Your Story Hour - Dramatized Audio Stories For The Entire Family

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for details.

Your Story Hour is a global, non-profit, interfaith Christian educational organization that was established in 1949.  Your Story Hour speaks to children around the world through their dramatized audio stories from History, the Bible, and everyday adventures. 

A moms review:
We were contacted by Your Story Hour and asked to review one of their audio story albums. Our family loves audio stories so I gratefully accepted. Since we homeschool a lot on the road audio stories are perfect for our family.

First let me tell you more about Your Story Hour then I will tell you about the album we choose and what we thought.

More about Your Story Hour:
In today's crazy world it is hard to find decent role models that teach positive decision making skills. However what if I told you that through dramatized audio stories children can be inspired to make sound choices by being exposed to stories that show the positive results of developing character traits such as honesty, integrity, courage and faith. Each CD set from Your Story Hour teaches positive values and morals that children will remember for a lifetime while being educated and entertained. Your Story Hour stories are narrated by Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue and are enhanced with sound effects and music to help bring them to life and captivate children. Your Story Hour is great for the entire family...even parents. Though many of their products are faith based their history albums are secular.

Here are some of the products currently offered by Your Story Hour:

• Acts of the Apostles
• Adventures in Life (4 Volumes)
• Bible Comes Alive (5 Volumes)
• Great Stories (12 Volumes) 
• Heritage of our Country
• Patterns of Destiny
• The Teen Scene
• The Young Abe Lincoln
• Activity books to compliment various CD sets

Each album comes in a sturdy, plastic case with protective vinyl sleeves to hold the CDs. On the front of the album cases are a terrific illustrations depicting some of the figures from the stories.

How we used it:
We choose to go with the Great Stories Volume 3 set which features 12 dramatized, historical audio stories on 6 CDs. Volume 3 features the adventures of several historical figures who faced much adversity, but persevered with courage and determination. Each episode is approximately 30 minutes in length.

Stories included on Volume 3:

• Johnny Appleseed - (2 parts) Story of John Chapman - the  man who gave apple seeds to the early American pioneers
• Robert E. Lee - (4 parts) Hero of the South
• Sacagawea - (2 parts) One Little Indian Girl and Indian Guide - Indian girl who was kidnapped from her tribe and eventually became a guide for the explorers Lewis and clark
• The Daring Locomotive Chase - (2 parts) Exciting true tale from the American Civil War
• The Girl Astronomer - story of a little Quaker girl who grew up to discover a comet
• Precious Burdens/Part-Time Indian - Two stories about the things in life that matter most.

We choose to go with this set for a few reasons. First my daughter is very passionate about the Native American culture and loves learning about Native American history. Second we live in Georgia and are surrounded by Civil War history. We have visited many of the Civil War sights in Georgia and have even seen the real "General locomotive."

Immediately after popping in the first CD I had a sense of nostalgia. I then realized that I had heard the Your Story Hour dramatized stories before on the radio as a child. When I was a young child my parents would put on Your Story Hour Bible stories just about every Sunday.

Listening to these audio stories really helped bring history to life for my 7 and 8 year old. The stories also taught them important values as well. We mostly listen to them on our car rides. It always seems to take us 1/2 hr to 1 hr to get everywhere we need to go so we have plenty of time to listen to a story or two! While the children listened they would draw pictures to illustrate what is going on in the story. Even I learned a thing or two from these amazing CDs.

My daughter loved the Sacagawea story and begged to learn more about her and Lewis and Clark. My son loved the story about the General locomotive and is really looking forward to visiting The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History again so we can see "The General." I loved the Robert E. Lee story. We recently visited Stone Mountain which has a large carving of President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. It was during our visit that I realized I knew very little about these 3 men. Lee in my mind was a tyrant and could not possibly teach us any important values or character traits. But after listening to the 4 part audio story on Lee I realized there was a lot I didn't know about him. Though Lee fought against the Union and believed that slavery was not wrong he showed great persevere for several years with a Confederate Army that was outnumbered many times. And even though he was eventually defeated, his army achieved amazing victories that brought the Confederacy to the verge of its independence on several occasions during the Civil War.

Freebies:

Check out the Kids Korner for FREE activities and learning tools. Also check to see if your local radio plays the Your Story Hour stories.

Links to follow:

-Your Story Hour Facebook
-Your Story Hour Twitter

Where to buy:

You can purchase CD albums and MP3 downloads directly from Your Story Hour product store. CD albums range from $22.50-$45 and MP3 download versions are $18-$36. You can also purchase individual stories in MP3 download format for $2 a piece.

You can also find Your Story Hour albums on Amazon.

Now time for the giveaway:
One lucky winner will receive a Your Story Hour - Great Stories Volume 3 album (U.S. addresses only.) Only the first entry is mandatory. Other entries are optional and give you extra chances. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook in any way. The winner will be posted on the blog and will be emailed. Winner must reply within 48 hrs with their contact information or another winner will be chosen. Prize will be mailed via Your Story Hour.

