Friday, November 30, 2012

Trash to Treasure in 10 Days!!!

Steve and I moved to this house in 1997 from a 1200 sq. ft. townhouse.  This house has 2418 sq. ft., and we barely had enough belongings to fill half the rooms here.  For years, there were empty rooms.  Then the dogs and the children came along, one at a time, over a period of 15 years.  Flash forward to this year, 3 kids and 5 dogs later, and we had a house full of "stuff."  And I mean full.  Like, if you looked in a thesaurus the word clutter, it would say Clutter: The Burgess House.  Ugh!

I've been trying to get rid of stuff every week, but was always limited to however much our city trash can could hold, and then I had to stop.  Trouble is, 15 years of accumulated junk can't fit in one city trash can, no matter how many weeks you fill it up.

So we decided to take the plunge and rented a 30-yard household debris dumpster.  Day and night, right through Thanksgiving week and the week leading up to it, we worked every waking moment from dawn until about 1 AM filling that thing up.  And fill it, we did!  I mean, we filled it to the top in just about 10 days.  And here we are, two weeks later, with a house that's gone from trash to treasure!

We can now relax without a million to-dos of housework to be done.  We've organized every nook and cranny in this house and have literally touched everything we own in the last 2 weeks.  I finally have a real pantry closet!  All my cans are sorted and organized, and all my baking supplies are in tubs with labels, neatly aligned on a shelf.  It's amazing the transformation we've achieved! 

Short of removing everything from the house onto the street and literally moving back in and hauling away what remained outdoors, we couldn't have done any better for ourselves.  It was a lot of hard, exhausting, back-breaking work for the whole family.  The kids had to let go of their stuff and keep only their most treasured belongings.  And we're finding that in doing so, those few remaining things truly are more treasured.  We assigned one cabinet downstairs with deep shelves in it to house the kids' toys that aren't neatly contained in their rooms, and they were designated just one shelf each in that cabinet.  They could only keep it if it fit on their shelf.

I went through tons of bookshelves and sent 4 big Rubbermaid tubs of books down to my neighbor's house.  We freecycled some really great excess clothing and sent a pile of quality winter coats to a homeless clothing drive.  We pulled up our dilapidated decks and put them in the dumpster.  We removed excess furniture.  We consolidated things and organized them neatly so there is a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Picking up in the evening is now a simple task that requires only a few minutes.  The vacuum could be run at any given time of day, and the floor would be ready to receive it.  I can grab a mop at a moment's notice to take care of the dogs' footprints as they come in the back door after a rain.

I've switched to doing all the laundry EVERY day, so there's only ever one day's worth of laundry to be done.  I sort it into tiny baskets assigned to each person, and in the evening after dinner when everyone is ready for their baths, they grab their basket and go put away their own clothes...for just that one day.  Easy peasy!  The dishwasher gets filled and run every night and emptied every morning. 

Aaaahhh.  The sweet peace of a tidy household.  Now, when there is free time, we can truly sit and relax and really enjoy our house that is now, finally, a home.  We love it!

This week, as we got back to our normal homeschool routine, the kids showed me that they could finish school in about 2.5 hours instead of dragging it out until bedtime.  That's because they wanted to race each other to see how fast they could get done so they could go play in their new spaces with whatever things they kept. 

Now that the dumpster is gone, we're kind of considering renting another smaller one to finish things up.  We never made it into the shed before the dumpster was full.  I never got into Haylee's bedroom closet.  I never made it through my overstuffed closet full of clothes I no longer wear.  The posts from the old deck still have to be removed and disposed of.  And I still have two more large bookshelves to clear out.  We clearly underestimated the amount of "stuff" that was in the house.

All I know is that it feels good to have it gone. 

Bye, bye, stuff!!!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

REVIEW: Teaching Kids to Sing by Vocal Coach



I had the opportunity to review Teaching Kids to Sing by Vocal Coach with my 8-year old daughter, Haylee.


FROM THE WEBSITE:
 
 
Teaching Kids to Sing 2-DVD/1-CD Set is the perfect way to teach your children and their leaders about the child's voice. All the foundations from Posture, Breathing, Tone, Rhythm, Diction and much, much more is explored and demonstrated. The cast includes Chris & Carole Beatty and a group of children ages 5 to 13.

The CD contains all the music used on the two DVD's in two versions: With vocals and track only. This allows your young singers to learn, then perform the songs.  

