Spencer Learning Ultimate Phonics Reading Program Review

Are you ready for another review? I hope so because we were give the chance to try Ultimate Phonics Reading Program by Spencer Learning. As you can tell from the name this is a phonics reading program. Ultimate Phonics Reading is a downloadable software program. This means that you can download it to your computer and use it off line. Right now the program is on sale for 49.95. 

This program is designed to help beginning and struggling readers of all ages. It helps improve reading grade level, comprehension, and spelling. So that your children are not simply memorizing words or guessing and skipping over the ones they don't know. This program can be used in one of two ways. First you can use it as a stand alone reading program. The second way is to use it as a supplement to help your existing reading program work better. We used it as a supplement since both my girls are already decent readers. 

Downloading and installing is just like any other program its easy. I created a little icon on my desk top so it's easy to find when its time to practice. You can start out with the free 30 day trial to test drive the program then you simply enter your license once you have purchased the program. 

Since both the girls are fairly good readers it took a little adjusting to decide where to start them. The girls are using it to pick up on some of the more difficult phonics patterns that our other program seemed to have skipped over. A few days a week they sit down with one of the upper lessons and just run through it. Its fairly simple to use, there are arrows at the top to go forward to the next part of the lesson or double arrows to skip to the next lesson. Below the arrows is where you will see the lesson. There is a little speaker that you can click to have it read to you. You will also see a bigger version of the phonics pattern or letter you can simply hover your mouse over it and it will play the sound for you.  An older child could probably navigate it on there own but I think a younger one would need a little help.

There are six types of lesson pages in the program.

• Idea- pages tell you about important phonics ideas and concepts.
• Pattern- pages tell about letter patterns that represent sounds
• Word list- pages will show you the list of words that are used for a lesson
• Word- pages will break down the words from the list and sound them out for you
• Sight Word- pages display words like the, and, is was etc. These are commonly used words.
• Sentence- pages will provide important reading practice and review of the lesson.

There are 262 phonics lessons, 4,400 words and 2,100 sentences in the program. You can download a scope and sequence for the program if you should happen to need it, and there is a free tracking sheet that you can also download.  I don't see this as a program that a child could use on there own. I feel like a child that is having difficulty reading will need an adult to lead the lessons. How ever a child that is already fairly fluent in reading may be able to navigate the lessons with out too much direction from an adult. Since it had the read it button (aka the little clickable speaker I mentioned above) to help them through the things they are having trouble reading.

The girls felt OK about the program, a little board at times since some of it is review for them but over all it was a well rounded program and covered an amazing amount of phonics lessons. The voice that the program uses is easy to understand and was more human sounding than some of the other programs than I have heard. I liked that there were no dancing characters or games to distract them from the task at hand. It is just straight forward phonics program. I like that it works independent from the internet. More than one child can use the program at a time so its nice for a family that has a couple of kids close together. 

  

Don't forget to click the banner to read how the other Homeschool Review Crew families used Ultimate Phonics Reading Program.

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Jr Treehouse Masters

Have you ever seen Treehouse Masters on Animal planet. I am sure most of you have seen the show at some time or another. In case you haven't its basically its a show about the building of treehouses. Most of them are grand treehouses that have things like tv's, plumbing, insulation etc. My girls have taken a liking to the show. Surprisingly enough it has inspired them in new way and big way. They have been bitten by the treehouse bug. Every where they look on the property they are trying to figure out what tree would make a great treehouse. They are not looking for grand just something to climb around in. Maybe camp out in during the summer when the cousins sleep over. They would like a pulley so they can raise and lower things to the top and a roof to keep them dry when its raining. They can envision a low table and some fluffy pillows to sit on and do classwork. Just your basic kids stuff. No matter how much I wish I could give them this dream, this single mom just does not have the money to build such a thing right now. So for now the girls have accepted that a tree house is just not something mommy can do right now. Today while I was working in the garden two little voices ask can I have this stick of wood. Sure I said just don't hurt your self on it.  I went on with my work. A few minutes later hey mom can I have this other piece of wood. A few minutes later how about this piece of rope? my youngest yells dangling a 4 ft piece of rope from her hand. Now I am curious as to what they are up to. Dusting off my hands and jeans I follow the sound of little voices, they were not arguing or fighting they were sounds of two sisters working together.  This is what I discovered in the only tree in the yard that is low enough for them to climb. My two JR Treehouse Masters hard at work trying to build that little treehouse dream. Its such a small tree it doesn't really fit in the tree most of it is on the ground. It's a dogwood so I don't think it could sustain the weight of a treehouse but they are giving it there best. They are doing so well working together and trying to figure things out. This is one proud momma I only wish I could help them build them an actual treehouse.

