New Year, New Beginnings, New Beginner's Bible! (Review)

I don't know about you, but in our house we have always enjoyed a good storybook Bible for our children. Each of our kids has grown up with nightly Bible stories, and in fact, my youngest refused to go to sleep (no matter what the time) unless we read "Bible." 

He's a little old for our latest review, the 25th Anniversary edition of The Beginner's Bible from Zonderkidz, but he has a young friend with whom he is excited to share this Bible. 

This is a revamped version with updated artwork and a colorful cover. The text is simple and while not entirely an independent "Beginning Reader," it is a good version to read with a beginning reader, assisting with words that are more difficult and harder to decode, while offering confidence boosting success with a majority of easy-to-read text. 

It is never to early to begin reading stories taken from the Bible about God's love, protection, and the Good News of Jesus' Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection. Each story is treated "gently" with the young sensibilities in mind, which I definitely appreciate.

25 years ago if you purchased The Beginner's Bible you had a great Bible Storybook with colorful (if somewhat silly to the adult eye, but very popular through a child's visual filter) illustrations. In and of itself a very good thing. A quarter of a century later, however, things have changed, and multi-media is the norm. In keeping with that, The Beginner's Bible now offers both a website and an iPad app.

The webpage has a boatload of resources to enhance your child's Bible Reading experience, and includes the following: 

40 Coloring Pages 

3 Search and Find Activity Pages

6 Drawing Activity Pages (Some as simple as adding an item to the drawing, others asking the child to draw something on their own)

8 Maze Activity Pages

4 Let's Read Together Activities (Rebus Style)

1 Connect the Dots

1 Crossword Puzzle

5 Matching Activity Sheets

8 Writing Sheets (Copywork) 

The iPad app is intended mostly for children under the age of 5. The first story pack of 6 stories is free, and includes the narrated stories, coloring pages, puzzles and a game. Additional story packs are available for $1.99 each, or the complete Bible is available for $19.99. 

On looking over the Bible, some of the things my Youngest thinks his friend will particularly enjoy: 

It will be a good Bible for my friend, and I think he will like it. The pictures are colorful and the stories are a good length for reading right before bed.

Additional information: There is also a Curriculum Kit which is intended for Sunday School use, and covers 30 of the 90+ stories in the Bible. You can check out sample lessons and see if this would be a good value for your family or church.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Zonderkidz
• Product: The Beginner's Bible
• Ages: 4-8
• Price: $16.99 (With bulk pricing available for orders of 10 Bibles or more, in case you are part of a ministry that would be interested in that)

You can visit Zonderkidz/Zondervan on Social Media: 

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram

Please click the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#HSReview, #TheBeginnersBible, #FaithBuilding, #Zondervan, #childrensbible, #nonfiction

CHSH-Teach.com (Christian HomeSchool Hub) CHSH Download Club Annual Subscription (Review)

As a homeschool parent, Support Group Leader, Awana Leader, Church Musician, and general chauffeur to dance, baseball, youth-group, and any other activity, I don't have the time OR the energy to reinvent the wheel. I'm sure that many of you feel the same, and that's why sites like CHSH-Teach.com are such a boon to the busy homeschooling family. With over 50,000 pages of educational material, many homeschoolers are sure to find useful a number of ready-made worksheets, as well as forms and other pages to use for notebooking, lapbooks, journaling, and general portfolio-building.

While there are quite a few free resources available, in order to access the entire site, members of the TOS Review Crew were given an annual subscription the CHSH Download Club. In order to get a feel for the quantity of downloads available you may wish to peruse their catalog. You'll find the downloads organized in a few different ways:

By Subject:

• Arts, Music and Crafts
• Bible Related Resources
• Electives
• Health
• Language Arts
• Languages
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies

By Grade Level
Pre-K/Kindergarten
1st-3rd Grade
4th-8th Grade
9th-12th Grade (High School)

By Month (2 months at a time, with seasonal highlights)
General Organization and Classroom Helps
Miscellaneous including Curriculum Treasures from the Past, Fun Pages, and Lapbooking and Notebooking Units.

Sampling of some of the variety of pages/units available to download.

Because it was summertime during our review period, we weren't doing a lot of work that was required "extras," plus we spent two weeks on a cross-country road trip, so I actually mostly checked out some of the e-books available, rather than using worksheets.

