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Schoolhouse Review Crew ~ Zane Education

This product review for the Schoolhouse Crew has been a real treat. Zane Education provided me with a 12-month online Gold membership to their educational website, www.ZaneEducation.com. As soon as I logged in and set up my family's account, I pretty much loved what Zane Education has to offer. My mind started buzzing with ideas about all the ways I could use this massive resource in our homeschool!

Zane Education offers the only library of online education videos, which were developed to teach a variety of school subjects. 260 + topics are covered, with lesson plans, quizzes and more. It is an exhaustive, thorough resource. And they offer excellent customer service, too!

When you log into your Zane Education account you will see tabs for "Videos", "Study Centre", and "Quizzes". These are the three tabs my family has used primarily. There are also tabs toward the left side of the screen that say "Classroom", "Home Education", "Special Needs", and "Extra Curriculum". Those were features we used less - but not because they're not worth using! Simply because there is so much at Zane Education, we couldn't possibly use it all before it was time to write the review! You really do get a lot for your money with Zane Education.

The "Study Centre" has a World Fact Book, Video Glossary, Zane Dictionary, Zane Thesaurus, Zane Encyclopedia, as well as catalogs and downloads. Using the dictionary and thesaurus, you can search by letter or by word; the encyclopedia works the same way. And there is a keyword search, so you can type in "hints" if you're not totally sure what you're looking for (as is the case with me much of the time!).

The online educational videos really are the meat of Zane Education's website. Here you will find an excellent assortment of videos sorted both by subject and by grade level. A clear description of how best to use the videos can be found on the "Videos" page, and their idea that these videos are the "missing piece" in many children's education bears some weight. After all, if your child is primarily a visual learner, then videos are the ideal learning method, right? And if you have an auditory learner, well, listening to the videos will certainly be beneficial. And if you need a video to supplement certain subject matter with any type of learner, Zane Education probably has that topic covered! I quickly found videos on Ancient Egypt and the Kansas-Nebraska Act that fit perfectly with some of my lesson plans. And whenever I needed a video for a certain subject, I used the video glossary. Find the video, click the video link, watch the video - it's that simple!



The "Quizzes" section is divided by age from elementary through adult. From there the topics are divided by subject. It's pretty easy to find what you're looking for. I found that the Library Tools quizzes were a great way to asses and reinforce my children's research skills during the summer months. The American History quizzes were my personal favorite - and I was pretty surprised by what I did and didn't know! These are very thorough quizzes and doing well on them indicated a higher level of understanding re: a specific topic than that of most adults.  And the catalogs contained a gem titled "Christian Learning Guide" that is a pretty good resource for Christian homeschoolers using this site. There is also a math video catalog that I found very helpful.

One excellent and easy way to use the "Quizzes" is to choose a quiz, then look at the information bar on the right-hand side of the web page. There you will find Quiz Info, Related Videos (watch them prior to taking the quiz), and Quiz Learning Tools like lesson plan guides, video word glossary, etc. What a great way for the visual learner to master a topic that they may have struggled with in the past!

One note I'd like to share with my readers is that Zane Education seems to support an evolutionary viewpoint, which is not something I am used to finding in Christian curriculum. Every family must handle this topic in their own way - I just wanted to make sure my readers were aware of this beforehand!



There are different levels of membership available from Zane Education, and you can find all of them clearly explained HERE.

Here is some pricing info: Basic Membership is free. Gold Membership is $17.99/month ($197.89/year). Silver Membership is $12.99/month ($142.89/year). Bronze Membership is $8.99/month ($99.89/year). Each level of membership comes with different benefits. They also offer a "Topic Taster" membership so that you can test out their service for 30 days at a cost of just $5. 

Visit Zane Education online at www.ZaneEducation.com.

And be sure to read other Schoolhouse Reviews HERE.







Lord bless you as you homeschool for His glory!

Day 206 done :)

Jan L. Burt

www.ALLTHINGSHOMESCHOOL.weebly.com

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