Wiglington and Wenks

The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World is an on-line game for kids ages 7-14. The site was created based on a children's book series by British businessman and author, John Bittleston. Wiglington and Wenks, mice extraordinaire, live in an interactive time traveling virtual world where children learn history, geography and environmental science as they visit. Currently, anyone can travel with Wiglington and Wenks for FREE in a limited fashion, but an Elite Quest Traveler membership costs $5.99/ mo, $16.99/ 3 months, $29.99 for 6 months, or $59.99/ year. Our family received a free one month Elite membership in exchange for this review.

Wiglington and Wenks are adventure-seeking water rats from England. Wiglington's ancestor, Carto Wiglington, left a series of magic maps which unlock secrets of the past, present and future by enabling the owner of the maps to travel through time and space. The lost maps recovered by Wiglington, were brought back to his hometown to be used for good. Virtual travelers to Wiglington Town, re-named in honor of Wiglington's heroic recovery of the maps, may use the magic maps for time travel after graduating from the Traveling Academy of Wiglington Town and earning a passport. With passport in hand, the fun begins as travelers visit with historical figures, real and fictional, in various locations around the world.

Count Carneggio, a selfish, evil rat, attempts to foil the fun. Carneggio desires to have possession of the maps for financial gain. The evil Count is suspect of creating a time portal which accidentally traps historical figures, placing them in different time periods and locations. The confusing experience inevitably causes the misplaced people of the past to suffer from amnesia. Travelers must search for clothing, inventions and other historical items to prompt the amnesiacs memory and restore order to the world.

Although the description of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World seems complicated it really is just a great story come to life. Kids participating in the virtual world easily learn the details of the storyline (read rules of the game) by attending the Traveling Academy and watching animated videos. Within minutes young travelers are seasoned enough to navigate throughout the world. All the animation of Wiglington and Wenks is engaging and snappy. The characters are cute, but smartly dressed with a contemporary flair drawn with sharp defined lines, slightly exaggerated heads, and clever expressions.

The introductory video on the homepage alone was enough to draw my 5 year old son, Aidan from across the room. Aidan stood intensely watching the video and obviously excited about all the potential this virtual world had to offer. After listening to my explanation of Wiglington and Wenks to his younger sibling, my 15 year old son said, "Man! Aidan is so lucky! I would have been all over that site when I was his age. I mean it has everything....cool characters, adventure, games...."

Wiglington and Wenks has over 100 educational real world and imaginary locations to travel. For example, adventure seekers can visit the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Great Sphinx of Egypt or future imaginary locations in outer space. While visiting, players engage in educational games, facts and information is learned and "money" is earned for future virtual costumes and attire that allow special powers and moves. A chat feature is also available to allow travelers to interact with others visiting the virtual world.

"I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it!" said Micah, age 12. "It's fun to communicate with other kids playing. I like all the random fun facts about different things in the countries. I also like that Wiglington and Wenks is challenging and gives you a mission. I like to have a purpose when playing games on the internet. I will definitely tell my friends that they need to check Wiglington and Wenks out" she concluded.

Aidan, age 5 was filled with enthusiasm when asked for his opinion of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World. "It is awesome! I like the maps and Wiglington and Wenks. I like the people and the games. We get to buy clothes and costumes with money from the games. I really like those!" he said.

Fans will be thrilled to note Wiglington and Wenks merchandise is available for purchase at Zazzle.com. The webpage offering hats, t-shirts, mugs and of course, mouse pads can be found here.

Since Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World is available for limited use for FREE, I highly recommend readers give it a whirl. It's engaging storyline, graphics and fun atmosphere make it a wonderful educational resource for elementary and middle grade students. Clever homeschool parents can easily use this virtual world to light a fire of enthusiasm for history and geography study and maybe even some adventure story crafting of their own.

