Complete Night Zookeeper Review | Improve Writing in 15 Minutes a Day

Struggling to get your kids to write? Thinking of using the Night Zookeeper online writing platform to support your child’s writing? Want a fun way to encourage writing in your homeschool lessons? Read my complete Night Zookeeper review and learn how this online writing platform has my kids begging to write!

I received a subscription to Night Zookeeper in exchange for my honest and unbiased review of Night Zookeeper. The opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and were in no way influenced by anyone.

In This Article:

• General Info on the Night Zookeeper Online Platform
• How Does Night Zookeeper Work?
• Game Examples and Walk Through
• My Thoughts on Night Zookeeper
• Free Trial & 50% Off Coupon

About Night Zookeeper

What is Night Zookeeper?

You may have seen ads floating around online for the Night Zookeeper online writing platform lately. This fairly new online platform is based on the book series Night Zookeeper by Joshua Davidson.

The UK-based company has created an amazing online writing program that takes the student into the magical world of the Night Zoo and allows them to help battle the evil Voids by playing games, practicing skills, and writing.

The program covers sentence structure, grammar rules, parts of speech, types of writing, and many more topics. While you could use it as your writing curriculum, I feel it would be best used as a supplement to a full writing program.

This amazing writing program is available for homeschool, at-home, or classroom use. It’s completely online-based so you can access it from any device with internet access.

To be honest, I had to beg my kids to write prior to Night Zookeeper. Now I have to give them a time limit on the platform because they won’t stop playing!

What age is Night Zookeeper for?

Night Zookeeper is geared toward ages 6 – 12. While this is a general guideline, the program can definitely be used for older students as well as younger students with the assistance of a parent.

If a child is able to use a mouse or trackpad and type or have someone type for them, they will enjoy Night Zookeeper.

Keep reading for my full review on Night Zookeeper!

How Does Night Zookeeper Work?

Getting your kids set up to play Night Zookeeper is fairly simple. Once you have your kids’ accounts set up, they can easily log on and play on their own.

Create a Night Zookeeper Account

To begin, an adult must set up the account. After choosing the free trial or a subscription, you can then add your student or child accounts. The system will automatically assign their usernames to them. Don’t worry, they are super fun and have general names that don’t provide any personal details.

Once you have the child accounts set up, you can allow them to log in using the Child log-in page using their username and password. The child’s account password can be updated in the Parent Dashboard if needed.

Create a Character

Once your child logs in, they will be prompted to create a self-portrait using a painting application within the program. My girls loved the fact that their journey started with a fun art activity.

Learn About the Story of the Night Zoo

Once you have accounts set up, then you’re introduced to the Night Zoo. The story follows the book series by Joshua Davidson. Although we hadn’t previously read the books, we picked up easily on the story and the job of the Night Zookeeper by watching this short video.

The child is now a character in the story and must help save the Night Zoo animals from the Voids. This is achieved by earning Orbs, advancing their animals, and through short activities, games, and writing.

From the child dashboard, the student can

• play games against other online players
• visit the zoo
• choose a writing project
• watch TV lessons
• read other students’ work
• visit their messages

Children choose their own path with Night Zookeeper, so everyone’s gameplay will look different. The goal is to help protect the Night Zoo and clear the fog over the Zoo brought in by the Voids. Since there isn’t a specific storyline to follow, the children can choose the activities they enjoy and work on powering up their animals as they see fit.

I thought I would need to remind my girls that the main purpose of this program is to practice writing. With all of the fun games and ways to earn achievements, they are constantly starting new writing assignments on their own – no reminders from me are needed!

What does Night Zookeeper teach?

The Night Zookeeper platform teaches so many different skills and topics. Students will work on grammar, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, and many more skills.

Students will be encouraged to enhance their writing by adding more descriptions, choosing more unique words, elaborating on their story, and working on many different types of writing.

How much does Night Zookeeper cost?

Monthly subscriptions start at just $12.99 but you can get a discount on Night Zookeeper, along with a free trial!

Is Night Zookeeper a full curriculum?

While the Night Zookeeper is not a complete writing curriculum, you could definitely use it as the spine of your homeschool writing program. With the parent dashboard, feedback and progression, it would be simple to use Night Zookeeper for your writing curriculum.

Game Examples and Walk Through

Due to the personalized experience that each child will have, the gameplay is going to look different for each user. Here are just some of the activities and features that my girls use frequently while playing Night Zookeeper.