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Educational Insights Hot Dots Jr Kindergarten Review and Giveaway

*This post contains affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for details. Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Educational Insights is a California based company that has been manufacturing fun products that also provide serious educational value since 1962. Their wide selection of products include subject specific classroom products, teacher resources, educational toys and games. As a homeschool mom I am always on the search for fun yet educational resources. And Educational Insights certainly goes above and beyond in this area. We own several products from Educational Insights and I am always happy with their quality, durability and educational value.

A moms review:

We received the Hot Dots Jr Let's Master Kindergarten Math and Reading sets to review. This is another item that I decided to wait until Christmas to give to my children because of how awesome it was. So for this review I personally played with the "Ace" and the books. Last year my children received several Educational Insights gifts and they loved them so I am sure these are going to be a huge hit on Christmas morning.

These sets are recommended for children ages 5+. I initially got these sets for my 6 year old son but after paging through the books I have discovered that my daughter, age 7, will also be able to benefit from them. My first thought was these are going to be perfect for car rides. We are a very on the go homeschool family and since we live in GA our car rides often end up being 30-45 minutes long.  I am always searching for learning resources for the children to do in the car and Hot Dots are perfect! Hot Dots are easy to transport, require little adult assistance, are not loud or annoying and most importantly they are fun and educational!

The Hot Dots Jr Let's Master Kindergarten Math and Reading sets each come with two durable spiral bound books and "Ace" - the talking teaching dog (requires 2 AAA batteries). Each book contains 100 self checking lessons. The only parental assistance your child may require is reading the instructions for the quiz like lessons. Hot Dots are so simple to use and children will definitely be able to utilize this educational resource on their own after a short time.

"Ace" is perfect for little hands. The Jr. sets come with "Ace"and the 1st -3rd sets come with a pen. "Ace" will tell the child if they got the answer correct by responding with a fun, congratulatory phrase and/or sound and glowing green eyes. Some of the phrases and sounds include: yes, you got it, terrific, bow wow sound, ruff sound, horn sound, trumpet sound, etc. If the child gets an answer incorrect "Ace" responds with a gentle wrong answer phrase and/or sound and glowing red eyes. Some of the sounds and phrases include: that's not right, sorry, whining sound, whimpering sound, buzzer sound, etc. Sometimes "Ace" will surprise you with some tail wagging vibrations too!!!! I love that there is no need to turn "Ace" on and off. He automatically goes to sleep when he is not being used and is always ready to play as soon as he taps a black dot. "Ace" also has a 3 position button to adjust the sound level (including a mute option), as well as a 3 position button for selecting the types of sound you want to hear (speech, sound effects or combo).

The spiral bound books in each set are clearly labeled book 1 and 2. The pages are glossy and very durable, so they will withstand lots of abuse and be able to be used over and over again! The books are small so they are perfect for little hands and easy to transport. Each book is broken into color coded, skill sections. Under the skill heading are simple one sentence instructions. There are about 2-3 quiz like questions on each page. Under each question you will find black dots (aka Hot Dots). Your child simply looks at the question, determines the answer and then presses the pen to the corresponding black dot to see if they are correct. The last 15 pages of book 2 has a challenge section which will provide children with skills from the next grade level to help them get ready to move on to the next set of books.

Here is what skill topics are covered in each of the Kindergarten sets:

Hot Dots Jr. Kindergarten Reading

• Letter recognition
• Upper and lowercase letter pairs
• Beginning consonant sounds
• Ending consonant sounds
• Short vowels
• Sight words
• Color words
• Shape words
• Number words
• Long vowels
• Basic capitalization rules
• Basic punctuation rules

Hot Dots Jr. Kindergarten Math

• Numbers
• Counting
• Patterns
• Addition facts
• Shapes
• Basic fractions
• Subtraction facts
• Data and statistics
• Sequencing numbers
• Number words
• Three dimensional shapes
• Weight
• Length
• Time
• Money

Hot Dots are going to be a great addition to our relaxed homeschool style. They are something that the kids can pick up an utilize completely on their own either at home or in the car. They are perfect for all learning styles and provide hours of interactive learning fun. As a mom on a budget I love that the price on these is very affordable at just $24.99 a set. And since the books are non-consumable Hot Dots are something that you can easily pass down to another child or sell when your child is done.

Reading and Math Hots Dots sets are available for PreK- 3rd Grade and are great for both home and school use!

Gwyn's (age 7) and Rowyn's (age 6) review: After Christmas I will come back and update the post with the children's thoughts, some more pictures and maybe even and video! I will be sure to include a photo of them opening their Hot Dots.

Links to follow:

-Educational Insights Website
-Educational Insights  Facebook 
-Educational Insights Twitter page
-Educational Insights Newsletter

Also visit Educational Insights FREE downloadable section for learning resources and tips!

Where to buy:
You can purchase Hot Dots from Educational Insights and Amazon. Each set is $24.99 (Amazon currently $21.99).

Now time for the giveaway: 
Educational Insights has graciously offered to giveaway a Hot Dots set to one lucky reader. Winner may choose grade level for either a reading or math set. Only the first entry is mandatory. Other entries are optional and give you extra chances. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook in any way. The winner will be posted on the blog and will be emailed. Winner must reply within 24 hrs with their contact information or another winner will be chosen. Open to US only! Prize will be mailed via the company.

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.