Life Science – A Christian Creative Workbook by CRAM Christian Resources is a workbook about creation, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, and prayer. The workbook is nineteen pages and a stand-alone product. The book retails for $11.99 on the CRAM website and sold alongside a math workbook. However, they are both stand-alone products.

Although designed for kindergarten-age children, the workbook could be used for older or younger children. I used the workbook with both a five-year-old student and a seven-year-old student. We used the workbook as a supplement to our regular Bible study during the day. The workbook could be completed quickly or if used with other studies, it could last for quite a while. There are either games, coloring or drawing activities for each section.

There are three sections in the workbook. The first deals with the creation, God’s image, and God’s instruction. The second section deals with the Holy Spirit empowerment. The last section introduces the Trinity and the five-finger prayer. For our class, we watched a video dealing with the same or similar subject material, and then we would read the section.

While the workbook is titled Life Science, I found it to be more akin to a Bible Study or devotional for children. There is an activity that deals with the five senses and another with our dominion over the earth, but the rest is really about our relationship with God.

In our school day, we have about one hour of dedicated Bible time. This fits well into that time when we used supporting videos. The discussion lasted around twenty minutes per section and they spent another twenty minutes on each activity. When we played fruit of the Spirit bingo, we went longer.

Each section starts with a lesson and discussion and then ends with an activity. Each section could be done over several days or all in one day. We used the book both ways and completed one of the sections in a day and another section we spent several days on to make sure my children fully understood the concepts of the section. Since I have two students, the older student used the workbook while my younger student did some free drawing to describe what he wanted to say. Discussions included both boys and the content led to some interesting ideas.

I appreciated the well laid out format of the book.Teaching the Trinity to a child is not easy, but Meagan Carner covered the information in a fantastic way for young children. The fruit of the spirit game was fun, and my students enjoyed playing it a lot.

The best part of the book was teaching the five-finger prayer. We had just finished learning the Lord’s Prayer and this fit in well as a follow up to that prayer. It reminds my students to pray for everyone and gives them a wonderful way to remember how to do it.

My only negative with this workbook was the length. I wish it had been longer and either covered the topics more in-depth or covered more topics. It was noticeably short. I felt like I missed some bigger piece of curriculum that it was supposed to go with, but after checking the website again, it is stand alone. I can imagine us going back to it again as a refresher or to reinforce our Bible study.

I would recommend this product for content. I really appreciated the way the author approached the topic for young children and helped me explain complex Biblical issues. The only drawback to the product is how short it is. I really wish there were more and that does speak to how well done the content was.

-Product review by Melissa Bontadelli, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May 2019