Posted in Reviews

About the product:  The last time I wrote about One 2 Believe it was about their nativity set.  (See review below.)  Recently, however, I was surprised to find that they had sent me another neat toy to review!  This time it was the Noah's Ark playset.

The Noah's ark play set comes with a Noah figure and 14 animals as well as the ark.  When you are done playing (well, you know, I mean when your kids are done playing) Noah and his animal friends fit neatly into the ark. 

What are the pros of this product?  Well, it's fun!  The whole idea behind One 2 Believe is to get kids to play with toys that are biblically based.  What kid doesn't love the story of Noah?

What's not to like? We have to admit it.  We were a bit disappointed that there were no giraffes.

The Crazy Mom take: My kids love it.  As a matter of fact they have big plans for a "Noah's Ark Party."  I have no idea how that will work, but I do know it was somehow inspired by this toy. 

What's the bottom line? $29.99

Check it out:  http://www.one2believe.com

See what my fellow crewmates have to say @

 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/655954/

Like the One 2 Believe nativity set, I am going to give the Tales of Glory Noah's Ark set four out of five smileys!  *

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Ah, Christmas time.  The twinkeling lights and beautiful decorations.  The wonderful aroma of cookies baking.  The sounds of carolers and me yelling, "Doggone it!  Someone get the super glue!  Joseph's head just came off!"

Every year it's the same Christmas story.  The kids feel compelled to play with my ceramic nativity, and at least one of the pieces has to undergo major surgery.  Why can't someone make a plastic nativity set just for the little ones to play with? 

Well stop right there! Someone has done just that!  The good people at One 2 Believe have created a nativity set just for kids!  It's a 17 piece set made of durable plastic that is kid safe (over age 3, or course) and kid friendly. All the figures are there: Jospeh, Mary, the wise men, angels, animals, a tree, a manger and, of course, baby Jesus!

I got my set last Saturday morning.  My husband got his hands on it right away.   Sane Man's an engineer, so he was thrilled with the box.  He said the packaging was great!  He loves the fact that you can put your figures back into the box to store it.  He took everything out of the box (OK, he admits, undoing all those wires was a bit much.  You see, he has this idea where you put a dab of rubber cement... Oh, you don't care about that, do you?)  Anyway, he got all the pieces out and set them up.  All the little ones were gathered around and begging to get their hands on the set.  No such luck, Sane Man was gonna do it first.

So he got it all set up and then acted out the Christmas story for the kids.  They loved it.  Then they all took turns playing with it.  After a while, they packed it all away so we can get it back out for Christmas.

Let's get some input from the kids:

Bear says, "I love that thing!"

Baber says, "It's a pretty good toy."

Dode Man says, "Out of one to ten, ten!"

Princess says,"Ten out of ten."

The cost of the set is $24.99 plus shipping.  There are also many other sets and figures available.  For example, there is a David and Goliath set, a Daniel and the Lion's Den set, a Jesus Walks on Water set, and many more.  You can get figures of Jesus, Peter and Paul.  Well, check it out yourself at One2Believe.com. 

Pros of this product:

It's a Bible based toy, well-packaged, durable, colorful, and according to my kids, fun!

What's not to like?

OK, I must admit, the figures don't exactly look Jewish, but at least Mary is not a blue-eyed blond!  Also, this product is not for really young kids.  If your kids put things in their mouths, you might want to pass on this one as the figures are made of PVC.  Also, the star does come off the manger, though it will snap right back on. 

The Crazy Mom take:

I think this will work well for our family.  I plan to use it as a seasonal toy.  My kids like to lose things, so I am hoping that if we only have it out a few weeks out of the year, we'll be able to keep it together.  Like Sane Man says, the box is great for restoring the set.  I think we will probably make a tradition of acting out the Christmas story with this set.  Since the baby Jesus is not attached to the manger, (like it is on my ceramic set) I think we will keep Him aside until Christmas morning.  Of course, if the kids want to act out the Christmas story before the 25th, I'll let them use Jesus.

All in all this is a great toy.  I am going to give the Tales of Glory Nativity Set 4 out of 5 smileys! *

(The only reason I am not giving 5 out of 5 is that it IS a toy and not a necessary part of a homeschool.  I do think, however, that when we CAN use our toys to lead our kids to Christ, we should. As the company One 2 Believe states on their website, they are trying to win the battle for the toybox.  I think it's a battle worth fighting!!!)

To check out my fellow Homeschool Crew Mates' reviews, go to http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/605211/. 

**The Smiley System: 

I can't really recommend this product.

 I doubt this product would be helpful to many people.

 This is a good product, but isn't right for everyone.

 Most homeschool moms will find this useful.

 This is great and I would recommend it to anyone!!!