Set Contains:
  1. Building Foundations That Last DVD
  2. Essential Skills For Growing Voices DVD
  3. Accompaniment Tracks CD
Cost:  $44.99


Using Teaching Kids To Sing (TKS) In The Homeschool Environment

There are a number of different ways to apply this material to a Home School setting. Some, prefer to take one topic a week and dig deep. That would mean scheduling two or three sessions to view (DVD) or listen to (CD) that topic. Then, begin using the Accompaniment CD to reinforce what is being learned. Using this method you could space it out over 8 or more weeks. Doing review sessions could expand it to 10–12 weeks.      

What is the goal and objectives of the Teaching Kids To Sing series?

Teaching Kids To Sing is a systematic, interactive and fun tool for teaching the young singers in your life about their voices using either our DVD or CDs. The Teaching Kids To Sing series presents principles and exercises in a way that can be easily understood and implemented by children from age 5 through 6th grade.
 
Which Is Better:  The TKS DVD/CD Set Or The TKS CD Bundle?
 
Both the DVD and CD sets are thorough and effective. The 2-DVD/1-CD package has the advantage of letting you see as well as hear what Chris, Carole and the Vocal Coach Kids are doing. It also includes a CD of Accompaniment Tracks so you can conveniently get to any of the songs or warm-up exercises. As a bonus, each song & exercise is offered both with Chris and the Vocal Coach Kids singing and without them. This gives you actual performance accompaniment tracks your kids can use to perform the songs.
The 3-CD set goes into more detail explanations since you can see what is going on. There is also a special section just for parents/teachers to help get them up to speed on what is going to be taught.
  
OUR EXPERIENCE:

This is a nice program for teaching kids the elements of their voices and proper speech as well as ways to warm up use the voice properly, and keep it healthy and strong.

Discs one and two are instructional in nature. Haylee and I watched these DVD’s together.

The first disc is called Building Foundations That Last. It covers the importance of good posture and how bad posture affects the quality of the voice. It talks about proper breathing and the ways your body expan ds in various parts when you breathe in. This is related to posture, because bad posture limits the amount of air you can breathe in. It discusses tone and compares it to the sounds on the piano. Then it takes you through the steps in a good warm-up routine and talks about how you must warm up your voice to maximize performance, just as an athlete warms up his muscles so he can play better. It has children sing along with a number of different warm-up exercises. This disc is approximately 42 minutes.

The second disc is called Essential Skills for Growing Voices. It covers diction and has children practice properly annunciating their sounds through the use of some fun tongue twisters. Haylee really enjoyed those and laughed a lot as she tried to repeat them over and over again. It discusses dynamics and gives the children examples of loud and soft sounds in the environment. Then it talks about tempo and goes through different speeds of music. Then it shows them the difference between staccato and legato and has them practice identifying the two when different instruments are played. Then it goes through rhythm and accents, and finally moves on to vocal health. Vocal health talks about maintaining a proper diet, hydration, proper use of the voice (no yelling, screaming, or excessive use of the voice), and the importance of protecting your hearing, as well. This disc is approximately 30 minutes.

The third disc puts all of the warm-up and diction exercises that were covered in the instructional portions into one place for easy access. Once Haylee and I had watched the first two discs together and understood the different elements of caring for and exercising the voice and using it properly, then the third disc was all that we needed to continue our practice. The third disc has roughly 40-45 minutes of content and is presented in two ways: with and without accompanying vocals. So you have a choice of practicing the warm-ups and vocal exercises over the vocals, or singing them independently with just the music.

We both enjoyed this set and felt we learned a lot about the way our voices function and how to best utilize their sound. I thought the instruction was given very much at a child’s level of understanding and in a way that was made it easy for them to relate. There was lots of real-life application used so that children could more easily comprehend each concept and put the concepts to use in their everyday lives, not just for singing, but for speaking, as well.

If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to teach your children to use their voices more effectively and improve their sound, then this set has what you need. You can’t turn a bad singer into a good one if they don’t have a beautiful voice to start with, but you can teach them to improve how they use the voice they have to sound the best that they can.

The cost of this set seems a bit steep for my family, given that once you’ve watched the instructional discs, there’s no longer a need for them. Only the third disc continues to have lasting value, since that would be used regularly to warm up and exercise the vocal cords properly.

Check out what other Crew members had to say about this and other products from Vocal Coach by clicking the banner below.

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I received this product free of charge for review purposes, however all opinions are mine and reflect my family’s honest use of the product.






Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Craziness at the Burgess Household

I have so much going on at the moment. 

First of all, the kids spilled water on my digital camera while I was at the store.  I came back to finish taking shots for a review I was finishing up and discovered it sitting in a pool of water on the counter!  It worked briefly, then the screen got fuzzy, then it flickered, and then it went off.  I could no longer get it to stay on.  Bummer.  I looked it up on the internet, and it basically said when you damage the electronic parts of the camera with water, it's toast.  Blech!  I had to finish up my review photos using my cell phone and email the pics to myself.  That worked out okay, but obviously, my cell phone doesn't take as quality photos as my digital camera.  A further complication is that I also do mystery shopping, and I had to borrow my neighbor friend's camera to take the photos for that (can't use cell phone for that). 

So obviously, replacing my camera ASAP was a must-do.  The upside was that I had been wanting to upgrade to more megapixels anyway, but couldn't justify it when my camera was working just fine, so this was my chance.  I wanted to stick with a Fuji Finepix, my favorite.  Low and behold, I got an email from 1SaleADay and saw they had a Fuji Finepix JX580 for a mere $65!  That was $20 cheaper than Amazon's price, and it included free shipping.  In addition, it was 16 MP, and my older Fuji was just 10 MP, so that was a major improvement in picture quality.  Hooray!  I ordered it right away.  There was a delay in delivery because of the Veteran's Day holiday (insert crying), but it is set for delivery today (keeping fingers crossed).  It'll be just in time, too, because I have another mystery shop tonight that requires photos!  UPS turned it over to USPS, so I hope there are no further delays.  I'll have to get it charged right away so I can use it tonight.  I can't wait!

I have spent more time learning the basics of Adobe Photoshop Elements recently, and I used it extensively on my recent review of Activity Bags in order to create photo collages of the experiments we did.  It turned out pretty cool!  I definitely intend to use it more.  I really like adding personal photos in my reviews.  I think it helps sell the products by giving a clearer picture (pun intended) of just what the product is and how we've used it.

Secondly, I now have a giant 30-yard dumpster sitting in my driveway.  It was delivered yesterday morning.  We should have it for about a month.  Our plan is to methodically work our way through the house and rid ourselves of excess furniture, toys, and general junk.  We're also going to clean out the attic, shed, and pull up our dilapidated decks out back.  Our back doors are in bad disrepair, so we're chucking those and replacing them with nice French doors, as well.  I'm so excited!  This house is so cluttered, and the house is in need of some repairs, for sure.  Having the dumpster is inspiring...seeing the rooms begin to clear out creates a real motivation to keep tossing more and more!  The kids simply have too much stuff, and it's impossible to keep the house neat and orderly. 

Last night, hubby started on the recreation room.  We tossed the sofa, chair, side table, and coffee table, plus the corner entertainment center.  The point of that was to open up the room more and make it less of a place for the kids to sit and leave their junk laying around.  It's a huge room (540 sq. ft.) that is a converted 2-car garage.  It will be much more useable as a place to engage in lots of activities with more open space.  We're making our giant craft table a center focal point so you can sit there and work on just about anything with clear table space and still watch tv.  But with no comfy furniture to lounge on, it won't just be a place to congregate and lay around making a mess.  It will be a great place to exercise and that sort of thing.  We already have a treadmill back there, and now we can put it against the wall out of the way but where it can be used at any time.  Last night, we decided we'll also move the Wii into that room so we can get all that stuff out of the living room.  The kids are always hogging the main tv to play on the Wii, so that arrangement will work out better.

It was raining yesterday, but that did not deter my husband from clearning that stuff out.  He says he has a plan for each day to make the progress he wants to make in that room.  Honestly, tha rec room is so full of junk that we could spend a couple of weeks just going through that one room!

I told some friends I'm shooting for the "just moved in" look.  I can't wait!


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

REVIEW: Growing Up Wild DVD’s Volumes 1 and 4 by Growing Up Wild



We had the pleasure of reviewing Growing Up Wild Volume 1 and Volume 4 by Growing Up Wild.


FROM THE WEBSITE:
 

What is Growing Up Wild?


Growing Up Wild is a collection of educational DVDs that takes you into the remote jungles of Indonesia and shows you the day to day life of the four Wild brothers.

Each episode will share an aspect of missionary life and offer activity ideas that will cause your children to explore their world and connect with ours.

