By the Way Book Series ~ REVIEW

I remember when I first laid eyes on the By the Way Book Series, I knew I had found a treasure.  Several months ago I did a review on two books in this series, today I am thrilled to share New York City ~ By the Way, one of the newest additions from By the Way.  The other titles are Indiana ~ By the Way, Alaska ~ By the Way, and Ireland ~ By the Way

I also was thrilled to see Kaden excited to adventure again with the main characters, Alex and Lexi.  Like before we get to go on their adventure and explore.  This time they were off on a trip with their youth group.  Each of the kids, 7 in total were able to pick 5 zipcodes to go and explore.  I know that sounds like a lot, but New York City has 175.  While on their trip we get to learn history, geography, Scripture and science.  It's like a homeschool parent's dream...let me share why. 

What I like most about this series is each book truly gives us parents a plethora of starting points to learn many different facts about each of the cities.  For instance we spent the better part of 3 days learning just about pigeons.  After reading they were used in war Kaden and I researched which wars and that led to a short history lesson.  He was inspired to look into the anatomy of a pigeon and their abilities to fly long distance.  We did the same thing while learning about subways, the Statue of Liberty, Chinatown, Little Italy and 9/11.  We have yet to dive deeper into so many other fun things we learned while reading about New York City.  Have you ever heard of Tube Mail?  What about a rooftop farm?  We were amazed at all the interesting wildlife, the cultures living in one city and the history weaved throughout it.  Honestly, I have never wanted to visit before I read this book.  We just had so much fun together learning about this spot on our map that we never explored further then just major stats.  We both agree, by reading and using this book to learn further with research we feel like we have taken a trip there already. :)
Another beautiful aspect of these books is the Christian worldview the Writer, Joy Budensiek has added.  Each book is part of a larger series of geographically based Christian worldview children's books.  Throughout the books are scriptures that bridge the facts and God's intentional creation of our beautiful world and everything in it.  Kaden described it as the tape on a wrapped gift.  We spent time looking up most of the verses and I had him write them out to practice his handwriting.  

Let me share how we read through the book.  First we did read it completely through all at once and while we read we would flag pages so that we could do further research.  I think we had 32 flags at one point.  We then grabbed a notebook and  wrote out what we found.  We took 2 trips to the library, countless hours online and even watched some videos on national geographic about turkeys and coyotes.  There was so much diversity and cultures mentioned that we could have a field day with this topic for weeks.  

But we decided for review purposes we would stick with Chinatown and Little Italy.  We took a trip to our local Chinatown, ate dim sum and bought a bunch of yummy treats.  We also thought we should make some homemade meatballs!  Another bonus, I almost forgot to mention, was the Geo caching section.  Kaden and Mahala both love to do this fun activity and it was awesome that they included it in the book.  You learn simple steps to get started, it's super easy...we have been doing it for years. :)

I could go on and on, there is so much to love about this series, I appreciate the care, time and thought that went into it and I look forward to many more additions to the series.  If you like to travel, learn interesting facts, have children, homeschool or just interested in learning more about different states and countries, this series is for you.  No home or school library is complete without these books in it.  Make sure to Connect with By the Way on Facebook today!