Home School Review--Christmas Joy Bible Study!

Hello Everyone!

I am super excited today because I have yet another fantastic Home School Review for you!  Today I am going to be sharing with you another of the great Bible Studies done by the Bible Stories From the Heart team--this one is called "Christmas Joy," and I probably don't have to tell you that it is all about the Christmas story!

In case you missed my previous review of the "Love Drops" Bible study also from Bible Stories From the Heart, you can read all about that study here:

Love Drops Bible Study

As I shared in my previous review, these Bible studies are actually written to be used by adults, either in small groups in homes, church groups, or individually.  But since I am a home school mom, I look at them in an entirely different way--and that is as a fantastic curriculum choice for Bible class!  What I really love about these studies is that they have EVERYTHING--a Bible passage to read and apply to your life, discussion questions to help start a conversation between you and your child--and help guide them in learning how to apply what they read in the Bible to their own life, as well as a great Bible art coloring page at the end of each lesson!  I think the more ways we can help our kids apply the Bible the better--so if they are reading it, discussing it, reading some of the poetry that is sometimes included (and perhaps even memorizing the poems!), writing out a S.O.A.P. application page, as well as creating an art project--well, that is just helping them apply the Bible to their lives in SO many different and creative ways!  And these are studies that both you AND they will enjoy!  What a blessing to be studying the Bible together with your children!

The "Christmas Joy" Bible Study is PERFECT for starting right now, at this time of year!  There are a total of four lessons in the study.  When I do these lessons with my 12 year old daughter, we roughly spend one week on each lesson.  Sometimes we take a day or two longer,, and that's o.k., we just go through at our own pace!  One special thing about this Bible study is that there are Christmas poems and some extra coloring pages included in a section at the back of the study (these coloring pages are in addition to the art coloring pages included for each lesson) and there is also a bonus craft idea showing how you can make a display using some smaller versions of the coloring pages and hanging the on ribbon.  This would make a beautiful addition to your Christmas decorations!  What better decoration than using God's Word and hanging it where it will remain in your child's thoughts!

My daughter and I started the "Christmas Joy" Bible study last week.  The first lesson is focusing on the character of Mary, and what it would have been like for her when the Christmas story unfolded.  The focus verses were Luke 1:26-38, Which is when Christ's Birth was announced to Mary.  After reading the story right from the Bible (the passage is printed in the study from the NKJV, or you can look it up and read it in the version of your choice), there is some Biblical history given of that time period.  We learned a little bit about how Jewish girls were brought up at that time, and what commonly would have happened to an unmarried girl then who found herself pregnant--she would have been stoned to death or sent away as a slave!  Mary was highly honored--but along with this great honor, she accepted great risk.  She trusted God to protect her through her pregnancy, and He did!  We also learned that before Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, angel visits were not a common occurrence!  Around six months before Mary's angel visit, her relative Elizabeth had been visited by Gabriel and told she would be having the baby John the Baptist--but before Elizabeth, it had been over 400 years since the Jewish people had had any sign or word from God!  So it wasn't like Mary could just explain everything to her family by saying "Oh, an angel visited me!"  I mean, she could--and I'm sure did--tell them that she had an angel visit, but it wasn't like that was going to explain everything to them and remove all their doubts!

After learning more of the Bible history, there is a focus verse of Luke 1:38, which reads "Behold the maidservant of the Lord!  Let it be to me according to your word.  We then focused on specific words and phrases  of "Behold, Maidservant, Of the Lord, Let it be to me, According," and "Your Word." We learned more about exactly what is the meaning of each word/phrase.

Following the Focus Words, we came to the Lesson One discussion questions.  The questions we had were as follows:
1.  Do you consider yourself a "servant" of your Heavenly Father?  Why or why not?
2.  Are you willing to be used as a "vessel" by God?  Give examples to support your answer.
3.  Is your faith in the Lord as strong as Mary's?  What areas of your faith are your strengths?  Your weaknesses?
4.  What can you do today and this week to strengthen your faith?

After the discussion questions we came to the art page for that lesson.  Like the lesson itself, the art page focused on Mary and is a beautiful reminder of how she trusted God.

