Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

A Homeschool Mom's Devotional by award-winning podcaster Jan L. Burt

Colossians 4:17 tells the reader to "be sure to carry out the work the Lord gave you". How can this be applied to the enormously busy lifestyle of a homeschool mom? First of all, we must always remember that the Word of God has the answer for our every need and we can trust fully in God to use His Word to lead us, guide us, correct us, and bless us. Keeping that in mind, let's consider what this verse is saying. We are told to carry out, or complete, the work the Lord has given us. We are wives, mothers, homeschoolers. Those three BIG job descriptions come immediately to mind when I think of homeschooling mothers. Applying God's Word to our life means carrying out our work as wives, as mothers, and as homeschoolers. When I am exhausted from another long day (or long week, long month, long year, etc.) I still must honor the Lord by blessing my husband. Maybe that means having a hot meal on the table when he arrives home from work. Perhaps your husband...
6 comments
Read more

I Gotta Let You Know Two Very Important Things (Seriously, They Are Truly Important For You To Know...)

 First, a big --- fat --- hefty dose of encouragement for you, my wonderful homeschooling friend.  As you get ready to roll into the fall of 2020...stop for just one moment and hear what God's Word has to say to you right here, right now, on the brink of the last stretch of what has possibly been the most turn-your-whole-world-upside-down year ever.  Psalm 125:2 - As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore.   You are surrounded.  Completely & totally, that's exactly how surrounded you are.  Going into the great unknown as, say, a working mom whose children are going to be doing school online at home (or a working mom homeschooling and working from home for just the next several months, but not planning on continuing to home educate after things "normalize" again).  This is God's promise just for you as you embark upon this season of life. I really, truly believe He wants you to know that He has yo...
1 comment
Read more

My Preferred Bible Reading Plan

We all know that reading our Bibles is a key part of living a healthy life as a follower of Jesus. But busy homeschool moms may, at times, struggle to know what part of the Bible to read on any given day. Some people read the Bible through, Genesis to Revelation, and when they finish simply start over. Others have reading plans that follow along with the sermons their pastor is currently preaching. And yet others find themselves "stuck in the Psalms", since they're not quite sure what to read. I'm not going to tell you how many chapters a day you should read, or that you need to do exactly what I do. I'm just going to share what has worked for me, and hopefully encourage you to get into the Word using some type of plan ~ because every homeschool mom knows what happens to our plans when we fail to create a plan, right?! I use a prayer and Bible reading guide called "Prayer Point" , published by Samaritan's Purse. About every 8 weeks, I receive a...
3 comments
Read more

Schoolhouse Review Crew ~ A Thomas Jefferson Education (This Week in History)

Rachel DeMille, of Thomas Jefferson Education , promotes a fascinating educational philosophy (based on The Seven Keys of Great Teaching ). Her website, www.TJEd.org , provides a thorough explanation of this philosophy. It's also an excellent history resource that I hope my blog readers will consider using in their homeschools. I really love what Rachel is doing! I am not reviewing everything available at the website - trust me, there is quite a bit to be found there! What I am reviewing is " This Week in History ", a resource that covers a wide variety of subjects and topics on a daily basis in an engaging and interesting manner. I have used this as a part of our history curriculum, but it really is so much more than history.  Each week I receive an email with the current week's " This Week in History ". I am also able to access this information at the website, along an archive that covers the current year. And I also receive daily emails, called ...
1 comment
Read more

Do You Homeschool? Then You Need to Read This Article!

Whether you have been homeschooling for a month, a year, or a decade, you've inevitably faced the "questions". Questions about socialization, college, athletics, driver's ed, high-school biology, etc. etc. etc. and so on..... It seems as if homeschoolers are ripe for questions from day one; but the flip side seems to be that there really is no flip side. We are expected to patiently answer any and all questions, smiling politely and pretending we've never heard this line of questioning before. But when we try to ask a few questions about, say, public schools as a whole or the issue of private schools being used as a last-ditch landing spot for students expelled from public school, well...ahem...we're pretty much told to keep quiet. No one wants to hear our questions, and often times no one really wants to hear our answers to their questions. They just kind of want us to....go....away. I'm not planning on going away any time soon. And neither are my fiv...
4 comments
Read more