Alaska By The Way ~ Book Review

Having been interested in Alaska since I was younger, I was excited to learn that the By The Way Book Series was adding an Alaska book to their book line. We were introduced to the books from By The Way last year when we reviewed their Florida book.

By The Way books are written by Joy Budensiek. After hearing a speaker mention that parents don’t talk  to their children about God. She wanted to create a series of books that would help parents discuss God and his creation to their children. She has already written several state books and one country (Ireland) book.

Alaska is a beautiful full color, hard back book. It is forty eight pages long and tells the story of Alex and Lexi as they journey through the state. They visit many wonderful places and see many animals along the journey, such as harbor seals, humpback whales, and Kodiak bears.

The books is written in a story format,but each page has a lot of information. When I read this book with my seven year old daughter, I did not read it straight through. We took our time reading through the book and discussing the different animals and people and towns in Alaska. There are also so many beautiful pictures to look at that show children God’s creation.

We reviewed the Florida book last year, so my daughter was excited when we received this book in the mail. She was excited to look at the pictures  and learn about Alaska. At the beginning of the book, there is a page that shows some objects to look for while reading the book. My daughter loves looking through the book to try to find the pictures.

I love that there are Bible verses interspersed throughout the story. The pictures are beautiful and there is so much information to digest. My daughter and I did learn about kittiwakes. I had never heard of this bird before and it was interesting to learn more about them. We actually looked up a sound bite of their call to see how different it was from the seagulls we have around our beaches here in North Carolina.

I highly recommend these books because they are written from a Christian viewpoint and they contain so much valuable information. These books would be a great tool to use for a state or country study.

Wordless Wednesday

While waiting for roads to clear up so we can go home, my kids have been reading and doing some school work while we are displaced from the hurricane.

Hurricane Florence

We live in Eastern North Carolina and have had to worry about Florence hitting us. My boss, who I also go to church with, invited us to stay at my workplace during the storm since they had extra beds, food, and a generator. We arrived on Wednesday and the storm came through on Thursday and it is still raining some today. The place where we are staying only lost power for a few hours Thursday evening around dinner time. A big tree also fell across the road during the storm and the firefighters and city workers came out during the storm to move it out of the road. My husband and son made it over to our house this morning to check on the house and everything was fine over there, just no power or water. We are doing okay where we are and will stay for a while longer. I will update in the next week or two.

And it wasn’t all bad. Here is our dessert from last night.

Kingdom Files ~ Book Review

I love reading books to my seven year old daughter. I try to find books that are fun and can keep her attention. We received two of the Kingdom Files books from Barbour Publishing to review.

Kingdom Files are Bible based biographies designed for children ages 8 – 12. Each book is divided into three parts. The fact file, the action file, and the power file. The fact file is  a  two page spread that gives information and a timeline about the person. The action file is the actual story about the person. The power file is where you can find memory verses and how the scripture applies to your daily life. There are also clue boxes throughout the story that help to understand the story better.

Who Was Mary, Mother of Jesus? tells the story of Mary. from the time she was visited by an angel until Jesus’ death and ascension into Heaven. It is a simple, easy to read, easy to understand story.

I read this book to my seven year old daughter. We went through the files, read the story, and read through each clue during the story. At the end of the story, we went through each power up and discussed how we can apply it to our lives. We also read through the memory verses.

My daughter already loves and knows her Bible stories. She was excited to listen to the story about Jesus’ mother and learn how Mary loved her Son so much. She recognized that the story was Biblically accurate. She loved reading through the power ups and learning how we can use this story to help us through our lives. She also was able to learn a few of the memory verses.

Who was Jonah? tells the story of Jonah. It is set up the same way with the fact file, action file, and power file. The story tells how Jonah was called by God to visit the city of Nineveh. Jonah didn’t want to visit the city, so he decided to run away. He gets caught up in a storm in the boat he is iin and the men on the boat tried to help Jonah by rowing the boat back to shore, but Jonah told them it wouldn’t work. Once Jonah was in the sea, the storm stopped. Jonah spent some time in the belly of a fish where he learned he needed to trust God. He finally makes his way to Nineveh and tells them what God told him to tell them. The city listened, but Jonah became upset. And it is at the end of the story where Jonah truly learns how God had taken care of him all throughout his journey.

