Decorating the kitchen

We are getting things together! I built this table all by myself. Well, I put it together, I mean. lol

The kitchen and dining areas are kind of small but I think it's turning out cute and I'm loving the built in office area!

Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App/ TOS Review

Planet 316 and WorthyKids/Ideals have developed a wonderful new interactive Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App
This is NOT your normal children's Bible. 

As you can see from the video, this Story Bible has an app that makes the stories come to life! 

The pictures spring up in 3D and have movement and audio that the children can hear. 

They call it augmented reality. The child touches something on the page and it talks, or makes other sounds. 

This is SO fun and so cool! I have never seen anything like this before. 

My three year old calls it a "movie in his book". 

Your child will want to read his/her Bible all the time now.

My son loves to "read" this Bible even without the app. 

The stories are written for the Read to me and early reader crowd. 

Even if they can't yet read on their own, they can still use the app, and hear and see the Bible come to life. 

This Story Bible has over 100  Bible stories from the Old and the New Testaments. 

 The app is free, so you don't have to purchase anything else after you get the Bible. 

The artwork is super cute and very colorful and is enticing to the children. 

It is one of my personal favorites of the children's Bibles that we have because of the bright, colorful pictures inside. 

The book itself is a very sturdy hardback. 

As a Bible itself, it is great. Sturdy, colorful, interesting stories...

As a Bible meant to be used with an app, it is a little more complicated.

 Don't get me wrong, it is a great idea, and I love it. The problem is that it is hard to use. 

It is hard for me to hold the book open and hold a phone or tablet over the pages.

 It is much harder for my 3 year old. 

He can not make it work without my help. The pages will not stay open by themselves. So you are only able to use one hand to hold the phone or tablet. 

If the Bible were able to open flat, or was spiral bound it would be a lot easier to use. 

I don't want to lessen the awesomeness of the Bible and the app and what it does, because it is really, really cool. My son loves, it, I love it, but it is just a bit hard to actually use. 

We still enjoy cuddling up and "making a movie in his book". 

I think if they were able to make it a lay flat book that would solve the issue. 

All in all though, the issue is not that big of one and I still think that you and your children will really enjoy this Story Bible. There is definitely not another one like this out there! 

You can purchase a copy of this Children's Story Bible with over 300 pages for only $14.99. 

Be sure to check Planet 316 out on Facebook and Twitter too! 
And see what my fellow Crew Mates thought of the Planet 316 Story Bible as well!

New furniture

We got all moved in this weekend. Our furniture was delivered and I am super excite about it. 

This is our first new furniture purchase. 

I think someone else likes them too! 

We also got a new table. It was a pain in the butt to put together, but it's really pretty!

 For some reason it looks much smaller in this picture than it is in person. 

I'm still getting it all together. I'll show you everything when it's all done and decorated. 

Wordless Wednesday

(Forgive the mess. We are in the middle of moving and I had stuff everywhere)

Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology/ TOS Review

We love Apologia in our house. I have used several of their Young Explorer Series with my older children, and was so excited to get to try one of the newer sets in the series, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. 
I was even more surprised that Apologia not only sent me the book but also two Notebooking Journals and the MP3 audio book!
If you are not familiar with Apologia, their books are Christian based. They are completely different from typical science textbooks. (A Huge Plus!) They have been voted the #1 homeschool science curriculum year after year for a reason. 

The textbook is written directly to the student. This makes for a much more pleasant reading experience. It is not boring, as the typical textbook seems to be. Here is an example:

What also makes The Young Explorer Series different than other textbooks is the fact that it is full of projects and experiments. 

Don't these look so interesting? I can not wait to do all of these projects! 

There are also many "Try This" blocks throughout the chapters. 

Having all of these hands on projects really make learning more personal and the children will learn so much more when the learning is fun and they are looking forward to it! 

In the Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology  series your child will learn all about the human body. 

"Beginning with a brief history of medicine and a peek into cells and DNA, your students will voyage through fourteen lessons covering many subjects, such as the body systems: skeletal, muscular, respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, nervous and more! They'll study nutrition and health, how God designed their immune system to protect them, along with embryology and what makes them a unique creation of God."

