Children's Activity Book Review...Noah's Ark Playtime

 http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3035

I am so excited that christian publishers are giving parents more options in kids activities that have a christian theme.  My three year old and I snuggled up on the couch to read the 'story' of Noah's Ark with a huge variety of activities!! It not only has stickers, a game, a spot the difference, counting fun, a recipe, a poem, what's that animal, etc.   It was not your ordinary sticker book!    It is a bit advanced for my three year old, but that is delightful that a 'consumable' book isn't consumed in one afternoon!!  We 'stickered' a few pages, read most of it, but will have to revisit it later to do more of the activities.

There are light spots in the same shape where a sticker should go, and the sticker page easily pulls out from the middle of the book to pull them off and put them right on.  My daughter was delighted.  Now that we have read it, I will add it to our church bag, and she will finish it mostly independently!!  I was impressed that the sticker page was easy to get the stickers off of, my daughter is the queen of stickers these days and often I have to pull ALL the stickers of their backing for her. So this was a huge plus.

The content of the book was a very simplistic version of Noah's story.  It was very sound with preschool age skills- colors (spelled colours), animals their sounds, counting, seasons, etc.   It is an excellent educational tool and it is engaging.  It has bright colors and warm people/animals to look at.  My one criticism is the storyline which can be easily fixed by the parent or teacher reading aloud.  You will have to add in the deeper theological content.  Here's my take:

Please note: I am a bit of a critic and like even two year olds to hear doctrine directly.   I wished that it was more direct and had stated that the people  had sinned and caused God to destroy the people who did not seek Him.  I wished it had pointed more to who God is and why we had a flood.   It was very simple.  It said that God said "The rain will flood this bad old world."  That was it.  It did end the story by saying that God said "I will never send another flood."  I wished it had mentioned the promise God made and that it was a covenant! Like I said. I am a critic.

I would still use this book with kids.  I found the activities delightful, entertaining, and not a one afternoon thing, this book would be revisited several times to be completely done.   I think it is good for the 3 year old to even 7 or 8 year old range.   Older kids would complete it faster, maybe in one or two afternoons, but the game and some activities could be revisited. 

 I was given this book to review this activity book by Kregel Publications.  All opinions are my own.