Item: Kids Discover Online Review
Rating: 5
Author: Jessica

We are always looking for more resources that help us with interest-led learning, so that is why I was so excited to work on the Kids Discover Online review for all of you!

Kids Discover Online is an inquiry-based learning site that combines reading, science, and social studies. In fact, there are 1,500 beautiful (really, they’re visually stunning!) science and social studies topics (all vetted by subject experts) available in 3 readings levels. The 3 Lexile® Reading levels take into account grammar, vocabulary and sentence length – perfect for boosting your child’s reading comprehension.

Here’s a video about Kids Discover Online, and why it might be a good fit for your homeschool.

Better yet, just look at the Kids DiscoverOnline homepage – it’s beautiful – and its chock full of great science and social studies info. Here’s an article that caught my son’s attention. Who doesn’t want to know about mummies? BTW – Free Topics rotate each week and 20% of the library is always free. This means “How a Mummy is Prepared” might not necessarily be free each week (so, in case you click on it and it’s not free, that’s why).

Quick Reads are also interesting (found on KidsDiscover.com) – I wanted to read about the woman that invented the dishwasher (don’t we all owe her a debt of gratitude?!) – while my daughter was interested in the crayon article. Here’s something I bet you didn’t know – all crayons used to be black!

Now, take a look at the Kids Discover Maps below – they’re really cool. This visual concept map connects the dots across different subject areas and different time periods. This brings up topics that aren’t even on your child’s radar, shows how topics are related, and it helps cultivate a child’s ability to connections independently.

You can see the screens my daughter chose today – first life science – then dogs.

When you click on one of the above, you’re taken to an informative article (not great for a screen shot, but good info).

You can sign up for free, or pay for a family plan. At first we chose the free version.

With the free version, sometimes we couldn’t delve as far into a topic as we’d like. For instance, when my daughter wanted to learn about Sacagawea, she was greeted with this –

So….we upgraded. It was well worth the $4 per month! My kids could read whatever they wanted, and they spent a lot of time on the site (I did too) – we definitely got our money’s worth!

UPDATE: Kids Discover now offers a brand-new Homeschool Plan for just $7/month (billed annually). The Homeschool Plan includes:
– 1 Virtual Classroom and 5 Students Names
– Discover Mode & Search
– Access to over 175 Units and 1,500 Topics
– 3 Reading Levels for nearly every resource
– Read-aloud and Translations (Brand-New!)
– Desk and Lesson Planner
– Assessments (Over 5,000 pre-made questions)

I appreciated the Lesson Plans and we all enjoyed the Infographics.

And did you know that Sacawagea was just 15 years old when she joined the Lewis and Clark expedition? And she was pregnant! She made the exhibition with her newborn son.

Here are the many things we like about Kids Discover Online:

There’s a lot of interesting content on the site
We love the Discover Maps. Sometimes my kids would log on thinking they were going to look up something, and then get totally diverted by something else they found more This really broadened their horizons. It resulted in them spending more and more time on the site….as eventually they’d get back to why they logged on in the first place.
3 reading levels – good for all levels of readers – and perfect for family instruction. We could study a certain subject, and I could assign different reading levels based on my kids’ reading abilities. This made my life easier (one subject/different reading levels rather than multiple subjects) and the kids enjoyed the resulting family discussions.
Because of the reading levels, this is a product that grows with your child – I’m always a fan of that!
It’s a beautiful site! I’m a sucker for anything that’s visually appealing – as are my kids. Just look at the chipmunk and gorilla pics below. Don’t you want to read about chipmunks and gorillas now?
Flexible – can use on any device and at any time. Good for iPad/car travel. We do a lot of that.
And the price is low! Homeschoolers appreciate a low price point.

These pictures are from a biome article – chipmunks can be found on chaparrals and gorillas live on (certain) mountains.

We spent a lot of time reading about animals!