You and your child can color the page just as it is--you can use crayons or colored pencils--or my daughter and I like to trace the pages onto water color paper and then water color the picture.  You can make it very simple for a younger child--or a little more challenging for an older child.  You--or they--can change things to personalize the art page however they would like to.  On my art page, I really felt like I wanted to put in a Bible verse illustrating the picture, so I did!

Do you see how easy it is to personalize these studies for your family?  They really give enough structure to really help give you some substance to work with--and yet are flexible enough to work well with any age group you may be teaching at home!

Just to give you an idea here are two more of the wonderful art pages included in this study!  I don't want to give them all away--but if you decide this sounds like something that would work great for you or your home school I do not think you will be disappointed!

Aren't these sweet pictures?  And they can also be made into some home made Christmas cards done by your children!  Or they could be a Christmas gift for Grandma and Grandpa!

"Christmas Joy" is available in a paper book format at Amazon, at this link:
Christmas Joy

It is also available as a pdf on their Esty page here:
Christmas Joy pdf

If you are purchasing "Christmas Joy" to use as your own personal devotion, or to use with just one child, you might want to consider a paper book format.  But the pdf version is fantastic if you are using it for several children, as you can print for your own immediate family the number of copies you need.  Or you can simply read the Bible study off of your computer or tablet, and only print out an art page for each child.

And last but not least--another way to connect with Bible Stories From the Heart and view samples of some of their other Bible Studies is over on their web page, which can be found here:
Bible Stories From the Heart

Thank you for joining me in this Home School Review!  As you can tell, I think "Christmas Joy" is the perfect thing to use with your children in those wiggly weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  These weeks can be difficult ones for children to focus on regular school things--why not give them something different and help your children focus on the REAL meaning of the Christmas season!

~Susan

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Disclaimer:  I received a free pdf copy of "Christmas Joy" in exchange for my honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are completely my own, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Bible studies and have used (and purchased!) several of them in my home school for our Bible class.  

Home School Review--Love Drops Bible Study!

Hello Everyone!

I am SUPER excited to share with you today, because I have a wonderful Bible Study product to share.  The Love Drops Adult Coloring Bible Study is actually originally designed to be used as a personal or small group Bible study, but I think it is PERFECT to use as part of our home school curriculum!!!  I have been using these lessons with my 12 year old daughter for around a year now, and we have both enjoyed them ever so much!  And when I changed to doing something different for our school Bible time, she told me "Mom, I really liked what we were doing before better!"  So I would have to say it is "kid approved!"  And I really feel like these are adaptable age-wise for much younger children as well as older teens as well!

First of all, let me not forget to say that Love Drops is just ONE of the great Bible studies from the Bible Stories From the Heart team has written.  There are also other studies such as   Exodus, Draw in Nearer, New Beginnings, Devotions, Nature Walk and last but not least, Christmas Joy. And more studies are being written all the time!

The Love Drops study starts out with telling a little bit about their goals, which they share as two fold:
1) Intentional Bible Study (searching for God's love)
2) Reflective Journal Writing (reflecting on God's love/S.O.A.P.)

Many of you may already be familiar with the S.O.A.P. method of Bible study, which stands for:
Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer.  The Bible Stories from the Heart Team uses the S.O.A.P. method to help get the person doing the Bible study INTO the Word of God themselves--instead of passively reading about something but not REALLY wrestling with it and applying it to your life is easy to do, when you are just reading.  But when we stop and actually apply the verses that we are reading to our lives, asking ourselves questions about what we are reading and about how we are going to apply what we are learning to our lives brings our Bible study to a much deeper level.
At the beginning of the studies, there are small group suggestions, so if you are using this study with a group in your home or in a group at your church there are VERY helpful suggestions as to how often to meet, and how much time to plan on for different parts of your group meeting etc.  But as I already mentioned, I am going to recommend that you look at these studies as a gold mine for your home school Bible time!

And the frosting on the cake--what has made this such a neat and enjoyable way for my daughter and I to interact together as well as to interact with God's Word is that for each Bible lesson there is an art project to go along with it!  You can simply color these pictures, using crayons, colored pencils, etc., you can trace or scan them out and paint them and keep them in a binder, or you can post them up in your school area.  They can also be used as neat little gifts for your children to give away to grandparents or visiting in nursing homes, or made into cards to mail away and bring cheer!  The possibilities are endless!  And the art page is easy enough for your child and yet complicated enough to be enjoyable for you the parent as well!

