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The Adventures of Ocean Annie: Explore Coral Reefs Review by Tess Hamre

Annie Crawley
Dive Into Your Imagination
www.diveintoyourimagination.com and www.anniecrawley.com
805-453-1947
200 W. Mason St. #19
Santa Barbara, CA, 93101 USA
http://www.anniecrawley.com/

When people are passionate about a topic, the passion tends to permeate the product.  It can’t help but leak out and spill into the book, or in this case the DVD.  Annie Crawley is passionate about the ocean.  She shares that passion with children through The Adventures of Ocean Annie. This volume, Explore Coral Reefs takes children on a fascinating journey to the coral reef with stops at the eel grass and sand patch.

In this 47 minute DVD, Annie Crawley encourages viewers to “dive into your imagination and become an imagination explorer.” She begins with making sure the audience has what they need: camera, magnifying glass, world map, and then using the “magic word: imagination” we leave the submarine and enter the ocean. Throughout the DVD, she teaches some important tips for scuba diving such as “stop, think, and breathe slowly”. She even includes some hand signals that scuba divers use. In each of the three areas: coral reef, eel grass, and sand patch, we find and learn about a few sea creatures such as the sea anemone, lionfish, whale, shark, turtles, and more. Annie also takes the time to review what we’ve seen. She makes the experience interactive for the children and encourages active participation. After pausing so the viewer can answer, Annie gives a sea lion clap complete with sound effects. In addition, the DVD includes bonus features: testimony from Angler-Fish Albert and Aqua Mom Marsha, Meet Annie, other products, and a section on Scuba Diving. These features will play automatically at the end of the Explore Coral Reefs section but are also available from the menu.

I really enjoyed watching this with my developmentally delayed daughter. Mentally, my daughter is around age 6, and this was perfect for her. Annie’s enthusiasm wasn’t as appreciated by my teenagers though. We used this as part of a science study on oceans and sea life.Though this could be enjoyed on its own, I think it shines when used as a supplement to bring ocean studies to life. With beautiful cinematography, children who are studying the ocean and sea life get a chance to see clown fish, lion fish, and sharks in their natural habit, instead of just pictures in a book. We do not live near a large sea aquarium, so this DVD made a great substitute field trip.

Because I do recommend this DVD for young children, I do need to point out one feature or aspect that I did not like as much. Annie uses scientific inquiry, an aspect I loved, to help the audience determine if sharks were fish or mammals. Unfortunately, the answers to the scientific inquiry questions were written as captions on the screen and not spoken. In another scientific inquiry, the answers are spoken. I do wish the one for the shark included verbal answers, as well as written. Overall, this is an enjoyable, educational video. This made a wonderful addition to our study of the ocean and sea life.

Product Review by Tess Hamre, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September, 2012

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