Zane Education a Schoolhouse Crew Review

We do much of our studies with Mama reading aloud and the learners listening.  Sometimes there are pictures in the book being read, but not always.  I can usually find something to keep their hands busy, but they are not always engaged in learning.  One of our children is an auditory learner, so this method is perfect for her.  The others need something more to look at, relate to.  I often search for videos and hope it relates to our studies the way I think it will.

It has been so nice to have found one source for educational videos for many subjects!  Zane Education has been a tremendous blessing and saved this busy mama so much time.  The website has been easy to navigate either searching by subject and topic or by age of my learners.  If the subject covered might need any editing (some of the horrible atrocities throughout history that my 1st grader just doesn’t need to learn all about yet, etc.) I can easily check it out the night before.  I have even called “recess” to send them all out for some air while I quickly checked out a last minute selection.  I am pleased that I have not come across anything in our studies yet that I have edited or skipped over.

We have viewed videos from Zane for every subject we have been working on during this summer school session.  We have looked at history, art, music, and science (maybe others, too!)  I have noted in my rough plans for upcoming studies where a particular video should fit in nicely.

While learning about Johann Sebastian Bach as our composer of the term, we watched all of the segments on him we could find.  The information was great and easily understood by my children.  Some was new information not covered in any of the library books we were reading during our studies.  The video clips were more like a slideshow than a movie, but my children didn’t mind.  They really reminded me of the filmstrips I watched when I was in school.

I like that the pictures are static (yet changing throughout the segment) because then our learners are able to read the subtitles.  This allows those visual learners to really “get” the dialogue much better than hearing it alone.  Some of the words are highlighted, too.  This adds in some vocabulary practice (they can be looked up in the glossary).

There are additional tools to complement the videos that add even more to the learning.  There are interactive quizzes, lesson plans for off screen activities, and resources such as a dictionary, a thesaurus, a glossary and a world fact book (this is from cia.gov – I have been referencing this site for our geography studies for several months – neat site!) right there on the site.  I like how easy it is pause, go check something out from these resources and then jump back into the video.  Many of these resources are available for you to check out on Zane Education before you sign up.

You can sign up for free to access demo versions of the videos and all of the other resources or the topic taster membership which gives you 30 days access to one topic for only $5.  From these options, you can best figure how to use Zane with your children (all of them with one membership!).  There are various membership packages (which remind me of the Olympic Games happening right now) if you are wanting to utilize Zane for a subject (bronze $8.99/month) or grade level (silver $12.99/month) or access to it all (gold $17.99/month).  For these three there is the option to pay for 12 months at once with a savings of approx. 10%

Zane Education has a several guides you can download to become more familiar with their website and how it can best be used in your home (special needs, ESL and specific guides to homeschool families and classroom teachers).  You’ll notice the top two items on the page (free for 12 month subscribers) are available to purchase.  These are lengthier than the guides and offer so much great, inspiring information for incorporating not just Zane’s videos into your learning, but Biblical truths as well.  The Video Catalogue has been very helpful in planning for next year.  The longer version includes information on each video, length, etc.  Their is a free version without all the details if you are looking for a checklist.  The Christian Learning Guide gives a plan for lining things up Biblically and offers advice.  I was reassured by this particular quote:

The Christian application of the Zane material will keep your children grounded in

biblical leadership and authority. It will guide them and mold them as they learn to seek

God for themselves and enjoy their relationship with Jesus Christ.

At times, you will encounter secular interpretations of events in the Learning Videos.

There is, for example, a clear, evolutionary bias in the material in the Biological Sciences

series. Do not be alarmed! It is our conviction that students should know and understand

positions outside of evangelical Christianity. We are confident that their faith will be

stronger when they know both sides and understand why we believe the biblical view of

the world is correct both intellectually and spiritually.

I like knowing that their is evolutionary content.  I know which of our children aren’t ready for it and can bring it up with those that are for some great discussions.  This is not something I want to hide from my children, but I can utilize these tools to introduce them to other world views – on our family’s schedule.

Would you like to chat with Zane Educators?  On their Facebook page, they have parents just like us who are users of Zane with their families.  They would love to answer any questions you have.

Zane Education has been gracious in giving me a code I can share with you to save 35% until the end of August on any 12 month membership.  Simply enter ZE324HSM during checkout. This code is case sensitive.

If you’d like to read what other reviewers thought, be sure to check out their reviews through the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.