Jungle Doctor And The Whirlwind - Review

http://christianaudio.com/jungle-doctor-and-the-whirlwind-paul-white

A fun read, in the tradition of James Herriot and Tom Dooley, Jungle Doctor follows Australian missionary Dr. Paul White on his daily adventures as a physician to tribal peoples in Tanzania, Africa, where navigating mud tracks, surviving violent whirlwind dust storms and battling a dysentery epidemic are all in a day's work.

Dr. White passes on biblical principles in his daily practice through fables and story telling.  With his faithful friend and assistant, Daudi, who also serves as interpreter with the natives, he performs surgery and treats patients in the most primitive conditions.  He faces off against witch doctors and drug lords.  The doctor's narrative style hooks the reader and rivets him until the final page.  Thankfully, there are several more books in the series, so readers can satisfy their need to hear more Jungle Doctor adventures.  

I enjoy the way narrator Paul Michael reads with distinct and clear character voices.  He is easy to listen to.  Of the 29 Jungle Doctor books written by Paul White, Christian Audio has 4 of them in audiobook.  Running 2-3 hours each and priced at $10.98, Jungle Doctor and the Whirlwind is great for family listening, car rides, and storytime.  Produced in audiobook form for Christian Audio (c)2012.

Thanks to Christian Audio for providing me with a free review copy of this audiobook.  No other compensation was received for this review.

Review: Travel the World!

What better way to spend the long, hot summer than to "Travel the World"?!

We're still on summer break, but as we gather things together for our school year, we can't resist taking a peek inside.  This is my first review as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew, and luckily, I am familiar with the format of this unit study, having used one in this same style last year.

  This is an excellent mini-unit study that provides an introduction to world geography. It starts with basic information about maps and the globe, explanations of longitude and latitude and compass orientation. Next the student is oriented to the continents and oceans, and finally there is a brief study of each of the continents in turn. This mini-unit study comes at a timely moment, as my second grader will be "touring" the continents this year as part of his geography/social studies curriculum. We had just started experimenting with lapbooking at the end of last year, so we are looking forward to the lapbooking activities included and exploring new ideas for our lapbook for this study.


Designed for grades 1-8, Travel the World also includes an additional high-school expansion section, to make it suitable for all ages. Links in the text connect to websites for further explanation of new terms and concepts, such as equator, axis, Australia, Africa as well as games and activities related to the content. Printable activities include a Word Scramble, Fill in the Blanks, puzzles, and acrostic. Two printable lapbooking activities are included, with links to helpful info on completing a lapbook, even if you've never made one before. Numerous coloring and copywork pages are built in, both manuscript and cursive. Recipes are included for kitchen learning, also answer keys and additional resources.

Although this can be used as a "print and plop" unit study, we have found in using other works by this publisher, that the internet links, which include videos and various educational websites, can be quite helpful and enriching, providing a break from typical seatwork.


Travel the World can be used as a stand-alone substitute for your regular curriculum, as it covers nearly all the required subjects. You may still need to use your regular math book, unless you are particularly talented at putting together related math activities for your student. Also, music and foreign language are not built into this particular unit study. Bible quotes are liberally dispersed throughout the pages, but aside from that, there is no specific religious objective, so parents can tailor further religious connections to their own beliefs. Reading, spelling, writing, and language arts are covered through the text, links, and printable worksheets. Science and history are fulfilled in the text and links, and art in the printables and lapbooking activities. Needless to say, this is primarily a geography study, so the social studies/geography requirements encompass the entire unit.

This e-book can be purchased on it's own to supplement the Old Schoolhouse Planner.  The planner is not necessary to use this unit study.  Other modules available include Let Freedom Ring-June 2009 module, Let's be Scientists-December 2008 module, and many more.
 Read the Homeschool Crew's blog on Travel the World

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC

The SchoolHouse Planner - Travel the World! (June 2010 Module)
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/

$7.95 per module

Disclaimer:  This product was received free of charge for review purposes.  No other compensation was received for this review.

Expedition Australia!

"Expedition Australia"
Download n Go Series
by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse
P.O. Box 8426, Gray, TN 37615
1-888-718-HOME
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/

Just download this ebook and head for Australia because everything's ready to go. Laid out in a five-day format, all links and activities are included for lapbooking, videos, suggested books and worksheets. Reading, spelling, vocabulary, science, geography, art, math and social studies are incorporated each day, along with a little music and fun and games. Did I mention FUN?! This Unit Study is best employed using the PDF to access all the links, an internet connection, and a printout of the ebook for student activities.

Designed for ages 4-10, older students can use it as a basis for a more detailed study, taking the science and research a bit further and supplementing grade level math. Minimal supplies are required for the lapbooking activities - glue, scissors, pencils and markers or crayons. We used staples instead of the brads for making the mini-books. I wanted to try loading it on the Itouch, to make it even more portable, but didn't get to it.

My six year old son is not very fussy with his artwork, but he did enjoy mapping out the Great Barrier reef, Canberra, Perth, the Great Victorian Desert and the Oceans surrounding the continent. Uluru Rock in particular made an impression on him, maybe because he liked to draw it. Koalas were, by far, his favorite animal of the week, and he now understands words like marsupial, aborigine, outback and constellation. He enjoyed learning how to read the thermometer and more clock-reading practice as we researched and compared times and temperatures in Australia with our own town. We also marvelled at the different stars visible in the Australian night sky as compared to what we see here in Arizona. Our nature walks took on new meaning as we compared our high-desert land with parts of the Australian outback.

The Download and Go series is the most user-friendly of the Unit Studies we have tried to date. There are links on each page for activities included in the back of the ebook, with a link from the activity back to the page you were on. There are also family fun/party ideas for an end-of-unit celebration, as well as a Certificate of Exploration. Extra study links are also included at the end of the unit. At only $7.95 for over 70 pages of fun learning, we are looking forward to trying out some of the other 15 titles in the series.