Homeschool in the Woods- Revisted

From my experience, time in the woods brings about relaxation, refreshment and renewal of spirit. Founded by artist Amy Pak, Homeschool in the Woods offers products which will visually enrich your homeschool bringing refreshment and renewal to tired old lessons. Offering timelines, timeline figures, maps and unit studies with lapbook elements designed by Pak, Homeschool in the Woods products are educational works of art.

As a member of TOS Homeschool Review Crew I received a free download of Homeschool in the Woods Olde World Style Modern and Historical Maps: United States and Olde World Style Modern and Ancient Maps: World Maps for use in my homeschool in exchange for this review.

The maps are available on the Homeschool in the Woods website, www.homeschoolinthewoods.com as instant download zip files for $18.95 each or on CD for $19.95 each. For customers wishing for both sets of maps, a downloadable combo pack sells for $28.95 while the CD combo pack sells for $29.95. I received the instant download zip file maps, easily extracted the files and was ready to preview and print the pages I desired. I am not usually a big fan of e-books and computer based curricula, but I found the convenience of scrolling through the various maps and then printing specific quantities to supplement our history lessons a refreshing option to old school copying from books.

Each Olde World Style map selection comes with five separate files which include:

• Acknowledgement/ Introduction information plus color or black and white cover pages for notebooks

• Grouped Map Sets

• Individual Maps

• Notebooking pages

World Map notebooking pages include Country Fact Sheets, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Geography Page, and Brochure template to enable students to create a brochure of specific countries. US Map notebooking pages include fill in the blank pages for each state, teacher key and full color State flags ready to be cut and added to the pages for each state.

Mapping activities usually fall off the radar in our homeschool. Even with a history curriculum which recommends mapping activities to enhance study we always seem to run out of time or interest to follow through. Homeschool in the Woods Olde World Maps cured us from missing out on this valuable activity. Since we are studying World History of the middle ages this year, I chose to print a number of maps from Olde World Style Modern and Ancient Maps: World Maps. A map of the Sui and Tang Dynasties of China, Paul's Missionary journeys, the British Isles, France, India, Japan and Korea allowed my kids to visually plot their history lessons. Pak explains in her introduction of Olde World Style Modern and Ancient Maps why mapping activities are an integral part of the learning process of history.

"History is made of stories and legacies from a different time and place. Each story taught is like a puzzle piece--it has its own shape, size and image, but may pose a challenge when trying to connect it to other stories, making it a random happening or isolated event. In order to make sense, these "happenings" need to go from random to concrete, and that's where these two important elements come in. Timelines are used to plot the "when" in history.....and mapping, in turn, plots the "where", says Pak.

Our test marketing crew agreed with Pak's analysis of the importance of partnering mapping with history study.

"I liked how there were maps for each one of Paul's missionary journeys. It helped me figure out where he was in the world at this time. If he was stranded or if it was hot somewhere, etc. Using the maps really helped me understand more about the stories I read", said Micah, age 12 and 7th grade history student.

Jonah, age 15 and 10th grade history student appreciated the quality of the maps included with Olde World Style Modern and Ancient Maps: World Maps.

"They are very informational. I liked all the detail presented on each of the World maps. They were easy to use because the printing was clear and well defined. These maps made geography study of my history lessons easy,"he said.

Due to our current world history studies our family did not take advantage of all the Olde World Style Modern and Historical Maps:United States had to offer during this testing period. We did however, print out all the information for the State of Ohio to send back with a flat traveler visiting us from Canada. With a detailed State Facts sheet, State Flag and maps of Ohio we created a small booklet of detailed information of our beloved home state to send home with our flat visitors. I found the design quality of each of the maps and the facts page to be superior. Everything printed easily and quickly from the PDF file.

Never again will geography lessons slip off our homeschool radar. Homeschool in the Woods
has enhanced our history lessons with beautifully designed resources. I encourage everyone to visit the company website and breathe deeply of the rich resources that await your homeschool.

