Deputie Tribe: "Smokey Mountains" By the Way Review

Wow!

That sums up my review...

Just Wow!

Want something that is a fun read, includes science, history, and talks all about God's character?! Search NO MORE!

My girls and I snuggled up every afternoon following nap time and slowly worked our way though Smokey Mountains ~ Here We Come! from By the Way Book Series.

I am so impressed with this book, I wish I could hand every one of my readers one!!!!

**Don't be fooled by the thin shape of this book! It's SO PACKED with fun and educational aspects that one could spend a week reading through it, or a few months studying it.

We happened to get this book as we were learning about Daniel Boone exploring a trail through the mountains to get moving West through America. So we took a break from our "normal" history study and dove into this book!

This book integrated so many different faucets that I just LOVED!

~ A story book following the adventure of Lexi and Alex

~ Scriptures, Hymns and practical applications of these

~ Science facts about plants, animals, and nature

~ Geographical locations and amazing photos and artwork of these places

~ Appreciation for creation and how to take care of it

~ Historical facts and stories

One of my kid's FAVORITE parts of this book was the hidden pictures that we were to find as we paged through the book.

This was so fun!!

It kept even the wandering mind focused on the page we were on. Some of the hidden objects were obvious and some were pretty tricky to find, but we found them all! Once we finished the book the kids kept going back through the book to find the hidden pictures again and again.

There were several hymns included in the text which were fun to YOUTUBE and listen to. We sang "As A Deer" for days after we ran into it in the book. :)

The Science aspects of this book were a BLAST! We learned about Bobcats, Butterflies, Fireflies, Bears, certain flowers, trees, and other plants, as well as things like lightning and thunder.

This book is also rich in History! We learned about the people who used to live in the Smokey mountains and why they had to evacuate. We learned why there were three churches in the town and only a population of a few hundred people. We read about a woman who raised a large family, ran the family farm, and a few buildings/business in town! We discussed what it means to be diligent and hardworking.

This book is just flooded with scripture! The uncle, who takes them on this journey through the Smokey Mountains, brings everything they talk about back to the Bible and to God's character giving insight and application.

I also loved the mixture of animated pictures with real life photographs.

We learn about geocaching and REALLY want to go now! It's like a modern treasure hunt!

Hopefully one of these family nights....!!!!

ONLY CON: I think the only thing I didn't like about this book is that there isn't a map of where the children traveled and where each place they visited was. We tried to follow along using google maps, but we had a hard time. A map in the book would add a cool geography aspect and be VERY helpful while reading it. Maybe one can print off a map and chart where each location in the book was. Even as my husband was paging through the book he asked, "Where are the Smokey Mountains again?" as he flipped to the front and back of the book trying to find a map or picture of their location.

They have 6 books available right now including:

Florida's Treasure Coast ~ Here We Come!
Smoky Mountains ~ Here We Come!
Pennsylvania ~ Here We Come!
Ohio ~ Here We Come!
Washington ~ Here We Come!
Colorado ~ By the Way

And there are more in the making!!