The Old School Survival Network Membership is a membership with many benefits. After looking at the Old School Survival website (www.oldschoolsurvivalbootcamp.com) and seeing all of the resources that they have available, I was very excited to begin my membership and explore content for our family to use this year.

The twelve month membership costs $25.00, and it provides the member access to an unlimited number of downloads of the digital content available on the website as well as select online classes. Members also receive discounts on tickets to Old School Survival events such as Boot Camp (held in Ohio). There is also the option to purchase digital content and classes individually without membership.

Members do not need to login to access their materials. Instead, they receive a coupon code to use an unlimited number of times to download content over twelve months. There are so many choices:  survival and homesteading eBooks; homeschool curriculum unit studies, stories, and games; quick reference cards, logs, and planners; the Old School Survival magazine; and level A online classes. With over seventy different options in the growing content library, the hardest decision for me was what to download and use first!

I saw content on animal husbandry, survival skills, emergency preparedness, American History, music, foraging, cooking, archery, homesteading, blacksmithing, and much more. There is an online class on chicken butchering and another on wool cleaning and dying. There are stories, games, planners, eBooks, and unit studies of various lengths. Some product pages contain previews.

After choosing the first set of digital content that I wanted, I entered my member coupon code in the spot provided in the online cart. This brought my total to zero. After filling out some basic information, including my name and email address, I was able to download my content to use. I downloaded several items, including the Feed the Cat Counting game to use with my preschooler, an eBook titled “Survival Science for Kids Series: Rocks, Water, and Archery” to use with a group of boys, and pages from the nature journal to use on a hike. I also printed a game titled “Jamestown Survivors Game” to use with our American History studies, some forms from the homeschool planner, and an essential oils quick reference chart. We plan to use many more survival and homeschool resources from the Old School Survival Network this year, and I downloaded several to preview.

On a recent hike with other homeschool friends, we used pages from the nature journal to identify leaves and the trees they came from. The survival guide that I printed has sixty-two pages with units on archery, heat retention in rocks, flint stones, potable water, and making a survival water filter. It is divided into units for different age groups. 

Along with the downloadable materials on the website, the Old School Survival Blog also contains useful information. Links to new posts arrived in my email. 

Families who are interested in homeschooling, homesteading, and survival skills will benefit most from this membership. There are materials for the whole family, and the discounts available for Boot Camp and other events are an added benefit. I have not attended Boot Camp, but it looks like a great learning experience for the whole family. Our family is looking forward to many great learning adventures this year using materials from The Old School Survival Network.

-Product review by Sarah Roth, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September 2023