Memoria Press Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set Review

It's time for lit in our homeschool. My oldest is doing Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set by Memoria Press. This is designed to challenge kits with reading so that they become superior readers. The study guides for each set help your student to become an active reader. It covers things like vocabulary spelling, and comprehension.

This is what is included in the Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set:
Dangerous Journey: Student Guide and Teacher Manual
The Blue Fairy Book: Student Guide and Teacher Manual
The Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set comes with the following:
Cricket in Times Square: Student Guide and Teacher Manual
Homer Price: Student Guide and Teacher Manual

As you can see it only has the student guide and teacher manual. You will need to get the actual
books from the library or you can buy them. They do offer an option on the website that includes the actual books they will need to read. I was able to find all the books for this set but one either at our local library or on the digital library.

For this review we mainly focused on the Blue Fairy Book. We chose this one because it was the first one available on our digital library and the others had a longer wait list. We are waiting on The Cricket In Times Square to become available. The Blue Fairy Book is composed of several short stories. For some reason the digital version we checked out had slightly different stories than what was in the student guide. We were able to use the majority of the student guide.  I like the selection of books that are offered with the fourth grade set. I read many of these books when I was a child and I feel that its a well rounded selection for this grade.

All the Student Guides are set up similar, but they cover different things for each book. I love that they all sort of work together to make one great Literature set. All the books together make a great well rounded lesson. The Student Guide for each lesson has Reading Notes. This section has words from the story and the definitions. The Vocabulary section is great. It offers a sentence with a vocabulary word in bold. Then they need to match that bold word with one of the definitions from the definition bank. The Comprehension section helps kids to consider what they have read and find the important parts of the story.  You will find a Quotations section where the child is given a quote from the story and they have to identify who said it. They are then given discussion questions to answer and an enrichment box where they are ask to do something like draw a picture that has to do with the story they just read.

The Teachers Manual has teaching guidelines for getting started. It offers answers to the student guide. But it also has test and test answer sheets in it. There is a quiz for ever two fairy tales. The final exam covered the last two fairy tales. I found both the quizzes and final exam to be well rounded.

My Third grader who reads on a upper 4th grade level really enjoyed this set. She says she liked the hole thing even the enrichment box where she had to draw something. The student guide really engaged her into the story. She wasn't just reading to read, she had to pay attention to the details of the story. She was no longer just floating through the stories. I found that a good portion of the vocabulary words actually stuck and she began to use them in day to day conversations. She got so much more out the books than she was getting before. I am excited to finish up the Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set.  We have reserved the last couple books on our digital library.

Other Crew Reviewers had the chance to try out other Memoria Press Literature Guide Sets so you should click the banner to learn about the others.

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A walk in the Woods

Just a Wednesday morning walk in the woods to collect a little sap. 

A Little Sap for breakfast don't mind if I do!

SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers Review

SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers is a digital media resource library that is cram jammed full of learning videos. It is produced by SmartKidz Media  ~http://www.smartkidzhomeschool.com/. SmartKidz Media has basically compiled a bunch of educational videos all in one easy to access place. The library contains videos for a wide range of subjects. Including history, science, health and fitness, lifestyle and cuisine, travel and adventure, art, music etc. There is also a baby signs program, Quick study guides, a good ammount of Ebooks, and a fun zone that contains games puzzles and riddles. This is a subscription program and at the time of this review a one year subscription goes for $99.00.  The site does not have any out side ads or links. So its safer for kids to use. Although I still recommend supervision when kids are doing anything online.

The girls have been watching video lessons on SmartKidz for several weeks now. We have been getting a lot of rain lately. So these have been our rainy day go to videos. The videos are of good quality and play nicely from both our laptop and the Ipad. The videos keep the girls interest and they usually ask to watch more than one.

