Product: The Standard Deviants - American Government Gift Pack (American Government, Parts 1 & 2) [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
Government made fun!
American Government was a topic I really debated teaching in our homeschool. I remember it being a dry, boring, fairly unnecessary topic when I went to school but my heart wouldn't let me skip over it. Who knows - maybe one of my kids will actually work in government and it would be helpful to know it's structure and how it all works.I had read some reviews on various Standard Deviants topics but not much on American Government. I was happily surprised! The sections are short and to the point with tons of good review. The actors are fun and engaging and my 12 year old has really enjoyed learning about American Government. The quizzes and tests are decent but hard to use if you want a hard copy for any kind of proof. The fact that they are interactive would be attractive for some kids but it would be nice if they also had a PDF file for each quiz/test that could be printed. But as an over-all way of teaching American Government to middle school aged kids (or even younger if they are pretty bright) I am quite happy. My daughter was able to watch, pause to take notes, rewind over parts she needed to review, and now has a very decent grasp of the topic. This would be excellent for the very visual and auditory type learner that needs to be a little more engaged to learn. The actors speak about the topics but there are also plenty of lists and charts to reinforce what is being covered and show proper spelling of words that might be new but vital to the topic - such as "Constitution".In hindsight, this would also be an excellent way for a public school student to review American Government topics for class - especially one learning it the old fashioned way from a book and teacher lecture that needs that visual/auditory element!