Wright on Time: Book 1: Arizona

Mel's Thoughts:

The boys and I have been reading a new chapter book before bed at night; it's part of the Wright on Time series, Book 1: Arizona by Lisa Cottrell-Bentley.  It's an adventure story; only, it's not your typical adventure story.  It's the story of a homeschooling family's adventure in Arizona.  The Wright family lives in an RV, travelling to all sorts of new places to explore and learn and just be together.  This particular story is set in the state of Arizona.


As the story unfolds, the family is going on a cave exploration for a day.  They have found a cave that is family-friendly, and they are going to see what they can find, what they can dig up.  They end up finding a room filled with bats, and they find some pretty cool rock/mineral specimens, like garnet and wulfenite.  Nadia and Aidan explore the differences between stalactites and stalagmites ("Stale egg mites," in Aidan's words).  At the end of the day, the owners of the cave unknowingly lock them in the cave....will they be stuck there all night, in the dark, without anyone to hear them hollering?  Hmmmm.....I guess you'll just have to read the book.:)


The more we read the story, the more I realized how much educational material was contained in this one book.  It is essentially concerning caves.  There is a lot of great science material covered throughout, so it would make a great supplement to a study of caves.  Not only that, but just the way the family lives and interacts is a wonderful example for children; it's not one of those adventure stories that's packed with all sorts of stuff you wouldn't want your child reading.  It's a book that I would totally feel comfortable letting Jacob read and have no worries about.  I love the fact that it's about a homeschooling family; as a homeschooling Mama, I just want to promote, promote, promote this series.:)  The only thing I found a tad bit repetitious was Aidan's use of the word, "Freaky."  I think I'm the only one that noticed, though, because Jacob seemed pretty absorbed in the story. 


Find out more about this series by browsing through the Wright on Time website.  You can buy Wright on Time: Book 1: Arizona for $12.99 in the Wright on Time Store or from Amazon.  You can also watch the following video to find out more about this book:



Melissa J's Thoughts

The Wright on Time series is a series that writers like me think, "Now, why didn't I think of that?!"  I mean, what a concept - an entire series based on each state in the US! Not only is a series like this, a writer's dream, it's an awesome collection to build up for children. 

Homeschooling families need to start getting this series! It teaches some history, alot of geographical facts, has vocabulary words in the back, and would be great books for book reports!  These books are going to be an invaluable resource as time goes on for many families. 

I enjoyed, even as an adult, reading Book 1: Arizona. I had no idea that you could mine in caves for gems and for the first time in my life I will now remember the difference between Stalagmites and Stalactites (G for ground, C for ceiling.) In fact, book 1 made me excited about Book 2 and it also made me wish I could homeschool our children in an RV and travel the States!

The only thing that made me have a question, is the bat cave? I wonder how true to life this is, because I thought bat poop/urine gave off toxic fumes and if a cave was full of thousands of bats, going in that cave (much less sitting on the floor of it) could be dangerous. That is the only thing in the book that didn't seem completely accurate. 


The Wright on Time series is more than a book I'm reviewing for Mama Buzz. I have already determined that it will be a part of my homeschool curriculum. I can't travel the states in real life, but I'll enjoy my travels with my children as we go through this series in the years to come.  

Mel participated in this review with the TOS Crew.

Nature Friend Magazine is a wonderful addition to a child's reading collection, especially if your child is studying animals in science or if they love going on nature walks. Jacob and Jaden both love animals, so this magazine was a hit in our house. Jaden likes to point out the animals and try to tell us what sound each one makes. With this magazine come pages of full-color illustrations, and one of the magazines even came with a poster that the kids could tear out and hang up if they wanted.

Honestly, I thought that this magazine was just about animals, but I was happily surprised to see a spread about the stars and galaxies....this is going to come handy after Christmas when we start studying astronomy in science. So, the magazines are all about nature and the outdoor world that God has created. Their motto on the front cover is actually, "Helping Families Explore the Wonders of God's Creation."

Not only are there great articles to be read throughout every issue, but there are activities as well, which include crossword puzzles, drawing activities, etc. Inside the front cover of each issue, there is a "Scavenger Hunt" introduction, in which the kids have to look for a few certain things throughout the magazine, as they are reading. For example, in one issue we received, we had to look for a hidden deer track and an acorn. There is also an "Invisibles" page, in which the kids have to look at a picture and find all of the things that are hidden.