The world of discovery section has been the girls favorite so far. Specifically the animals and wild life collections. These videos give such great information about so many different plants and animals. We have actually seen quite a few of them already.  They have often spotted an insect or animal when we are out hiking or biking and have to look and see if we can find a SmartKidz Media video on it.  

I discovered that SmartKidz Media has some health and fitness videos. These give the girls a little something different to do for PE class. We do a lot of out door PE type activities. But when the temperature hits 100 its just to hot be out side for long. We have given a few of the health and fitness kids videos a try. The girls liked the aerobics and exercises for kids video the best. I found the music a little annoying but the girls loved it and really got into the movements the video was asking them to perform. So I let them do it when ever we cant get out side. I think these videos are a great way to get kids moving. The health and fitness section also has some videos for adults. Like pilates, and bodyforming. I tried out the pilates video it seemed a little to easy for me but I am circuit training kind of girl, so I am used to fast passed and heaver weights. It was still a good video and my mom enjoyed it the day she decided to join me for a work out.




I do not allow the girls to play video games but I do make the acceptation for the occasional educational game. I decided to use the fun zone as a reward for a job well done on another assignment. I allow the girls a limited amount of time in this area. We set a timer on the desk so they would know when their time was up. They tried out several activities in the Fun Zone, and the girls really enjoyed the find the hidden treasure game. They are big fans of the I spy type books and games and this is a lot like that. Across the top they will find the outline of some objects then they have to look through the picture to see if they can find the items. The girls usually work on this together as more of a team work activity. They like to try and find all the items before the timer runs out. They also think the monkey that giggles when you select the wrong treasure is the funniest thing ever.

 




In case you are wondering SmartKidz Media will be expanding
the medial library in the near future. We love all things history in our house. We are most excited to see that history videos will be added.  I often use videos as a supplemental for our regular curriculum. The girls read about it in our books, then if they can see a video it helps to cement the information in. The videos just make some things a little more exciting. I cant wait to see what videos will be added next. I am trying my best to use patience while I wait for them to be released.

Please click the banner below to see what other crew members are saying about SmartKidz Media.

 

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CTC Math Review

 

Today I bring you CTC Math, this is a great math program that my kids have absolutely loved. You can check it out here http://www.CTCMath.com. We received the12 Month Family Plan for homeschoolers there is a special discount for homeschool families. At the time of writing this review the home school family plan is 2 or more children and is $118.80 for a 12 month subscription. Which gives you access to all grades from kindergarten through trigonometry. You can move between grades if your child needs to. It has 1,367 animated and narrated lessons that you can fast forward, rewind, and play as many times as you want. It includes test and 57,000 interactive questions. The CTC Math also offers instant feedback for both the student and the parent. The girls love that they can see how they have done right away. CTC Math is a full curriculum for grades K-6 and is recommended as a supplement for grades above 6th. I wanted to address the common core issue real quick since so many are asking. CTC Math is not common core aligned they teach math the traditional way.  It will also run on all modern HTML5 platform including Ipads and windows operated computers.

 

Each of the girls have their own log in. They log in and select the grade level that they need and then choose the days lessons from there. Both of the girls have been using CTC Math to review and brush up on any gaps that may have occurred this year. We will begin using it as our full time curriculum in a few weeks. For now I have given them each a list of areas that they need to work on. They are free to select from that list what they want to work on for the day or week. HotRod Princess has been working on the division and multiplication sections the most. Math is not her favorite subject and I have yet to hear one single grumble about doing a lesson for the day. The narrated lessons are so easy for her to understand. I love that it teaches using the traditional method. Division was something we had just began to touch on in our previous curriculum. It was clear that it was not clicking for her. I had her log in to CTC Math and find the first narrated lesson for division. I came back a little while later and she was already working on the interactive questions. I had her explain to me what she was doing and why. She was getting it, actually getting it after just one lesson. She admitted she had to watch it twice and said she did rewind it and listen to parts of it again. She proceeded through the rest of the lessons and interactive questions over the next two weeks. I had her take the comprehensive test instead of the standard test and she scored a 89%. 

