Early American History Library–Watch My Video 14:30

I did a giveaway awhile ago and a review of the Early America Classical Library from Heritage History. Well, I made a video that I’d like to share with you. This library is one of the largest available at this time from Heritage History, with over 80 books!

Why’d I make a video? I’ve not done one before and wanted to try a video review to see how it would turn out. I’ll admit, I’m a bit long-winded but I enjoyed it! I also wanted to share a bit more of how we use it in our homeschool. We use this library in conjunction with curriculum that we use. We have used Ambleside Online’s (Charlotte Mason method) free online curriculum for three years. We love it but we also enjoy reading in general and learning more about history. Heritage History makes that easy and enjoyable.

The video is 14:30 long. There is a lot in this library. If you have any questions about the library, ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

In the video I attempt to show you how I decide which books to use and why. It also highlights the categorization of the books by genre (Bible stories, Biography, Science and Invention, etc.), subject area (Regional History, Military History, American Indians, etc.), as well as reading level (Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced). You’ll get to see the format of the ebooks on the computer as well as on the Kindle. Throughout the video, I try to give reasons that we enjoy reading from this library, and actually many of the books from Heritage History’s collection. Briefly, I discuss the ease of printing the ebooks from the CD as well as the very helpful guide for downloading these onto various ereaders (Kindle, mobipocket, iPad, etc.).

Thanks for watching!

I also want to let you all know that from November 1, 2012- January 31, 2013 Heritage History is letting me offer a discount code to receive the Early American History Library free ($19.99 value) with purchase of any curriculum ($24.99 each). Put both library and curriculum in your cart and enter code BLOSSOM3 at checkout.

***Disclaimer: I am bringing you this discount code as an affiliate with Heritage History. Being an affiliate enables me to let you in on discounts being offered. See Disclosure/Policies.

Zane Education {Schoolhouse Review Crew}

As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew our family was chosen to receive and review Zane Education *Gold Membership*. Over 1500 videos in 12 subject areas for elementary, middle, and high school. Zane Education also includes lesson plans, quizzes and study resources.

There are different levels of access to Zane Education. Check the website for current pricing and what is included in each level:

• Basic- FREE membership
• *Gold- All videos, $17.99 per month; $197.89 per year*
• Silver- All videos for specific grade level, $12.99 per month; $142.89 per year
• Bronze- All videos for specific subject area, $8.99 per month; $98.89 per year
• Topic Taster- All videos for single topic, $5.00 a month; no yearly option

What it is (from website/vendor):

• The online subtitled videos deliver the curriculum content for each topic.
• The online interactive quizzes provide online testing for each topic.
• The interactive study tools on each video page allow aspects of each video to be further explored and investigated.
• The Lesson Plans provide further activities for the parent or teacher to ensure each topic is explored in a structured and thorough manner.
• The Study Center provides additional resources including the World Fact Book to support study and additional resources are constantly being added.

[T]hese…titles originally published as educational software on CD-ROM and used in schools, libraries and in home education across North America and many countries around the world, are available…online as the world’s most comprehensive library of purposely subtitled educational video, accompanied by a variety of online study tools, lesson plans, additional study resources and online testing – using our on-demand subscription system.

It is a complete one-stop-shop Visual Learning-based education solution that provides the curriculum material needed for children from Elementary school to College age, or from Kindergarten to Year 12.

Used appropriately, the benefits of using the subtitles include (from the website):

• Each student has the opportunity to study each topic and improve their reading and literacy skills at the same time.
• Each video can be used as a standalone reading improvement resource.
• Children learning English as a Second Language can use each video to study the same range of curriculum content as their English-speaking peers while using the interactive study tools and the subtitles to improve their English Language skills.

Read about the benefits of visual learning.

For each subject there are various videos and quizzes available. I’ve chosen Religious Studies here to demonstrate but it is the same layout whichever subject/topic you choose.

 

You can go through it based on what type of quiz you are wanting to cover {the bottom sidebar has links to find all quizzes by subject or grade- it is set up the same way on the videos pages} or by the subjects.

There are lots of videos available in the Gold Membership! We’ve not even scratched the surface. I highly highly recommend checking out the free A Getting Started Guide and other User Guides before just jumping head first. Really.

Here is a view of one of the videos and the Video Learning Tools box to the right of the videos.

The videos have highlighted words in the subtitles that can be used for vocabulary, spelling and general reading improvement. Each of the highlighted words can be found in the Video Learning Tools {which is to the right of every video} that is specific to the video.

The quizzes are all multiple choice. This is from the Religious Studies category but again, they are all laid out the same. There is a page on the website touting the benefits of multiple choice quizzes but they are not the style I would like to use most often.

The Study Center does have a nice collection of reference ‘books’. The World Fact Book is unique to this page –the others you can access from just about any other screen.

There really is just so much {well so many –as in videos} on this site that I cannot possibly tell you all there is to tell. The most prominent feature of Zane Education online educational videos is the subtitles. This is what they call the Missing Piece.

