The kids and I reviewed The Brinkman Adventures Season 2: Episodes 13-24 by Brinkman Adventures.

Run-ins with pirates, Chinese close-calls with the Communist government, French castles, and other fascinating adventures are experienced with this missionary family and their friends.

The little kids tolerated listening to these ok. Liz did not like it at all. And she’s my only aural learner! I think it may be difficult for her to follow the different narration and storylines with her ADHD.

We’ve never had great success with audiobooks or radio shows of any kind.

I think the stories in The Brinkman Adventures are good, well-done audio shows. The actors’ enunciation is great and easy to understand. But I can see why Liz doesn’t care for it. It does sound a bit affected and exaggerated. She said it just sounds like they’re reading a script. I suppose they are, and it’s a bit stilted for her tastes.

The plotlines are great lessons. Musical transitions help us to understand flashbacks or changes in narration. Little ads midway through the stories help break up the “action” and provide other transition. There are stories within the main story – from real missionaries’ experiences.

Little Hope is adorable. Her lines and sweet voice make us giggle.

The main male narrator is more the faithful one who prays and trusts God. Another man is the voice of doubt. The woman provides dialogue, questions, and furthers the narration along. The kids help the family and listeners explore characters’ motives and historical facts. There’s a call to action and summary of the moral at the end of each episode.

And we looked forward to mentions and appearances of Ripcord the Rooster.

We did especially like Episode 14 – Blue Hat & T-Shirt Bible – about Chinese Christians. It was most interesting to us. I love the story behind it.

We were all fascinated by the Chinese pictographs representing Christian symbols.

And, of course the kids wanted to know the symbolism behind the “blue hat lady.” Of course, it’s part of the Communist uniform but they wanted more.

I did some research and found these great symbols and explanations of blue hats:

• The Chinese called Muslims, Jews, and Christians in ancient times by the same name, “Hui Hui.” Christians were called “Hui who abstain from animals without the cloven foot,” Muslims were called “Hui who abstain from pork,” Jews were called “Hui who extract the sinews.” Hui zi or Hui Hui is presently used almost exclusively for Muslims, but Jews were still called Lan mao Hui zi which means “Blue cap Hui zi.“
• In A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, the blue cap worn by the mender of roads represents pre-revolutionary France.
• China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). This registration is referred to in English as a “blue hat” because the registration logo visually resembles a blue hat. From China dietary supplement info.
• Blue Hat is a term used to refer to outside computer security consulting firms that are employed to bug test a system prior to its launch. Hacker security.
• The blue hat tends to be the outward-looking, leader or trail-blazing hat that attracts the leaders of all groups. Metacognition. From Edward de Bono leadership.

I know we’re in the minority of not absolutely loving Brinkman Adventures. All my friends were shocked when I mentioned we weren’t especially enjoying it. We don’t really like audio books.

I had hoped my kids would enjoy listening to these audios since we put our TV in storage and have limited Internet access as we travel across America.

They balked every time I mentioned listening to an episode. It was hard for them to sit still and quiet and listen.

Kate enjoyed listening the most. She asked for more, to just have a listening marathon. She loves drawing and listening.

Audiobooks and radio shows have never been at the top of my kids’ wishlists and they just don’t hold their interest for long. I’m not that great for it either. We’d rather read I guess. Tori, Alex, and I aren’t aural learners.

I was able to discuss the plots and character lessons with my daughters. They  more obeyed me than enjoyed the time listening. The lessons in the stories are really great, even if the presentation was a bit boring for my kids.

In our conversations, the girls and I used the audio as a starting point to:

• Focus on the missionary aspect of the stories
• Discuss how a family can serve together
• Review good character lessons

The Brinkman Adventures is great for kids to listen to if they feel destined for missionary work or want to learn more about it. I found it interesting that the stories are based on real events with this real missionary family.

I enjoyed reading the background info behind the adventures.

Brinkman Adventures Season 2

12 Episodes – 5+ Hours!

• 4CDs -$25.00
• MP3 Download – $17.00

Recommended for all ages. Great for background listening while working on seat work, coloring or drawing, completing chores, or during mealtime.

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just have to say, of all the Home School Adventure Co. products we’ve reviewed, The Wise Woman with Literary Analysis Journal Questions is blessing us the most.

We throughly enjoyed The Wise Woman Review.

We were expected to cover at least one chapter per week during the review period. We covered a chapter a day! We really enjoyed the text and Q&A and discussion time together. It was great mother-daughter bonding.

The text of The Wise Woman is by George MacDonald, a Christian minister, author, and poet (1824-1905). We love the story of a lost princess and only stumbled over a few sentences with difficult syntax. It was delightful and hard to put down to do other work. We read a chapter each day and completed the questions together. It didn’t even feel like work!

I used my comb binder and printed off the books to make things easier for us. The pdf is editable, so students can type their answers right in the file if they choose.

Fourteen chapters with 16-24 literary analysis questions after each – and vocabulary pages for language review make this study quite comprehensive.

Who says developing critical thinking skills requires dry and somber study?

Liz sees herself in this too much, to her chagrin. I love it. And she’s really really thinking and learning lots about herself. Thanks, Stacy!

For a question chapter 11, number 7:

If Rosamund made The Shepherdess miserable, why did she cry when she sent her away?

Liz answered: “The Shepherdess cried because she was a bad mother.”

I asked: “So, does that make me a failure as a mother?”

Then Liz stammered and stuttered and realized she had made some progress herself, but still had a long way to go for heart change, similar to Agnes and Rosamund showing external change but internal was more difficult to grasp. Liz quickly backed up and assured me that I am a good mother, unlike the Queen or Shepherdess, who were too indulgent. She told me that I do try to teach and train her and her siblings, and she admitted she doesn’t always listen or try hard enough to learn or obey.

It was an awesome mama moment.

I have been so pleased to see Liz mature over the course of going through this study with me. She was sullen and disagreeable in the beginning and saw herself in the two characters immediately, much to her horror. She has shown great improvement in her behavior and attitude lately and I am so, so happy to see it.

She’s a natural leader and reading this text and doing the analysis together really helped us work through some heart issues and prune our thoughts and attitudes.

I love literary lessons. This is a perfect lesson for readers!

We were sad when it ended. And I love the ending, but I won’t tell!

$28.95 for print and $14.95 for Ebook Download (Additional shipping charge for international orders.)

For read aloud and discussion as a family: ages 9-11. For ages 12 and up, also great for family discussion and/or parental/teacher guidance. High schoolers can do this on their own.