I was intrigued by the "HomeEc" section of of the "Curriculum Treasures From the Past" and downloaded A Little Cookbook for a Little Girl. As many books printed around that time, the instruction comes in the form of a story about a young girl who wanted to learn to cook *now* not when she was older. Her mother, grandmother and aunts all work together to create a cookbook for her birthday with some of the "simple" recipes from their cookbooks.

How interesting (And what a history lesson) to read through this cookbook! While some recipes could be attempted today, some of them might be harder to alter, as the instructions are based on cooking over a fire, or possibly on a wood stove. I was also amazed at the recipes that were considered "simple" as some of them are nothing my graduate would like to attempt.

At any rate, it was a learning experience that gave a little glimpse into the practicalities of one of the basics of life (cooking) a little over a hundred years ago.
An excerpt discussing how to cook bacon. I especially love the way it ends... ;)
This is much nicer than bacon cooked in the fryingpan or over coals, for it is neither greasy nor smoky, but pink and light brown, and crisp and delicious, and good for sick people and little children and everybody.

I did take a peek at some of the other areas, and am sure that as we get our fall school schedule up and running there will be a number of useful items. These really only touch the very tiny tip of the iceberg as far as the pages available...

The Graphic Organizers file includes 80 different organizers as well as a number of examples, which is very helpful. There are generic organizers as well as author study sheets, graph paper, storyboards, language/grammar/writing organizers, science, reporting, and more. Pretty useful bunch of printables!

I was pleased to find a unit on Johnny Appleseed geared for upper elementary ages rather
than the usual first and second grade offerings. Johnny is a favorite of ours, as he shares a birthday with one of my sons, and got his start in Massachusetts. The unit found at CHSH-Teach.com has some information included that I had never read before, so will be new and interesting to my Youngest.


I am also looking over the High School World History course (Student textbook and Teacher manuals all available for download). School starts for us on Monday coming, so I haven't gotten that far with him just yet, but it looks very thorough. Part 1 covers 3100BC-1800's with 21 units and over 600 pages in the student text. The 242 page teacher manual includes Unit Focus, Suggestions for Enrichment, Unit Assessment, and Answer Keys for each unit.

I am very impressed with the quantity of resources presented on CHSH-Teach.com, and expect that I may find myself checking here first if looking for a resource for a specific topic.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: CHSH-Teach.com
• Product: CHSH Download Club  
• Ages: Resources to use for K-12
• Price: $25 Annually OR $99.99 Lifetime

Visit Christian HomeSchool Hub on the web at any of the following Social Media sites:
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Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

"S is for Smiling Sunrise" Alphabet picture book (TOS Review Crew)

If you have a Pre-K - second or third grader, you might be interested in this latest item I received for review, S is for Smiling Sunrise, which is an ABC Picture book. In addition to the book, if you visit the WordsBright website, you can download a free Teacher's Guide (*Note: the Teacher's Guide comes in two levels Pre-K/K and K-3), and a free mp3 alphabet song.

This is a nice addition to any Alphabet Book collection (yes... I have one of those :)), and can be used with a variety of ages. Each letter of the alphabet is accompanied by an illustration and a rhyme. The rhymes are positive interpretations of things in the world around us, and celebrate goodness, beauty, and wonder. The first time we read this book, I had my 7 year old read it to me. Another time I read each letter/rhyme and asked youngest if he thought it was talking about goodness, beauty or wonder. Beauty and Wonder were often both his answer. It was a nice comprehension exercise which helped him think a little more critically about what we were reading.

Some of the letter rhymes offer a little art, others a little science, and a few emphasize character-training, or are more relational in nature. Almost all of them are good jumping off points for discussion.

If you have children on the younger range, there is a one page Parent's Guide with Pre-K recommendations to extend the learning. While a little young for my second grader, I personally felt that the Teacher's Guide could be most useful for the 4-6 year old range. It includes Concepts, Questions, Vocabulary and Activity suggestions for each letter/rhyme of the alphabet. If you do a "letter of the day" in your homeschool, this might be right up your alley!

No offense to the person singing the "S is for Smiling Sunrise" ABC song, but I didn't find it to be something that my children young or old would be interested in listening to. However, it was nice to hear the way the rhymes fit together in the traditional ABC tune, so that they can be sung at home.

