We received the physical CD audio of With Lee in Virginia and the study guide as a digital download from Heirloom Audio Productions.
Heirloom Audio Productions is making its mark by producing quality audio-dramas that capture the attention of audiences spanning a large age range; six to adult. The stories they tell are educational and the performances are entertaining with, really, never a dull moment. I believe the collective performances of the cast for this production are also ones that contributed to making this drama fun listening to. There are some familiar voices you will hear, like Chris Anthony (Adventures in Odyssey), Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, Mom’s Night Out and Rudy), Kirk Cameron (Fireproof)Kelsey Lansdowne (Curios George) and Jim Weiss (Greathall Productions). Heirloom Audio Productions may eventually do to audio what animation has managed to do; draw in the big stars for their productions.
Their latest drama, With Lee in Virginia is an adaptation from the book of the same title by G.A. Henty. It takes us on an exciting journey with 15 year old Vincent Wingfield. We are always promised excitement with Heirloom’s audio dramas that bring Henty’s books to life. Youth, which Henty writes about a lot, seem to have all of the fun. Many of Henty’s books have main characters that are male and face challenges. As listeners, we get to tag along. We get to experience, right alongside Vincent, what it may have been like riding in the cavalry and fighting alongside Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. If you have high definition capabilities, by all means turn the volume up.
I think adults will already enjoy the audio productions. One thing I have noticed regarding Heirloom Audio Productions dramas is that the main characters tend to be children or young adults, which is a great way to draw (or introduce) younger people in to listening to stories being told rather than run across a screen. There is something to be said about listening to a story instead of watching it.
My children love audio-dramas and I am so glad they do. Audio-dramas (and audio-books) require concentration and attention and sometimes a good imagination to make the story truly come to life. I usually quickly lose interest in audio-dramas (audio-books), because I get distracted sitting around just listening. I will say, this one did manage to keep my attention.
Lee in Virginia is a two and one half hour long production. With these productions, I have given up putting a listening time limit for my children. When you sit to listen to an Heirloom audio-drama, you usually don’t stop until the last word is spoken, because you want to know what is going to happen. If you think about the time your child spends watching a movie, then the time is just about the same spent listening to the audio.
After sitting and listening for two and one half hours, the learning does not stop at that point. Heirloom Audio Productions has created a study guide to go along with the audio. The use of the study guide is optional, so the CDs may be enjoyed independently. We opted to not use the study-guide the first time around, but will probably return to the story again and do so, because there are a lot of subjects covered in the guide. Your children may want to listen to the audio more than once, like they watch a favorite movie one thousand times.
The study-guide for With Lee in Virginia takes the learning further with questions and a deeper look into the story and period. It contains three sections – Listening Well, Thinking Further and Defining Words – that promote a more in depth study of the drama and cover the vocabulary of some of the terms used in the story. There are also bible studies with scripture, so you can make this an academic experience that covers subjects like bible, history and vocabulary.
Listen to a summary of the story.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
With Lee in Virginia is available for $29.97 for the single pack – two disc adventure.
Social media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WithLeeInVirginia and https://www.facebook.com/heirloomaudio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeirloomStories
Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/114534826166314080647/114534826166314080647/posts
You can read more reviews of this item by fellow crew members.
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