TOS HOMESCHOOL CREW REVIEW: One2Believe Tales of Glory Nativity set

We found a surprise on the front porch today, and it is one of the items I will review for The Old Schoolhouse magazine's focus group.

It is a nativity set, a part of the Tales of Glory series from the company One2Believe. It retails for $24.95 and a google search yielded quite a few places that sell the toys. The set is adorable, there are enough pieces to tell and play out the entire story about the birth of Jesus. The set is attractive, big enough for little hands to grasp, and yet small enough to display on an end table or shelf. The pieces are not fragile and there is no danger of shattered glass from a dropped piece if the kids are moving the pieces around.

This set is recommended for children at least 3 years old, as there are several small parts, and, according to the description on the One2Believe web site, the parts are made from PVC, which may be dangerous to chewers, mouthers, people who need a lot of oral motor sensory input. Please do your research and make your own decision in this regard. (A google search yields quite a bit of information about PVC in toys.)

My daughter was excited to open the set and play with the pieces --and we spent over half an hour with it together, quite impressive for a toy to provide the opportunity of doing something together with mom for that long in one sitting for a child on the autism spectrum. She returned to it many times, too.

The learning opportunities are huge, from parallel play to cooperative play to making a Bible lesson come to life with kid-sized manipulatives. Over the next few months, I will plan Bible verses from the nativity story as copywork. The set reminds me that there are lots of new vocabulary words for us to talk about, from the shepherd's staff to the names of the gifts brought to the Christ Child.

The teensy story book that comes with the nativity tells a child-friendly version of the story that is just long enough to keep the attention and not too long or difficult for those whose habit of attention still needs some work. Charlotte Mason's approach will have us reading the story straight from the Bible, and these little characters will help create a visual to go along with the auditory information.

The nativity set would make a wonderful birthday or Christmas gift for a pre-schooler, or a fun addition to a Sunday School class, as would any of the Old Testament or New Testament based play sets from One2Believe.

We give this one a thumbs up for our family!