When reading this book to my 2nd grader I have to admit that he wasn't overly excited about the concept. In his opinion, ABC books are for "little kids." However, once I explained to him that ABC books can be used to explore different topics, and show what you know about something he was much more willing to be a participant in listening and discussing.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: WordsBright
• Product: S is for Smiling Sunrise and Teacher's Guide (Free)
• Ages: Pre-K to 3rd(?) grade
• Price: Hardcover List price $16.95, ebook also available. Check your favorite online book seller for the current ebook price. 

Visit WordsBright on Facebook.

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

Reading Kingdom (one more time! :D)

I have had the opportunity to review Reading Kingdom with my youngest 3 separate times now. Review #1 was when he was 3.5 years old (Just a little under the recommended starting age), Review # 2 was last summer when he was five, and now he is six, and an official first grader, and we have been given the opportunity to review it one more time.

I will repeat some of the more salient points from my previous reviews here, in case you don't have time to go read them. :)

First, it is important to know that The Reading Kingdom is based on work and research by Dr. Marion Blank, the director of the Light on Literacy program at Columbia University in New York. She is considered by her peers as one of the leading experts in literacy. You may want to read this 6 page pdf file that discusses how The Reading Kingdom differs from other reading programs on the market. In a brief nutshell, it focuses on:

• Sequencing
• Motor Skills
• Sounds
• Meaning
• Comprehension
• Grammar

The Reading Kingdom is NOT a phonics based program and indeed Dr. Blank does not appear in the least to espouse learning to read via phonics at all. If that is your inclination this is probably not a program for you. HOWEVER, you aren't learning to read, your child is, and what works for one may not work for another. I should certainly mention that my two oldest children learned to read with phonics instruction and they have not had too much trouble~ in fact they are very good spellers. However, they would not be able to recite back to you many of the phonics "rules". They are just "intuitive spellers"~ I would say that I am a firm believer in phonics instruction given MY experience, but I grant that others' experiences may be very different from mine. 

For a little more insight into the levels of The Reading Kingdom, I recommend reading this 9 page graphic overview of how The Reading Kingdom is organized.

This video gives a very good overview of The Reading Program ~ with many of the points that I included in my first two reviews, so it is definitely worth taking the 4 minutes-ish to watch if you are in the market for a reading program.

Repeating this information from my 2nd review, as it still pretty much applies, Youngest is just one year older:

So, here's how it's working for us so far~ (playing a game of "That's bad!" "That's Good!" this time around...not wanting to emphasize the bad, but the good definitely follows in each instance )
The Bad: I don't often "Force" my children (Particularly those under the age of 6) to do any seriously structured school work. However, in this case, because it was a review item, and because I *did* want him to apply himself a bit, I did require him to do Reading Kingdom  (perhaps with less regularity than I would an older child, during the school year vs a new 5 year old during the summer...). This led to a few tears once or twice, and "I don't want to do Reading Kingdom today" on a regular basis. 
The Good: I thought it was interesting that almost invariably AFTER he completed a lesson he would turn to me with either a casual "That wasn't so bad, Mom" or excitement when he reached a particular goal~ so it wasn't as bad as he thought.... over and over and over! (Silly boy!)


The Bad: He hasn't reached the "I want to do more" stage with this program, and I'm not sure he ever will. There aren't many bells and whistles (not always necessary), and the timing issues could still be worked on some more, which might help with the outside distractions.
The Good: Nevertheless, it is a steady little program that really doesn't take that much time, but encourages progress.

The Bad(?): I do want to take a second and reiterate that this is NOT a phonics based program, so if that doesn't jive with your teaching philosophy, then Reading Kingdom may not be a great fit. 
The Good: On the other hand, if phonics just isn't working with your child, and you don't trust "whole language" then Reading Kingdom may be right up your child's alley!

In spite of my son's love/hate relationship with Reading Kingdom, when this screen showed up he was extremely excited! He completed a passport! Yeah! 

In my update, this time around, I have to mention that my son has completed level 1, and is well on his way to finishing level 2.

He still doesn't *ask* to do Reading Kingdom, but when he is engaged in the program, he *does* want me to take screenshots on a regular basis.

I like this activity, because it randomizes which letters are missing~ they really *do* have to be able to identify how to spell the target words they are given.

Youngest likes some of the pictures, and was particularly enamored with these birds, which explains this set...

This screenshot shows some of the more advanced pages he is completing, along with a couple of my notes added in:

The screen on the left was originally all yellow blanks, and green spaces. He is typing by dictation. Even when Youngest is not able to remember how to spell a specific word, the keyboard shows up to give him a hint.

