Science in a Box for Kids

Details:  Groovy Lab in a Box is a subscription service, great for children ages 8 and up.  It focuses on young STEM scientists giving them fun, hands on projects with engineering design challenges.  Each box comes with a Lab Notebook where they read and learn and experiment about the month's theme/ topic.  Groovy Lab Box teaches or rather helps reinforce investigating, brainstorming, planning, building, testing, and redesigning scientific projects.  Going with the STEMist box program your young scientists gain access to our online learning program Beyond in a Box.  Which gives deeper more detailed ideas, suggestions and fun online learning opportunities for each month's theme/ topic.  Topics change each month!

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: As a home school teacher of a very active, creative, soon to be Second Grader, I am always looking for fun, creative, thinking out side the box ideas for him to learn science topics and skills.  When I first heard about Groovy Box I just knew this would be a really big hit with my soon to be 8 year old.  I love that you get all the supplies you need within that box.  I love that these are simple, fun, and easy projects that your kids can do, with adult supervision of course, but they can easily be done.  When I first opened the box I was a little over whelmed, I haven't done anything scientific since graduating college a decade ago.  But was pleasantly relieved that I could understand what needed to be done, and how to help my son achieve the results we were hoping for with the experiments.  Our first experiment we did from Groovy box, I chose, so we did the sun paper experiment.  I let both my 7 year old and 4 year old choose the objects that sat on top of the sun paper, so they chose Fisher Price Trio Blocks.  My 7 year old carefully put the paper in the sunlight and helped us keep track of time (it needed to be in the sun for 2-5 minutes).  Then I also let him remove the objects and paper from the sun and finish the rest of the steps by himself.  That was a super easy project.  What he learned is that even though we tried to get away from shadows we couldn't 100%, but that the shadows were just as cool as the image from his toys.

For the second experiment he chose the battery/ electricity experiment.  We needed to strip wires with our finger nails, tape them to a 9 Volt battery, and get them to buzz, then go around the house to see what else conducts electricity, including a plastic bowl of water.  It was really fun to test, but he did not want to write down his discoveries.  Since these 2 experiments weren't actual parts of school, I didn't mind him choosing not to write down everything the Lab book prompts you do, but come school I would actually make him finish his experiment.  Regarding the second experiment my 4 year old wanted to help and enjoy, but quickly found it boring and too much for his little mind and ended up going back to playing with his toys.  From this I can easily see how these projects are for children 8 and older.  Do I wish they had projects preschoolers and kindergartners can do?  Yes, absolutely, but you know what, that's okay I have pinterest for those projects.

Over all I'm very pleased with this product, I can easily see myself getting a year supply of subscriptions so each month my 2nd Grader has fun excited science experiments that Mommy didn't create on the whim.  I highly recommend this company and their STEMist products!

Pros: fun, exciting, creative, great for age appropriate children

Cons: you don't always get to choose what goes in the box

Contest: want a chance to test this product out for yourself?  Check out our facebook page for the details.

My Rating: Thumbs UP

Home Schooling with Foam

Lately I've been so focused on teaching my kids what they need to know, focusing on their subjects and getting through the school day that I haven't been making school very fun.  We are about a month behind on our school due to all the missed days through the school year so we have to school through the summer, which will actually be good so that my kids don't forget anything, and so that they aren't as bored this summer as well.

So I've decided that for the next 35 school days I am going to make school more fun!  Today we did something that made reading, writing, spelling, shape recognition, and following directions more fun for both my preschooler and first grader.

At the Dollar Tree I found these packs of sticky foam (similar to play dough, just a different texture) in a bunch of different colors.  I let each child pick up a color and bring it home.  Some of the foam packs we've used are super sticky and some are not as sticky.  So just be aware your children might complain if its super sticky because the little foam balls will stick all over their skin.  But letting the foam air out helps it not be so sticky.

