Brain Chase Summer Learning Challenge

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Brain Chase and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own.

If you have kids, you know how hard it is to try to get them to do any extra school work over the summer to help with “brain drain”. We usually order the Simple Solutions workbooks for the kids to work on over the summer but after a few weeks, it seems harder and harder to get them to actually sit and do the work.

Brain Chase, now in its second year, has created an engaging and educational online treasure hunt for kids (ages 7-14) as a summer activity – supported by curriculum from Khan Academy and other online partners – to prevent “brain drain” or learning loss over the summer.

What is Brain Chase?

– A 5-week online summer learning challenge for 2nd through 8th graders
– A massive global treasure hunt powered by reading, writing and math
– A learning adventure to prevent summer learning loss
– A motivational tool for getting kids to do online academic work during the summer
– A personalized learning platform
– A hunt for a golden mechanical treasure
– A $10,000 scholarship and trophy

One of the fun parts about Brain Chase is that there is real treasure (a $10,000 college scholarship fund) buried somewhere on Earth! As part of this adventure, there’s the opportunity to solve the riddle and be flown to the treasure site to claim the treasure! The 2015 Brain Chase challenge is to find the Sunstone of Cortés, a mysterious calendar stolen from the Aztec empire by Hernan Cortés in the 1500s. Kids join Mae Merriweather, her brother Max, athletic Sean Drake, and former nemesis Savannah Bryce to find the fictional Sunstone of Cortés… and the real one!

1. START THE CHASE
At 9 a.m. ET on Monday, June 22, 2015, Brain Chase: The Sunstone of Cortés begins. Adventurers log in to watch the first animated webisode and meet Mae Merriweather, the star of the show. Then they dive into their first week of learning challenges. A proprietary (patent pending) learning management system – the “Dashboard” – tracks each student’s progress as they journey through the 5-week challenge.

2. UNLOCK THE ADVENTURE
Each week the adventurers have four tasks: read for 15 minutes per day, write one journal entry, earn 10,000 points on Khan Academy, and do one bonus challenge. When they’re done, they unlock the next webisode, which contains hidden pictures, numbers, and riddles to help them guess the treasure’s location.

3. FOLLOW THE STORY
Mae Merriweather and her friends from the Grayson Academy of Antiquities are hot on the trail of the mysterious Sunstone of Cortés. To find it, they travel to the Himalayas, dive off the coast of Greece, and solve riddles. But there is more to the quest — and treasure — than they realize.

4. FIND THE BURIED TREASURE
The hunt for the Sunstone isn’t just fiction – there is a real golden Sunstone of Cortés and $10,000 buried somewhere on Earth. Every 24 hours, adventurers can log in to enter their guess of the treasure’s location. The first adventurer to guess the location within a two-mile radius travels with his/her family to the treasure site to claim the gold.

In addition to the adventure, your child will all receive:

– 5 weeks of structured challenges on external reading and math websites
– Weekly writing exercises with feedback from credentialed teachers
– Weekly progress reports emailed to parents
– Exclusive access to an original animated adventure series loaded with hidden puzzles and clues
– 3 adventure tools mailed to your home to help solve special bonus challenges
– Participation in a massive global treasure hunt for a golden trophy containing the key to a safe deposit box holding $10,000

You might be wondering about your summer vacation and how this will work…no worries! Just tell Brain Chase about your summer travel plans and they can send the packages to where the kids are going to be. Brain Chase wants kids to go outside, go to camp and travel. You should budget about five hours of work each week though. But it’s easy to get caught up!

Are You Ready?

– Order before April 30, 2015 and Save 15% off your total purchase at Brain Chase with the code REVIEWWIRE15
– Works on PC and iPad
– While the Summer Learning Challenge is open to everyone, the official Contest (i.e., ability to win the prize) is open only to students ages 6 through 16 through their parents or guardians legally residing in 48 United States & D.C. (excluding CO, MD), Mexico, UK, and Canada (excluding Quebec). See site for more details.