Schoolside Press...The Little Man In The Map

“A blank map of the U.S.A.
Plus your imagination
Are all you need to learn the states---
All fifty in our nation.” E. Andrew Martonyi

The Little Man In the Map written by E. Andrew Martonyi, illustrated by Ed Olsen and published by Schoolside Press is a picture book designed to aid school age children in learning the geography of the United States through clever rhymes and picture aids. The book is acclaimed with a Silver Moonbeam Children’s Book Award, Independent Publisher Book Award for Most Original Concept, and a finalist in Foreward Magazine’s Book of the Year and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Martonyi is described in the book jacket as “using his affinity for travel, his constant search for new things to see and his granddaughter’s fascination with his trips” as the catalyst for this unique book.

The Little Man In the Map is available at Schoolside Press’s website for $19.95. An accompanying laminated wall map measuring 38 x 22 for $21.95 adds to the MIM experience for your homeschool classroom. Currently, a free holiday shipping offer is available on the website along with a special combo price of book and wall map for only $35.00. Schoolside Press has plans to release a State Capital book which will make learning the Capitals as much fun as learning US Geography with MIM. The author keeps a blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/FrogsJumpUSA for kids and parents to share in his journey as an author and to keep track of future creative endeavors.

Because The Little Man In the Map comes to you in a beautiful 64 page hardcover picture book format, I first read the book to my 1st grade daughter to check out its kid appeal. I was already thrilled with the book and loved the concept as I am always searching for unique ways to share education with my kids. I soon discovered that The Little Man In the Map may be disguised as a little kid’s book, but its rich content is definitely a greater value for the older set. Sierra enjoyed the cute and colorful illustrations, chatted about the images revealed in the map of the States, but really had no idea or understanding that she was studying a map of the United States. I had to remind her several times that the United States was the country we live in, but when you are seven the concept of State, Country, etc. is a bit abstract.

The real test for The Little Man In the Map came when I read the book to my 9th grade son Jonah and his 6th grade sister Micah. These were students who understood the concept of their country, who should know or at least study U.S. Geography. My son was extremely pessimistic when I told him I would be sharing the book with him as from the cover it appeared to be a “children’s book”. When I assured him it would only take a few minutes of his time he slumped into a chair and appeased me.

We soon discovered that The Little Man In the Map is actually a character designed by the author made up of the States of Minnesota, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. His full name is MinIow MisArkLou, but his nickname is MIM (Man in Map).
The strangeness of Mim’s full name set my older kids into giggles and satirical comments like, “Well, that’s not too confusing”, but I patiently continued to see if MIM could work his magic.

At the conclusion of the book I asked 14 year old Jonah for his opinion and he shared the following:” I already knew most of the States so; it didn’t help me too much. It was kind of strange because some of the rhythms didn’t actually rhyme. Some of the things they chose for the States didn’t really make sense like Ohio being a drinking cup”.

But……Jonah did keep reciting MinIow MisArkLou several times throughout the afternoon to make his sisters laugh. Perhaps MIM had made sense to Jonah in a non-traditional way.

Micah, age 11, found greater value in her reading experience. She said, “I think it was pretty cute, but some of the things were a little hard to remember at first. It was really hard to memorize all those States at once. It was a good idea to make a man out of the States”.

When I asked Micah if the book helped her to see the map of the USA in a new way so she could memorize where the States are located she replied, “Yeah, kind of because, when you see all these pictures in your mind you think, oh yeah, that’s the mitten that is Michigan or that’s MIM’s face”.

I admit after several readings of the book I agree with Jonah and Micah’s analysis that some of the pictures and rhymes are a bit hard to relate to at first. However, the ingenuity of this book is its use of the creativity and beauty of art and poetry to connect students to the rather dry, dull topic of geography. It engages your mind in a way no regular map ever could. I love that it is in picture book format, taking just minutes to read and enabling older kids to use it as a tool for memorization. It is a book which when read over and over can only enrich your education of US geography in a delight filled way.