 My Preschooler loves to be surprised with what we do every day for school, so making daily activities and exercises more fun helps keep that surprise element and helps me be a better teacher.

Using foam to make letters

making shape outlines

making solid shapes

making numbers

3D shapes

following lines or directions

My First Grader has struggled with reading and spelling this year and last year as well.  But doing fun activities like this, he really enjoys learning to do his school work instead of fighting it.  For this happy smile I'll work harder at making school more fun!

uses foam to spell words

using rhyming flash cars

using a white board and a plastic sheet cover

we use lower case

letters with the foam

and upper case

letters with the foam

like this

or like this

Hyper Dash Game for Kids

Details: Wild Planet's Hyper Dash game is for children 6 and up, 1-8 players.  It is the target tagging race course game.  Parent Magazine Mom Tested a ward.  Comes with 5 numbered and colored targets, and the Hyper Dash unit.  Trick commands mix up the action.  On the Hyper Dash unit you have 3 buttons: menu, power, go.  This is a lightning fast challenge of speed, accuracy and agility.   Directions: set up a course, race against time, tag the targets, dash for the best time, indoors or outdoors, solo or head to head or in teams.  Requires 3 AA batteries not included.

My Review: We just bought this for the kids to be a Grandma's house game.  She has a great yard and indoor space for them to play this.  After opening up the box and reading the instructions (which we didn't need to read everything) on which game options there were, what team options there were, and went to town.  We had everyone play solo first just to get the hang of what this game wants up to do.  For setting up the course we just put the targets in a long line in the correct numerical order.  Then we played, we went with level one (which you wouldn't know about until listening to the Hyper Dash tell you), since it was our first time playing, and we were letting my 4 year old play along.  It was pretty fun, and challenging at the same time.  We had to run or lean depending on whether it was an adult or child playing, to get each target the Hyper Dash would call out.  The tricky commands did mess us up a bit, but after we figured out what they all meant we were able to do much better.  Right now my 4 year old is challenged by level one, my 7 year old is challenged by level 2.  And as adults we're having fun just playing and watching the kids.

Things we've learned by playing you wouldn't have known otherwise:  Read the trick command codes before playing.  The Hyper Dash doesn't need to be slammed over each target, but rather it just needs to fit and then the top just slightly clicks down over the target to tag the target.  My 4 year old was slamming it down and missing because the Hyper Dash wasn't tagging his targets, Mam Ma was tagging slowly but not getting the handle to click down.  So after teaching them at trick it helped them play better.  Even though there is a power button it doesn't turn the voice off, it just  turns off by itself after a period of not being used.

Pros: this is a really fun family time game, my 4 year old can play, not annoyingly loud, creates movement or exercise, indoor and outdoor game

Cons: none

My Rating: Thumbs Up

Smartie Pants Flashcard Game

 

 Details:  Playskool Flashcards: First words for ages 3 and up. Comes with reward stickers.  Great for first time learners, and easy learning for them.  With bright bolded fonts, and easy fun pictures, these flashcards are perfect for any child to use.


My Review: We've been using these flash cards for the whole year to help my 6 year old learn to read.  This subject is the one he HATES and FIGHTS the most.  So as we continue to try to encourage him, and help him see the fun and joy of learning, not just the importance here is what he has told us.  He loves these flash cards, and after using them for 10 months he now begs for me to play a little game we created.  So here's the game, the rules, and how we play it.

Rules: 4 step process

Using the back of a card I hide the image
so that he focuses first on the letters,
then focus on the sounds

Once he can put the sounds together and say
the word and know what he is saying
he gets to see the image and write it down

Here is how well he did just the other day.

One thing I'd like to mention, is in these images you'll see stickers on some of the words.  Those words are brand new that day, and the ones that really gave him a hard time.  So as we continue this game daily or weekly he knows he's getting better by which words don't get the stickers.  When he completes a page with only 3 stickers or less on it he gets a reward from my Reward box.