Review of Heirloom Audio Productions | The Cat of Bubastes | #TheCatOfBubastes

Guess who has a new radio drama out? Heirloom Audio Productions has done it again with their newest Christian audio drama, The Cat of Bubastes! Get ready to travel to back in time to the land of Egypt.


You may have heard me say this each time a new audio drama is produced but this one is so far my favorite. I remember my oldest son reading this book a few years ago and he loved it. That means a lot coming from someone who is not a big fan of reading. So when the opportunity came up to review this, we were all excited. We listened to each CD in one sitting because we just could not stop!

In this historical fiction adventure, you follow a sixteen year old prince, Amuba, and his protector, Jethro, as they are kidnapped from their land all the while no one knowing they have kidnapped a prince. You will follow along as God provides the path of protection and salvation for each of these men. First, by allowing an Egyptian priest who secretly believes in the one true God to bring them in as his servants. Second, providing protection for them over and over again as they find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy against the priest and his family. Lastly, as they fight together to capture what rightly belonged to them to begin with. Where is the cat in all this you might ask?  Well, the climax begins with the cat and an arrow.  I will tell you that the Egyptians considered cats sacred.  True to Henty's style, The Cat of Bubastes contains adventure, adversity, a hint of romance, all on top of betrayal, conspiracy, defeat, and triumph. Now you can see why we had such a hard time stopping once we began!

Again, these dramas are not just audio books being read to you but complete theater productions with exciting sound effects!  

We also received access to special bonuses in addition to the CDs. We received a Study Guide, a mp3 soundtrack, 2 mp3 files of the audio drama,The Cat of Bubastes ebook with beautiful color pictures, a behind-the-scenes video which we all thought was so fun to see, and a couple of printable posters including this beautiful inspirational verse poster.

I love that we can easily transport The Cat of Bubastes. We listened to the CD's on the way to and from basketball practice and then discussed the questions from the study guide when we returned home.

There are 29 tracks/lessons in study guide so we are completing 1 track/lesson per day and listening to the track again if needed. I love the fact that the study guide is made so user friendly by marking each track with the time stamp.

I still can't rave enough about the full color guide and era background pictures making it so much more fun to use. I don't know why but we all love our resources in color. We have never printed the guide out because we just answer the questions straight from the file on my laptop.

Questions are broken down into 3 sets:

• The Listening Well questions - comprehension questions
• The Thinking Further questions - these require a little more thought, sometimes finding places on a map, and student's interpretations
• The Defining Words - vocabulary words

I also loved that we could find the spelling of the character names on the study guide too since we were dealing with very unfamiliar names.

On some tracks were additional expand your learning categories that students could read/do to enhance their studies further such as pharaoh information, recipes, maps, additional resource links, pictures of the historical period, historical background information, and more.

The study guide also includes 3 Bible studies with tons of Scripture verses for students to look up. We took one statement each day and looked up the verses together as a family.

Our entire family loved this audio drama and would highly recommend any of the audio dramas produced so far! If you are looking for a way to make history come alive, you will definitely want to check these out.

You can also see our reviews of With Lee In Virginia, In Freedom's Cause, Under Drake's Flag, and Beric The Briton from Heirloom Audio Productions.

Visit Heirloom Audio Productions on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram.

Review of Beric The Briton

If you have been a reader here long you already know that we are a huge fan of Heirloom Audio Productions. Their line of audio dramas make you feel like you are right there in the moment of history. The latest radio adventure from their lineup is Beric The Briton.

Beric The Briton, the audio drama, is based on the book, Beric The Briton, by G.A. Henty.  In this historical fiction adventure, you will be transmitted back to ancient times in Rome when Nero was the Roman Emperor. You will be taken all the way to the times of the great Roman fire where Nero blames Christians for the disaster. Only you will be following a couple of Britons from the land of Brittania who were captured by the Romans and trained to be gladiators. As the background story unfolds of Beric and friend Bodouc and their struggles with revenge for themselves and country, Paulus which is Latin for Paul is out sharing about the love and sacrifice of an unknown God to them, Christus which is Latin for Christ. As the worlds of war and forgiveness collide, Beric is faced to examine himself and his beliefs.

