Miamiopia (pronounced “mee-yuh-mee-oh-pee-yuh” not “Miami-opia”) is a new virtual world just for kids. This site is totally FREE and totally educational to boot!

From the website:

The World of Miamiopia is where balloons go when they escape from the hands of a human. Once here, these balloons seek to improve themselves by learning as much as they can about the world around them. Each building in Miamiopia is filled with learning games.

Some of these games teach the little Miamiopians about math, others about dinosaurs, biology, animals, music, history, and many other topics. Miamiopians “learn to earn”. Each time they plan a learning game, they earn coins. These coins can be used to buy things in the shopping district.

New Miamiopians get to pick the color of their body, and also the type of eyes that they will sport. As they play learning games, they can use the coins they earn to purchase clothing, wigs, and other accessories.

After watching a rather lengthy introductory video, your child will get to create his or her character (a balloon), which consists of color choice and eye choice. Once in this virtual world, your child’s character will explore different areas of the world and play educational games to earn coins. After earning coins, they can buy “add-ons” such as wigs and clothing for your character.

Navigation of Miamiopia is relatively intuitive. There is a map, and your child will pick where he or she wants to go. There is a zoo, science lab and more.  Once your character enters a building, he or she will look for boxes.  Walk to the boxes, wait for it to open to display the name of the game.

The games are fun and it is very easy to get coins for later spending. We played the “Identi-cell” game, where we had to identify different parts of the cell. What was nice about this was that we got many chances to get the answer right. Not only that, they offered a link in the lower right-hand corner of the game to learn more.

The other game we tried was a counting game, where the “Count” would say a number and we clicked on it.  Each correct answer earned 1 coin, a bonus of 100 coins after answering 20 questions.  This game was definitely for the younger set, but we really had no way of telling until we clicked and read the description.

Since the site is still in “beta mode,” the number of places to visit is still limited, but there should be more coming within the next week or two.  Additionally, I did not notice an obvious “log out” button or link, making it difficult to use with multiple children.  Unlike other virtual-world sites, I did not notice any type of chat, mail or messaging system. While this may be developed after the beta version, I feel much safer knowing that my child isn’t communicating with someone we don’t know.

Kids will love this site because it will give them the freedom to explore the areas they are interested in and parents will love this site because its educational content. While I personally think that a quality educational resource can be used across multiple grade levels, those in the middle school set and above may not like this site, because of its overtly cartoon-ish appearance.

The Bottom Line:

Pros:

• FREE
• Easy to Navigate
• Wholesome, quality educational games
• Entertaining and encouraging

Cons:

• Still in beta mode, limited areas to explore
• No log out button or link
• Unable to gauge activity difficulty until playing

Final Verdict:

Despite the limitations in beta mode, this is a great, wholesome, supplement to homeschool and classroom-based learning.

This post was written by Christina S..  She is completing her 10th year of homeschooling and lives in Detroit with her husband, 2 daughters, cat, dog and turtle.