Audio Drama in our Homeschool {TOS Crew Review}

Do you do a lot of driving?  These past three weeks we’ve been driving two hours on Monday and Tuesday to get back and forth from dance class.  I knew I had to find something to use up that time so the kids weren’t just sitting in their car-seats fighting and fussing with each other.  Most of my kids really don’t like sitting in their car-seats.  So, I was so glad when we received With Lee in Virginia from Heirloom Audio Productions!  Of course, being Civil War reenactors we were super excited to listen to this!

I’ve used audio drama in our homeschool before.  In fact, we reviewed from In Freedom’s Cause from Heirloom Audio Productions before and LOVED it!  Most of the time when we’re driving in the van we listen to Christian music or a book on cd.  This is more than a book on CD.  This is not just one person reading  a script.  This is an audio drama. It’s like watching a movie but the screen is in your head and the only limits are your imagination!

We received a physical copy of the cd plus a link to download a study guide and a soundtrack.  If you’ve read around on my blog you’ll know that I really love using study guides to help make sure my children are picking out the important pieces and retaining them.  And well the soundtrack is just gorgeous so of course you’ll want to download that too.

The study guide is 52 pages in length and includes questions and interactions for each chapter.  As I’ve mentioned above I’m a huge proponent of always getting the study guides to go with things.  This one will help listening skills for younger children and increase comprehension and retention in the older children.  It also helps them to think about what they’ve heard and not just let it be ear pleasing going in one ear and out the other.  I did enjoy that there was a short Bible study included in the study guide as well as a list of books to help you explore further.

This is the third production from Heirloom Audio Productions and is based on a novel by George Alfred Henty.  The book is part of the series titled The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty.

When using this audio drama in our homeschool it was good to note that it is geared for ages 6 through adult.  However, all of my kids were in the van listening to this.  So that’s ages 2 up to 10 and then me(I’m not stating my age).  My two year old fell asleep most of the time so I can’t tell you whether there were parts that she didn’t like or not.  There were a few spots that my four year old was a bit worried about but we’d pause and talk and then go on with the audio drama.  Having studied the Civil War extensively as well as reenacting it, my children were familiar with most of the things going on.

This two cd set has two and one half hours of listening pleasure.  When using any audio drama in our homeschool I always like to note the length so we’re not listening to all but say the last twenty minutes in any given day.  So we listened to this on the way to dance one night and then on the way down the next night finishing the recording on the way back.  We actually listened to this all three weeks so we’ve gone through it three times already!

Some fun things to note.  We loved this soundtrack.  It was so gorgeous.  I finally figured out why.  The soundtrack is done by Emmy award winning composer John Campbell.  If that name is not familiar then you have not watched the acclaimed Narnia movies!!  This audio drama was written by Robert Liparulo.  Some noted actors also lend their voice to the latest audio drama in our homeschool including Kirk Cameron, Sean Astin, Jim Weiss, and Chris Anthony.

Now just a bit about the story line.  The story follows Vincent Wingfield, a 15 year old boy, who joins the Army of Virginia during the Civil War.  He is part of the Cavalry.  That right there was enough to capture my kids attention.  They kept adding things and asking questions while we were listening.   you see their daddy is a Cavalry officer when we reenact.  He rides his horse off into battle, so they know exactly what’s happening!

If you’re looking to learn more about With Lee in Virginia please check out the rest of the reviews on the Main TOS Blog Page.  We all received the same CD to review this time so you’ll get lots of opinions!  You can also connect with Heirloom Audio Productions on facebook, or the audio drama facebook page, twitter, and google +.