Family Read Aloud
Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
Family Read Aloud
Homeschool Review Crew
Tower of Light Christian Resources LLC
In our house we love a good family read aloud. Previously we have used Light of Mine from Tower of Light Christian Resources LLC as one. So, when the Homeschool Review Crew in conjunction with Tower of Light Christian Resources LLC offered up their new Light of Mine Unit Study – Premium for review we jumped at the chance!
About this new Unit Study
Do you like using unit studies with your family? We’ve used a vast variety of them over the years and I love the ones that everyone can do together the best!
Let me briefly introduce the author and creator of this great company before we get any further.
Allen Brokken
Allen Brokken is a teacher, a husband, a father, and an author. But most of all he is a follower of Christ and a believer in the one true God. I think that is something you should know as you start this series. And yes, there are more books in the series. This is book one in a fun series (six books total) and it will whet your appetite.
This book and this series came to mind while playing with his children one day. He had a vision or an inspiration that came to him. I’m thankful for that and that he took the time to play with his children and come up with this series.
I hope you find the time to read this whole series as a family read aloud with all your children even if you don’t end up using this unit study. We have read and loved every book in it.
The Components of the Unit Study
In the package with your Tower of Ligh Unit Study – Premium you will receive the workbook for your student, the actual book (and ours were signed with names placed in as well!), a USB drive containing the audiobook, and a Personal Pathways Player. This unit study is geared toward grades 3-6.
The audiobook is narrated by Stacey Bradshaw. It comes with bonus tracks to help bring the story to life!
Light of Mine, the book, is 222 pages long and book one in a six-book series. Written by Allen Brokken it follows the adventures of Lauren, Aiden, and Ethan as they try to naviage life without their parents to guide them. With their trio of blessed pets, they must stop the agents of the Dark One from putting out the Light and dooming their home to eternal Darkness.
The workbook is going to be your main curriculum. This contains puzzles, questions about the reading, memory verses and much more to make the story come alive and increase comprehension and retention. The workbook is written out so that you know exactly which week and day to do it as you work through it.
Our Thoughts
We have loved these books. My kids have read all of the books that are out and really want to see a few more come along. Knowing that the kids loved the book made me know that the Unit Study would be a great fit for us.
My kids were all ecstatic to get their books. Each of the books was inscribed with the child’s name and a little thought from the author. They loved having their own personal players for the book as well. Though we read the book out loud as a family the kids loved reading it on their own. My not-quite-so-confident readers loved hearing the book and following along on the pages. It was great for their confidence.
I loved the aspects of the workbook. There are scripture and memory verses. I love when scripture is front and center in the curriculum.
The unit study curriculum book is wonderful. It’s not super long but it really covers things that you want your children to pick up out of the book.
My kids love Meow Meow and the jokes were a huge hit with my younger kids using the curriculum.
So now let’s chat use.
I used this with seven children. Not all are in grade 3-6 range though. And my older kids who aren’t in the right age range anymore did sit around and have lots of chats with us as they have read these books and love them!
My children using this are ages 6, first grade, through a developmentally delayed 17-year-old who while she’s a junior this year in most of her studies she’s closer to the grade range for the study than she is at the high school levels. Another special concern I have is a girl with dyslexia who has great trouble reading so she needed more help with this. The other kids are within the grade range, though their age might be off a bit from public school levels.
We used this for four days a week. We all sat at the table and worked on it together. Any time writing was required (more than just a word or two) we did that in a notebook as some of my children have bigger handwriting and that let the ones who have trouble with writing narrate their answers to me while the others wrote.
The study is written out for a five-day week. Some weeks we did use it that fifth day for the craft and sometimes we did not. It really depended on the craft and if we had all the supplies or if the kids wanted to do it. We have a homeschool coop one day a week which made doing this five full days hard so the crafts were normally done on the weekend if we were doing them.
Warnings
There is fighting in the book. Parents do go away or disappear. Know your kids and know if those are things you need to be concerned about. This book has a good vs evil at its core. It is also a fantasy book. I personally am not a fantasy fan but my children are. Even without being a fan of fantasy, this is an amazing book.
My Review of the Book and Audiobook
I am always on the lookout for good children’s books. Lately, my children have really begun to like fantasy books. They’ll look at the library and see some that look interesting and bring them to me to see if they can check them out. All too often I have to tell them no, that they can’t get the book until I’ve had a chance to research the author and the book. Or sometimes, I have to grab the e-copy from the library and read it myself first.
With this book, I knew that I wouldn’t have to pre-read it. The author is a Christian father so I have to think that he also has faced wanting his children to read good wholesome books. Knowing that I did still pre-read this book because I wanted to be able to give it an honest review.
My honest review is. . . we can’t wait for books two and three to get here!!
This is a great fun read and my kids have all been taking turns reading it. Every child who can read chapter books has read this book as quickly as they could because the next child was ready to snatch it from them!
If you want to see the blog posts where I actually chat about the book or audiobook please follow these links and let me know what you think.
Learn More
If you’d like to learn more about the Light of Mine Unit Study and how it’s the best family read aloud please feel free to read all of the reviews linked up on the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.
Tower of Light Christian Resources LLC and author Allen Brokken on
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