the four subjects every day.  As new lessons are completed, a coin is earned.  Children can use these coins for making changes to their BigIQ Buddy, or for playing games.  Children can earn 1 game coin AFTER completing a lesson, or the coins can be saved for WEEKEND USE ONLY, or the game page can NEVER be shown, depending on what the parent prefers in regard to the online games.

     There are four main subjects found on BigIQkids.com:  Spelling, Math, Vocabulary, and U.S. States.  Math and spelling can be set to as low as a 1st grade level; however, vocabulary cannot. 

Spelling:

     With an over 40,000 word dictionary, SpellingTime comes pre-loaded with 40 lessons for K-8th grade appropriate word lists. Or, as a parent or teacher, you can easily enter your own word lists, and SpellingTime will automatically create a week’s worth of lessons, quizzes and tests around your own list with the goal of achieving 100% on the Friday spelling test.  Here's how:

     Kelsi and Brittany are excellent spellers, so we were surprised to see that only at the adult level were the spelling words available as tests where the actual word was hidden from the screen.  At the lower levels, the spelling word was clearly seen on the screen, so it was simple to copy it. 

     For their new "World Spelling Bowl" feature, we did notice that some of the words aren't pronounced correctly.  For example, the word "beautious" was pronounced "hideous", but when hideous was typed in, it was incorrect.  It's my understanding from talking with other TOS Crew members, however, that when errors have been found, BigIQkids has been quick to make corrections. 

Math:

      You can set up a child's lesson to mirror what they are doing in their current curriculum. For example, if the child is on double-digit addition and single-digit multiplication, the program can focus on just these two areas, providing invaluable practice and reinforcement that is certain to provide them with the tools to ace their next test. Or, BigMathTime can automatically generate grade-specific and subject-specific lessons as per your requirements.

     Multiple-digit addition and subtraction, multiplication, and division levels provide an online digital pad to write out and show work.  The student can choose various pen colors to use for this; you may have your child choose one of the colors that is most pleasing to him or her.

Vocabulary:

     With an extensive library of elementary through SAT prep words, BigVocabTime comes pre-loaded with word lists, or, as a parent or teacher, you can easily enter your own word lists and the program will automatically create a week’s worth of lessons, quizzes and tests around your own list with the goal of achieving 100% on the week’s vocabulary test.

Geography:  U.S. States

     Every elementary student will be confronted with the need to know their U.S. State facts to mastery. BigStatesTime is the ultimate tool in learning the state's location, capital, spelling, abbreviations, and general state facts. The program allows parents/teachers to add additional facts which will be included in the child's lessons, and the program culminates in a “State Mastery Exam” that, if passed with 100% mastery, awards the child a State Master Certificate. 

     My girls worked and worked on the levels in BigStatesTime, but apparently they couldn't get beyond the beginning levels because the program continued to keep them at the lower levels even when they were receiving 100% over and over again.  BigStatesTime continued to show them where the state was; it was far too easy for my daughters even though we had moved the level up to the "4th grade and beyond" level.  The problem wasn't that my girls knew the locations of all of the U.S. states.  They don't.  The problem was that the answers were on the screen for them to see.  We couldn't figure out how to get to a level that wouldn't show the answer on each screen.

Free eBooks for students:

      BigIQkids.com also offeres free EBooks on their website which are also available on Kindle or the "Kindle for PC" types of applications.

     I have to admit that I wasn't crazy about the one eBook I read.  As a teacher and as a parent, I've seen over and over again how children's language and patterns of thinking usually morph into what they've been reading and viewing.  I only read through one eBook on this website, but it contained quite a bit of sarcasm, mocking other students in a classroom or school, disrespect to those in authority, and potty talk, the kinds of things that I prefer not to bring into our home.

     Here are some examples so you'll know what I'm talking about.  If you are fine with this, then you will enjoy the eBooks.  If you prefer not to have language like this spoken in your home, then you may want to avoid their eBooks, or at least preview them before having your children read them.

• "Okay, I know it's weird for a kid to love school...but I really do LOVE school.  People think I'm CRAZY."
  
• "As soon as my mom gets wind of that stupid challenge"(a school project)...
  
• "That guy spends more time eating glue than Shelly Simpson spends looking in the mirror."
• "Usually all the suck-up kids plead and beg to be her helper."
• "...but on the inside she's a huge blabbermouth...little Miss Tattletale and her perfect family" (a neighbor girl and classmate)
  
• "Next to cleanliness, that woman is a freak about grades"...(the child's mother)
  
• "She's lucky I didn't kick her in the butt." (a classmate)
  
• "Immediately shift the discussion away from why you are there" (at the principal's office so that you don't get into trouble)
• "When asked to do something you don't want to do, you have the right to say no. However, you can do so in a polite and respectful manner."  (not in my household, and not ever in my classroom!)
  
• The story frequently made fun of other children in the classroom or the school.
• "Bianca once told me Oprah said everyone should exam their poop.  Bianca was convinced if your poop changes color you need to go to the nurse's office immediately.  She even charts the shape, size, and color of her poop.  Can you think of anything more disgusting?"
• "How the heck do bookstores stay in business?"
• "I know I'm deceitful.  You could say dishonest.  But it felt awesome!"
  

Some positive aspects of this particular eBook:

• It did encourage children to not search Google without a parent supervising their searches
• the main character, a rude child, was told by the principal to apologize to her class and her teacher for her behavior
  

     The primary differences between the BigIQkids FREE and PREMIUM programs are the ability of the PREMIUM  to monitor the progress of the student and advance  that student only when mastery of the subject matter has been achieved.

     Additionally, PREMIUM members have their:

• progress tracked and saved
• problem areas identified
• Data reported via email to parents and/or teachers.
  
• customized buddies
• full game page access
• the ability to save game coins and gaming high scores
• very LIMITED advertisement, andno ads are displayed during lesson interaction.

     There is a 7-Day free trial to all subjects on BigIQkids, if you'd like to give it a try. 

     BigIQkids.com costs $19.99 per month for all four subjects bundled together, per individual student account, or $99 per year for bundled subjects per student account.

     So, what did the girls and I think of this program?  Well, the girls liked it enough to not complain very much about spending time on it.  However, they both wished that the spelling words and states weren't plastered onto the screen so it can just be copied.  I thought that this program can have some benefit, if monitored and previewed by the parent, especially with the eBooks.  This would be a great site to use if Mom has just had a baby, or there is illness in the family, or something else that would greatly disrupt regular educational instruction to the family.

Editor's Choice Award: SpellingTime.com is proud to be awarded the
"Editor's Choice" award
from Children's Technology Review Magazine.

     If you'd like to learn more about BigIQkids.com, you may visit their website. 

     To find out what my fellow TOS Crewmembers thought of BigIQkids.com, check out their reviews!

Disclaimer:  I was provided with two 2-year individual student subscriptions for BigIQkids.com, in exchange for my honest opinion of this product.  No other compensation was provided.

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