If you choose, you can get an optional Study Guide edition of the magazine. The Study Guide insert comes with many more activities, including writing activities and research activities. It's $2 extra per month for the Study Guide. If you are going to subscribe, the Study Guide adds a lot more content to the magazine than what there would be otherwise, in my opinion.


Kids are able to interact with the magazine, as Nature Friend actually accepts questions, photos, poems and drawings from readers to publish in the magazine every month. Any questions that are received are answered in "The Mailbox" section.


You can subscribe to Nature Friend for $36 per year (12 issues). For a 2-year subscription, the price is $68. I do not want to sound negative, because it really is a wonderful magazine; but to be honest, if our family had not been able to review this magazine, we probably would not be able to afford it at that price, and even though it is a wonderful magazine, I'm just not sure that we would want to pay that for the subscription. Without the Study Guide insert, the magazine would have much less content also.


To read more Nature Friend reviews, head on over to the TOS Crew Blog.

TOS Crew: Grapevine Studies

Mel participated in this review with the Crew.

Jacob and I have been using a new Bible curriculum shared with us via the Crew. It's the Old Testament Overview put out by Grapevine Studies.

Jacob has really been enjoying this book, and I really think it's because it has a lot of hands-on activity. He's able to visually see me drawing the lesson on the board (in stick figures), and he's able to copy what I'm doing, tweaking it to his own style. He's basically learning the Bible in stick figures!

When we received this curriculum, it came with two books; one is the Teacher's Book, and the other is the Student Book.

It's important to note here that you can not only receive these books as hardcopy in the mail, but if you'd rather download them, you can do that instead. The great thing with the Teacher's Book is that it covers Levels 1 & 2, whereas the Student Book we are using is just for Level 2. So, you get 2 levels for the price of 1 with the Teacher's book.

In the beginning of the Teacher's Book, there are pages that describe the Grapevine method of teaching, their statement of faith, goals for the curriculum, and instructions on how to teach and schedule the lessons. The lessons are laid out in such a format that it's easy to teach how your family doctrinally believes, and it's also very easy to prepare for the lesson every day.

Each lesson covers a specific portion of the Old Testament timeline, and before we ever started the lessons, we went through and drew out the timeline, giving Jacob an overview of what he was going to be learning about this year. When I say draw, I mean in stick figures; it is so easy for a non-artist like me to do; plus, what kid doesn't like to draw stick figures, especially for a Bible lesson?:) (Update: here is a picture of Jacob's drawings on the paper beside my drawings on the board; just thought I'd share for those commenting about the drawing portion of the lessons). Personally, I wanted to make it really upbeat and fun for Jacob, so I went out and bought a cheap little set of colored dry erase markers to use on our board. He has his own markers, and he grabs a piece of paper and follows me along through the lesson. We cover one page in his book every day, which puts us to about a whole lesson every week. The first page of the lesson is a timeline review from previous lessons and a memory verse review. There are one to two memory verses to work on with each lesson. The second and third pages cover the main part of the lesson; for example, the lesson could be on The Tower of Babel. I usually have Jacob read over the verses for each section as we go, and we take breaks to draw out the different points and talk about them. At the end of each lesson, we do a character or event card, where he writes out, on an index card, the main points that he learned; he usually copies from the board. That way, he'll have that card to review later on. We also write out the memory verse/s. Other memory work might include learning the different books of the Bible in order, etc. Every so often, throughout the book, there are bigger reviews to cover a portion of what we've been studying, and we can play trivia games or review over parts that are harder to remember.

So far, we've both really enjoyed this. As a busy homeschooling mama, I love the fact that it's so easy to organize and teach; there's little to no prep time, unless I just want to read over the verses for that day's lesson. Each day's lesson is so short that it keeps his attention quite well, and again, he benefits from the hands-on learning. This is also a curriculum that you could use across broader age gaps; so, if you have multiple children, you could more than likely teach all of them from the same books, tweaking it to their levels, of course.

The best part is that through September 15, 2009, Grapevine is honoring a 30% discount to any of my readers who go and purchase any of their books. All you have to do is use the coupon code: Crews, when you checkout. The price for the Teacher's book is $45.95, and the price for the Student Book is $25.95.

So, look them over, and see for yourselves. Personally, for myself and my family, I can't say enough good things about Grapevine. The search for a good Bible curriculum can be tough, but I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to review this particular product.

If you'd like to read more reviews on Grapevine Studies, head on over to The Homeschool Crew Blog.

* Products for K - 2nd Grade *

Rattle Snake Rules

Draw and Write through History

Grapevine Studies

Think and Blink Shapes Flashcards

Bubber