Zeezok and Ben-Hur

Do you like to incorporate some creativity into your homeschooling?  Break it up with movies, movie guides and a little bit of fun?  If so then Zeezok would be perfect for you, since 1993 they have been serving the homeschool community with quality literature and educational book and just recently with  Z-Guides to an array of different movies.  

We just happen to be studying ancient Rome this year and so I thought the movie Ben-Hur would go perfectly with our studies.  It did!  My kids remembered so much more then I would have thought they did.  Things like the laurel leaf crown, Tiberius, the Colosseum, chariot racing and gladiators popped up and my kids were able to tell me a lot of information.  With the Z-Guide they give you a lot of activities, questions, comprehension studies and other interesting ways to study the movie that you choose.  I loved the fact that I could just print it out at home and didn't have to wait on a book to arrive in the mail, and I could pick and choose which pages to print.  They offer the Z-Guide for elementary and another one for high school so you get to choose the level that would fit your child's needs.

Here is what each guide contains:

Each guide starts out with a topic overview. This overview provides the student with more information regarding the specific time period in which the movie is based. Next is a movie synopsis. The synopsis will assist the student in understanding what is going on in the movie and how relationships, situations, and events all relate together.

Each guide includes the historical setting, research skills, writing skills, hands-on activity, a worldview study, critical thinking skills, and family discussion questions.  There is also a section called The Filmaker’s Art activity that helps the student recognize the tools being used to influence the viewer.

The Z-guides sell for only $12.99 and are well worth the price, I have 2 children and both of them used the same guide.  This would be very enjoyable for unit studies!

The only thing I found that I didn't really like was that the word puzzle for Ben-Hur wasn't correct and my son looked for almost and hour before I checked it for him and realized the mistake (it could easily be fixed by the company).

I wish I would have known about the Z-Guide last year when we watched the 10 Commandments when we were studying Egypt, it would have been a perfect addition to our studies.  You can bet I will be checking each year to see what they have to complement our studies, it was a fun experience for all of us.

If you would like to see what other movies are available and that were reviewed by my TOS crew mates, please click here.

Thanks for reading,