Discovery Decks Questions & Answers | What They Are, How to Use Them, and Why We Love Them!

Hey everybody, welcome to the Waldock Way. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be all about our best-selling, most popular product, Discovery Decks. In today's video, I'm going to be answering all of your frequently asked questions. Who they're for, what to do with them, how to store them, what topics there are. You've got a question, hopefully I'm going to be covering it. Let's go ahead and get started with the number one question, which is what exactly are Discovery Decks? Discovery Decks are a great way to help your kids discover and learn. Each deck includes 20 cards about a specific topic. This one that we're going to look at is rocks and minerals. Some of the questions on those cards are things like how are rocks and minerals used? How are rocks formed? What's the difference in rocks and minerals? And what are the different types of rocks? Each question has a QR code that your kid can just scan with a phone or a tablet, any kind of device, and it's going to take them directly to a video that's going to answer the question on the card. So this video is going to answer what are the different types of rocks? What ages are they good for? Discovery Decks are perfect for elementary and middle school students. Although I definitely think learners of all ages can benefit, especially if it's a topic that they've not studied a lot of, or you're not sure they're interested in. I mean, there's been videos in the Discovery Decks that when I've been designing them, I've enjoyed watching in my late 30s. So I think there's something there for everybody, but they were designed specifically with elementary and middle school children in mind. How long are each of the videos? I prided myself on making them 10 minutes or less. I didn't want this long drawn out thing. So my goal is for them to all be 10 minutes or less. The average is two to 10. There is an occasional video where the 11 or 12 minute mark is hit just because that was the best video to answer that question. But for the most part, two to 10 minutes is how long each of the videos are for the Discovery Decks. What are some of the topics? Well, we've got you covered from animals to bugs, horses, plants, presidents, space, birds, cats, dogs, ocean, US history, weather, Egypt, Greece, Christmas, chemistry and physics, dinosaurs and fossils, how it's made, the human body, interesting inventions, legendary landmarks, mythical creatures. There is truly something for everybody. Currently there are over 30 different topics and we are adding to them as frequently as possible. So if there's a specific topic that you're looking for that your kid's interested in, let me know down in the comments and I'll be happy to add it to my to-do list. Trust me, we are far from done. There will be new ones added frequently, so make sure you check back. Are any of the videos in the Discovery Decks the same videos in the unit studies? So in case you're not familiar here at The Waldock Way, we create unit studies and Discovery Decks. So a lot of the topics overlap as far as like weather or space or human body. However, there is no video that is the same. So while there may be topics that overlap, let's say like the brain, there will be no video that you would find in the human body unit study that would also be in the human body Discovery Deck, which just means that you can start with the deck and if your kid's super interested, add in a unit study or you can be doing the unit study and if your kid really likes some extra screen time, throw in a Discovery Deck for extra learning. They complement each other perfectly because there's not any of the same videos, just maybe some similar topics. Can I use Discovery Decks in place of a curriculum? Would they be enough? I actually just had somebody message me yesterday on social media saying that this is all she's using for history and science and it's working perfectly. I replied with how old were her kids because I was curious since so many of you have asked and she said her kids were seven and ten. So it's definitely doable. I love this idea and currently right now through April 14th of 2025, we are offering a buy five get one free. So I thought I would throw together a few ideas for basically a bundle of six so you could buy five and get your free one of history and science, what I personally would do. So for history, I would throw the Stone Age, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, Vikings and Valhalla, and U.S. history in my cart. Those would be the six that I would use for history. That's going to cover a little bit from prehistory all the way to modern history. So you're going to have a little bit of everything there. And then the six that I would throw in my cart for science are Sensational Science because that's general science, All About Animals, All About Plants, Chemistry and Physics, Rocks and Minerals, and the Human Body. So those are going to give you a really good kind of general science. You're going to have a little bit of animals and human body and plants and general science and chemistry and physics. Just a little bit of everything. Now that being said, if your kids are more interested in a specific thing, for example, Emily is obsessed with cats, we have a cat specific deck. So maybe you don't want the general animal. Maybe instead you get the cat specific because that's the animal that they're the most interested in. That would be a great substitute as well. How do you store your Discovery Decks? There are a couple of different great options for storing your Discovery Decks. The first suggestion I have is if you want your cover to be the same size as the cards themselves, print it at 25%. The first storage option is the one we currently use, which is just a bin. This is just a galvanized bin. I have no clue what it was actually meant for. I just take that cover page and then put the cards that correspond behind it. That does not mean it always stays that way. In fact, if you get back here, it is all cover page lists. It has become kind of a mess, but they're all contained and she can easily grab a card when she wants to learn something new. The second option is to hole punch those cards and put them on a ring. This keeps them contained all together. It also makes it really easy to grab and go. The third option is to use one of those photo storage cases. Now you guys know I love these. I use them for everything. You can just print your cards out and stick them in here. All of our bird cards are in this one. The great thing is if you use these, you could label them with a label maker and then have them in the case that they come in. The case holds 16, so you can have all of your decks in one case. The fourth option does not require you to print that cover smaller because we're going to keep it large. We're going to get a three ring binder and some page protectors. What you're going to do is print that cover full size and then put all of your cards in there with it. I actually really like this idea and it's probably what we're going to be switching to because I like that I can keep them sorted. I may even put tabs in here for like history, science, etc. Because as you can see right now, I have all of the history grouped together and then once we get past the history, I have all of the science grouped together. So I kind of like the idea of maybe being able to have tabs and section it off by what the different topics are so that I can easily find the ones that would correspond with either what we're learning or what she's interested in at the time. That's everything you need to know about Discovery Decks for now. If you have any questions that I didn't answer, drop them down in the comments so I can answer them for you. And don't forget if there's a topic that you would like to tell me that as well.