It still amazes me the range of emotions that this time period brings to me as I read about it. You can only imagine the emotions that emerge as you not only read what happened but hear it come to life with shouting crowds, roaring lions, fierce gladiator fights, and brave Christian men and women willing to die for their beliefs. I found the hairs on the back of my neck standing up! Although, this story is fiction it is based on the true historical times of this period.

We also received access to special bonuses as well as the CDs. We received a Study Guide and discussion, a mp3 soundtrack, 2 mp3 files of the audio drama, Beric the Briton ebook, a behind-the-scenes video, and a couple of posters including this beautiful poster. 

 

What I love most about Beric The Briton is its portability factor. Our resources arrived just as we were heading to Alaska for vacation. I transferred the mp3 files to my tablet and I was all set. Let me just tell you that these audio adventures are the perfect resource for passing the long hours on a plane. I only wish I had brought the other ones along to listen to again. With about 8 hours of flight time one way, we were all able to enjoy this great story. The drama lasts approximately 2 1/2 hours in total. Our entire family loved this audio drama!

The study guide has always been a favorite for us when we are home. We did not use it this time however I did look over it and was very pleased with what it had to offer. First of all, it is in color making it very pleasing to the eye. Each track is clearly defined including the time stamp. Each track has its own set of questions broken down into 3 sets - The Listening Well questions, The Thinking Further questions, and The Defining Words. On some tracks were additional activities that students could do to enhance their studies further such as recipes, additional resource links, pictures of the historical period, and more. I really loved the background the questions were included on.

Our entire family loved this audio drama and would highly recommend any of the audio dramas produced so far! I remember hating history when I was in school. Oh, how I wish these were around then! I am so glad they are available for my children to help them love history. You can also see our reviews of With Lee In Virginia, In Freedom's Cause, and Under Drake's Flag from Heirloom Audio Productions. Be sure to visit the Facebook page for Beric the Briton too.

Visit Heirloom Audio Productions on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Review of Extreme Dot to Dots: Spectacular Places

Raise your hand if you love dot to dot pictures! If so, I have a fantastic resource for you. Only thing though - this one is extreme and I do mean extreme! We were sent Extreme Dot-to-Dots: Spectacular Places from Timberdoodle to review and we have all had a blast trying our hand at it.

One of the things I loved most were the famous places and facts included. Part of the fun was looking at the fact and dots and trying to guess what the place was before finishing.

Now, these are not for young children by any means. The pictures are complex and the numbers head into the thousands so these are not for the faint of heart but these are great if you are looking for a fun challenge. Each of the 42 different puzzles contains a minimum of 1200 dots!  I even had to pull out the magnifying glass which really helped me see those tiny numbers. The only part I found a little extra tedious were numbers in a very light font color. I think the light color meant you could skip those numbers without effecting the picture too much but I found it easier to follow the sequence of numbers. Here you can see the clue and the picture about half way through. Can you guess the place?

If you just cannot figure out what the place is, there is a finished answer key in the back of the book to make it easier.

Some of the places you will visit include The Great Wall of China, The Great Sphinx (in case you couldn't tell :), The Grand Canyon, The Eiffel Tower, The Panama Canal, and so many more!

All of the pages are perforated which makes it easier for the whole family to enjoy at once. Stephen and Sarah are both still working on their final projects but they love them too! They have really enjoyed trying their hand at these during our hot summer days.  These would also make a great resource to kick off a history study or as you finish one. This book currently sells for $12.50 and can be purchased here. We think that is a great price for a combination of history and art!

This book is also a part of Timberdoodle's Eighth Grade 2016 Curriculum Kit.