The screen on the left was a little easier ~ because almost all of the words are shown on the bottom, but when he clicks on the correct word, it disappears in its little white box, so that he has to remember what letters are missing.

As you can tell by these pages, although *he* is not enamored with the Reading Kingdom, I can generally manage to get 10-15 minutes of work out of him at a time (one lesson~ within a Charlotte Mason recommended time-frame!) and he has clearly made progress~ the skills have become more difficult, and he is able to read the words in the activities (However, some of his decoding abilities *do* stem from phonics work that we have done~ just figure I need to mention that here).

I still feel that The Reading Kingdom is a solid little program that would be great as a stand-alone reading program for some children, and a great supplement for others.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company/ Product: Reading Kingdom
• Ages:  4-10 
• Price: 30 day free trial. 30 day subscriptions for $19.99/month or $199/year. Additional children in a family get 50% off ($9.99/month) Subscription can be cancelled at any time. 

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

Dive into your Imagination DVD/Curriculum

My latest product received as part of the TOS Review Crew is from "Dive Into Your Imagination" and when they say "Dive" they mean scuba dive!

Crew members were sent one of three DVDs

• Dive Into Diversity
• What Makes a Fish a Fish?
• Who Lives in the Sea? 

We enjoyed watching our Dive Into Diversity DVD, which was filled with stunning film from undersea dives. Dive Into Diversity has 8 "Chapters", as well as a "Meet Annie" (The founder and CEO of Dive Into Your Imagination) and "Meet Craig"(The music producer of the video) section. I recommend watching "Meet Annie" before jumping right in to the various chapters. It is a great introduction to scuba diving gear, underwater photography, and a tiny bit of ocean ecology.

There are 8 chapters in Dive Into Diversity

1. Night Diving on the Reef
2. Dive into Diversity
3. Be a Submarine Pilot
4. Swim in a Kelp Forest
5. Invertebrates of the Sea
6. Coral Reef Living
7. Sea Animals with Backbones
8. Wacky, Weird, Crusty Crustaceans

Here are my pros and cons for this series, based on our viewing of this DVD

Pros:

• The photography is absolutely stunning! Your children are likely to be riveted to the TV or Computer as an incredible array of ocean creatures make their way across the screen. The photography is just stunning!
•  Some great little factoids about some more obscure animals.
• Good introduction to ocean ecology. 
• Interesting to a variety of ages (including adults). My Eldest, listening along commented that it *is* important to care for and keep our oceans clean as the greatest number of oxygen producing plants live in the ocean (kelp).
• Great vocabulary with explanations included. 
• Using my Christian worldview it is easy for me to extrapolate ~ With such an incredible amount of diversity in the ocean, it is just SO apparent that we didn't all come from one big bang! The fact that everything is so finely tuned and balanced~ In Ocean Annie's words: "Diversity in nature helps to protect the balance that is necessary in the world." I can't imagine that our world's ecology could have existed and thriven without that delicate balance all along.

Cons:

• A little nit-picky, but in my opinion worth mentioning. I have to say that the narration and many tonal inflections of this film grated on me, personally. There are so many pauses... between phrases... that I'm thinking... that it sounds... like a script is being... read "Clearly" ...but without much ...conversational quality... or personality. It also reminds me of some of the videos I've seen that were intended strictly for toddlers. I have to admit that my youngest wasn't bothered by this at all, and my Middlest didn't mention it, but my Eldest definitely agreed. While I would like to say that these videos are totally appropriate for all ages, because of the style of narration, they are *mostly* appropriate for early elementary. That being said, I am very likely to contemplate purchasing other videos in this series, because they are just so beautiful.
• There are a few factoids that made us wonder about their inclusion (The wrasses that change from female to male, and clown-fish that change from male to female...) ~ we just commented on how "odd" that is...

Personally, I feel that the pros(incredible, crisp, clear photography and scientific information) far outweigh the cons (Which are mostly personal taste). I also have to mention that once the video has been watched for "content" there is the option to play it with music only~ what a lovely background, or "quiet down" time. There is also a Spanish Language Option, for those who are interested.

