Our first adventures in odyssey purchase was the patriotic stories. That CD was great. We were getting ready for a long trip, so I decided to purchase more. I decided to start from the beginning and just go in order when ready to buy more. That was a mistake. My kids were 6 & 4. Some of the stories we didn't even finish listening to. "Dumb" and "stupid" are used throughout the stories, and there was a lot of fighting within the episodes of Whit's family (even among the adults). My kids talk and act like how they hear, and I didn't want them modeling many of the characters in this collection.

Wholesome family entertainment is what I read from most reviewers...I guess if your family is into using words such as idiot, stupid, etc... this would be for you. We started with the first cd and some of the stories portray horrible behavior by children and wives that is barely corrected!! How is that teaching anything. I usually love Focus on the Family but portraying the typical American worldly family is not how I want my kids to learn :(

While I understand that kids will use the words "stupid" and "dumb" on a regular basis, I don't need to use a product that uses them so regularly. What is most surprising is that the parental figures in the stories never address the language choice by the kids. I would expect this if I bought a product that was not christian based (secular), but thats not the case here. While in the end each character ends up using some appropriate comments, it still does not justify why the kids are not at least told to watch how they speak about individuals in the stories.

Adventures of Odyssey were recommended to me by another homeschool mom. Although they are a good tool for lessons, I feel that your child needs to be old enough to understand the context of stories. The stories were a little over my child's level of understanding and she ended up picking up the attitude of the mean and disobedient children rather than the point of the story. Perhaps some other 4yr olds are more advanced, but I would recommend this for older children.

Well, what can I say? This album marked the beginning of a very incredible radio series. "The Adventure Begins" is a very significant album because of its many "firsts". We hear the creation of Whit's End for the first time. We meet Connie for the first time. We meet Whit's family for the first time.But what is the main problem with this album? Frankly, many episodes have contrived and downright boring plots. Adventures in Odyssey is not a "regular" kids' show. But a lot of the episodes in this album simply aren't memorable."Whit's Flop", "The Life of the Party", and "Connie Comes to Town" are pretty stale episodes. One thing I liked, though, about the radio series' early years is that Connie, an agnostic opposer to Christianity, was there.Then there's "Gifts for Madge and Guy". This was a very funny episode. The comedy is great, but it gently shifts moods from a far-out story to a touching ending. This episode definitely stands out and is a great Christmas classic.Then we're back to "standard" episodes. "Nothing to Fear", "The Day After Christmas" and "A Change of Hart" are all HORRIBLE episodes, in my honest opinion. The acting is very bad in some places, and everything felt like VeggieTales."Promises, Promises" is a pretty good episode. Connie's character is developed a bit more. After two pretty funny scenes, we get to the heart of the episode, which accurately shows the basic nature of man.Perhaps the best episodes in this album are "Recollections" and "A Member of the Family". Each are very emotional, though not as emotional as episodes that came afterwards. "A Member of the Family" carefully handles family conflict and the importance of discipline. In "Recollections", you just want to cry along with the characters after the tragic turn of events.Overall, an album mixed with excellent and not-so-excellent episodes.Favorite Episode: A Member of the Family