Kid's Panning for Gold Kit

Details:  Dr. Cool's Kid's Pan for Gold Kit can be purchased from the Link provided.  This is a great science kit for children 4 and up.  Learn how to pan for gold and discover with Dr. Cool.  The Kit includes 1 Adventure Guide, 1 Activity Booklet, 10" miner's pan, 2 bags of dirt (practice dirt, and pay dirt), real fool's gold specimen, tweezers, magnifying glass, nugget vial and storage bag.  Can be translated into German, French, Spanish.  Learn about Gold uses from around the world, the California gold rush, how miners panned for gold then and now, what gold ore is, and the differences between gold and pyrite.  Test your skills with hands on panning with your own "pay dirt" and pan.

Extras: * Learn how to pan for gold just like a real prospector with this hands-on science kit
* Kit includes 10” prospectors pan, tools, storage vial, practice and advanced miner bags of paydirt, plus large fool’s gold nugget
* Perfect gift for any kid aged 6-12 that is interested in gold, prospecting, science, or geology
* Full Color Info and Activity guides written by teachers are filled with cool science facts about gold
* Winner of Dr. Toy Best Picks for New Products Award
* Kids award winning pan for gold science toy

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review: This kit from Dr. Cool's Sciences is really neat for my kids aged 4 and 7.  Both loved it to different degrees.  As we Home School, I'm always looking for tools, supplies, supplements, games, activities, field trips, etc to help bring our schooling into a more Interactive focus.  This is one such supplemental activity for science.  My children love rocks, so what better way to help teach Earth science than to help them learn more about rocks, minerals, gems, jewels, and the refining process.  We've been to many museums lately where they have seen gold, silver, copper, jewels and gems, crystal formations, lava rocks, moon rocks, etc.  So to have the opportunity to learn about one way people used to find and get gold really helps bring what they learn from their books, field trips, me as their Teacher and such is a great way to impliment my goal of Interact Home Schooling.  The day we got this in the mail was the same day that we opened it up, used it, read the booklets, did the activities and panned for gold.  I gave both kids a chance to pan for gold and use the tweezers to pick out the gold nuggets.  My 4 year old needed more help with the panning part (as we did end up with sand and water all over the floor with him.  But my 7 year old could to everything pretty much on his own, but I still stayed put to supervise.  They loved the history behind everything and the activity booklet's mazes, dot to dots, and word searches were handy and fun!  My only thought is that it's a one time activity, so once we've used up the sand and gold nuggets I'm not really sure what to do with this kit...maybe if the company offered a recycling effort for their pan, and box and booklets that was also free to those who purchased it this way it doesn't necessarily go to waste once the pay dirt is gone.

Pros: fun for kids, great for parents, teachers and home schooling

Cons: a one use activity kit, not sure what to do with all the left over materials, would love to see some type of free recycling program put into place.

My Rating: Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down

Home School Interaction part 2

So for this year's school season, we are really going into Interaction for my kids.  They love school now, so its time to show you what I'm doing to make school more fun this year.  

 Fishing for 100 Days: Last year we tried to focus on having a 100th day of School party, but due to our cercumstance and situation of being on the go since we were living with family in their home, I forgot to keep track.  So this year I'm making it up to them.  Especially since now both kids are in "real" school grades.  Here's our super fun chart, that cost me 50 cents.  Its great!  We use our neon wipe off markers to mark the days we do school.  The kids get 2 options with this.  Have me fill in each school day with the color they choose or have them each take turns coloring the fish in each day.

Last year my children really struggled with "counting their blessings" being grateful for anything, especially really understanding why being grateful and saying Thank you is so important.  So I created a Gratitude Tree last year, that was bigger than this one, but due to space on our walls I had to re-paint a new Gratitude Tree for this year and start over.  But the kids like seeing their Gratitude Tree during our whole school day, so its a great swap.

For my Second Grader, he really wants to know what his schedule is, what subjects he will be doing each day, and how long each subject will last.  So I bought him a Job Chart for school.  I have a list of every subject we'll cover this semester.  Than I color in the subjects we'll do each day.  Then as we complete a subject my Second Grader gets to erase that subject for that day.  So far he's loving it...we haven't kept every subject exactly yet, but its working better than not having something for him to keep track with.

My Kindergartener was getting jealous that his older Brother was having a "School Chart" so it was time to get him his own too.  This one is scaled down for his age, and a little more fun to look at.  So there's an apple for each day, and on each day I will do one of two options.
1. Write all subjects out in the same colored wipe off marker ink,
2. Write each subject out in a different colored wipe off marker ink.

Then he too, gets to erase the subject he has completed.  This is really helping this little guy because he has a short addention span, can't hold still worth beans unless its REALLY FUN for him, or complains that school takes SOOOOOOO long.  So now he knows just how long school will be, and how much smarter he will get each time he finishes a school subject.

Home School Interaction part 1

This is my first year where I'll actually be accountable for Home schooling 2 children.  I will be doing Kindergarten, and 2nd/1st grade too.  We are in our own place now, and actually worked all summer on creating a fun, school area/room for me and the kids.  Since we're going to be stable in our own place I no longer needed to have a Home School on the Go.  So now I'm focusing on a fun, interactive home school experience for myself as Teacher, and for each of my children.  To start this interactive focus off with, I found some awesome calendar/ weather charts that are high quality enough/ strong enough that kids can use it without ruining them.  First off, my Calendar package that I bought on Amazon here.

package

what's included

well sewn quality

here's what it looks like today!

Pros: I love this whole package, love the images, love the colors, love the ease of use for children

Cons: none

My Rating: THUMBS UP

 Secondly, here's my Weather package.  I bought it from Amazon here.  My children and I love charting weather over a monthly basis.  It helps make our school day more fun, and brings in science weather into a more focused understanding.

Here's the company who sold this product online

Kaplan mailed my packed all bent up...not cool

numbers, days of the week, and weather images galore!

There are no perforated lines, so I had to free hand cut these out.

I was able to get all the pieces to lay flat after a few
days of being flattened by heavy books.

Their cards for "past, present, future" measuring were WAY too big, so I cut off about 2/3s off.

here's what it looks like today as we use it!

Pros: love the chart idea, love the images, love the hot, cold, windy, foggy cards as well, easy for K-2 aged children to use

Cons: I don't like how I had to free hand cut all these cards out, I don't like how I don't have any storage options attached to this chart, I am still disappointing that this company bent the chart when shipping it

My Rating: Thumbs Up still works well over all