Grapevine StudiesEducational Diagnostic Prescriptive ServicesBarnum Software -Quarter MileMaverick BooksSue Gregg CookbooksWeb Design for Kids - Click Drag SolutionsSense and Sensibility PatternsAleksCollege Prep GeniusJourney Through LearningRocket PhonicsBright Ideas PressGrowing Healthy HomesMaster InnovationsBonnie Terry LearningGuardian Angel PublishingStudypod / GENIO, LLCABC TeachVantage LearningSarah BooksPasskeys FoundationBible Charts and Mapseducaching/ SDG Creations LtdACT, IncSue Patrick's Workbox SystemBrill Kids/ Kreative LandWe R Fun Life on the Farm3 P Learning/MathleticsExploramaniaNature Friend MagazineAVKOAll About SpellingProfessor in a BoxAmerican Heritage Education FoundationVirginia Soaps and ScentsTektomaMath Score/ Accurate LearningWorship Guitar ClassMaestro ClassicsSaxon HarcourtMathTutorDVDKinderbachBarchowsky Fluent HandwritingApologiaKregelHomeschool Library BuilderEnglish for Life/Madsen MethodChristian KeyboardingDollar Homeschool/Ray's ArithmeticZeezok Publishing/The Book PeddlerMath MammothClassical Legacy PressBeeyoutifulGreat Software ToolsPandia PressFamily MintLesson PlanetArtistic PursuitsCritical ThinkingHomeschool In The WoodsGalaxy of EducationAlphabet BeatsSuper Star SpeechMedia FreaksTime 4 LearningPeterson HandwritingChildren's Bible HourTerrestria ChroniclesIdeal CurriculumCerebellum Corp-Standard DeviantsLobster Network
Mr. Fixit and I are not strangers to focus groups and get-paid-to-help-the-psych-students kinds of things. Over the years we've shared opinions on burger restaurants, baked beans, online banking, radio stations, first-time parenting, and pain relievers. Little Apprentice helped us review tropical-blue-flavour toaster strudel, bran cereal, and chocolate milk. I've also shared my vociferous opinion on books, particularly homeschool books, on the blog and in our homeschool group's newsletter. Our kids have learned, if nothing else, that it's okay to have strong opinions, but you'd better have reasons for them. And that sometimes opinions are worth a free box of cereal or a movie coupon.
So when the opportunity came along last year to jump on the Review Crew ship for awhile, I was interested. We weren't so settled on this year's materials that we couldn't work in some additional products; actually it seemed like a good opportunity to try out new things, especially for a middle-schooler whose school year could do with a bit of spicing up.
I think a lot of what I learned this year had less to do with my children's schooling and more to do with homeschool marketing. That's not to say at all that selling stuff to homeschoolers is all about marketing, in the coldest sense of the word. Many of the products are "labours of love," or at least very worthwhile. But the reason for asking a large cross-section of homeschoolers how they liked a timeline chart, a math website, or even a shampoo bar, was that these vendors are or could be advertisers in the Old Schoolhouse magazine--partly depending on the reception they got from this "test group." Would their products be a good fit for an "average" homeschooler? Would typical OS readers actually spend money on these products?
And if you read enough of the Crew blog and reviews--or, as I did, got to know the Crew through a message board--it's more obvious than ever that very few of us are "average," even within the Christian-homeschooler slant of the Old Schoolhouse. But, taken together, our experiences with the review products add up to, I guess, a good micro-version of the OS readership.
We received a number of very generous downloads and actual products...probably fewer than some of the Crew members did, since some vendors did not ship to Canada or we didn't fit into the target group (parents of preschoolers etc.). (I'm glad we got just the amount to review that we did--what we did get kept us busy enough.) Some of the products were guest memberships on websites, which have already expired. Some were things that we tried out once to be good sports, but probably won't use again. Some were exactly what we needed and we're still using them. Some might get taken off the shelf next year.
There were products I would never have tried on my own that turned out to be useful: like the literature-based writing lessons from Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services. There were a few things that we didn't know much about, like Web Design for Kids. There were new ways to look at old subject areas: Aleks (math website), Mathletics, Math Tutor DVDs, All About Spelling, Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting. There were old ways too: Dollar Homeschool's Ray's Arithmetic downloads. There were a couple of products that we didn't get to review but that we were using anyway: Artistic Pursuits (we used this only the first part of the year because the girls did a lot of art at co-op), Christian Kids Explore Chemistry from Bright Ideas Press. There were some products that stretched ME a bit, like Sense and Sensibility Patterns. We are still using the Workbox System, in our own very modified version.
I think all I have left to say at this point is that I wasn't sure how all this would fit into our frugal-oriented, CM-based, Treehouse-style homeschooling, or how it would come across on Dewey's Treehouse. But all in all, it's been an educational year; I've met some wonderful new online friends who have interesting (and often non-typical) lives and families, and who also have creative and interesting blogs. I've gotten to take a new look at the materials we use for learning. If the chance came along again, I'd take it.
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