Traditional paper books are great, but we have an amazing amount of information at our fingertips with technology and our kids are drawn to it like flies to honey! When my girls learned we were going to read some new books with media enhancements and digital content, they were intrgued. Glaciers, A Lion’s World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant from Weigl Publishers had my girls hooked from the start! Glaciers and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant are geared towards kids in kindergarten through 2nd grade. Glaciers is for an older set, 3rd-6th. Although the age range is quite broad, I encouraged all of my girls to give them a try.   Here is a quick synopsis of each title. 
   This title is so much fun! It has the same feeling as the song, There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly. This light-hearted, tale will make your kids (and you!) laugh from start to finish! Because this is geared towards younger kids the digital content is not too extensive, but it is still really fun! The narrator reads the story aloud and has a lovely reading voice which is pleasant to hear and the cowboy’s voice is quite humorous. 

  This title was really interesting for my older two as well as Grace. She again enjoyed reading the book aloud, but this info grabbed her sisters a bit more than the first two titles did. I personally thought this had some of the coolest digital enhancements! Underlined vocabulary words can be clicked on to find the definition. Pictures can be clicked to access insider videos that are spectacular!  There are kid-friendly links to other websites (although we always still check these first) and slide shows too. It is good to know in advance that this has the perspective that the earth is billions of years old. This is not a huge issue for us. While we hold to a literal interpretation of Genesis, including a literal 7-day creation week, we do not isolate our children from resources which disagree with this view. It provides perfect opportunities to discuss the differences and why we believe what we do about the creation of the world.

Weigl Publishers is a brand new company for our family. I’ve never heard of them, but they were a hit all around! Rose asked what other types of books they have and if we could get some more! One aspect I loved is that the text is highlighted while being read. This is incredible for kids who are younger learners or have reading challenges. This is a great opportunity to give kids books to read, but not require them to actually do the reading if that is a struggle. It is a beautiful thing to give eager learners opportunities even when they have one area that is harder for them. 
We highly recommend this company! I’m sure you will find a title or twenty which will engage your kids! 
Check out what my Crewmates had to say!

 Part of our daily learning is scheduled reading of biographies. We have a shelf full of these wonderful living history books and Heroes of History from YWAM Publishing  are som e of our favorites! We also greatly enjoy the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series. Grace was very excited to read Heroes of History- Alan Shepherd for her current study.    Because the series are written as living history books (telling historical fact in a story-like way) they really feel more like novels than they do history books. Our mostly Charlotte Mason style of learning lends itself to these types of books and really makes learning more meaningful. If you don’t typically include living history books in your studies these are a great place to start!  We typically just read and discuss when studying biographies, but this series also includes a Study Guide to further enhance learning. With 108 to choose from you will certainly find someone interesting to read about! 

I really like how these books delve into the individual’s childhood. This helps to see what brought them to the point in  history for which they are known. It is interesting to read about a famous person’s childhood because many times they are just like our own kids with diverse interests and unique skills, yet children just the same. This type of learning can greatly influence and impact our children as they dream of what they might do one day.

Grace said she really enjoyed this biography and it is one of the few more modern stories we have read. I liked learning about the technological advancements over the years and how they impacted Alan Shepherd. 

Grace is 8 and sometimes had trouble finding the information to write down on her study guide. Some of the pages included vital statistics, a timeline, and mapping activities. It was a good way to talk about how to locate information in a book you are reading and how to read for answers. I think this struggle came mostly from not typically completing study guides while reading biographies. I personally prefer to opt out of additional writing activities because we have so many other writing based things going on, but I love that it is an option if we want to use is.
Another idea is to use these books as read a aloud and complete the study and a unit together. We rarely do “together” learning (as my girls call it!) so studying material in this manner is always a treat. This is one of the things I intend to do over the summer when we take a break from our traditional coursework.
We will always highly recommend these studies! If you aren’t sure where to start I would suggest Christian Heroes- Corrie ten Boom, Christian Heroes- C.S. Lewis, Heroes of History- Milton Hershey, or Heroes of History- Clara Barton. Grace had a particular interest in Milton Hershey and Clara Barton because she absolutely adores Hershey’s chocolates and dreams of being a nurse one day! She previously read these titles and enjoyed them so much she was very ready to dive into this book. As with our study, each of these comes with a companion study guide. 
Which title would you choose first?

