MarshMedia Health Education Curriculum {Review}

Today I would like to introduce you to MarshMedia a company that produces health education products mainly for use in schools but would like to reach out to the homeschool community. To this end, they have put together a Homeschool Special just for you!

Who Are MarshMedia?

In 2011 Dan Witcher and his wife Brenna purchased MarshMedia a company which focuses on producing health education programs for children in grades K-8. Whilst the programs have been sold to schools all across the United States and Canada, Dan is hoping to offer their curriculum to the home school community too.

He says:

Our programs cover a wide variety of topics including hygiene, health, puberty education, safety, immune system disorders, head lice and nutrition. Our signature products are our puberty education series which were all created based on input from our trusted consultants, surveys from our customers and discussions with many school nurses and educators. As a result we currently have 6 different puberty education series to choose from. This allows our customers the opportunity to find the program that is right for their student population. We also have programs for students with special needs, and we have published 31 children’s books that are all based on an animal protagonist which discuss character traits such as bullying, teasing, sibling rivalry, etc.

How Did we Use MarshMedia?

I used MarshMedia with my six and eight year old. They both watched the health videos first:

And really enjoyed them. Each video lasted around fifteen minutes, and offered fairly in-depth teaching on their subjects. I knew they were learning heaps because A8 would relay everything she needed in order to do everything required on the dvds!

I thought I would take you through one of the videos to show you how comprehensive each one is. The following screen shots come from the video ‘Take Care of your Ears!’

Most of the hygiene videos are set at Annie’s Place:

Annie is an affable, friendly adult who teaches the children who visit, as well as the viewers of the video:

Gentle humour is used throughout, which certainly appealed to my youngest two 🙂

Clear diagrams are used to explain the anatomy of the ear, which in turn teaches the children why they need to care for their ears:

The children are taught never to put anything in their ear which is smaller than their elbow. Lots of examples are used to illustrate the sorts of things that should never go in an ear:

There are lots of dos and don’ts such as ‘Don’t play your music too loud‘ as too much sound can be bad for your ears:

Annie covers the possible problems a child might have with their ears and how a doctor may be able to help:

She teaches them to look out for infections, outside the ear (for example when an ear is pierced) and also inside the ear. Signs and symptoms are taught in a simple and effective way:

Annie also tells the children how infections could be treated by the doctor and also self-help measures such a holding a hot water bottle close to the ear:

She even covers the need for a grommet to relieve repeat ear infections. Lots of tips are offered to keep ears clean and healthy to ensure they don’t become infected.

Last but not least, she covers impaired hearing and deafness, and the tests which are carried out to diagnose hearing problems:

Hearing aids, coping mechanisms and sign language are also covered:

Throughout it all she has the very attentive ‘funsters’ to help her illustrate that which she is teaching:

As you can see these videos are very in-depth yet child friendly.

What Videos do MarshMedia Offer?

Hygiene Videos

Puberty Videos

Nutrition Videos

Special Needs Videos

Safety Videos

And Health Videos

What Did We Think of MarshMedia?

I was surprised by how much I liked these! They were thorough, interesting and especially held their appeal for my eight year old, who begged to watch them every opportunity she got. My five-year old enjoyed them as well, but A8 really thought they were the bee’s knees! They were pitched right at her level, and she absorbed all the information, and told us tidbits from them throughout the week. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by how much she retained and how motivated she was to follow the advice given 🙂

If you wish to take advantage of the opportunity to introduce the MarshMedia curriculum to your home schooler(s) click on the link below for more information:

https://marshmedia.com/pages/homeschool-offer