The Bible Stories from the Heart devotions are all divided into different weeks.  In the study Love Drops, there are five different weekly studies.  In using these in our home school, I will roughly do one lesson per week, using them as our Bible study for the day.  Each day we just read and study a couple more parts.  If we for some reason do not finish with one of the devotions before the week ends, we don't worry about it.  We simply keep going on Monday, and take whatever time we need the next week to finish it up.  So I am not too worried about beginning on a Monday and finishing on a Friday.  It's all good--just go through the devotions with your children, taking turns reading sections out loud and then discussing them.  With five devotions in the Love Drops study, it will take us at least five weeks--maybe a couple weeks more, deepening on our speed.

In the Love Drops lesson, the first devotion lesson starts with  focus verses of  Luke 12:35-40.  This is the story of the faithful servant and the evil servant.  First thing, the verses are printed right in the study, so you are reading the actual story straight from the Bible.  I like this!  Then there are a couple paragraphs giving the history in Biblical times.  It talks about how in the Bible times people typically wore long robes.  And when your long robe got in your way of doing whatever duty you needed to do, you would keep your robe tucked into the belt around your waist.  And this is where the phrase "let your waist be girded" came from.  This phrase was common back then, and it meant how the servants should remain dressed and ready to serve their masters at all times.  Then there is a conection to us section, helping to give questions and thoughts about applying this servant-master concept to our lives and how we also need to be "girded and ready" at all times to serve our master.

Then the study moves to the focus words.  These are words chosen from each week's study that help us understand at a deeper level what the verses are saying to us.  The focus words for this time come from Luke 12:40, which says "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

The focus words are:
Be--(verb) cause to occur

Ready--(adjective) in a suitable state for an activity, action, or situation; fully prepare

The devotion then helps us to see how the words "be" and "ready" requires action on our part.  It is suggested that you reflect and pray over those words for a little while, and ask God to show you some specific areas in your life that may need help in becoming ready for our master's return. This is a very abbreviated description--there is a LOT more in the actual study in this section.  Leslie Eaton, the author of all the Bible Stories From the Heart lessons, is truly gifted with words.  She has a beautiful and nonthreatening way of using words on paper to help guide you into reflecting on your own personal relationship with your Savior.

Right after this section, there is a beautiful poem entitled "Ready or Not" by Deborah Ann Belka.  I am thinking of using the poem in our home school for some memory work.  I am always wanting something uplifting and encouraging for my daughter to memorize, and I think having her memorize a reflective poem about what we may be doing when Jesus returns is a much better use of our time than her memorizing some piece of nonsense poem!

Finally, there is a list of six devotion one discussion questions.  These questions can be used however you would like--I do not ask my daughter to write out her answers, rather I like to use these questions as discussion questions for she and I to discuss together.  But you can use them in whatever way you would like.  The questions for this lesson are as follows:

1)  What is your big takeaway from this week's lesson?

2) Do you think most people prepare more for out of town company coming to their house than their Lord and Savior coming back?  Why?

3) Do you think it is sometimes easy to forget that we are the servants and that God is our master?  Why?

4)  Do you consider the word servant to be a positive or negative word in relation to us and Christ?  Why?

5) What do you think most people fail to do on a daily basis in order to "Be girded?"

6)  What are you going to strive to do from this point forward as a result of studying this scripture?

After the discussion questions, there is the SOAP activity page.  You are encouraged to choose any verse from the weekly focus verses to reflect deeper upon.  They reprint right in the study for ease the Bible verses again, so they are right there on the page for you.  Then they review the SOAP devotion instructions--reminding you what each thing represents, and then there is a blank SOAP form page--this one I do usually have my daughter fill out, and while SHE is filling out her page, I am filling out mine! :)

Now it is time for dessert--the art page!  These are all done by the very talented Nicole Plymesser Nelson, and I so much appreciate her sharing her artistic talents with the rest of us who are not so talented!  For this first lesson in Love Drops, the art page has to do with Luke 12:40.  I like to do my pages on watercolor paper, so I print out a page from the Love Drops pdf and put it on my light tracer and trace it onto a watercolor paper that is sized to fit into my Bible notebook.  I trace the picture, color it with my watercolor pencils, and then add the water to turn the colored pencils into paint.  After the paint is dry, I go over my pencil lines with permanent marker.  Here is a picture of my art page from this lesson:

Doing an art page has been an awesome way to spend some time reflecting on God's Word in a hands-on way!  And I think this is one reason why these lessons are great for children--my daughter absolutely LOVES doing the art pages!!!  And I love them just as much!  Neither one of us do the page in a "perfect" way, but we do have fun and what better way to combine God's Word, fun, and art all at the same time!

