Looking for a little BrainFood, check out this fun Mammals DVD

 We recently received a fun DVD from BrainFood Learning to review and share our thoughts here.  The boys selected The Fascinating World of Mammals as their first choice. The day we received it in the mail, the boys immediately put it in the DVD.
The DVD retails for $14.99 on BrainFood's website and is for all ages which made it fun when Papa arrived for a visit and watched it along with the boys. (at that viewing we covered ages 7-82, not too bad for a educational DVD)
The boys enjoyed watching the DVD even though much of it was review from previous unit studies and along with our various studies of the creation story. Each of the boys did a very good job with the quizzing in the movie. It was a nice break for Mommy, as I was able to work in the kitchen (fixing lunch and cleaning up breakfast) while the boys and their Papa enjoyed some very relaxed school time.  The easy going style of the review questions on screen and the vivid cinematography kept the boys attention so well, they even watched the credits go by.

BrainFood Learning was started by parents looking for educational programs that would keep the attention of little ones and when they didn't find it, they decided to create the content themselves. As a parent I really appreciate that aspect as well as the style of the videos. Seeing the animals in their native habitat helped my boys see the animals as real, I can't really explain it , but with the various cartoon movies portrayal of animals, my boys often times forget that animals are part of God's amazing creation and have their own homes and families.
BrainFood Learning is also a Pacific Northwest company out of Bellevue, Washington, I love when my kids get excited about a program and it is what I consider local.

Another feature of the DVD that I really appreciated, a lesson plan, while I didn't incorporate the extra goodies into their summer viewings, I am creating a notebook with these activities as an option on our Science shelf.  There are 3 lesson plan pdfs to download on their website (free is even better), 1 set for each of the 3 Fascinating World of DVDs. We are also heading to the zoo for a summer concert series but will also be looking for some of the mammals seen in the video and talk about their habitats in the wild versus in captivity.

Below is a short preview (including the credits that caught my boys' eyes) so you can check out this wonderful DVD. After watching the preview again, myself, I am considering offering it as an option for our Auntie School sessions if the little boys would like, maybe let them play with some of the animal toys I have stashed while we watch it together.


Other crew mates reviewed this DVD along with 2 other DVDs from BrainFood including  Fascinating World of Insects  and Fascinating World of Birds. Your can check out previews of their DVDs on their YouTube Channel and be sure to check out what the rest of the crew thought by clicking on the graphic below.

P is for Playmobil

When I was working I always scheduled vacation for the week after Christmas as a way to unwind heading into the new year. I decided to take it easy with school this week for the same reason.  With that in mind I introduced a new activity to the boys. Playmobil story builder.

We started with a small collection of miscellaneous playmobil figures and pieces I picked up just before Christmas. I sorted everything into a plastic container. 1 row of girls, 1 row of guys, 1 row of accessories, 1 row of hair and clothing bits. The activity goes like this, pick 1 girl, 2 guys, 3 accessories, and 1 hair of clothing item. create a scene and write at least 1 sentence.

Nathan wasn't sure he wanted to do it, but once he got started there was no stopping him. He is getting into the story writing as well as the Playmobil toys more and more.

Story writing is serious business. I think this new activity is going to be a  center or open learning activity the boys can do when they are waiting for the other to finish. I love combining something they love with something they can use more practice with.

Holiday Fun School at Zoo Lights

It has been a couple years since we took the boys to ZooLights so when the opportunity presented itself this year, I decided to incorporate some school time in the event.  

Since Daddy was on a business trip we brought along a friend that is fairly new to Oregon and had never experienced the ZooLights. She also offered to drive which was a blessing for this mama that doesn't like to drive on the freeways.

We arrived just early enough to view the Cascade Trail as it was closing (Rick gave us a nice tour as he was locking things up). The boys got to explore the trail and see a couple of bald eagles along the trail. 

 We explored several other areas of the zoo not related to the lights although as the evening wore on the animals were nestled all snug in their beds, either way the boys had fun and were taking notes along the way to talk about the animals later.

