MarshMedia ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

MarshMedia is a producer of videos for public schools in grades K-8th.  They make award winning videos concerning puberty, special needs, character, nutrition, and other topics.  MarshMedia has been developing educational materials since 1969, which makes me wonder if I haven't seen some of their videos "from the olden days." They are excited to offer this Homeschool Special to Homeschool Review Crew readers and other homeschooling families.

I was given a code to access any of their streaming videos.  The punks watched the videos on their school laptop right at the table.  Most of the MarshMedia films were appropriate for all ages, though they do list a specific target range for each video.


MarshMedia features nearly two dozen character videos.  The punks watched a few and thoroughly enjoyed watching them.  They were laughing and discussing the stories for hours after viewing.  The character videos are directed toward children in grades K-4.  My bigger punks liked them, too.

In Aloha, Potter, a little fish is being teased by a crab.  His friends offer a lot of advice to get the teasing to stop, but none of it seems to work.  *SPOILER ALERT* the only thing that helps Potter is to ignore the teasing.  Now, I have three boys.  They tease each other sometimes and though I tell them to ignore it, I know that really isn't the ideal solution.  The way to stop teasing is to get the child who is teasing to stop *doing it*.  So, while the boys unanimously LOVED Aloha, Potter ("Let's watch it again!"), and I've sometimes used the "ignore it," advice, I felt like it was better used as a jumping off point for discussing that, first and foremost, teasing is wrong and we shouldn't do it.  Then, follow up with ignoring it.  Because, my goodness, so many issues can be avoided when we ignore minor irritations.




This is the Life is the story of a bear named Stanley who ends up falling asleep in a camper and being taken far from his forest home.  When he wakes up, he is at a drive-in movie theater.  He eats all of the standard movie junk foods and ends up overweight and lethargic.  He is found by humans who chase him away and he realizes the real fun is back home where there are healthy foods for bears, and he heads back home.  I'm always talking to the boys about making healthy choices, as we have a super picky eater and a couple of guys with a sweet tooth.  Anything that reinforces what I'm already telling them sounds pretty good to me.  :)

We also watched Bailey's Birthday which is the story of a dog who imagines receiving a bunch of wonderful birthday gifts, but only receives a bandana and a hug.  Bailey was pretty disappointed until he learned that love from your family is better than physical gifts.


All of these little character stories are really cute.  The punks have enjoyed each one we watched.  As I said with Aloha, Potter, if the lesson isn't exactly like you would prefer to teach your kiddos, just use it as a jumping off point for deeper discussions.  The art is eyecatching and there is so much to see in the lovely pictures, especially in Aloha, Potter where there are crabs and various kinds of fish to introduce to your children.

The chant, "You're Not a Little Kid Anymore," annoyed them all.  Even the little kid. :D But the hygiene video did a very thorough job of explaining the ins and outs of the care and keeping of our bodies and clothing.  If your kiddo enjoys musicals, they'll probably like this video as well.  This video is intended for grades 3-5.


I admit, I was a little nervous about the puberty education videos.  For one, I remember being completely mortified in school when all the girls were taken to the gym to watch our puberty video.  *Everyone* (including the boys) knew what we were going for.  At least, I was pretty sure the boys knew.  Didn't they?

Not being a boy, I wasn't sure what to expect in the boys' version of the same type of video.  I've browsed the shelves in bookstores multiple times, but it seems like the books, whether intended for boys or girls, always had a bit more about the opposite gender than I really felt they needed to know at a young age.  We've just talked to them as things have come up.  I tend to let Dad cover the bulk of the talking.  *ahem*

For our first attempt at a lesson outside of our own efforts, I went to the tab labeled Puberty DVDs and selected videos for boys grade 3-5.  (NOTE: While the website says DVD, the offered program is actually streaming videos.)  It was titled Meet The New You - Boy.  This was very clear and thorough information.  It was *not* sex ed.  I started the video for the boys and then sort of wandered out of the room.  I didn't want them to think I was leaving for a reason, but I also didn't want them to feel uncomfortable because Mom was in the room.  The video covered things like body changes and hygiene.  I heard comments like:

"I'm creeped out right now.  I might be sick."

and this discussion.

Child 1:  How's my breath?
Child 2:  Disgusting.
Child 1:  Good!

There are puberty education videos for boys and girls for grades 3-8.

MarshMedia videos are all fairly short, around 15 minutes or so, though I never paid a lot of attention to the the time.

MarshMedia videos have been produced for schools, not families, and the prices reflect that.  But they are offering a new service to homeschoolers that provides access to 59 of their videos for a single fee of $50, less than $1 each.  If you would like to take advantage of the opportunity to introduce the MarshMedia curriculum to your children, click on this link for more information:    https://marshmedia.com/pages/homeschool-offer

I would tell you about the ordering process for each video, but the way this new homeschool component works is completely different from the access I received.  You must use the homeschool link directly above this paragraph to access the offer, it isn't found on the website, which is geared toward school systems.  From the homeschool link, click on the words “Homeschool Special.”  It might take a few seconds to load the page.  After purchasing through this link, you'll have unlimited access to the MarshMedia film library until December 31, 2017.


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HomeSchool Scholastics TOS Review

 Building healthy families at home.