 

Snoopy girl is just cruising along with CTC Math.  It has now become her program of choice. She actually ask to use it most days. We are at the end of kindergarten, and I felt she was a little behind in money counting.  I want them both to be able to count money and make change easily. So we used the money section as our jumping off point. The explanations have worked very well for her. They are simple down to earth lessons with out a lot of fluff. The girls both appreciate that it gets right to the point of the lesson. I was glad to see that it covers coins like 50 cent pieces and 1$ coins. We don't come across these types of cons very often any more. But I want the girls to be able to recognize them and know the value of them. I also love how realistic the coins and bills look. It makes it much easier to recognize them in real life.

 

Every homeschool mom loves a good report.  This is my favorite parent feature of the program. This makes some of my day so much easier. I can get an up-to-date look at everything they are doing that week and how they have scored on it. I can print it all out and store it in their portfolios.  Every lesson they do is logged and given a score it even logs what date and how many attempts they did. The reports can also be sent directly to your email account.  

As the kids improve and complete different levels of the program they are given awards. The awards are fully printable and the girls love hanging them on the wall. Another great feature that I consider a report of sorts. Is the ability to print the questions they have answered for the lesson. I can have them print off the questions they have finished for review or just to keep in their portfolio. 

 

 

   My next favorite feature is the speed skills game. This is an added bonus to an already great program. Your child can access it from the bottom of the home page. It has 4 levels and under each level you can select a set of skills to work on. My girls are working on memorizing math facts so this has been perfect. I never had to memorize these as a child and I wanted the girls to get a better start at math than I had. They have been playing this game using the level 1 over the last few weeks. They are now in competition with each other, to see who can get the most correct the quickest. It has become so much fun for them they are actually asking to practice it.  

    We are in love with CTC Math and I am excited to add it our list of curriculum for then new year. Be sure to click the banner below and read what other crew members are saying about CTC Math.   Social Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath  

 

 