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In addition to the subscription to access all of the online educational videos, online quizzes, study tools, and fast technical support, we were also given the The Zane Learning Catalogue {270 pages} and The Christian Home Learning Guide {424 pages}. The first lists every single video that they offer, in every subject. Below is a page from this catalogue {or ‘catalog’ if that’s more your way *wink*}. I share this with you because Zane Education is more than just the videos. These are normally priced at $49.95 but are free with any 12-month paid subscription.

I also shared this page with you is to show how it is set up. It is not just a list of the videos. This is a randomly chosen page. Along the right side are clickable tabs to take you to specific places in this catalogue. At the top of the page {towards the left} it tells what subject and category this is featuring. Then it shows the topic –in this case Handel, Chopin, and Debussy; Great Composers {the category}. Under that it gives the recommended grade –K-5.

What I really like about this catalogue is that it tells you in one place what videos to watch on this topic and how long they are. It also lists the quizzes available. Finally it gives an Overview and Learning Objectives.

In regards the Christian Home Learning Guide:

It is a downloadable publication written by Marshall Foster and Ron Ball, …designed to present the evangelical Christian view of the mainstream subjects taught in school today and featured on Zane Education’s Learning Video’s. It is designed for the parents of Christian homeschoolers, as well as the parents of children in public and private schools, who wish to provide their children with the Christian view of world history, science, and literature. (See more of what they say here.)

If that doesn’t really help you understand what it is, perhaps this will. It takes every single video and tells what in the video might be conflicting to a Christian. For example:

Zane Education is having a July/August promotion that I’d like to share with you:

A 35% discount on the purchase of any annual 12-month Gold, Silver or Bronze Membership subscription through until the end of August 2012 for purchasers using the unique code: ZE722HSM (case sensitive!)

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What did I think of this program?

NOTE: I highly suggest that parent/teacher/tutor or whoever is utilizing this resource prescreen every video before showing to their student.

This isn’t the style we use for our school –quite different. I’ve tried to look at this from the point of view of others. We may continue to use these as an occasional resource but it really didn’t fit our style.

Pro: So much is included! We didn’t hardly get anywhere in relation to the number of videos and quizzes available. Broken down by month when the 12-month subscription is selected it is less than $17 a month.

Con: There are a lot of videos that I won’t let my kids watch so the number of accessible videos drops for our family. This isn’t because of conflicting views about evolution {which they are high on} but because some subjects I don’t think my kids need to learn about by video.

Pro: There are lesson plans for each video.

Con: The videos are not all formatted the same which isn’t that big of a deal I don’t suppose. Some had quite a few repeated images throughout the video, which for me was distracting. Also the audio did not always go the same speed as the video. You’d be reading along with the audio with 3 words left and it moved to the next slide or scene.

Pro: The Learning Tools for both the video and quizzes are specific to the video/quiz.

Con: The videos cannot be made larger. And they are a preset speed. You can pause, stop and play; that’s it. Some times it would be nice to slow the audio down, or speed it up. There isn’t a way to do that with these.

Pro: Customer service was very speedy and courteous.

Con: I had to log in multiple times to access any part of the site except for my account status. Granted all the videos that are available with my membership can be found at the account page, I wanted to have to sign in one time then navigate away from that page. It just doesn’t work that way but tech support doesn’t know why.

Pro: The selection of videos per subject area is impressive. I like how they are organized on the site so that you can click on a subject, then a topic, and then choose the video. I especially like the Art, Music, Psychology and Sociology selections; I was surprised by the inclusion of the last two.

Con: There is a lot of clicking needed to get to a final destination.

Pro: I think this would be a good resource for visual and audio learners.

Con: I personally cannot see this being a ‘stand-alone’ program for reading improvement as they state.

I would recommend this program for those that are looking for a resource like this: visual and audial. Also with the different subscription options, it would very easy lower the cost by choosing a more specific focus. Trying the program for $5 a month is also attractive. I think it would work well for tutors, as well.

I don’t think I would recommend it as a complete curriculum. It just seems like it is missing some facets of a ‘complete’ curriculum. Also, for those that do not use videos or the internet in their school, this probably wouldn’t be a good choice.

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Contact Information:

Website: https://www.zaneeducation.com
TECH SUPPORT & GENERAL ENQUIRY
Tel: +1.650.488-8204     
Zane Education has offices located in
NORTH AMERICA, INDIA, AUSTRALIA, and
NEW ZEALAND – HQ
30 Rewi Street
Torbay
Auckland 0630
New Zealand
Tel: +64.9.473 2280     

Zane’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ZaneEducation
Zane’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ZaneEducation

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Have a visit with others who also reviewed this to see how it worked for their families. Click the image below.

***Disclaimer: I received a free subscription and the above mentioned guides from Zane Education via the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for an honest review. No compensation was given. All opinions stated are my own. I only recommend products that I truly feel will be of benefit to others based on my personal experience. See Disclosure/Policies***

Kindle Fire- What’cha Got?

