The Old Schoolhouse® Product & Curriculum Reviews

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Standard Deviants Video Series, The Review by Jenefer Igarashi

Cerebellum Corporation
http://www.cerebellum.com

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine found a real winner. We had to put this review in our "Fun Favorites" room on the site because we love it so much. This video series has won the Telly Award 15 times for best educational video, and we can see why. Their videos are hilarious. Now, keep in mind, they are secular. Some of the dress is modern and the kids (all college) are goofy. We had the opportunity to look at Basic Math, Chemistry 1 and Africa: Safari, So Good - among some others. Our family's favorite was Basic Math. Sounds like a boring subject, huh? Not with the Standard Deviants! We found ourselves counting and subtracting Cow Tripe with the best of them. We were laughing our heads off. I would say these are awesome for kids in high school and particularly for those studying (cramming) for college entrance exams or high school graduation tests. For example, here is what you'll cover (in a funny, silly, energetic manner) in just the math video alone: integers, decimals, addition, carrying over, subtraction, borrowing, multiplication, division, the divisor, the dividend, the quotient, checking your answers, the order of operations, exponents, scientific notation, rounding integers and decimals, digit places, fractions, numerator, denominator, reciprocal, prime numbers, composite numbers, factors, mixed numbers, ratios, and percents!

Don't get me started on their Shakespeare's Tragedies or English Punctuation videos - we'll be here all day! My husband especially appreciated Africa: Safari, So Good as he watched it with our sons. The videos from this company are GREAT! Even TV Guide has spoken highly of this company! The Standard Deviants collection is to be highly sought after if you enjoy humor in your learning programs. They're FUNNY!


-- Product Review by: Publishers, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

Here's another The Standard Deviants Video Series review!

What a riot! You must check out The Standard Deviants videos put out by Cerebellum. This is a phenomenal resource, and would be especially beneficial to use for unit studies, or for quick review, as they are broken into short and easily absorbed sections. It is no wonder they won the Telly Award for Best Educational Video. Read on, and you will see why.

We had a chance to view Shakespeare Tragedies: Origins and Styles, and English Grammar, Part I. Cerebellum obviously knows that learning sticks the most when it is FUN! These high school videos do an amazing job at covering fundamental basics in a unique way that is enormously entertaining to watch and easy to understand, which, ultimately, results in true learning.

What makes The Standard Deviants so captivating to view is that lesson segments are broken down into various, entertaining, skit-like clips, which keep the information fresh and fun. Not a second is left open for boredom or monotony to set in. No droning here! The "videos stars," though, are who really make this a hit. They are high-energy, older young adults who are tremendously animated, and at times, even down right silly. Strangely, my eight-year-old sat through the lessons (on both the English and Shakespeare videos), and let me know, "Hey mom, I understand this! This is high-school stuff, and it's EASY!"

My teenage daughter and I both chuckled through the English lessons, and absolutely screamed with laughter during the Shakespeare lessons. We learned about Blank Verse - Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter, and not only understood it, but enjoyed it! My eight-year-old kept asking, "Please rewind this part! I want to watch that again!"

This video series is excellent, and at the request of both my older daughters, I plan to get more videos offered by Cerebellum, especially ones like organic chemistry, which can be so boring with traditional teaching methods. Tedious subjects like grammar need not be tedious any longer! If your students are crying, "Some FUN, Some FUN, my Kingdom for some FUN!" (perfect example of unrhymed iambic pentameter and (almost) famous Shakespearian quote!), then give their lessons a shot of pure learning enjoyment with this truly beneficial series. Thanks, Cerebellum, for the learning and the laughs!



-- Product review by Jenefer Igarashi, Senior Editor, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

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