GPA LEARN Review

I have been working with the vender GPA LEARN on a product review called GPALOVEMATH. You can check them out here at http://www.greatparentsacademy.com/ . As you can tell from the product name this company loves math. GPALOVEMATH is a super cool online math program. It is designed for kindergarten through 5th grade. It uses animated characters to teach math in a fun way. GPALOVEMATH offers supplemental math help with over 150 lessons and over 10,000 practice problems per grade level. If your child does 4-5 lessons a week they should finish there grade level in approximately 10 months. It has built in tracking and the program sends you a email of what lesson your child completed and how they did. It also offers cool surprises and customizable rewards to encourage your child's learning. Pricing is simple you can do a yearly subscription where you get all grades k-5 for a special introductory price of $129 per child per year (use promo code GPAINTRO15) its regularly $149. or you can do a monthly subscription of $12.99 per month per child.   The girls finished there main math curriculum a month or so a go. We have been scrambling to pull together review work. That is until I was introduced to GPALOVEMATH. It is designed as a supplemental math program but I am having a hard time keeping my girls off it. My five year old is currently working on the first grade level. My 7 year old is doing the second grade level. I have had to limit them to one lesson a day. If I didn't have a limit she would probably have the program finished in a month. I will use the kindergarten level as my example. Each grade level has a different teacher. They also take place in a different setting. The kindergarten grade level takes place in the Artic and her instructor is a cute penguin. The instructor talks to you so make sure your computer has sound. The program uses a learning path each lesson builds on its self. Yesterday she did a lesson on measuring. It starts out with an instruction section. Where the Penguin explains the lesson and gives plenty of examples of how to do each problem in this case how to measure to the nearest inch.   After the instruction section there are practice problems that your child is ask to do. Each problem is read aloud to your child. They then use the skills learned in the lesson to solve the problem. If they answer the  problem is incorrectly they are given a chance to try it again. We found the problems to be grade level appropriate. We like the practice problems and they have really helped the girls. I do how ever wish it could tell them what they have done wrong after a couple of try's.   Once all the practice problems have been completed they move on to the quiz portion. Quiz questions are also read to them.  Super helpful if you have a kindergartener that is learning to read. Or if you have an auditory learner. Both grade levels we are using give 10 quiz questions. Once the quiz is completed it gives your child a grade. It tells them how many they got wrong. It gives them the chance to see what problems they got incorrect. It also awards points. You get a different amount of points depending on how you did on the quiz. The better you do them more points you get. You also get a badge. You can get Rock Star, Excellent, or Nice Job.    The points your child earns for lessons can be redeemed for prizes under the motivate section of there account. You will set this up when you first sign up. You can also customize what prizes are offered to your child or you can let the program choose them for you. I went the custom route. We added prized like Ice cream party, trip to the water park, stay up 30 min past bed time, play day at the park. They can even use the points to shop for there own reward. One of the rewards that was available last week was a toys r us gift card. My girls each earned a $10 toys r us gift card. All rewards must approved by the parent. The rewards have been a great motivator for the girls. They are currently trying to out do each other to see who can get the most prizes.  The toys r us gift card has been a favorite though. Its not a place we get to shop at often so that is a real treat for them.   As the parent this is my favorite part.  You will get an email each time your child has completed a lesson. So no matter where I am at, If I have my phone with me I know they have completed what they were suppose to be doing. The email tells you what lesson they did. How long they spend on the lesson. It also tells what score they got on the quiz. If your child had trouble with the quiz you will get a notice that they need to try the lesson again. I find this super helpful as they are currently doing the program independently. I like receiving emails it keeps me updated and it allows them to build the skills they need to work more independently.  The email reports also keeps them from being able to skip the lesson part with out me knowing it. I can tell by how long they spent on the hole lesson if they tried to skip or not. You will also get a weekly summary of how your child did for the week. This is very handy to see how the week went at a glance. The parent dashboard is great it allows me to look between children and see what and how they have been doing. It also allows me to modify and approve prizes. I can even send them encouraging notes from my dashboard to there's. This is what the parent dash board looks like. Its very simple to understand and gives you all the important information you need in one simple location.      My girls are completely thrilled with GPALOVEMATH. I like the yearly subscription option the best. It allows the girls to bounce from grade level to grade level as they need. Like many homeschool kids they are often between grade levels. So the yearly subscription would work best for us. This is a programs that the girls will learn a lot from and will continue to want to use for a few years. Check out what other Crew members are saying by clicking the link below.     Social Media:www.facebook.com/gpalearn
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Our clssroom

This week we are working on turning a bedroom into a Classroom. Its taken me and the girls three days to get it painted. This house has an incredible amount of trim that had to be taped off before we could even begin. We are currently on the second day of painting we chose to go with white because its a small room. Lets face it I am not known for my decorating skills so I was a little afraid to try painting the hole room a color.  The big dresser in the middle of the floor is going as soon as I can get some help to move the thing it weighs a tone. We have two old desk that we will be putting in the room one for each of the girls. I wanted to give them there own space to work. We are also going to have a small reading nook under those snazzy corner shelves. Not really sure what we are going to do for decorations though. Check out the pictures of our classroom in progress and if you have any great idea feel free to share them in the comments below. I would love to have some ideas.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

Last week I announced that I have become a member of the 2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew. My exciting journey with them has now begun. For my very first Crew review I will be reviewing SchoolhouseTeachers.com yearly membership.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a division of the Old School House Magazine.  It is a curriculum site designed by homeschoolers for homeschoolers. SchoolhouseTeachers.com has over 100 courses taught by some really cool teachers. They have something for every grade level. Courses vary in length from daily lessons to full year courses.  They cover all the main subjects. There are also some fun things like guitar lessons and American Sign Language.  The price of a one year membership is $139. It covers every child in your house. A major bonus if you have more than one child that you are homeschooling.

Once I received my log in code I had to look around and see what goodies I could find.  It didn't matter that it was 10:30 at night. The first thing I did was cruise around to get familiar with the site and how it works. Its fairly simple to navigate and if you cant find what you are looking for they have a handy dandy search box on the right hand side. I would like to see a way to sort courses by specific grade level. Currently It lumps them together into pre k/elementary and middle/high school. It would make it more efficient to find classes for your child's specific grade level. My cruising around led me to a couple of items that really sparked my interest.