My daughter also enjoyed this story and she learned that  God cares, God loves us, and God is faithful.

We look forward to reading more books in the Kingdom Files series. Be sure to check out the website for games and educator resources.

My Birthday Field Trip

Today is my birthday! Yesterday we went on a field trip to the Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, North Carolina. We had a good time.

Reading Eggs Workbook ~ Review

Having tried several different curriculum for my 7 year old daughter’s reading, she still somewhat struggles with reading. She loves trying new things, which I am very thankful for. She doesn't complain when I introduce a new curriculum to her. She gets excited to try something new. She wants to be able to read quickly and be able to love reading. I was able to try out Reading Eggs new reading workbooks. We reviewed 200 Essential Reading Skills for Second Grade.

Reading Eggs is an online reading curriculum developed for children ages 2-13. It is an interactive website that uses games and songs to help your child learn to read or become a better reader. Reading Eggs has introduced a full line of workbooks for reading and math that go along with the lessons on the website. The workbook can also be used independently.

I had my daughter take the placement test for Reading Eggs since she is seven. It placed her at lesson 71. It didn't look like it went along with the book we had, so we started with just using the workbook on its own. I had her start at the beginning so she wouldn't miss anything. After looking more at the website, I realized I probably should have had her take the placement test at the Reading Eggspress level which is designed for ages 7-13. It looks like the lessons here go along with the workbook.

The workbook is designed to be used five days each week. The first two days included a short passage to read for comprehension. It asks you to circle or underline parts of the story and answer the questions about the story.

The next two days are devoted to spelling. Each week a rule or spelling pattern is introduced. There are short activities to do to learn the spelling words such as matching the word to a picture, unscrambling the words, and copying the words.

The final day the workbook introduces grammar. The second grade workbook introduces nouns, proper nouns, articles, adjectives, action verbs, linking verbs, adverbs, contractions, and much more.

We used the workbook for four days each week. I am using a great spelling program already, so I decided to skip the spelling days in the workbook. We went through the reading and the grammar portions of the workbook each week. My daughter has been looking forward to the book each day. She loves that the reading portions are short. I like that the student marks important parts of the story to help them retain the story better.

She has also been loving the grammar portion of the workbook. She looks forward to getting to the grammar portion each week and learning about the different types of nouns. I hadn't really introduced her to any grammar yet, but she seems to be picking up on it quickly.

We both enjoy using this book. I like that she is picking up on reading comprehension and remembering the stories she reads. She likes that it is fun. She enjoys looking at the colorful images. She enjoys reading the different short stories. And she enjoys learning about grammar (so far). We give this workbook 5 stars and will continue using it throughout this year.

If you purchase a workbook, I have a code that gives you 10% off the price. Use code WK10BEEENYU when checking out. In addition, you can sign up for 4 free weeks of Reading Eggs by clicking on this link.

Aquarium Trip and Jellyfish Sting

We had a fun day at the Pine Knoll North Carolina Aquarium yesterday. We have a year pass and the aquarium is one of our favorite places to visit.  On this visit they had a bird show and we had front row seats. Here are a few pictures:

After the aquarium, we went to the beach to enjoy the ocean since it was calm. While we were there my 15 year old son was stung by some jellyfish We ended up calling 911 because we didn’t know what to do. They keep their trucks stocked with vinegar. He was doing okay after the vinegar, so we started our journey home (we live about one hour from the beach). I stopped on the way home for more vinegar and some Benadryl. He is doing okay and will probably be just fine.

Update (9/21/18) ~ He is fine. He hurt for a couple of days after the stings and had welts all over his legs, but they have healed and he is back to his old self.