TOS Review: Dive Into Your Imagination

Annie Crawley created Dive Into Your Imagination to change the way people view the ocean.  The images in the award winning books and DVDs uses the photographs and videos she has taken during her sea explorations.  Dive Into Your Imagination hopes that people will fall in love with the ocean because people protect what they love.  "I hope you will purchase the products from our store and give the gift of the ocean to all the children in your life and to schools everywhere.  There is something for everyone in the store, whether you are a corporation and want to inspire teamwork or a grandparent wanting to share our real Ocean.  Dive Into Your Imagination® was designed to be entertaining and educational for all ages." --Annie Crawley

Members of the TOS Crew were given one of the following videos to use and review: What Makes a Fish a Fish? , Who Lives in the Sea? , and Dive Into Diversity.  We had the opportunity to use and review Who Lives in the Sea?

“Who Lives In the Sea?” teaches children and their parents about animals living in the ocean. Why do dolphins move so fast? What kind of noise does a sea lion make? Did you know turtles walked with the dinosaurs? Meet whale sharks, octopus and blue-footed booby birds! After your kids watch this DVD, they will want to swim like a dolphin and laugh at the nudi, nudi, nudibranchs!

 The running time of the DVD is 45 minutes.  The suggested age range is for Pre-K and up.  You can choose to watch the entire DVD at once or split it up by the following chapters:

Let's  Swim With the Dolphins
Playtime With the Sea Lions
Baby Birds and Their Families
Dinosaurs of the Sea: Marine Reptiles
Eight Armed Animals
Living Forever Under the Sea
Nudi, Nudi, Nudibranchs
Whale Sharks: World's Biggest Fish
Bonus Chapter: The Ocean Alphabet

The special features sections contains information about Scuba Diving, the making of the music to go along with the DVD, and helping your kids love the water.


Along with the DVD, we received PDF downloads for the Pre-K-K and Grades 1-3 Educator Guides.  Each of these guides are over 300 pages long and contain activities to correspond with each of the chapters on the DVD in the areas of: Art, Language Arts, Geography, Math, Music, Social Studies, Music, Teamwork, Collaboration, Character Building Skills, Imaginative Play and more.  There are 6-7 different activity stations per unit.  The guide includes many printable activities along with Educator Keys.

The Who Lives on the Sea? DVD can be purchase here for $19.95.  The Educator Guides are available as a printed version for $299 for the whole set (all 3 DVDs mentioned above) or for $69.95 as individual PDFs.  BUT..... Annie has given us the following generous offer to extend to our readers:

"As a special for the Homeschool Crew and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and followers Annie Crawley of Dive Into Your Imagination, she will gift you a set of PDFs with purchase of the DVDs. When you place your DVD order, just let her know in the notes that you are a Homeschool Parent!"

Also for the entire months of May and June,  there will be free shipping on any order placed at www.AnnieCrawley.com/store.

I have watched the DVD many times since it arrived in my mailbox along with my 14 month old, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 15 year olds.  The timing of this review was perfect for my family because we are planning a trip to the beach shortly.  Who Lives in the Sea is wonderful DVD full of stunning footage of amazing ocean creatures.  The beauty of the ocean and its creatures comes through on the screen and makes you feel as though you are swimming in the ocean.  The narration is very well done and appealing to children and the enthusiasm of the narrator makes learning about the ocean exciting!  The video provides enough information to make it interesting but not too much to make it seem overwhelming.  I couldn't believe how much my children learned and remembered after viewing the DVD for the first time.  The ocean alphabet was their favorite part and they want to see one of each of those creatures when we go to the beach.    

On the DVD there is one section titled: Dinosaurs of the Sea Marine Reptiles that had me concerned before I viewed it.  I was afraid that it was going to be full of evolutionary content.  There is one line in the DVD,  "They have been living on our planet since the time that dinosaurs were roaming the earth."  I did not notice anything else that was evolutionary.  

The Educator Guide is amazing and much more than I expected!  As I mentioned above, they are over 300 pages long and full of printables and activities to go along with the sections covered on the DVD.  Some of the activities seem more geared to a classroom teacher but can easily be adapted to use in your homeschool.  There are 6-7 different types of activities for each section that appeal to a variety of learning styles and give you the flexibility to pick and choose what interests your family the most.  I love the printables especially the ocean journal pages that children can wrap up what they have learned that day. 

To see what other crew mates had to say click here.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew I received a complimentary copy of Who Lives in the Sea along with a PDF download of the Educator Guide for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.