Here's a sample from Dive Into Diversity so you can see for yourself some of the stunning photography, however, I have to caution that the quality of the DVD is so much brighter, clearer, and more pristine that the quality of this YouTube video~ I can't emphasize enough that the DVD photography really is fabulous!:

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Educator Guides that can also be found on the website(s). Each DVD has 2 Educator Guides (PreK/K and 1st-3rd) that can be utilized for extended learning and activities. My littlest is the only one that they are appropriate for, and right now he is into coloring, so the coloring pages that came along with this guide were perfect. He was paying such close attention to detail~ he pointed out to me that he made the seahorse's eye green (Can you see that? It's tiny! His motor skills are coming along! :D). However, coloring pages aren't the only things included in these guides. The Pre-K/K guide alone has over 300 pages~ That's a lot of material!

From "How to use this book" For each chapter of the video there is a lesson plan that includes:
a. Character education and imagination play for your students.
b. A set of student questions correlating to the lessons designed to prompt discussion and enhance learning during video and multi-media viewing.
c. Ideas and support materials you can use to build learning centers in your classroom which combine science with other core subjects.
d. A glossary of scientific terms, eco-tips and websites for educator content support.
e. Suggested book lists and extension activities that can be used to bring an ocean of imagination flooding into your class.

Now for the Nitty Gritty~
Company website(s):www.AnnieCrawley.com and www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com

Product: Ocean DVD Dive Into Diversity  ($19.95) and optional Educator Guide 

Running Length: 45-ish minutes

Special Offers:

• Free shipping for orders placed on www.AnnieCrawley.com during the month of June 
• Free Educator guide with DVD Order (As a special for the Homeschool Crew and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and followers, Annie Crawley of Dive Into Your Imagination 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!) If the Educator Guides are something that you are remotely interested in, be sure to order soon, as the price appears to be rather cost-prohibitive for the average homeschooling family if not ordered with this special. (I do not know how long this offer is valid, but I would expect through the month of June, along with the free shipping?)

Ages: For Educational Purposes, Pre-K through 3rd Grade, but I feel that these videos can be enjoyed by all ages. They really are spectacularly filmed!

I hope that this review is helpful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget. Please be sure to stop by the TOS Review Crew blog and see what others had to say about the DVD's that they received for review.

Blessings~

Disclaimer: I received this/these item(s)/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Amazing Animals~~~ By Design

 

I don't know about you, but I am always happy to see books being published that agree with my worldview and belief in a Creative, Intelligent Designer of the universe, so I was delighted that fellow crewmate Debra Haagen gave the Crew a preview to her first book, Amazing Animals by Design.

The story follows Sarah, John and their parents as they visit a zoo and learn some interesting facts about the animals you see pictured on the front. The amazing thing that they keep hearing from the zoo keepers as well as their parents is that each animal was "Designed" in a specific way for a specific purpose. Whether it is the trunk that allows the elephant to survive (They couldn't eat without it!) or the long neck of the giraffe, it is clear that all creatures were specially designed to do what they do.

Can you imagine a bird like an ostrich (That can't fly), but much smaller? It wouldn't survive! Or, what if every animal ate the same thing (remember the food chain we learned about in grade school?)? They would run out of food! I won't tell you everything we read about, but the caracal has a very special skill that couldn't just happen.

There is also some discussion about God having a special plan and design for each one of us, as we each have unique abilities and purpose in life.

Makes having a rational discussion about some of the flaws of Evolution a natural conclusion, when appropriate.  

I really like the animal illustrations, and the 24 pages of text and illustrations kept my 4 year-old's attention. Best of all, I didn't have to counteract (Or skip over) any "Millions of years ago...." comments.

Purchase directly from Tate Publishing  $8.99 for a hands-on paperback copy and $7.99 for the digital download (I checked, and Amazon and Barnes and Noble also carry this title, now that it has been released for the past 2 days! You can special order from your local B&N, and create some awareness of an "intelligent design" animal book!) 

For more information and to interact with the author, please consider visiting her here:
Amazing by Design blog
Amazing Animals By Design Facebook Page
NotableScraps (a plug for Debra's regular blog, which includes her Crew reviews) :)

 

Just a note~ this book would definitely be best as a "hold-it-in-your-hands" book. I had a hard time figuring out how to have the double-page spread on my ipad. This could just be my technical ineptitude. It didn't bother me much, as it was really intended for reviewing the story itself, so I'm not complaining, just giving you a "heads-up that unless you are tight on space, you might appreciate the physical copy for the extra $1.
I hope this review is helpful to you as you consider "Science" reading material for your K-2nd grader. This is a great choice for those who believe in a Creator, and intelligent design.For further thoughts from the TOS Crew Members, please visit the Crew Blog.

Blessings~

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this/these item(s)/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."