Well, I’ve had hmmm, 11 days to get to know my Fire. So, what can it do? I won’t ask “what can’t it do?” because there’s plenty it cannot do. I’m a realist, sorry. It is not an iPad, people.

It works great for checking my email and checking on Facebook. It also works well when someone links to a website (in email or on FB) that I want to read.

Here are a few photos {I changed the screen to bright for better photos this time }:

 

  

First two are the screen when it is first turned on {the bottom ‘shelf’ are my Favorites- and you can see the stylus I purchased for my Fire}; next two are the upper part of the screen at the ‘home’ screen [indicators show ‘settings’ button, wifi connection and battery life] {it shows you how far you’ve advanced in each book at the top right corner of the book [percentage]}; last is my ‘carousel’ [what I have recently looked at or has been recently downloaded onto the Kindle].

The carousel can be cleared by placing your finger (or stylus) on the book or ‘item’ until a little box pops up with choices (sometimes you will be given other options)

Here is what it looks like when I am browsing online. Facebook, of course

The visibility/quality is good for reading online [but it is small print unless you double click to zoom or ‘pinch’ and stretch- check out the video below]. I can read it but sometimes I zoom in.

It works fine when I want to fill out a survey {I got 10% off from Old Navy} or to fill out a form online {required for the TOS Homeschool Crew often} . It works great to get things from Amazon (of course ). Here is a short and very quiet (purposely) video of me going online and browsing Kindle Free Books.

I have always had trouble selecting “Kindle” on Amazon.com- sometimes it takes me way too many tries. You’ll see me click on “Top 100 Free” more than once also... issues.

My Fire won’t read to me So sad… As much as I dislike the robotic voice on my 2nd Generation, I really liked the option at least. Perhaps I had gotten used to her {I prefer ‘her’ to ‘him’}. From what I understand one would need to purchase an mp3/audio in order to get it to read to you. In that case, I’m content reading on my own

It will download amazingly fast the apps I ‘purchase’ from the App Store at Amazon {I don’t pay for much}. The books available from Amazon are sent directly to my Kindle Fire {just like with my other Kindle}. Also with my Kindle Fire, I noticed I get Prime membership for a month. Nice! Saved me quite a bit on shipping already but not just that, Prime-members also get free video streaming {the selection is somewhat limited} for the length of the membership. Oh, and then there is that Prime-members-Kindle-Fire-owners-thing with the Lending Library… I haven’t checked that out yet.

For now that’s enough I will be doing more posts {hopefully} after I learn more about it. I really really am looking forward to when Fire owners can download directly from places such as Gutenberg and ManyBooks. That will be awesome.

*all links that go to Amazon.com are affiliate links

Progressive Church

Perhaps many have seen this video already? I don't have cable so I hadn't. But someone posted this on FB and I personally just love Progressive commercials. Some people think Flo is so annoying. Haha! No, we don't use Progressive insurance... Anyway. I decided to actually watch this video to see what the hubbub is/was.

WoW

I will warn that I don't think this is appropriate for younger kids although they may not understand exactly, it'll get in their heads and it'll have to be removed... For older kids, they may get the ridiculousness of it but at the same time, they might get it in their heads that this is something to want so caution. Ah, and the very very end talks about drugs and inappropriate media entertainment. Just a heads up.

I think that adults should watch this. Our day and age definitely endorses the Progressive Church! So here's the video:

What Old People Do for Fun...

This is great... It's from the anti boredom campaign and I am tempted to do it...heehee... the lady's laugh gets me every time!!

What Old People Do For Fun (anti boredom campaign)

Music-based teaching and prepared dictation

I love getting email, just as much if not more than getting snail mail. I get way more email than snail mail though :) Today in my inbox I had an email from Kathy Shrock (great resources!) about music teaching...not teaching music. The site that she linked has a ton of quirky songs that teach about different subjects and topics. For example, my kids listened to Atomic Brother, Corn to Ethanol Using Enzymes, Afraid of the Dark, and we started with 200 Meters Down. Great stuff! There are some videos for some of the songs (I think my kids liked that the most) but also there are just audio clips, as well as pdf of the lyrics. I am definitely bookmarking this site! It is called Science (and more) to Music. As far as I can see, the site has mostly songs for upper grades (higher elementary and up). Hope you find something you can use!

Prepared dictation is the other bit for my post. I had no idea what it was. I am new to all this CM style education, but I am trying to learn! What caught my eye this time was because the email had the subject line of Homeschool Spelling the Charlotte Mason Way. Both of my dc are not that great at spelling but honestly, I detest lists of 10-20 spelling words to test on. They and I find it to be extremely boring. But if there are words that come from a book that is interesting, the topic is something that they enjoy (oh, I know, school can't always be fun...that's why there's math! jk) it will be easier to do. I also get emails from Simply Charlotte Mason. Another great resource! The one I want to share today is Sonya Shafer explains Prepared Dictation video on Youtube.com If you look to the right of the video, there are a lot of other helpful videos as well.

Okay, I am off of here to get my final paper done for my last class (yay!!). Have a great day!