There Once Was A Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant
First, we read There Once Was A Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. We entered the digital code that was emailed to us into the website and began to read. We actually read it twice in a row our first sit down because the kids loved it so much. You can chose if you want this book read to you, or if you want to read it yourself. I chose "Read to Me" and we all sat back and enjoyed the story!
When you select "Read to Me" a pleasant voice walks you through the story, turning the pages for you and highlighting the text that is being read so a child can follow along. When you select "Read By Myself", you can click to turn the page or place your curser over a part of the text you want the book to read out loud to you.
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We thought this book was very well done! I appreciated it because I could put the book on the screen and it was like someone was reading to my children. It's a great alternative to a movie or TV show when you need some time to step away and do something! These types of digital books have a very unique place in the homeschool environment I believe!
A Lion's World
A Lion's World was also a favorite of ours. It's very simple text and moving backgrounds are unlike anything we've experienced before. The age range targeted for this title is Kindergarten to 2nd grade, which explains why all my children wanted to read this book over and over again. I must say my kindergartener and toddler loved this book the most.
It took being an "educational book" to a new level with sound effects and moving pictures in the background of the text being read to you. You could hear the lion roar, watch it's mouth open wide, see the lion run after a herd of zebra, and observe cubs wresting with their dad. We loved this book!
This book did require someone to physically turn the page and click the text to be read. I would like if this book automatically read itself to the child.
Glaciers
Now, Glaciers was an entirely different experience all together. This book was targeted for grades 3-6 and is intended to be a research tool. I took my three older girls (ages 7, 7, 6) through this book. It reminded me of a science magazine my mom would have picked up from the library so I could read up on something, but this magazine came alive!
Glaciers is colorful, filled with maps, pictures, and timelines equipped with a main home screen for easy navigating.The text can be read aloud, however, the voice is a robotic sounding person who is really hard to follow, so this tool is almost completely useless in that regard. What makes it truly unique is the videos and interactive maps! You read about about how glaciers are formed and then you click on the video icon and it transports you to an incredible 5 minute clip of scientists in the arctic studying these glaciers. Just about every page has some interactive component to it whether a video, map, or vocabulary word that can be clicked on.
Our favorite part of this book was the glacier map page. When you click on a glacier, it brings you to google maps where you can zoom into the glacier and literally see an ariel view of it. We had no idea there was a glacier in Africa! Even my husband, who is from Africa, didn't know this.
We enjoyed the interactive quiz at the end of the book. Alecia was proud to have gotten 100% on her first try through it.
We also did the experiment suggested at the end of Glaciers and recorded our findings in the back of our science notebooks. The girls took a few pages to record everything they learned from studying this book.
Our Recommendation
I see several applications for these types of digital books. I see a homeschool parent using the story books as an afternoon pass time. I know reading books out loud to kids is so important, but a busy mom (maybe one with 6 kids and a new born) doesn't always have the time to do this. I LOVE the application of these in that regard! I can put on a few read aloud books for the kids and they can listen to their favorites being read over and over again while I make dinner or nurse the baby!
They can also be used for schooling the toddlers! Aryeh (my almost 2-year-old) and Elias (my 4-year-old) learned a lot from A Lion's World and crawled around on the floor pretending to be lions after finishing this book. A book can be followed up with some coloring sheets and a trip to the zoo for a unit study on Lions!
Another application I see is for either libraries to take advantage of, or the homeschool family for research for science projects or reports. The Glacier title was a BLAST for the kids and I to explore together and easy to navigate. When the girls were putting together their pages of what they learned, they could navigate through the book themselves to look up specific words and their definitions, or re-watch any video they wanted to. It stirred up their interest in Glaciers so much so they were educating their dad and friends on being a Glaciologist.
We LOVE these books and had a FANTASTIC time reviewing them! In fact, I am going to let me kids read There Once Was A Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant right now!! :)
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