 While Mommy doesn't have the fanciest camera (hint hint Santa) We got some fun shots. We popped out my the petting zoo and took a picture of the boys on the tractor seats as we continued our journey exploring the animals and lights in art. A favorite for Cameron has always been the snake, I think I have a picture of the snake everything year we have ever gone to Zoo Lights. It is a fun tradition to add to the event, see how many of the same light displays are up each year you.
The boys also tried to guess how many lights they saw the next day. (Note to Mom, check with the zoo and see if they know)
One thing we didn't get to do this time was the model trains, but that was ok as the space was being used as a waiting and watching area for the arrival of a new baby elephant to the Zoo, she was born later in the week that we had been there.
Nathan and I also got to ride the thrill ride. He picked out a fun 3D snowy adventure. It was a lot more fun that I expected and Nathan loved it.

 We finished off the evening with a train ride. We ended up loading first which meant we got the read car facing backwards.  We loved the ride and the boys kept watching for the other train and the different lights. They even noticed the train tracks we had walked across when we were looking at the lights.
If you would like to check out ZooLights before you head out I am sharing some fun links below. I hope if you are local you will take this opportunity to check out ZooLights through the end of December.

 ZooLights Special Offers

ZooLights FAQs

disclaimer: I was given 4 tickets to ZooLights and the activities in exchange for sharing my experiences with my readers.

Activity Bags , fun and educational options for Science and Math #hsreviews

We were so excited to learn we were going to be reviewing a sampling of the Activity Bags series of e-books. If you aren't familiar with the Activity Bags series it is an amazing collection of e-books filled with predesigned activities for Science, Math, Reading, Preschool, and Travel. The pages of the e-books are printed and arranged into Gallon sized zipper style plastic bags for storage and plastic page protectors and binders for travel.
If you aren't sure what you want to teach or how you are going to prepare your hands on science activiites or Math acitivites that your children can grab and go, this is probably one of the very best solutions around.
With some prep work that the kids can help with, Activitiy Bags will become a treasure in your homeschool.
We reviewed Science 1,  , and Science 3 as well as Math.

Science 1 contains 25 activities covering Biology, General Science, and even Nature studies.
The boys were excited to be able to "do" science and once they realized that all the work building the bags meant hands on science activities where Mom didn't have to do a ton of work ahead of time, they were even more excited. 
We started off with a trip to Walmart to pick up some colored printer paper and card-stock along with some gallon ziplock style bags. Most of the remaining items we found around the house.  I also stocked up on a few snack size and sandwich size bags to store some of the miscellaneious supplies in.
To make my life a little easier, I started out by printing the cover of each of the 4 e-books we would be using and the table of contents for each one as well.
Our next step was to select the activities we would be building for this round. (I wanted to build a good sampling for the boys with the goal of eventually have all 75 science bags built)
We started out with Catch a Web, Bird Seed, Balloon Skewer, and Feasting Yeast. A nice collection of easy to understand and fun to do experiments. These also led to exploring other nature and Biology elements around our house during the harvest season. (We talked about bugs a lot, we watched the birds eat having a better understand of the 'bird seed' and we explored yeast and cultures that are all around us since Mommy is experimenting with Lacto Fermentation in foods)
Next we worked on Science 2  and explored Chemistry, the Human Body and some more General Science studies. I again printed the Cover and Table of Contents and went through the list with the boys and selected a few activities to build. We decided to go with Calling Long Distance, Color Confusion, Cork it, and Taste Test. I have already selected 5 more to create for them for the holiday break when we do more fun stuff and not so much traditional school.
The boys love that they can do the experiments over and over again and actually play science with activities like Calling Long Distance where they built a "phone" to learn about sound waves but also pretend to call people even each other.






