Z-Guides to the Movies Review

 

We are studying American History this year and right before Christmas break we ended our study with the American Revolution.  We have incorporated several things into our study which have added tremendous value, like taking a family vacation to Williamsburg and reading the entire Felicity series.

Then I found out we would have a chance to review a Z-Guide to the Movies from Zeezok Publishing.  ZeeZok has been providing materials for the homeschooling community since 1993 and recently added Z-Guides.  These movie guides are a great way to incorporate media into any curriculum.

They have dozens of guides available, each falling within a specific time in history.  Of course my choice was simple, I had to pick something from the American Revolution!  Their website has a great Z-Guide Timeline so it was easy to find what I was looking for. 

Up popped the Z-Guide for Johnny Tremain.  I have to admit, I had never heard of Johnny Tremain, but thankfully their website has a good description of the movie, and even a short clip.  I thought it would be perfect. 

And on a side note, almost all their movies can be found on Netflix or at your local library.  {We don't have Netflix so I was happy that our library had a copy}.

So what is a Z-Guide?  Well, all of the guides contain ten educational activities that build upon the movie.  Each guide starts out with a Topic Overview and Movie Synopsis.  The first activity is always review questions and the next several activities all build around the historical time of the movie.  There are also hands-on activities like crosswords and coloring pages. 

ZeeZok recommends students complete two activities per day, taking a week to complete.  Z-Guides are meant to supplement your current history curriculum and not intended to replace your core curriculum for history.

My Thoughts:  I think these Z-Guides are wonderful!  We watched the movie as a family and Funny Bunny enjoyed it.  The review questions in the first activity are supposed to be completed while watching the movie, but she did not want to do that, so she answered them afterward.  This particular guide is for Middle School, so she did not complete everything, but answered the simpler questions and enjoyed the hands-on activities.  After seeing this guide, I would say that if you several children, buy the guide to fit the needs of the oldest and have the younger children do what you see fit.

Thoughts of an 8-Year Old:  I liked the movie, but I would rather watch it without doing the questions at the same time.  The guide has crosswords and things like that. The questions were fun to answer.

Find Out More:  You can find out more about Z-Guides at ZeeZok Publishing.  Z-Guides sell individually for $12.99 and $49.99 for a co-op or classroom.  You can purchase the movies through their site as well.  Here you can see a sample guide.  Guides are available as an e-book download or shipped on a CD. 

My Crewmates are also reviewing ZeeZok, so you can check out what they think HERE.

Disclosure:  This product was given to Our Homeschool Reviews for free for review purposes, and I do not have to return the products to the vendor.  I have received no compensation from it and all opinions and experiences within this review are my own.