My decision this spring to get myself moving and healthy has been difficult for Xav.  He has been concerned that I've been "starving" myself.  Though I have been explaining nutrition, healthy eating, and sensible portions he seemed to really struggle with the idea of "denying" yourself food.  He seems to think if you eat a healthy meal, you can fill the time between meals with all the empty junk you want.  The WAY Comes Home Kit from HomeSchool Scholastics, an i4 Learning Company is helping me teach the boys more about the better choices I've been making and why it is important for all of us to look after the bodies God has given to us.

WAY stands for Wellness, Academics, & You.  Originally, developed in 2005 for use in schools, the new WAY Comes Home Kit was created especially for homeschoolers.  WAY combines physical activities, vocabulary, and learning activities about health, nutrition, and fitness. The WAY Comes Home Kit includes tons of items to help you teach your family a bit about all those topics.

UN-boxing day was a blast!  The kit comes with an Instructor/Parent Guide, DVD with video clips and exercise segments, student journals (3 options based on age/grade level), a balance scale, plastic eggs, three small bins, a stethoscope, ink pad, WAY Comes Home to MyPlate booklet, vocabulary cards and activity pack, and glitter.

The Parent Guide and Journals (for K-1, grades 2-3, and grades 4-5) are all softcover books.  The journals vary in length from 40 to 64 pages.  The Parent Guide is 144 pages.  The boys loved that the journals have a blank cover for them to personalize any way they wanted.


There is also a consumable packet of WAY vocab cards and illustrations.  This pack includes the cards for all three levels.  Copyright allows for copying some of the pages for games like matching.

All of these cool pieces are included in the WAY Comes Home Kit.  There was just so much.  You can see why the boys were so excited to unpack the box when it arrived.

For ease of use, the Parent Guide is color coded by the three age levels.

• Health Safari - blue and green for K-1
• Me Mysteries - orange and red for 2nd-3rd
• Innerspace Adventure - purple and blue for 4th-5th or 6th

In this manner, parents can quickly locate the activities for each module and the appropriate grade.  The PG has all of the information needed to facilitate the modules for one or more children.

Each lesson begins with a synopsis for the parent, followed by a list of required and some optional items for that level, including on-topic library books.  Vocabulary words are listed and followed by activities that involve reading, demonstrations, and discussions.  These are followed by possible ways to include children in the household who are working at other levels.

Some of the activities in L to R Health Safari, Me Mysteries, and Innerspace Adventure.

There are plenty of blank pages in the journals for recording information and completing activities from the Include Me Too! sections, but the books aren't actually set up to do exactly the same thing across the age levels.  Part of this makes sense, as children at different levels understand the information differently and may need different instruction.  As the parent teaching three kiddos at different levels, it would have been more convenient if everyone was recording basically the same things.  For instance, in module three one book had a chart to record the student's resting, active, and recovering heart rate.  Another level has several blank, lined pages for recording all physical activity and related information for one week.  The third level has pages for drawing pictures.  I would have loved a simple chart in each book.  We all completed the activity and recorded the information, because heart and respiration rates are an excellent indicator of how we are working our bodies.  I think WAY works best for multiple kids at different levels if you chose a level to work on, then do the activities that incorporate other ages.

The journaling pages in the upper grades and K-1 books.

The lessons can be completed in a week or so or could take much longer with all of the other optional activities.  The topics remain the same for each module even though the journals do not cover them in the same way.  There are so many things to choose from and books to read, this could keep us busy for much of the school year.

Module 1: Getting Started - The importance of learning about health and wellness.
Module 2: Where Do You Begin - Students learn how to assess where they are now and document the information so they can review personal progress.
Module 3: Let's Get Active - Explore different types of physical activities.
Module 4: The Nutrition WAY - Learn about healthy eating using the MyPlate Guidelines.
Module 5: Health-It's Personal - Everyday health and hygiene practices are learned in this module.

You may know that technology is not my friend.  I've looked and looked for pictures from our germy/moldy bread experiment and cannot find them anywhere!

I do, however, have pics from the glitter experiment WHICH WE DID OUTDOORS!  Here, Xav was contaminated by glitter germs.  If you've ever worked with glitter you know it *is* just like a contamination.  He shook hands with Merrick and we examined the cross contamination that occurred.  After that, they went around touching the railing and other things around the yard, happily spreading their glittery germs everywhere they went.

Spreading germs.

The DVD in the WAY Comes Home Kit includes skits to introduce WAY and each module to the kiddos.  They're often humorous skits with similarly aged children in the upper two levels.  The Health Safari segments are more like watching book pages as the audio plays.  The exercise component is also included with the DVD lessons.  These fun, short aerobic workouts are available in a variety of musical genres.  You can also choose the length of time you want to exercise.  We tried a few out and while they're fun, they definitely got out hearts pumping!

There is also an online component available to purchasers.  We didn't receive access to it, but I understand new content is added every month and lessons in math, science, and technology are being planned.  This is a terrific Homeschool health and wellness curriculum.

As of right now, the entire WAY Comes Home Curriculum kit is $10 off the regular price of $49.95.  As a special offer to all Schoolhouse Review Crew readers there is an additional discount of $15 which will about cover shipping to most locations!  Simply use the code GC0737011 at checkout.
 
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