HiFi Kids

Parents, students, and teachers, this one is for you.

Okay, parents, Facebook makes you nervous, doesn’t it? Aside from the fact that almost everyone is on Facebook and that includes dangerous people that may try to contact your kids, Facebook can be a huge time-waster. The games on Facebook (like Candycrush, Words with Friends, etc) don’t work toward anything but more time-wasting. What if your kids could get the social elements of Facebook and work toward something educational?

Teachers: wouldn’t it be great if your job was made easier? (Yeah, I bet I got your attention.) What if there was something that you could assign as homework that was not only fun for the kids to do, but it helped them with the subjects they need to improve in? And if you don’t have a lesson plan one day, or if you want to take an easy day, do this:  log in, have your kids do an e-quiz, and use the projector screen in your classroom to show stats on the quiz.

Students, don’t you want social networking that’s just for you? You can talk about sports, your favorite subjects in school, and compete with your friends about how is the master of your favorites?

What if there was something to combine all of these elements? There is! It’s called HiFi Kids and you can find it at www.hifikids.com. Founded by Tushar Sayankar to fill a void in social networking, HifiKids is intended to incorporate all of the social elements of Facebook with the intention of being educational for kids. Teachers use Hifi Kids as a supplement to lesson plans, and parents love Hifi Kids because this type of social interaction strengthens education. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, let’s take a look at some of the features.

When you first sign up, it asks for some personal information, and if you’re a student, it asks for your teacher’s email address. That way, when you’re signed up, you’re already connected to your classmates. You set up a profile similar to a Facebook profile, but instead of focusing on where you live, what your phone number is, and who your family members are (all unsafe information to have online), you focus on what your favorite subjects are, and what passions you have. Instead of having a “News Feed” like on Facebook, you have a “Quizboard” where active users post quizzes about their favorite subjects. This is fun and educational.

On the right scrollbar, you can see something called Top Performers. These are people who quiz well with the interests you have. You can send them friend requests and you can also challenge them to a quiz. Hifi Kids ranks the Top Performers based on your interest and age group. Much of the page looks like Facebook –you can look at your followers, you can Chat, you can have Events and Birthdays- but it’s all geared around education.

Instead of “Liking” something like you would on Facebook, there’s a developing feature called Appreciations. In Appreciations, you can like someone’s post, but with different words like “You are awesome”, “You are superb”, or “You are fantastic.” This gives kids the opportunity to use other words than just “Like” and it allows you to encourage your peers. Appreciations are designed to encourage those that may not otherwise be encouraged. For example, teachers and stay-at-home moms can be told that they’re doing a great job.

But Hifi Kids isn’t just for students who safely want to meet other students, and this isn’t just a great social outlet for homeschooled kids. Hifi Kids can be a platform for great education. There are classes and tutoring opportunities offered online. Students can take quizzes to see where their skills are, and the teacher could, then, decide which online class the student needs to be in. Hifi Kids is a great supplement to public education. After all, public schools have to meet curriculum standards, state testing standards, and SAT standards. Have you noticed that your child is still lacking in some subject areas? When it comes to the SAT, your child can’t afford to be lacking because it could mean the difference in getting a scholarship or not, or going to a good college or not. Hifi Kids offers several classes in all subject areas, but there is one specifically designed for the SATs, at only $65 per year as opposed to some community colleges, which charge up to $150 per semester. There is no age limit to sign up, so your child who is a freshman in high school could start learning the SAT syllabus now at a steady, comfortable pace. Hifi Kids offers what no social networking site has offered before.

If it sounds too good to be true, check out the website at www.hifikids.com or contact them at support@hifikids.com. On the website, you can navigate classes, quizzes, profiles, and other things like blogs, photo quizzes, and video quizzes. Not all kids learn in the same way, and if your kid learns better in a comfortable, social environment with different sets of technological media, you’ve found the best option for your child’s education.