Fun Learning DVDs (and 50% off deal)

Emily and I recently received two DVDs from the Cerebellum Corp. to try out in our homeschool. Last year, I reviewed the Light Speed AP English and Composition Test Prep DVD and we own several of the Standard Deviants Spanish videos, so I knew that Cerebellum Corp. likes to make learning fun with their products.

Standard Deviants: Learn World Geography ($19.98)

 Learn World Geography has 3 parts: “Africa: Safari, So Good,” “Russian Around Europe,” and “North America, Ho!!!” The  90 minute video is face-paced and jumps around between narrators, maps, cartoons, and photos in a way that will easily keep kids’ attention. Countries, economy, history, and climate are all covered. We’ve just finished studying Africa, so that segment was a good review for Emily and she enjoyed trying to name the countries and rivers before they were named in the video. I thought that a LOT of information was included in each 30 minute section.

My daughter thought that it was “alive and active.”  She said,“ It gave me facts that I didn’t already know. I liked that they told the countries by regions so they were  easy to learn.”   She frequently laughed at the antics of the narrators.

My 15 year old neighbor watched the Africa section with us and thought that it was aimed at younger kids, but said that he still enjoyed it. He particularly enjoyed the large range of African history that was taught. (It did, however, only touch on the past few hundred years of African history and European influence on Africa.)

The cd also covers geographic vocabulary.

Just the Facts: Inventors ($24.95)

This 30 minute DVD is a documentary featuring Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell,  the Wright brothers, George Washington Carver, Nikola Tessla, and Thomas Edison. I found it to be a nice, factual introduction to each of these inventors. The narration is accompanied by colorful drawings and paintings of the inventors and inventions. This title is geared toward middle and high school aged students. It held Emily’s interest well.

Watching this DVD after the World Geography one, Emily commented that, “This one is too serious.”  and “It was educational and interesting and I learned a lot of things I didn’t know before.”

Cerebellum is offering a GREAT coupon for 50% off all items on their site! The coupon code is DVD50. It is valid until June 30,2011 and cannot be used with any other coupon code or promotion.

I received  free review copies of these videos from the Cerebellum Corporation.