It is that time of year when many people pull out their nativities. We received the Tales of Glory Nativity Set from One 2 Believe to review and it seems fitting to review it so very close to Christmas.

Here are the nitty gritty details, with my own personal thoughts following.

• The set comes with seventeen pieces, including a stable.
• Designed for little ones, aged 3 and up.
• Includes a tiny storybook, in several languages.

Okay, so, I was not really impressed with this set. To be fair, I really am not crazy about nativity sets in the first place. Because of this viewpoint I chose to review the product on quality and safety.

The characters in the set are made of PVC. PVC has been linked to cancer and birth defects and I really have a problem with toys being made from them. A plastic that is safe would have been a better choice.

The star on the stable broke off within a day and is not fixable. My kids were not throwing the stable around or standing on it or using undue roughness. The star falling off became a huge choking hazard and had to be tossed.

The characters are cheesy looking. I’m all up for fun looking toys in moderation, but when baby Jesus looks like He is 15 . . . However, the goofy-looking donkey did make me laugh.

I can always use a good laugh.

The price is a bit unreasonable. $24.99 is not a good price for a product that lacks quality. Maybe $14.99 would be a bit easier for families to swallow.

I don’t want to give a totally bad review. This set is not for my family. This doesn’t mean that it another family might not get a big kick out of it. The price may not be a hindrance. I encourage you to check out the review from my other Crewmates and get their viewpoints.

See you next Monday for Monday review.

It is not often that I am able to pick up a book to read for funsies any more. Usually my reading material focuses on the spiritual or physical well-being of my family. When I received The Missing Link: Found in my mailbox, I was more than ready to sit down with a cup of joe and melt into the land of fiction if even for just a few minutes.

The book was obviously written for teens. This can make it hard for an adult to review. Written by then-seventeen-year-old Christina Gerwitz, her lack of experience leads to the overuse of adjectives in the story as well as the unbelievability of some of the story line. At first, this kept me from wanting to go further into reading the book.

I prefer to finish a book once I start reading it. And I am glad that I finished this one. What started out as difficult to read turned into a pretty good story, especially when considering the age of the author.

This story follows brother and sister, Anna and Christian, and their father, Dr. Jack Murphy, as they uncover the mystery surrounding the finding of the supposed “Missing Link.” As the story progresses, one finds that they are learning arguments from both sides of the Evolution and Creation viewpoints. This makes this story more than the average teen book.

The story continues and you often find the children and their father petitioning our Heavenly Father in prayer. Written from a Christian perspective, you will not have to worry about inappropriate language. The children are homeschooled and are part of a family that has more than the usual American family’s two children.

And frankly, I find that quite refreshing.

This story presents an interesting, easy read for Christian teens and blends together fiction and actual facts. By clicking here you can read more about the story and the author behind it. I also suggest you visit the website Media Angels for other books in the series as well as resources for home education.

As with anything, I do encourage you to research for yourself the facts presented in this book.

Join me next Monday for another Monday Review!

Obviously if you are reading this blog you know a little something about this here ol’ internet. As a homeschooling parent, one thing that I often utilize the world wide web for is to research topics that relate to what I am teaching my children at that specific time. It is so much easier to sit at my desk and type than driving four kiddos with me down to the local library and look through books.

I was given a three-month subscription to an internet directory called Help Me 2 Teach. Let me give you a little background on what HelpMe2Teach is all about. The aim of the site is to “make available to teachers, parents and students some of the many valuable websites on the internet as they relate to school needs.” The creator of the website, a teacher of over 40 years, has compiled a list of educational sites from the internet that range from Animals all the way to Social Studies. She even recently added a Bible Study and Creation section to the Table of Contents. You can search for different topics through the Table of Contents or through the provided search bar.

Now here are my pros and cons.

Pros:

~ Each listed site has an age button that tells you which age that specific site is geared towards:

• P – Primary grades
• E- Elementary grades
• S- Secondary grades
• T- Teacher

~ Many people might find the limited range to be safer for their children to use as a search engine. Instead of letting the kiddos go free on google and coming up with all possibilities of yucky web pages, were they to use this page, they would be confined to only educational sites.

~ For those who do not want to search through the overwhelming search results from a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, the Table of Contents allows for quicker research.

~ It is updated often. As the author/owner of the site finds newer educational resource sites, she updates and adds to the Table of Contents and alerts users with a “new!” button.

Cons

~ My biggest problem is the fact that you have to pay for the use of this site. Prices range from $4.95 for three days to $29.95 for one year. I am a person who prefers using a free search engine to locate what resources or information I need.

~ It is definitely not all inclusive. Of course, no search engine is perfect. After plugging in various key words into the search bar such as “Mozart,” “Beethoven,” and “Grandma Moses,”which we are covering in school, nothing came up at all. Had I used free search engine I would have found plenty to work with.

Each homeschooling parent is unique and due to our backgrounds and experience this site may or may not work for you. Overall, I think many of us would prefer to just use a free search engine. For those who are on a time crunch and would rather not search through a major site, this would be a wonderful resource for you.

Tune in next Monday for my next review!