Some of the later art pages from the later devotions in Love Drops are as follows:

Now--Love Drops is available both in paper form, as well as in a pdf form.  If you are just looking for something to do for yourself, in your own quiet time with the Lord, you might like the paper book form.  But if you are wanting to do this with your children in home school, I recommend getting the pdf form.  They are available on Amazon here:
Bible Stories from the Heart

There is also an AWESOME Facebook community!  Look up "Bible Stories From the Heart" and if it says the name Leslie Eaton, that is the right one!  Ask to join the group, and you will be amazed at the sweet Christian spirit you will find there!  You can post pictures of your or your children's art work there, and everyone is so sweet and uplifting with their comments!  There is also a great web site which you can find here: Bible Stories From the Heart  There are also some really neat videos to go along with the different studies, which you can find on the web site.  Sometimes my daughter and I like to watch Leslie "teach" us the devotional lesson, and instead of reading the lesson out loud back and forth we both enjoy watching Leslie's video lesson instead!

Well--that is everything I can think of to tell you.  I hope you have enjoyed learning about the Love Drops Bible study, and about all the Bible Stories From the Heart studies.  And if any of you decide to try one of these studies in your home schools, be sure to let me know how you like them!

~Susan

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Disclaimer--I received a free copy of the Love Drops pdf in exchange for my honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are completely my own, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Bible studies and have used several of them in my home school for our Bible class.

WINNER--Economics for Everybody from Timberdoodle!

Good Morning Everyone!

Today's the day!  A huge "Thank you!" to all who checked out the links for this GREAT curriculum from Timberdoodle, and this morning I took the names of all who entered and drew one name to be the winner of the Economics for Everybody that Timberdoodle has graciously offered to give away.

Are you ready???  And the winner is. . . . .

Angela Denis!

I hope this curriculum is a huge blessing to you and to your family!  Angela, send me your mailing address to:  SusansSpotgiveaway@gmail.com, and I will  pass it along to the proper person at Timberdoodle, and they will mail your curriculum directly to you.  :)

And if you didn't win--I truly wish I had a copy to give everyone who would like one!  This really is a very nice curriculum, coming from a Christian viewpoint which is important to my family.  So if you cannot purchase yourself a copy this school year, keep it in mind as you are making your purchases for next year.  You can read more about the program HERE.  What I like to do is to keep a running "Wish List" throughout the school year of things that have caught my attention as something that might be a good fit for our home school.  Then, when Springtime approaches and I am making my purchases for the following school year, I go through my "Wish List" and make final decisions.  I hope this has at least helped you become aware of a great Economics program that is available!

Thank you for reading my blog!

Happy Homeschooling!

~Susan

Home School Review and GIVEAWAY--Economics for Everybody from Timberdoodle!

Hi Everyone!

I am SUPER excited today, because not only do I have another great home school review from Timberdoodle for you, but Timberdoodle has also graciously offered to sponsor a giveaway of this product to one of my readers!  (U.S. addresses only)  Learning about great home school curriculum is wonderful--but having a chance to WIN a copy for free is even better!!!!

More about the giveaway in a minute--first, let me tell you about the product!  Today's product is called Economics for Everybody--Applying Biblical Principles to Work, Wealth, & the World by R. C. Sproul Jr.  Timberdoodle includes this curriculum as part of their complete Twelfth Grade Curriculum Kit, although the information for this product states that it can be used for ages 12 and up, and grades 6 and up.  Having a 12 year old in 6th grade as my product tester, I was anxious to see what we would both think of it!

The curriculum consists of two parts--there is a small spiral bound study guide, and also a thin plastic case containing two DVDs.  Each DVD contains six lessons, for a total of twelve DVD lessons. The study guide is also divided into twelve chapters, so everything coordinates nicely together. These two parts are packaged together in a card board sleeve (shown in the first picture of this post), so they fit nicely on your book shelf and stay together.