**I received a free copy of this product through Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Review of NotebookingPages.com

To aid in our summer studies of focusing on God's Word, we have been taking advantage of the Lifetime Membership from NotebookingPages.com.

If you are unfamiliar with what notebooking actually is, think scrapbooking for school subjects. It's a fun way for students to make subjects come to life. Students journal and draw about what they have learned and every page shows each student's own unique personality. There is no right or wrong way to notebook which is the beauty of this system. They offer pages that cater to students who may prefer to draw and students who prefer to write. There are also options available for a mix of the two.

NotebookingPages.com offers 1000's of pages to download and print in Bible/Character, Alphabet, Famous People, Fine Arts, Geography, History, Holidays, Language Arts, and Science/Nature. They also offer basic lined notebooking pages that can be used with any subject.

So far we have have just touched the surface on the pages available with this membership. The most fantastic part is your membership never expires so you can take all the time you need to complete your projects! You also gain free access to any future updates that may occur with your lifetime membership.

For our homeschool, we focused on the Bible notebooking pages. This set takes you through the Old Testament and New Testament from Creation to John's Vision on the island of Patmos. It comes in a zip file and once unzipped it contains 54 files of PDF printables. This set alone has over 500 different pages to choose from!

I used this set with my daughter, Sarah, who is 12. We used the Bible notebooking categories as our devotion point each day. We began by researching the Bible verse or verses then added our own drawings or timeline and journaling information. Some days, we added a paraphrase with our thoughts and some days we simple copied the verse from the Bible but it has been a great time to spend with each other and growing in God's Word.

One of the files included an overview of every page in the set which made it so much simpler to pick and choose which pages we wanted to work with. Below is just a small sample of what is available.

We hole punched the pages and inserted them inside this small 3 ring flexible binder.  You could also add them to the binder with a clear front and decorate with your own binder cover. 

The Table of Contents page included was great to keep us on track.  You could also number your pages to correspond with the Table of Contents if you wish to make pages easier to look back on.

Here are just a few of the Bible notebooking pages that we completed.

Sarah enjoyed this way of working through the Bible. She is very creative and loves to draw so this was a perfect fit for her. There are also pages available with illustrations for those who would rather just narrate what they have learned as well as a combination of both.

I love to do special activities on holidays so I know the holiday section will come in handy for us too. There are pages for most of the traditional holidays. Here is a sample of just one of the pages offered for the fourth of July.

Next school year, we will be focusing a lot of other countries and geography so I have already begun to explore and print some of the pages in that section for next year too. The geography notebooking pages include maps, country pages, and more.

NotebookingPages.com offers lots of free pages too. You can sign up for a free sampler to see if this unique system will work for your family. I love that there are so many options in so many subjects so I don't have to take the time to search the internet for each individual page. When you are finished with your pages, you will have a real treasure on your hands written and designed by your student.

Find out more about NotebookingPages.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Review of Notgrass' Exploring Government

We are huge fans of all Notgrass curriculum so when the opportunity came up to review Exploring Government, we jumped at the chance. Timberdoodle sent us both the Exploring Government book and the accompanying book We Hold These Truths. We also added in the student quiz and exam book (not shown). All of the books are paperback books.

The Exploring Government course is intended for high school and your student will earn a half year credit in government upon completion. The lessons are found in the Exploring Government student book. There are 15 units that are clearly broken down into 75 daily lessons. The book is written to the student and each unit contains contains activity ideas which are often essay prompts to complete. At the end of each lesson students are given what pages they are to read from We Hold These Truths.

We Hold These Truths contains a collection of historical documents, essays, and speeches in American government. Both books contain black and white images sprinkled throughout the text. Only the outside covers are currently in color. A new edition with hardcover binding and color images is set to be released in August, 2016.

If you add in the student quiz and exam book, students answer questions after each lesson and complete a quiz at the end of the unit. Units include 5 lessons each.  There are also 3 exams. An answer key is also provided. 

