English is not always a fun subject to learn. Although we speak English, there are just so many rules to follow and remember. I know sitting at the table with my boys learning from book work can be a bit frustrating. So when we were approached by Night Zookeeper I was excited for a new way of learning. After having my boys try it out for a while, here’s our Night Zookeeper review.
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Our Night Zookeeper Review
Night Zookeeper is an online learning program teaching language arts through fun and engaging games for ages 6 through 12.
This online program has a full language arts curriculum built in and makes it so simple for students to open the computer or tablet and go. Night Zookeeper is focuses on teaching writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation – Everything needed to master the English language.
Not only is this an online program, they also have books, printables, and resources to go along with the program. You have the ability to use this as a full language arts curriculum for your student or simply supplement your current curriculum.
Try Night Zookeeper FREE for 7 days and receive 50% off the program by clicking this link.
What to Expect
When logging in for the first time students will create their own character and give it a name. They then have the opportunity to write a few ideas about their character allowing them to dabble in creative writing.
In their dashboard they will receive messages from real teachers reviewing their work. When my 9 year old wrote about his character, the teacher wrote back asking to provide more adjectives about his character, highlighted misspelled words, and provided positive feedback. To me this was kind of like a chat or journal between my son and the built in teacher.
I absolutely loved that this creative writing prompt didn’t allow my son to write bogus answers thinking the program would allow him to move on to the next prompt. It actually made him think and write correctly. I also enjoyed that this allowed him to practice more typing skills than just one or two letters at a time by having to type a full paragraph.
You can also keep in check with your students progress with a parent dashboard which allows you to monitor all the progress your student is making. I love that Night Zookeeper keeps track of the progress and provides feedback for you.
Building the Zoo
From there they go around the zoo collecting animals and building the zoo. In the picture below you can see the zoo is covered in fog, each time a lesson is complete a little fog disappears.
In order to do this they “play games” where they build their language arts skills. These games include reading, word searches, typing correct spelling, unscrambling words and sentences, typing answers, etc.
For my 5 year old, he has had a few games where he matches the correct word with the picture. Each time he got an answer correct, a big green check mark would appear and celebrate his correct answer. He was so excited when he would get it right! This really made him want to continue “playing”.
He also had a few lessons that he would have to choose the correct word to add to the sentence. Honestly, I thought this was a little advanced for his age. However, with the option to hear the word instead of reading, he was able to answer quite a few of them right.
As for my 8 year old, he really enjoyed getting to play word searches to improve on spelling. He also had lessons on guessing the animal and typing out the correct spelling, as well as unscrambling sentences.
My Honest Thoughts
All the lessons my boys 5, 8, and 9 completed could have been done on paper or from a course book. However, those don’t always keep them engaged as they can get boring and it can be hard to get a young boy to sit still or keep his attention long enough to get through them. And while I am on the old school side and believe they should do these lessons on paper, supplementing the online lessons are such a fun bonus!
Based on my boys reaction to Night Zookeeper I would definitely recommend it to others as a full curriculum or even just to supplement like we are.
I do feel that some of the material is a little advanced, as I mentioned previously, but I don’t think it’s so advanced it’s not able to be mastered. I also believe that this can be used to supplement public school as well, you don’t have to exclusively homeschool to benefit from this program.
As for pricing, it is $12.99 monthly, $34.99 quarterly, or $118.99 annually. Right now you can receive a 7 day FREE trial and 50% off using this link.
If you give this program a try, please let me know what you think!
Try Night Zookeeper FREE for 7 days and receive 50% off the program by clicking this link.