The very first chapter in the Economics for Everybody study guide starts with laying the foundation for Economics from a Biblical viewpoint--that God owns everything, but He created us to be a steward of creation for His glory.  The study guide is small and very non-intimidating.  The first lesson has seven pages that state an Introduction, Scripture Readings, Learning Objectives and the Lecture Outline, before finishing the chapter with approximately two pages of Multiple Choice, Short Answer, and Discussion questions.  Very last in the chapter is a short list of books for further study on that topic.

My first impressions are that Economics for Everybody lives up to it's name.  In the Introduction of the Study Guide, they give suggestions to use this curriculum in churches and small groups, middle or high school students, or families and individuals.  I think it would work VERY well in all three of these group types, especially with their suggestions of how to best use the curriculum within these groups.  There is even additional learning resources for students at a web site they list.

Lesson one of Economics for Everybody  DVD starts off with the author talking.  He is very personable, and I thought interesting.  Lesson 1 video was 15 minutes in length, so not super short and not super long either.

 But it is not just a lecture with you looking at a teacher--there are many pictures that illustrate what the teacher is talking about.

And my favorite--plenty of historical photographs as well!

One thing that I really appreciate about Economics for Everybody is their thoughtfulness of which groups will be potentially using this curriculum.  For example, knowing that the families with older children who will be using this may indeed also have younger children in the family, they included a caution in their Introduction.  The following is a direct quote from their book:

"Be advised that Lessons 2, 7, and 11 do have some scenes that could bother a young child.  Parents may want to preview those lessons if young children are going to be watching them."

Since WE are a family with quite an age spread between our two children, I understand only to well how attractive whatever an older sibling is doing is to a younger sibling--and in our house, if it was a video of any sort it was like a magnet!  So having a "heads-up" ahead of time I really appreciate!

Of course--having read this caution, I HAD to go preview one of these lessons that were specifically mentioned so I could report back to you in my review.  So after watching Lesson 1 with my daughter, later that evening I went back and watched Lesson 2 on my own.

Lesson 2 was 19 minutes in length, so a bit longer than Lesson 1 had been.  The topic of this lesson is "The Economic Problem of Sin:  Law, Liberty and Government."  As the video starts out, there were pictures from the Dust Bowl, and pictures of very hungry, very thin people lining up for food.  The lesson talks about how poverty is a result of sin.  There are pictures of Hitler and his soldiers marching, bombed buildings,  and a concentration camp.  A photograph of a poor slave's back is shown--terrible scars raised up from numerous lashings.  There are also some video clips from old time movies--a gun shooting scene during the time of prohibition, a robbery scene of both a bank as well as of an individual, robbers tying someone up.  Though I felt that these pictures and movie clips were appropriate given the topic of the lesson and the age group this curriculum is being marketed to, I agreed completely with the author of the curriculum that this lesson was most definitely NOT appropriate for young children to watch.  I appreciated even more their thoughtfulness in advising parents to watch out for these particular lessons.  To me, it showed that they understood quite well how home school families work--often times with several grade levels using the same materials, each  simply gaining and learning according to their own level.

And now for the exciting part--the giveaway!  One lucky reader will win their own copy of Economics for Everybody.  The giveaway will be open for one week, starting today--9/21/16 and ending on 9/28/16. On 9/29/16  I will draw a winner and post the name here on my blog in a separate post.  Once I announce the winner, they will have 24 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen.  So once you enter, make yourself a reminder to check back on my blog on 9/29/16 to see if you won!  This drawing is only open to residents of the United States.

There are three chances to have your name entered into the drawing:

1) Use this link to check out the Economics for Everybody page on Timberdoodle's web site.  While on that page, watch the short video clip they have, then come back here and comment below telling me that you watched it.  No--I will have no idea whether or not you did, but this giveaway is being operated by "Scout's Honor!"

2) To have your name entered a second time, follow this link for Timberdoodle's Complete 12th Grade Curriculum Kit and look over all the resources included.  Come back here and comment below, telling me the item in the kit that you like the best.