 The first thing I have to talk about is the Schoolhouse planners. The Planners come free with your yearly membership. I am a mom that struggles with the planning and tracking portion of class. I can get behind with logging our work if I'm not careful. I am always looking for a simpler way to do it, that doesn't take up half my day. The first thing had to check out the 2014-2015 Schoolhouse planner. Its a quick and simple download. Even for my slow internet it only took a couple of minute to download. The planner includes way more than I will ever use: shopping list, chore charts, field trip log, curriculum recording charts, weekly planner, monthly goals etc. Its even got a must know list with some really great facts that everyone should know. Like when Missouri entered into state hood. I am currently using the field trip planning form and field trip report form.  Hotrod princess filled out the field trip report which is handy for our portfolio. The form ask where we went, what she learned, what she liked and didn't like, and she then drew a picture showing something from the trip. She enjoyed it much more than our old form it was a lot simpler. She loved having the space to draw. For my self I am using the field trip planning form. I think it will help keep me a little more organized. It has all the important information that I need to get prepared for the trip. I can stick it in my record keeping folder to document what field trips we went on for the year.

My 2nd graders work

Next I discovered the Dailies. These are short simple daily lessons that run about a week. We often need a little warm up in the morning before we really get started and dailies have turned out to be perfect. There are several grade levels available. We tried out the Daily Grammar 1st Grade. I chose to try the first grade level Daily Grammar. It was review for my second grader and right on target for my kinder. Who has blew through our original kindergarten language arts curriculum like it was nothing. The Daily Grammar has been fun for my second grader she loves the pictures and the fact that she doesn't have a lot to write. I love that she can do it on her own as a review. She has taken to "teaching" her little sister about the days lesson. It has made a wonderful warm up and got the girls excited to start language arts for the day. The directions/explanations were simple and easy enough for both me and them to understand. Don't forget to check out the samples of there work.

my kinders work

All in all I like SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Its simple and fairly easy to navigate. It looks as though they will be adding some new lessons in future. In the two weeks that I have been using the site I have found quite a few lessons that are very useful to us. I think it gives you a decent bang for your buck.  I couldn't rely on the site for all of my curriculum, but it is a good way to get supplemental materials for your homeschool. Check out some more Crew Reviews for SchoolhouseTeachers.com by clicking on the banner below.

  Right Now SchoolhouseTeacher.com is having a whopping Christmas sale. Right now through Christmas Day at 11:59 Et. Monthly memberships will be 40% off you can get it for a great price of $7.77 a month. The yearly membership is also on sale at 50% off. That makes your yearly membership $64.26 a year. The great part is homeschool families who join now at these rates get to keep them forever as long as you maintain a continuous membership. So click the ad below and get yours today.   Don't forget to check out there social media to: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/
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Glipit Bible

This week I received the glipit Bible I was very excited to get to try out a bible designed for kids. The

glipit Bible has a one-of-a-kind silicone cover. It was designed for kids ages 8 to 12. The silicone cover gives kids a unique way to create their own one of a kind custom Bible. Kids can spell their name, make a design, shapes, or just have fun popping the pieces on and off their Bible cover.  Each Bible comes with over 120 removable silicone pieces in four different colors including glow in the dark. The soft silicone cover is removable and washable and is easy to hang on to. It is written in NLT or New Living Translation. It has 26 pages of extra material in the front of the Bible to help kids know more about the Bible and God's Plan for their lives. The Glipit Bible comes in two colors purple and blue and it sells for about $24.99 and you can find it HEAR.
On arrival I thought this Bible is just cool. The cover looks great we received the blue one. The Glipit
is super fun to play with. I can see my self sitting in church popping these little silicone squares off an on the cover. I love the feel of the cover its soft and comfortable to hold. It has two silicone latches to hold you bible closed which is nice. My only real complaint is the print is very small. The bible is geared toward 8 to 12 year old so I expected a larger print.  I would say it is around a size 9 font kind of small for a child friendly print. Over all it is a nice bible the price is not bad. I love how easy it is to create a custom cover, and the glow in the dark pieces are very fun. So if you are in the marked for a fun bible for an older child this may be what you are looking for.

Disclaimer: I received the Glipit Bible free of charge from Tyndale in order to test this product for the review. All opinions are my own or that of my Kids.