Friday, February 18, 2011

Fresh Air!!!

After days of the weather being too cold or dreary to open the windows, and after several days of the Plague of Doom (flu) in our house, the windows are open and fresh air is circulating in the house.

While winter is my favorite season (I know, I'm kinda strange), I say

BRING IT ON, SPRING!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Digt-It! Roman Town

Photobucket

 In a world where we are often trying to get our kids off of the computer while they are trying desperately to get ON the computer, many of us are on a quest for educational software.  This usually ends up restricted to reading, math, and maybe a little geography.

Photobucket

Dig-It! Games, founded by a professional archaeologist and teacher, is different.  Using interactive activities, it further immerses children 8 and up (and parents who can't seem to tear themselves away for whatever reason... what can I say?  I LOVE ancient history!) into studying ancient Rome the same way an archaeologist does.  The player is introduced to their dig site, where they excavate different pieces and parts of historical artifacts.

Photobucket

After each round of digging, you are shown to what you found, can learn more about everything you've picked up and put together things that are in different pieces.  Like putting 3-d pieces back together, putting frescos back together, and learning more about them all.

Photobucket

In order to "progress" past this, you have to complete a report about the area of a Roman home you excavated things from.

Photobucket

Like I said earlier, I LOVE this game.  While getting through a single play is a bit quick, you can play multiple times and get different artifacts and such and different information.  Thing 1, now being 6, is not quiiiiiiiiiite up to being able to play this on his own.  The characters do not talk, and so there is a lot... a LOT... of reading.  Thing 1 is a good reader, but a lot of that reading is big words (like archaeology) or Latin words, so without someone to help him through those parts, it would get very frustrating for him.  Buuuuuuuut he's under the suggested age of 8+, so it's to be expected.  We will be studying ancient history this coming year, so I intend to use this as part of our studies on Rome.  It will certainly help put things into context for him.

If you have an archaeology or ancient Rome fan, you can purchase this game for $39.95.  HOWEVER, if you use the coupon code TOS2011 before February 21, 2011, you get the game for the price of $19.96!  AWESOME DEAL THERE!

If you would like the perspective of other Crew members, go take a look at the Crew blog!

Disclaimer: I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review of this product.  I received no other compensation from the vendor.