3)  Finally, to have your name entered a third time, share a link to this blog post in a home school group--doesn't matter if it is an e-mail group, a Facebook group, or a meet in person type of group.  But share about the giveaway giving people the link they need to read this post, then come back here and comment again telling me that you shared about it.

That's it!  This is an EXCELLENT resource for our middle school and high school students.  I definitely plan on using this entire curriculum in our home school!  And now--go check out those links and share about the giveaway!

~Susan

Home School Review--Wordsmithy from Timberdoodle!

Hi Everyone!

I have another Home School Review from Timberdoodle for you today, that I hope will help you become more familiar with all the great resources that are available for us to use in teaching our children.

Wordsmithy is a writing guide and is included as part of Timberdoodle's complete 11th grade curriculum kit.  On the Timberdoodle web site, Wordsmithy is listed as being appropriate for ages 12 and up, as well as grades 9 and up.  Since my daughter is age 12, I knew we were on the bottom end of this resource, but she does really enjoy writing so I was expecting that she would love it.  Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be a favorite of hers.

I--on the other hand--really like it!  But I honestly feel my daughter is still a bit too young to really appreciate the resource that it is.  I fully plan to hang on to it for a couple more years and THEN bring it out and see if it fits her better.

Wordsmithy is a resource--a guide--a good friend giving advice.  It is NOT a "how to" book listing step by step what to do next.  It does require a bit more maturity of thought to glean all of the knowledge available in it.  I think this was part of why my daughter didn't appreciate it so well--she is just not at the point of loving discussions or sharing thoughts about ideas.

The author of Wordsmithy shares seven main points to becoming a better writer.  These are not the typical points that one might expect from a book on writing--you will not find here admonitions to write a strong thesis statement.  Instead, the first tip given is for the students to "get out more."

"Know something about the world, and by this I mean the world outside of books.  This might require joining the Marines, or working on an oil rig or as a hashslinger at a truck stop in Kentucky.  Know what things smell like out there.  If everything you write smells like a library, then your prospective audience will be limited to those who like the smell of libraries."  Wordsmith-Hot Tips for the Writing Life by Douglas Wilson, p. 13.

Within each chapter, after the main point is shared there are sub-points which explain and reveal further what the main point means.  For example, the fifth piece of advice for writers is for them to:

"Be at peace with being lousy for a while.  Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly.  He was right.  Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out."  Wordsmithy--Hot Tips for the Writing Life by Douglas Wilson, p. 81

Then, after this point--one of the sub-points further applies this concept to real life:

"Concert pianists can do what they do because they practiced scales for years.  So most of the music that comes from them over the course of their lives gets thrown away in the practice studio.  The quality of what you keep will be directly proportional to how much you are willing to throw away.  Drills, scales, and exercises should not be something you consider beneath you."  Wordsmithy--Hot Tips for the Writing Life by Douglas Wilson, p. 81

Wordsmithy is filled with gems like this.  But similar to actual gem stones, you do not find all the value in this small book from simply a passing glance.  Here you will find advice to really think about for a while, to try on and see how it fits.

So my final opinion on this unique resource is I think it is fantastic for the high school grades.  Timberdoodle including it in their 11th grade Curriculum Kit is spot-on.  It would be great for ANY of the high school grades.  I do--however--feel that Wordsmithy should perhaps be listed as best for an age a bit higher than the bottom age of 12.  Perhaps age 14 or 15 might be a better fit.

I hope you have enjoyed learning more about Wordsmithy!  If you are home schooling in the high school grades this year, do give this resource a look.  I think you will be glad you did!

~Susan

Disclaimer:  I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Home School Review--Puzzleball Globe from Timberdoodle

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to share a Home School review product with you today!  Recently I was contacted by Timberdoodle and asked if I would like to review several items for you.  Having ordered a variety of items for use in our home school over the past eighteen years, I have always been pleased with items from this company, so of course I JUMPED at the opportunity!!!  So over the next couple of weeks, I am going to be sharing with you our thoughts on the products we tested.

The first product I want to tell you about is the one my daughter was most excited to test--Timberdoodle's Puzzleball Globe.  This is exactly what it sounds like--a ball shaped puzzle that is also a globe!

  

I wasn't sure what to expect, if the finished product would truly hold together and be able to actually be USED as a globe--but I wasn't disappointed at all!

