TOS REVIEW: The Curiosity Files: The Blue-Footed Booby

The Curiosity Files, Explorations with Professor Ana Lyze, Expert in Outlandish Oddities!

Available from the TOS Store now in a bundle of 9 ebooks for $49.00 in CD form or $46.00 downloadable. These can also be purchased separately (see store for current prices).

For ages 8-13, these really can be adapted for younger and older ages with ease.

What can you expect in this ebook? 

• Bible study, discussion ideas, and memory verses
• Math, history, and geography investigations
• Literature and suggested book list
• Writing, spelling, and vocabulary activities
• Beautiful copywork pages (manuscript and cursive)
• Science observations, projects, and experiments
• Discussion questions
• Art, crafts, and drawing and coloring pages
• Lapbook/notebook pages and helpful lapbooking links
• Special needs, hands-on discoveries
• Internet resources and video links
• Complete answer key

I was given a choice of which Curiosity File I would like to review from the TOS Homeschool Crew and I thought this one sounded quite interesting. I'd personally never heard of a Blue-Footed Booby. (LOL! yes, my kids and I both laughed at the name...but you get to find out how it got its name!)

I love the drawings, art and photos in this ebook. Very vibrant and interesting. The information is also presented in a way that doesn't drag on- if that makes sense. One of my kids has a shorter attention span than the other. He likes things to get to the point and this does.

I really like the Biblical tone throughout. There are scriptures that relate to everything in this ebook. My kids are particularly interested in evolution lately and the section on how this bird helps disprove evolution was perfect timing.

There are 100 pages in this and a lot of things to do- all are presented in a fun and interesting way. Math isn't a popular subject in our school but when it is about something that is interesting, it is like my kids forget that they are doing math. It's great.

There are word problems based on the information learned about- such as figuring out how many people live on the Galapagos Island, where the Blue-Footed Booby lives- for younger and older students. There are also writing prompts and copywork in this ebook. All based on what was learned about the Blue-footed Booby. 

One of the nice things about an ebook is that you can print out what pages you want and not worry about the ones you do not need. Of course, with ebooks you can also not print them. We use our computer often and simply have it open while doing the activities. 

One thing I would love to have had more of were the Mad Libs for the writing portion. My kids absolutely love Mad Libs. It helps them to be more creative in their writing. With the one that was included in the ebook, however, it was easy to make up some of their own. There are quite a few copywork selections, some in print and some in cursive. 

The nature journals in the science section were so cute that it made me want to get out and observe nature! Of course it is barely double digits here at this time of year but these will come in handy soon. I really liked the recipe for suet for the birds. With the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up, this is super helpful. Love the idea of oranges for 'cups' (see pages 62 & 63 when you get this!).

We didn't get through everything in this ebook but I am pretty sure that this is something that we can use more than once. My kids are in the same age group but this can easily be modified to be used with older-older students (you know, older than 13 lol). I love the links that are given throughout the ebook. So many that I'd never come across before and I'm always on the lookout for links!

Bottomline:

This is a great unit study ebook. I must admit that I'd never used a unit study approach before. I always felt that it was too difficult (or I'm a little short-sighted sometimes lol) to put together. But here the TOS has put together ones that are great; interesting, informative and biblical! What more can we ask for? For the price of the bundle, this ebook would be about $5.11 (or $5.44 for the CD version). That is well worth the price.

Interested to hear what others thought of this? Visit the TOS Homeschool Crew blog for more.  

**Disclaimer: I received this ebook free from TOS as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew. I did not receive any compensation for this review. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review. See more Disclosure/Policies.**