As you venture through the Night Zoo, you create, name, and describe your very own zoo animals. This visual portion is one of my girls’ favorite activities in the game. You can also view the animals that other students have created on the platform which keeps their play fun and changing each day.

The animals are then incorporated into their gameplay throughout the site. These animals are used in writing assignments, playing games, and even show up in lessons.

One of the fastest ways to power up the animals and help clear the Zoo is by choosing writing assignments. Sometimes the child will be prompted to start a new piece of writing. They can also choose to start writing on their own.

There are many different projects they can choose from:

• Free write
• Story
• Newspaper article
• Report
• Poem
• Instructions
• Letter writing
• Persuasive writing
• Diary entry
• Explanation
• Playscript
• Biography
• Upload your own work

Each of these projects has prompts to help guide them through their writing. They can choose to work independently or follow the prompts to complete their writing.

Once your child publishes their work, they can receive comments, suggestions, and feedback from team members at the Night Zookeeper as well as other students. This has been an amazing confidence booster for the girls. The feedback is always positive yet encourages them to improve on their writing with suggestions or additional prompts.

I actually think this has been one of MY favorite features of the platform. When they’re receiving feedback from someone other than me, they seem to receive it much better. They’ve even taken some of the feedback from the tutors as a challenge and continued working on a piece of writing in order to meet the requirements the tutor set.

There are dozens of games that focus on grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, parts of speech, and sentence structure. Each game will allow the child to earn achievements and orbs, encouraging them to play over and over.

A few of the games are a bit tricky to understand at first. Many don’t include specific instructions on how to play so it’s a bit of a learning curve at first.

Once they have figured out how each game works though, they can continue to play through the levels, improving their skills as they go. I love the detail included at the beginning of each game which explains the topic they will be focusing on.

My Night Zookeeper Review Overview

Overall, I can say hands down it’s one of the best online programs we have implemented into our homeschool routine. Writing was a tough hurdle to jump in our household so I was very skeptical that an online program would interest my kids.

I’ve found it difficult to convince the girls to edit and improve their writing pieces while using other programs. They normally just want to “get it finished” and move on to the next subject. They see assignments as a “one and done” type of activity.

With Night Zookeeper, the encouragement and feedback they receive have drastically increased their interest in writing. They are proactively looking for ways to improve their writing and get so excited when they achieve the additional challenges (like adding 2 adjectives to their writing, using an exclamation, or extending their piece by 20 more words).

Since they are working to keep the Zoo safe and save the animals, there is always a task or activity they will want to complete. This continuous story has really captivated the girls and demonstrated how fun and exciting writing can be.

Why I Love Night Zookeeper

There are plenty of features that I love about the platform:

• Read to me function on all prompts, activities, and lessons
• Easy to follow writing prompts
• Encouragement to edit, add to and enhance their writing
• Feedback from Night Zookeeper team members
• Ability to read and comment on other students’ work
• Constantly changing the story as they progress through the Night Zoo
• Rich parent dashboard with details on the accuracy, productivity, and progress
• An online book log

We will continue to use Night Zookeeper daily in our homeschool routine. They are constantly adding new games and challenges – including a brand new feature where the students can write about popular topics and current events.

I think the program is extremely robust and is more than sufficient to reinforce the importance of writing and engage even the most reluctant writers.

Free Trial & 50% Off Night Zookeeper Coupon

I’m thrilled to share that as a reader of Our Little Slice of Heaven, you can access a FREE 7-day trial plus 50% OFF the annual Night Zookeeper subscription price! That comes out to just $5.00 per month for 1 child. You can even add 2 more children for just $18/year if needed! That’s an amazing discount on Night Zookeeper!

Be sure to give it a try using the free trial – this will give you and your children plenty of time to set up accounts, try out the program and know if Night Zookeeper is a good fit for your family!

Be sure to check out the book series Night Zookeeper by Joshua Davidson! After playing Night Zookeeper for a few days, we ventured onto Amazon to grab the books so we could be fully immersed in the Night Zoo! (If you have a Kindle Unlimited membership, all four books are available to read for free!)

Night Zookeeper The Giraffes of Whispering Wood

Night Zookeeper The Lioness of Fire Desert

Night Zookeeper The Elephants of Tusk Temple

Night Zookeeper The Penguins of Igloo City