Journey To Josie: ZooWhiz

We recently got to try out an online learning program called ZooWhiz.

ZooWhiz is a fun online program where kids accomplish lessons in order to earn coins. They can then use these coins to "buy" animals for their zoo or play games. The program was designed for children ages 5-15. Parents can customize the level that they want their students to play at and view progress reports at any time to see how they are doing. There are a lot of different skills that students can work on. Grammar, spelling, math, and reading are all woven together in a fun way.

I started Josie at the base level and she really enjoyed playing the games. It took her a couple of days to understand that she had to do the learning activities to earn coins for the games. Once she figured that out, she was eager to get all the answers right that she could so she could earn more coins. The graphics are bright and engaging, which was a nice change from some of the online games we have tried.

I felt that this program was a good fit for us.
We used it as an afternoon activity, so it was nice to get a little extra school in the day. I would have liked it even more if it read the questions to her out loud. Since Josie can't read, I had to sit with her and read each question to her. This limited the amount of time she could play it since I couldn't always sit with her when she wanted to play.
It would also have been nice if the pages advanced automatically. Josie didn't always remember how to get to the next question. This one isn't really an issue with the program at all though, as I'm sure she would get that if she had more computer time.
For each question, Josie was given three chances to get the question right before it gave her the answer. If she got it right, it would say funny things like, "Crackerjacks!" Josie loved that! Once she got 10 right, it would show a funny animal cartoon clip. She really loved this!
ZooWhiz is still being developed, so I am confident that these small things will be updated over time.
ZooWhiz offers free accounts that have limited access. If you try the program out and decide that you enjoy it, you can get the Premium Zoologist account for $14.95 for one year. You can get your ZooWhiz subscription by visiting their website. Check out the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to see what other homeschoolers are saying about ZooWhiz.