As with all their courses, this one is written with a Biblical worldview so not only will students learn about the operations of the Federal, state, and local governments but they will also explore the Biblical pattern for government.  

History is my 10th grade son's favorite subject and he has already completed Notgrass' Exploring America curriculum. It is also written by a veteran homeschool dad. So far, Stephen has loved anything we have used from Notgrass.  It's simplistic, organized, faith-based, and makes learning history and government not so intimidating by breaking it down for students.  By the way, he can often be found reading just like this!  

The Exploring Government curriculum package currently sells for $49.95 and the optional student quiz and exam pack sells for $7.95.  You can find out more about those here.  

See sample pages below:

• Introduction
• Exploring Government Table of Contents
• Unit 4: Article I-Congress (Part 1)
• Unit 12: Taxing and Spending
• We Hold These Truths Table of Contents

This course is also a part of Timberdoodle's 2016 Eleventh-Grade Curriculum Kit.

**I received a free copy of this product through Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Review of Heroes of History - Ronald Reagan

It is no secret, we are huge fans of YWAM Publishing! About 95% of our read aloud books are picked from their lineup of wonderful books which include Heroes of History and Christian Heroes: Then & Now. So, when the chance to review the book, Heroes of History- Ronald Reagan and the Digital Unit Study became available, we were ecstatic!

YWAM Publishing offers many styles of books focusing on the topics of ministry, education, evangelism, discipleship, and prayer.

This year is our year of American History. We cycle through the history years so this is our 2nd time studying US History. Can you believe that we were in the 1980's just as this book became available to us? We couldn't have asked for more perfect timing!

Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side shares interesting facts of Ronald Reagan's life such as acquiring the nickname "Dutch" and how that came about.  This 224 page paperback book takes you through his childhood, adolescent years, college days, Hollywood days, all the way to his political career, death, and burial.  Journey back in time as you visit Dutch's early days of struggling through poverty, his father's alcohol addiction, illness, and small town life.  Through all the hardships, he continued to press on and never gave up trying to chase his dreams.  Even an assassination attempt couldn't stop him! He always had a passion for sports and drama and this book takes you through his life as he explores those passions.  We loved following along his career paths from lifeguard, to radio announcer, to Hollywood actor, to Army officer, to politics.
As always, after we finished reading we were left with so much more knowledge of our 40th President of the United States.  We clearly saw how all the events in his life molded him to be such an effective communicator.     

Although, we mainly use these are read aloud books to supplement our history and Bible lessons there is so much more you can add in when you add in the Unit Study Guide. The study guide includes many ideas to enhance your studies incorporating the subjects of history, art, geography, reading comprehension, creative and essay writing, drama, public speaking, and so much more. 

 
We orally answered the chapter questions after finishing each chapter. All answers are included as well in case you would like your student to read the book on his/her own. The questions include vocabulary, facts, comprehension, and opinion questions. Here is a sampling of the style of questions. I really loved that they included the page numbers for the vocabulary as well so if needed the student could go back to find the word in the context of the sentence.

There are also lots of fun ideas for various projects included. I chose to have my children work on a power point presentation.

 

We would highly recommend any of the books published by YWAM Publishing whether you are looking to supplement your current curriculum or use these as a starting point for a complete unit study! These books are truly our favorites! You can check out another review we did on Milton Hershey.

The paperback book of Ronald Reagan is currently on sale for $7.50 and if can also be purchased in several different formats making it a great on the go resource too! The formats include regular Audiobook CD, Audiobook MP3 download, Nook edition (e-book), Kindle edition (e-book), and regular e-book download. Visit here for all the different options.

I love this map that includes the heroes available in chronological order as well as where they were born and died.

To discover more on what YWAM Publishing has to offer, visit them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They also have a Blog.

Be sure to click the banner below to find out about the other books offered from YWAM Publishing that my fellow crewmates had the opportunity to review.