BIG IQ KIDS: Premium Membership

Synergy 1 Group, Inc

Phone # 443-266-7267

Website: http://www.bigiqkids.com/

BigIQkids is an online program for students in grades K-8. I was given a premium membership to BigIQkids' daily academic lessons in exchange for my honest review of their program. The website is very colorful and appealing to the eye. It is very easy to navigate around this interactive website. BigIQkids includes lessons in spelling efficiency, vocabulary building, math fact mastery and U.S. geography knowledge. The website is designed for kids to learn independently. Success is rewarded with tokens to an online arcade. The arcade has more than 35 fun and educational games to chose from.

The premium spelling program consists of five steps which is equivalent to one lesson per day for each week. In the first step, the weekly spelling words are introduced. There is a choice between using the preloaded grade level words or modifying the lesson by adding your own words. During the second step, the words are practiced as the student types in the dictated spelling words. The student is asked to write all the misspelled words three times in order for mastery to take place. In the next step, the student can chose between participating in a spelling bee or completing word scrambles with their spelling words. Step four is a pop quiz and step five is the final spelling test. Each of the five lessons can be printed and completed offline.After the completion of each lesson, the student is rewarded with a game token.

The vocabulary program is very similar to the spelling program. There are forty units, each unit has five lessons which can be customized with your own words. The lessons introduce the vocabulary words, provide practice activities and tests.

The US geography program teaches the US capitals, their locations, spelling, abbreviations and common facts. The site has an interactive map which really brings the lessons to life. Upon mastery of the state facts the student has the opportunity to play the State Fun Fact Game.

The math fact mastery program allows your students to practice math facts in the areas of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Like all the other programs in BigIQkids, the lessons can be modified to meet your student's needs.

I used the BigIQkids program with my 10 year old daughter, Karina and my 12 year old son, Kwan. They both enjoyed using the program and saw it as a fun addition to their school work. Karina used the spelling program with the words from her regular spelling book. On Monday she would type in her words and complete the spelling activity each day. She liked the interactive nature of the program. The robot-like quality of the voice took a little time to adjust to. However, after awhile she seemed to forget about the voice and had fun with the program. Karina also used the US geography program. Kwan's favorite program on BigIQkids was the US geography. He especially liked the interactive map and of course the reward tokens dispensed at the end of each lesson. Both children were motivated by the reward of game tokens to the arcade.

I found the vocabulary program and the spelling bee to be excellent in reinforcing language arts skills. The math program took the pain out of drilling math facts. This program is geared towards independent learning, which freed me up to prepare for other aspects of our school day. I also appreciated the educational component of the games in the arcade. I believe BigIQkids would be a welcome element for not only homeschool students, but for all students who need a fun way to reinforce or learn their schoolwork.

BigIQkids also has chapter story e-books and a summer newsletter for kids, called the BigIQkids Time. This is definitely the kind of website you want your children playing on!

Although BigIQkids has several free programs, the premium membership has some great features. With the premium membership, your child is able to customize their BigIQ buddy, have access to all the games, save high scores, advances students based on proficiency, email progress reports and provides access to review test. The premium membership for all 4 programs is $9.99 per month or $99.99 for 12 months. The programs can also be purchased separately(click here for more details: http://www.bigiqkids.com/Pricing.html ). They also offer a FREE 7 day trial program.

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