Monday, January 9, 2012

TOS Crew Review~~Z-Guides to the Movies


Zeezok Publishing has been providing materials to homeschoolers since 1993.  They have currently added the Z-Guides to the Movies. 


So what exactly is a Z-Guide?
Z-Guides are a wonderful way to add movies to your curriculum.  They have dozens of guides available.  Each guide falls within a specific time in history. 

Each guide includes:
a topic overview
movie synopsis
10 activities
bonus activities
family discussion
additional resources

Almost all of the movies can be found on Netflix or in your local library.  Z-Guides are meant to be used along with your current history program.  It is recommended that your students complete 2 activities per day.  At that pace it should take one week to complete.  You can read more about the Z-Guides HERE

You can view a sample of the guide HERE.

Z-Guides sell for $12.99 on their website either as a download or on CD shipped.  You can even purchase a license to use the Z-Guide in a co-op or classroom for $49.99.

They are currently working on adding new Z-Guide titles.  They plan on adding one or two each month to help fill in the timeline.

The movie we chose to use was.....
Johnny Tremain
I printed each of our children one copy and put in a binder.  This way they had all their papers in one location. 

Johnny Tremain was the only book I remember enjoying in High School.   So I was thrilled to see this one on the list.  I was pretty familiar with it.

We watched the movie all the way through the first time.  The kids had their papers in front of them.  They retained much more information from the movie then they would of without the questions.  I really enjoyed the conversations that came about from watching this movie.  In reality you could turn this into a whole unit study.  Taking a day or two on each activity.  Which is what I think we will do with the next Z-Guide we get.

They are really paying attention to the movie not just watching it.
These guides are great for children who like our daughter have some learning disabilities.  She needs to use all her senses to learn, see-touch-hear and yes sometimes taste.  She was able to recall much of the information from the movie about the different events portrayed.
Same for our oldest daughter.  She learns best using all her senses.   I did not get any sighs or aw Mom's while we did this review!  I love that!

My husband and I have a strict policy in our house.  There is to be NO talk about TV or movies at the supper table.  So when my husband asked the kids to tell him about their day they all had a blank stare on their faces.  They were not sure how to answer him.  (HA HA)  We made the exception to the rule during this review.

Here is our Z-Guide wish list:
The Ten Commandments
Adventures of Robin Hood
Flyboys
Kit Kittredge
(I hope they do more of the American Girl movies)

Go on over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see other reviews of Z-Guides.

***As a part of TOS Homeschool Review Crew we were given a free download of this product for review purposes.***

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