 When I was a kid, children’s Bibles were fairly simple. Abridged versions of the story with a picture or two were plenty engaging. Our tech savvy kids can be engaged with the same types of Bibles, but when we have the opportunity to involve technology, their engagement rises to an entirely new level! The Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App from Planet 316 and WorthyKids/Ideals combines the truth of God’s Word with incredibl fun technology to create an completely different way for kids to engage with Scripture!   We have a wide variety of children’s Bible in our home, but none like this! While it is geared towards early readers my 12-year-old and 10-year-old thought this was  one of the coolest Bibles for kids they have seen and quite often spent time reading it with Grace, who is 8 and much more the target audience.    The illustrations are sweet and fun, but tell the stories well. Each story is well-written and biblically accurate. This really is the most important thing to me when it comes to a children’s Bible. I am happy when they find it engaging and enjoyable, but if it isn’t doesn’t include sound doctrine and truth, I’m not thrilled. I was very happy to feel like the stories included were very true to Scripture.  

The fun part is with the app! Our girls have larger tablets so the pictures were nice and big. She loved scanning each page and touching the pictures to see it come to life. I like that the app is simple to use and even though she sometimes didn’t get the page lined up perfectly it still worked beautifully. She did find there needed to be a quality light source as well as sometimes a little distance from the book in order for it to work perfectly.  We used this Bible at home for fun reading time. Some other ideas could be to use it as part of your family devotional. When our kids were little this is exactly the kind of Bible storybook we liked. If your little ones tend to have the wiggles, this will definitely help hold their attention! It could also be really fun in a Sunday School or Children’s Church type setting. Children will certainly remember the lesson well when having the change to engage with the app!  

Tech loving families are going to really enjoy how interactive this is. Grace said she likes that the characters talk. Her favorite story was when Adam met Eve. I thought it was fun that Adam introduces himself to her and gave the impression that he was very happy to meet her.  

 If you are looking for a fun and interactive way for kids to engage with Scripture, give this a look. It incorporates the truth of God’s Word while using a technological medium to really draw kids into the Bible. Here is a look at how it works!   

  Grace is eight. She already has plans to attend a specific college to earn her nursing degree…as long as she can be assured a job where she doesn’t have to deal with blood! She thinks blood is gross, but learning about the human body is AWESOME! I asked her if she would like to study this as a regular part of her school day and she started jumping up and down with glee. When Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology from Apologia arrived on our doorstep she could not wait to dig into it.    Our curriculum pack included the textbook, MP3 audio CD, and both the regular and junior versions of the Notebooking Journal. I loved having access to the entire course for Grace. She is in 2nd grade, but quite advanced for her age academically.I gave her the option of which Notebooking Journal to use and she chose the regular over the junior. I felt this was a good fit as well, but wanted her to make the choice. The older journal is best for students who are already comfortable with handwriting and especially able to write down their thoughts easily. The Junior version is perfect for younger learners who are still in the handwriting learning process but are ready to have focused science instruction.

 I really like the option of the MP3 audio CD. This is great for kids who process better with auditory learning, are slower readers, have a reading struggle, or just as a n alternative to reading the book! I had Grace read the chapters, but I think this is especially helpful for younger kids who may be studying along with their older siblings. I know very few companies which offer this option with text books and am very impressed by the thoughtfulness of the company on this matter. It is important to note that this is not a direct, word-for-word reading of the text and may not always track exactly with the book. I actually really like this because I can have Grace read the chapter and then listen separately and she won’t feel like she is merely listening to what she read.  The content is Christ-centered, focusing on God as our Creator. This is very important to me as we keep this focus in our home on a continuous basis. Science is relevant to our every day lives and the way we understand the creation God has given us. The curriculum is filled with incredibly simple, yet satisfying experiments and projects to further her understanding.

Grace’s desire to study medicine and help others is a reflection of her relationship with Him. While I know this may change, her wonder for how the body works and desire to help others will remain. She will now have a wonderful working knowledge of human anatomy and physiology even at a very young age. If you are looking for a new science course to study or have a budding medical degree in your home, this is a fantastic course for you to pick up!  Check out what my Crewmates have to say!