We recently reviewed three amazing media enhanced books from Weigl Publishers, Glaciers, A Lion’s World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. Each PDF book contains a digital code that unlocks some amazing multimedia content.  Depending on the book, it can unlock audio, videos, weblinks, slideshows and even some activity worksheets.  There is a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books to choose from with Weigl Publishers so when I started looking through the catalogue, my shopping list expanded very quickly!

A Lion’s World

We loved reviewing A Lion’s World.

It is part of the “EyeDiscover” series which is geared towards the kindergarten to grade 2 level.  We used the e-book on my tablet and we unlocked the digital content on my laptop so we could follow along. My 2 year old and 5 year old were both able to enjoy listening to the story as it was read to them.

The media enhanced book contains some neat up-close videos of lions on each page.

These books are very useful for the younger ages as it teaches them using a variety of methods. Your visual and auditory learners would love these!  They can listen, read and watch the videos.  This book provided an opportunity for my 2 year old to see what a lion looks like and my 5 year old learned about how fast they are and how they live.

There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant

There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant is a fun and entertaining fiction book, in the AV2 series.

It is for a similar age as A Lion’s World, kindergarten to grade 2.  My oldest son loved watching the multimedia content and he asked to watch it again as soon as we finished. It was neat watching him giggle as the story was read to him.  He also loved being able to follow along with the e-book.

The sound effects added some interest and excitement.  Since my oldest isn’t reading yet, this book provided a great opportunity for him to follow along as the program highlighted each sentence as it was read.

Glaciers

I am so excited to use the media enhanced book, Glaciers, in our homeschool.

Glaciers is full of information and activities and uses Lightbox which is a really neat interactive digital interface.  I was not familiar with Lightbox until I reviewed this title, and now I can’t wait to try other titles when my children get older.  Lightbox uses videos, slide shows, printable PDFs, weblinks, features key words and even incorporates maps, timelines, diagrams and charts.

My oldest son is a little young for using the entire book; however, he thoroughly enjoyed watching the video of the glacier and reading some of the interesting facts. It was fun to be able to follow along in the e-book while being able to click through the digital program. We also learned about polar bears through one of the weblinks.  The photographs used throughout are incredible and there is even a quiz that you can do at the end.

The book is ideally for ages 8 to 12 but I could definitely see it working well with a wider age range when using it as a unit study for your entire family.  I am most excited about using this book to develop an entire unit study about glaciers in the future, including using the worksheets that are provided. To make things easier, there is even a curriculum correlation document that helps to describe what is covered in the book and activities.   We all learned a lot from Glaciers while thoroughly enjoyed the many neat features.

Future Planning with Media Enhanced Books

The media enhanced books from Weigl Publishers work so well with a variety of learning styles and a variety of reading levels. Since the books can be read to your child, children that are struggling with reading can greatly benefit while feeling successful as they follow along with the e-book.  I look forward to trying other media enhanced books in these series in our homeschool in the future and can’t wait to develop some neat unit studies!