Our final , Science 3 explores Chemistry alone and is Nathan's favorite from the 3. (I think he is going to become a Chemist or something in that line of work.).
Same drill, printed the Cover and Table of Contents,  this time I looked over upcoming lessons a bit more and found a couple of overlaps so made sure to include those activities, the first was easy Green Copper as Cameron was going to be doing that same experiment with his co-op class when they studied the Statue of Liberty and the copper turning green. Lots of Lava, Seltzer Rocket, and Soda Blaster where next on the list as Nathan kept asking if we could blow things up so I found things that would "blow up". I ended this first set with Wheres the Water as I was working on another blog article and happen to have a few diapers (not something we keep around much anymore). So far, we have made messes, learned lots, and found out how much the boys love science. Mommy thinks we will end up with a complete set of 75 science activities before the end of the year.
I did decide I am going to sort the activities and store them in either drawers or milk crates. One photo on the website shows a laundry basket and I think that would work but would take up a lot of space. I am temporarily storing the science bags in 12 x 12 scrapbook file boxes in our cubbies  since I have less than 20 so far.

Stepping away from Science a bit, we also received the Math. activities Bags e-book.  The Math Games in a Bag has 33 activities covering a nice range of math skills. I printed the activities list and the Cover and began selecting the activities. This one posed a different challenge, with 2 boys at slightly different math levels I had to decide which activities to focus on and which skills needed the most work. To make it more economical I decided to pick a couple that I had pieces either already made or things I can use instead of printing. The first bag to get built , Math Blocks. This one I didn't have to print the colored pieces as I just pulled out our real math blocks and incorporated some into the bags. I also went through and picked out ones that could be bagged together with like pieces (the dice activities made sense so I could put all the masters in page protectors and just 1 set of dice). Double Digits, How Many Dots, Multiplication Toss, and Stacks of Money ended up in one bag with just a single pair of dice. The boys' favorites for the Math Games have to be Dot to Dots and Family Menu. I think I actually need to reprint Dot to Dots and have it laminated for wear as they love this one the most.  Who knew a little challenge between brothers could be so much fun. Actually Mommy gets in on this one as often as she can. I did find have 2 different colored dry erase makers or crayons comes in handy with this one.
One activity got a slight modification just because that is the way I roll, I loved the idea of Turn of the Card, but didn't want the boring card-stock numbers, so I included a deck of cards with just the A-9s.That gave them 4 sets (actually I used 2 sets of cards so we could all play).

I have the Travel and Reading e-books as well but will be showing those as part of our upcoming road trip travel binders, Homeschooling on the Road with Daddy.

Each of the Activity Bags e-books can be purchased for $15.00 or in bundles for the Science and Preschool  for $27.00. If you aren't sure about if your children will like them, you can take a survey and receive a sample file with a nice variety of samples for free.
You can also rest in knowing that this product was created by a couple of Homeschool Moms who created this to fill that need of what to do with the little ones while you school your older ones.
I have fallen in love with the Activity Bags e-books and can't wait to see the upcoming Craft Bags, but you really don't have to take my word for it, the Schoolhouse Review Crew shares their thoughts on the program as well.

disclaimer: I received the above mentioned ebooks as I member of the Schoolhouse Review crew in exchange for our honest review of the product. No monetary compensation was received.

H is for Harvest Fun

H is for Harvest Fun and around Unionvale School that means the annual trip to Heiser Farms.
Sunday afternoon we decided to head up to Grand Island and the pumpkin patch to watch Pumpkin Chunkin. If you don't know what I'm talking about you are missing out. 4 pumpkin launchers fire pumpkins out into the field at targets, it is crazy fun to watch and try to keep your eyes on the pumpkins flying across acres of field.

Cars and empty tanks make awesome targets for flying pumpkins.

This year we went later in the day so the sun was beginning to set making it easier to follow the pumpkins in the sky.

The boys had fun going down the huge tube slide and rolling down the hill among other things. We didn't take any cash with us this time so we only did the free activities which are plentiful.

We also watched a WWII tank drive around the field and fire rounds , the boys thought of Papa and decided we needed to bring Papa out to watch that. 

 My amazing, confident, opinionated boy amazes me daily and surprises me almost as often.












My silly, fearless, silly little guy. I love your smile and am amazed by your strength.

I love harvest season even with all the craziness. I love to beauty that is revealed to us as we are blessed each day of this season.