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Audio Adventures With Jonathan Park

Do you use audio books and adventures in your homeschool?

I'm pleased to be able to share with you one of our very favorite audio series - one that we have been falling in love with this summer (as we've been spending LOADS of time in the car!). 

If you read this blog often you will know that I'm not a huge product endorsement person - we have to use something and truly LOVE IT if I will recommend it to my readers.

Well, the following audio adventures have made the cut!  I hope you enjoy our review, and make sure to read all the way to end for a very special discount code. 

About Jonathan Park Audio Adventures

We've long been fans of audio BOOKS in our homeschool, but Jonathan Park Audio ADVENTURES aren't books at all - they are truly ADVENTURES!

Unlike audio books, the adventures are full fledged dramas - complete with sound effects, music, and  dynamic characters. All of this leads to a vivid picture in your imagination, which you sometimes don't get with audio books. 

We were pleased to receive The Adventure Begins Series Pack.

 

This includes four albums of the first adventure: The Secret of the Hidden Cave, African Safari, Art Heist Adventure, and Mystery at Dead Man's Curve.  Each adventure is broken into three 20-25 minute sections, which makes for manageable listening. 

(Jonathan Park has SEVEN adventures series total - so there is plenty of listening still to be done!)

In my opinion, these dramas are best geared towards elementary and middle grades students. 

Each adventure series pack is $59.99 and is available in digital or physical CD format. 

“Jonathan Park action-packed audio adventures are for kids and families. The stories are full of faith-building and educational evidence for a Creator. If your family enjoys imaginative and immersive stories packed with biblical truth, then Jonathan Park is for you!

If your kids have never experienced Jonathan Park faith-building audio adventures, we want to highly encourage you to try these stories. We guarantee that they will ignite their imagination and equip them to defend their faith!”
— Jonathan Park website

 

Listen to this short sample and hear for yourself the high quality of these audio adventures: 

Why We Like Jonathan Park Audio Adventures

This summer we have spent A LOT of time in the car. We love to use this time to LEARN rather than to play on devices or just listen to the radio. I am always searching for worthwhile audios to keep my children engaged and learning.

With the Jonathan Park Audio Adventures our time was put to excellent use as my children learned about science concepts:

  • The Evolutionary Tree
  • Convergent Evolution
  • The Laws of Energy
  • Design of the Water Cycle

These science concepts were interwoven with Biblical truths:

  • Returning Good for Evil
  • Showing Kindness
  • Consequences of Sin


More reasons we enjoyed the audio adventures: 

  • The adventures were just that - ADVENTURES!  They kept my 11 year old son interested and engaged - each segment was approximately 20-25 minutes which was the perfect length for our attention span.
  • The adventures equipped my children to defend their faith.  Each adventure presents evidence for Creation. It gives us solid arguments to make when defending our faith and view points. 
  • The adventures taught us a lot about science and how it relates to our faith.  As my children get older I am finding that this is especially important - yes, you can be a person of faith and science at the same time.  They aren't mutually exclusive.
  • The adventures include supplemental activities, found on the Jonathan Park site.  Once we were at home and had some down time, I printed out the coloring pages and word searches for my son to complete. We sat and talked about the adventures while he was working - a casual way to learn and dialog. 

Do you listen to audio dramas in your homeschool?  Does this series look intriguing to you?  I hope so! 

Teaching Your Kids to Code

We've added something new in our homeschool this year: CODING

Learning to code is the rage right now - and rightly so.  There are so many things in our world right now that RELY on code. Anything that is run with the use of technology requires CODE, and therefore the world needs workers who know how to code.

Coding teaches our children the skills of troubleshooting and translating. It helps foster patience and logical thinking. 

Teach Your Kids To Code

But, what exactly IS coding?  

“Computer programming, or coding, is a crucial skill every child should be learning. We use computer to solve problems, play games, help us work more effectively, perform repetitive tasks, store and recall information, create something new, and connect with our friends and the world. Understanding how to code puts all this power at our fingertips. ”
— Bryson Payne

The Resource We Are Using For Coding

We are a picky family when it comes to coding resources.

My husband is a software consultant. You could say he deals with code all day every day. It is our bread and butter. 

We KNOW the value of learning to code.

Teach Your Kids to Code, A Parent Friendly Guide to Python Programming, has been our guide to teach Grant about coding. 

This book is broken into 10 chapters. A parent and child can sit down together and easily learn about Python, the most user-friendly language for learning coding. 

Notice the overlap between coding and math - coding and logic, etc...   

When you teach your child to code - they are getting so much MORE than just a computer language!

Teaching Your Kids to Code
  • Python Basics: Get to Know Your Environment
  • Turtle Graphics: Drawing With Python
  • Numbers and Variables: Python Does the Math
  • Loops are Fun (You Can Say That Again)
  • Conditions (What If?)
  • Random Fun and Games: Go Ahead, Take a Chance!
  • Functions: There's a Name for That
  • Timers and Animation: What Would Disney Do>
  • User Interaction: Get into the Game
  • Game Programming: Coding for Fun

 

Some of you might be wondering if a person with NO coding experience can teach their child from this book.

The answer is a resounding YES!  

The book is designed for parents and children to learn TOGETHER. Learning to code is supposed to be low stress and fun. It encourages our children to experiment and take risks and then sit back and enjoy the results. 

When I asked Grant his favorite part about the book he said it was definitely creating his own program to create spirals!  Coming in a close second was a program he wrote to calculate the cost of pizzas.  

UDEMY Course - Teach Your Kids to Code

Bryson Payne has also created a 7 hour UDEMY course (which has received a 5 star rating, by the way), to accompany the book, Teach Your Kids to Code. 

In this course, you and your children are walked through every chapter of the book. It takes all of the information in the book to the next level and is a wonderful supplement to the book. 

If you'd like your child to learn about coding in a non-threatening, fun, and engaging way I would HIGHLY recommend Teach Your Kids to Code by Dr. Bryson Payne. This resource gets two HUGE thumbs up from our family! 

To learn even more, visit the Teach Your Kids to Code website. 

 

The Giveaway

I'm pleased to be offering one Teach Your Kids to Code book and UDEMY course to a lucky reader.  Simply follow the Rafflecopter widget instructions below to enter. 

Good luck! 

Teach Your Kids to Code Giveaway