This product is manufactured by the Ravensburger company, which I have come to respect as having high quality in other games and puzzles we have had in our home, and the Puzzleball Globe held true to the standard I have come to expect.

 When we opened up the box, this is what we found:
1)  a simple instruction sheet, which directs you to start  building your Puzzleball Globe from the Antarctica end of the world, then continue in a spiral shape going up

2)  a plastic bag holding the puzzle pieces

3)  two different stands for the finished globe--one if you would like the globe to be able to spin around, and a second bowl-shaped stand if you want to be able to just set it there and pick it up easily to use--this stand is also useful for holding your Puzzleball Globe while building

 

 The first thing we did was I suggested that Alison divide the pieces and find just the first twenty pieces.

And how did she know which were the first twenty pieces?  I'm glad you asked that!  I didn't realize the Puzzleball Globe was made this way before opening the box, but take a look at the picture below to see what helped us:

 NUMBERS!  The underside of each puzzle piece has a number on it, which ended up helping Alison quite a bit as she divided the pieces into piles.

Another thing I hadn't realized, is the puzzle pieces of the Puzzleball Globe are plastic!  And not a flimsy plastic either, but quite sturdy.  And I think the color on the "right" side of the puzzle pieces is beautiful, with bright colors and clear text where words are written.

 And so she began!  The ages that the Puzzleball Globe is recommended for is ages 7-12.  Alison is on the very top end of this age range, having just turned 12 this summer--so I was interested to see if this would hold her interest or not.

Alison is a true puzzle-lover, and does not want puzzles to be what she considers "too easy," so at first she was disappointed to see that there were numbers on the reverse side.  But she soon realized that she didn't "have" to use the numbers, and could simply look at the pictures and assemble the puzzle as she would any other puzzle--and she choose to do this.

However--with 180 pieces in the entire Puzzleball Globe she also was having trouble finding pieces if she was searching through the entire pile of pieces--so she decided on a half way approach, and would use the numbers to pick out the pile of the next twenty or so pieces, and then would turn them all picture side up and only use the pictures to decide which piece went next.

 Soon I started getting questions such as "The Indian Ocean is generally between Australia and Africa, right?"  and  "Where is Ecuador?--Oh!  I just found it!"

 Being the type of mother that I am, I made her stop progress for lunch.  She inhaled her food, and was soon back at it!

 I was impressed with how well the Puzzleball Globe held together--even when we had to leave it for a while.

 And even when Alison--because she WAS putting it together from the pictures and not the numbers--had it put together in pieces extending up and over, it still held together very well!

 I wouldn't say the pieces snap together, but I would say they hold very well together.

Alison was delighted with the Puzzleball Globe, and as she was almost finished she had an idea!

 She wondered what would it look like if you were INSIDE the Puzzleball Globe as the last puzzle piece was put in?  So she slipped out a couple of the pieces, and inserted her little camera which has the capability of hooking up to work with my iPad. . .

 Using my iPad to control the camera, she took a picture as she placed in the last puzzle piece.  Silly girl!  Of course, then she had to take a few pieces out again so she could retrieve her camera!

True confession time:  I AM the type of parent who will purchase something "educational" that is also fun, and give that as a birthday or Christmas present.  This Puzzleball Globe is EXACTLY that type of item--something that will NOT disappoint if a child receives it as a gift--and I then sit back and smile at all the "sneaky learning" that takes place!

And the frosting on the cake for Alison?  When she realized that the Puzzleball Globe actually had the Space Shuttle where it should be on the "Space Coast" of Florida!

Timberdoodle includes the Puzzleball Globe as part of their full 3rd Grade Curriculum Package, which--as a former 3rd grade classroom teacher I think is totally awesome! So if you are looking for a full year curriculum for that grade, make sure to check it out using the above link!

 Having taught in both classrooms as well as our home school, this product is sturdy enough to hold up to multiple children and many many times assembling it!  While the recommended ages of 7 through 12 is excellent, I also would personally not be afraid of using it with a younger child if a parent was willing to help them, and even a little bit of an older child if they are especially interested in maps and puzzles.

I hope you have enjoyed this Home School Review!  Timberdoodle's Puzzleball Globe definitely gets an A+ from our family!

~Susan

Disclaimer:  I received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions expressed are completely my own.