As part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received online access to Mayan Mysteries Online Game from Dig-It Games. Dig-It Games was founded by a professional archaeologist and a former middle-school teacher. Dig-It! Games develops educational games that encourage kids to explore the world around them through historically accurate content. Mayan Mysteries is for students in fifth through ninth grades. My 12 year old, 7th grade son played this game. The Single User License is for one student. You can use it with more than one student, though. After the first child finishes the game, clicking the “Start New” option on the main menu will create a completely fresh game for another player.

 

In Mayan Mysteries, kids help Professor Alex Quinn and his niece and nephew Fiona and Charlie solve the mystery of a looter that has been digging up Maya sites. While trying to solve the mystery, students will visit Maya sites, uncover & analyze artifacts, decode glyphs, explore the Maya calendar, learn the Maya math system, solve puzzles & gather clues to track the mysterious thief. While having fun solving the mystery, kids will learn geographic, scientific, and mathematical concepts.

 

 

Dig-It! Games – Mayan Mysteries Review

My son, Zachary, had great fun with Mayan Mysteries. It’s very easy to sign in and get started with the game. No teacher or parent prep is required. I’d say he spent 10-12 hours playing this game. I wish I had thought to keep track of his time.  The only thing he needed help with was some of the Mayan math. I will say I’m glad we don’t use Mayan math. lol Once my son got used to using the Mayan math, he was able to keep up a steady pace in the game.

One of the things I really liked about the game was the adjustable volume settings. The music, that played through the game, and the characters audio both had separate volume settings. If your student works better without the distraction of the music, you can turn it all the way down. A plus for moms, too, that don’t want music playing all the time.

Zach said, “The game was good.  I liked when you had to find objects in different rooms. I liked answering the trivia questions, too. My goal was to make it through the temple gates, but I only made it there once. I didn’t like the Mayan Math. I already have enough math. I have math up to my ears.”

There is an ending to the game. After the kids have completed all the activities, a congratulations screen comes up. There is no way to see your progress in the game, so it’s really a surprise when they come to the final screen. Zach has asked me several times since finishing the game when Mayan Mysteries 2 is coming out.

You can watch the trailer below or play the Mayan Mysteries Demo

 

The Mayan Mysteries Single User License, like I received, is available for $21.99. The license is good for one year. There is also a class room license available.

 

As part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew I received Teaching the Classics from Institute for Excellence in Writing to review.

The Institute for Excellence in Write (IEW) offers literature, writing, spelling and grammar products for students of all ages.

 

Teaching the Classics A Socratic Method for Literary Education is a literature seminar for parents and teachers. You can view video excerpts, and sample pages on the website. Teaching the Classics educates the teacher in how to teach literary analysis to their students. Students can work through the seminar at the same time as the teachers, if the teacher chooses to do it that way. I watched the videos, and worked in the workbook myself.

Teaching the Classics is amazing! No literature courses that I ever took taught how to analyze characters, plots, and themes like Teaching the Classics did. The DVDs show the instructor, Adam Andrews, in an actual seminar. So he is standing at a podium and whiteboard the whole time. He ask questions of those attending the seminar, and they ask him questions, also. Many times, someone in the seminar would ask a question that I had, also.  So even though your watching the seminar on dvd, it’s like you are there, too.

As he is talking, and showing examples on the white board, you can follow along in the workbook. Poems are included in the lessons in the workbook. You will have to purchase the books to use them with the course. I already have most of the books used in the course. Or better yet, just use the library! All of the books used are common books that should be available in all libraries.

The seminar starts with the Five Elements of Fiction: Setting, Characters, Theme, Plot, and Conflict. Literary Style is then covered, including terms such as imagery, allusion, metaphor, simile, and foreshadowing. The instructor actually takes you through analyzing several poems and books during the seminar. Once you learn the Teaching the Classics method for studying literature, you can apply the techniques to any books you and your students read, from children’s books to novels, and anything in between.

Some of the books, poems, and authors covered are Longfellow, Paul Revere’s Ride, Peter Rabbit, Tom Sawyer, and Casey at Bat. There is a daily lesson plan guideline to help you get started using Teaching the Classics with your students. As well as, book lists, printable story charts, and more. There is a Scope & Sequence included, which lists 10 weekly lessons   Also included in the back of the workbook is The Socratic List. The Socratic List is a list of 21 questions that can be used with any book you are reading. Each one of these 21 questions has additional questions under it, some with as many as 17 questions. For example, the first question is Where does the story take place? There are then 10 questions below that question to be answered covering everything from the country, city, atmosphere, economic class, and any historical events that have taken place there. This is a very thorough list of questions that will take some time to get through for each book. These are not simple comprehension questions, but questions designed to help the reader get inside the characters and story.

I was very impressed with Teaching the Classics. Now that I have learned the techniques, I plan on using them with my students.

 

Teaching the Classics 4 DVD Seminar & Workbook sells for $89. on the IEW website. Extra workbooks are available for $29. There are also many free resources on the website.

As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received PreScripts Cursive Passages and Illuminations from Classical Conversations to review.

Classical Conversations says on their website that  The purpose of education is to know God and to make Him known. I couldn’t agree more! Classical Conversations helps parents provide a classical education for their children. They recently introduced PreScripts. A new handwriting line for ages three through high school.

PreScripts Cursive Passages and Illuminations, that I received, is for ages nine through high school. Students practice with passages of writing taken from American documents and speeches. Passages and Illuminations is for students that have mastered cursive writing. There are no instructions for writing cursive, just the passage for the student to copy.

The practice of writing with illuminations comes from medieval manuscripts. You’ve probably seen illuminations in books before. They really dress up the printed page. Illuminations make students handwriting samples a work of art. Perfect for hanging on the wall, or giving to family and friends.

The picture below is from the book. As you can tell, it is a spiral bound book that lays flat while the student is working. All of the pages have the writing sample on the left, with a large illumination and space for the student to draw their own illumination on the right hand page.

I used Passages and Illuminations with my 14 year old daughter that just finished 8th grade. She averaged 3-4 lessons a week, completing 15 during the review period. You can see one of her practice sheets below with her illuminations. I also started my 12 year old son using the book. He has not mastered all the cursive letters yet, so was becoming very frustrated with the writings. So I pulled him off the book, and we’ll revisit it when he masters those letters.

With this book, the parent decides the pace of the book. A half a page a day for a younger student, or up to two to four a day for more experienced, older students. If you do one page a day, four to five pages a week, there are enough pages for a complete school year. There are also recommendations in the book for the number of pages to do if you are involved in a Classical Conversations community.

I had her use some handwriting paper that I had to practice the lessons on. This paper with a small rule, not kindergarten paper with wide lines. You can see she practiced the illuminations on these sheets, too. I liked all of the passages in the book. They include samples from Christopher Columbus “Appologia”, Patrick Henry, the Mayflower Compact, The Missouri Compromise, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and many more. You can view sample pages on the website. These passages from important historical documents give meaning to hand writing practice.

 

PreScripts Cursive Passages and Illuminations sells for $12.99 (at the time of this review) on the Classical Conversations website. PreScripts can be used as a consumable or non-consumable. The copyright gives permission to make copies for use in your family. Making this a perfect course for families with multiple children.