At the end of each chapter there are What Do You Remember and Notebooking Activities.

For the What Do You Remember, your kids can go tell daddy, brother or sister or anyone else all about what they learned. Telling someone else about something really helps the child to remember what they learned as well. It also gives you questions that you can ask your child and they can just answer them out loud to you. 

The notebooking section gives you the option of making your own notebook or purchasing one of the jourmals that are made to go with the book.  We have made our own many years back before there were these journal options. I highly recommend that you use the journals that go with the book. It is so much easier. 

There are two journals that you can choose from. 

There is the original notebooking journal. (grades 3/4 and up)

And there is a junior notebooking journal. (K through 2/3 grades) 

 The junior journal is for the younger student who has not quite mastered handwriting, or who can't write as much as an older student. 

The journals are fairly similar. Both have notebooking pages. 

Both have copywork pages in print and cursive. The Junior notebooking journal has less to write than the other one does. 

Some of the activites and pages in the older journal are more complex and usually include more writing. 

The younger journal also includes coloring pages. 

There are 14 lessons in this book. You could do them in order or you could probably even do them out of order if you like.  We went ahead and did the first chapter because the project at the end looked really fun! My niece, who was living with me, unexpectedly went back to stay with her mom for a couple of months. She left about 2 days after I got this in the mail, and won't be back for another week. I had planned on using this with her, but seeing as how I couldn't before the review was due, I did it with my other two children ages 13 and 3. OK, so maybe I didn't really do much with the 3 year old besides letting him color the coloring pages. lol  My son read the text his self. I have also looked over the text, and am very familiar with Apologia's textbooks. (LOVE THEM ALL) My son says he likes all of the cool projects,and that making the edible cell was really fun. He said it is really different than the typical textbooks. He said it is really hard to just find the answer! When he was doing the questions on one of the pages he was just looking for the answers. I think it is a good thing that it is not easy to "just find the answers".  I think children are used to "studying for the test". With this curriculum your children will really learn what they are reading. 

The notebooks also include little mini books and other projects in the back of the journals. 

Both journals have over 200 pages, not including the mini books in the back. 

If you have more than one child, you can use the same textbook and each child can have their own level of notebook. This book and notebooks are aimed at the 6 to 13 age range. Depending on your child, you could use it with a little younger or older. 

As I said before, we chose to do the first chapter because we wanted to do the experiment at the end of the first chapter. 

We made Edible Cells out of candy and jello!

My three year old's kind of fell apart because he pushed all of the candy too hard down into the bowl. But he still did it and had fun doing so!

There is a list at the beginning of the text that shows you everything you will need for all of the projects in the book. 

As I also mentioned before, I was also sent the MP3 Audio Book. 

I wasn't sure if we would want to use this or not, or if it was necessary. Once I put it in a started listening to it, I knew that it was! 

The Author, Jeannie Fulbright, reads the text herself. There is some nice music added in there, and her voice is very inviting. 

If you have children that learn audibly, the audio book is a must have. I know a lot of people have trouble understanding what they are reading, but if they hear it, they understand. 

Your child can listen to the audio book on its own, or they can follow along in their text as they listen to her read the text to them. 

You could also listen to it in the car as a refresher or as another way to incorporate what they are learning. 

Perhaps you have a younger child who can definitely understand, and wants to learn, but can't quite read well enough to read the whole text. They can still listen to the text and follow along and that will probably help in their learning to read! 

I do think the MP3 Audio Book is as necessary as the other products in the line. 

Doesn't all of this just look fun???

That is the best part of the Young Explorer Series. They make learning Fun. 

I more than highly recommend these books for your science curriculum. I have been using Apologia for close to 10 years now and will use nothing else for our science curriculum. 

If you have never heard of them, or have been interested in them, but you weren't quite sure if it was right for you, please check them out. I know you will love them! 

Be sure to check Apologia out on social media to stay up to date on current sales/news etc... Facebook  Twitter  Pinterest  Instagram  Google +  Youtube
Click on the banner below to read what my other Crew Mates thought of this set!