Review: The Curiosity Files- Cicada-Killing Wasp

I'm really excited to have the opportunity to review an E-book in The Curiosity Files about the cicada-killing wasp that is published by The Old Schoolhouse®. This 88 page E-book is offered at the unbeatable price of only $1.00!  To buy now click here, or call 1-888-718-HOME.  Just so you know all the E-Books published by The Old Schoolhouse come with a 7 day, 100% money-back guarantee. This unit study is for ages 8-13 and up but does have activities for younger children if they would like to join in. 


If you haven't ever used an E-book let me tell you why I love them.  
1. They download right to your computer in just seconds, so you don't have to spend money on shipping or wait for them to arrive in the mail.
2. We only print the pages we are going to use so that saves money on printing supplies.
3. Easy to navigate. I look through the table of contents and just click on something and I'm instantly taken to that page!
4. I don't have to store them on a book shelf, it's all stored in a file on my computer.

When we first opened up the file my kids and I were so delighted to find that it had bright colors with clear, vibrant pictures. The kids were drawn into the study by Professor Ana Lyze who guides them on a learning adventure about the cicada-killing wasp.  After reading for a while the kids thought the cicada-killing wasp looked kind of scary but we soon found out that they usually don't sting humans, and the male cicada-killing wasp doesn't even have a stinger and that the female will only sting if caught and aggravated.  I loved how they incorporated facts about how God designed this insect to mirror the cycle of the cicada and then they proceeded to tell why.  Every so often they broke up the reading with questions, games, some graphing and quite a few other activities.  The kids really enjoyed this and said that it seemed to make the reading parts go by more quickly because they knew a fun activity was coming up and this also seemed to keep them more focused while reading.

The Curiosity Files unit study covered a wide range of subjects all pertaining to the cicada-killing wasp like spelling, vocabulary, grammar, science, math, writing, history, Bible, geography, music, art and even cooking! The E-book also offers internet resources and video links plus a complete answer key which is an answer to prayer for every busy homeschooling mom. It was easy enough for my 3rd grader that has some special needs, yet challenging enough for my 5th grader and kept their interest throughout all the subjects.  You can take as much time as you would like (we took 5 days to cover all the info) or you could cover the information quickly in a couple of  hours, however you would not be able to do all the activities in that short amount of time.

 I would recommend this E-book unit study because not only is it very informative, but fun for all ages!  A couple of our favorite things were making a "bug pooter"craft, the pitfall trap, the yummy snack, and graphing.  After we were finished my son was sad and I asked him why and he said, "Mom, I had so much fun learning about the cicada-killing wasp and now it's all over" and I told him that there are 8 other unit studies available in the Curiosity Files and I know which one  you would like to learn about...zombie fire ants.  He's so excited and can't wait to get another Curiosity File and find out about the zombie fire ants so be on the look out for a post about the zombie fire ants!

disclosure: I was given a complimentary copy of the The Curiosity Files-Cicada-Killing Wasp E-Book for review purposes. No other compensation was received. This post contains affiliate links.