Purpose & Vision


The "Growing Up Wild" DVD series was developed for the purpose of introducing children to the work going on in foreign mission field. Our hope is that "Growing Up Wild" will educate and challenge your children, and be used by the Lord to play a part in raising up the next generation of missionaries!

"Growing Up Wild" was developed to compliment a Home school or Sunday school curricula. It can be used by elementary age students (ages 5-12) but is entertaining and educational for all ages. It can also be useful for summer programs, youth groups, extra semester study, private or Christian schools, or anyone wanting to learn about the "in's and out's" of modern day foreign missionary work. 

We hope and pray that "Growing Up Wild" will bless and challenge your children to see what part they can play in being obedient to God's word in seeing the nations reached with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ!

Take a look at some video clips here

There are currently 5 volumes available, and each volume is $18.99 plus tax and shipping costs.  Each volume is approximately 45 minutes long and consists of 3 roughly 15-minute episodes that give insight to another aspect of life in Papua New Guinea with the Wilds.  Each volume includes the DVD and another disc that contains the printable activity guide.

You can buy all 5 volumes in a bundle for $80.99 + shipping and tax and save 15%.



OUR EXPERIENCE:
 
My children, ages 13, 8, and 4, really enjoyed watching these 6 episodes.  I had printed out the activity guides from the included DVD’s, and we discussed the activities orally at the end of each episode.  There is still more material we can explore later…some suggested videos to watch on the internet and some interesting research we can do.  I liked that there were opportunities to expand the experience after watching the episodes. 

In Volume 1, we saw the first 3 episodes in the series. 
    • In Home Sweet Hut, we were able to learn about how the Wild family designed and built their hut.  They made it round to blend in with the native huts in the village, but the inside was very different.  It included partitioned rooms and multi-levels, including a 2nd story Lego room!  That was definitely not what we were expecting.  In addition, they had solar powered conveniences and running water.  They even had a shower!
    • In Supply Trip, we learned about how they kept active lists of how many packages and boxes of foods they used throughout the month, and then used that list to determine what they needed to buy on their next trip to purchase supplies.  We saw how they transported their stuff by plane up to a certain point, and then the villagers came and happily assisted them in transporting it the rest of the way to their hut.  We saw how they had to weigh everything and were limited by weight how much they could load onto the plane, including their own weights!  They said this became a challenge to them as the Wild boys grew older and larger, as it limited their supply weight more and more with time.  My kids were awed at how the boys enjoyed delicacies on their trip like the eyeball of a fish and the tentacle of a squid!
    • In Sun &Water, we got to see how they used the natural resources of the sun and water to provide for their needs.  We saw how they harnassed the sun’s energy to give them solar power inside their hut.  We saw how they used hoses run from a riverbed at a higher elevation to channel water to tanks nearby where the water was filtered for their use of running water inside their hut.  Very creative, indeed!
In Volume 4, we saw 3 more episodes in the series.
    • In Amazing World Around Us, the kids and I got to see lots of surprising creatures like the giant stick bug and these huge, ugly spiders that hide themselves all over their hut, in their rafters and even in their beds!  Ugh!  We saw the Wild boys spearing the spiders to kill them after driving them out of their hiding places.  They certainly seemed very accustomed to their surroundings!  I know my own kids would be screaming and running for their lives! 
    • In Adventures in Culture, we got to see many of the differences between the culture of the native peoples in Papua New Guinea and what we know of our own culture.  There are some vast differences indeed, and the Wild boys seemed to fit right in.  One of the physical cultural differences was the huge piercings that the people often receive in their noses.  It was very different from the small piercings people might receive in this country.
       
    • In Tribal Calling, the Wilds explain how their family originally came to be called by God to work with tribal peoples.  There was a particularly touching interview with the boys’ uncle, where he explained why he felt compelled by God’s word to do missionary work.  I felt this was explained so well that even a young child of God could understand the stirring in one’s heart that comes from hearing God call us to spread the word of the good news to those who have not heard.
Overall, the kids and I really enjoyed this series, and I’d love to see the remaining episodes on the other 3 volumes.  It was fascinating to see the way the Wild family has knitted themselves into life in the jungle.  I think the price of $18.99 is a bit steep for under 45 minutes of viewing time, but I’m a pretty frugal homeschooler. 

If you’re looking for an entertaining show about adapting to life in a remote place, this might fit the bill.  But if you’re looking for a visual of the life and experience of missionaries, I think this misses the mark. 

After years of study and reading detailed accounts of great missionaries such as William Carey and Gladys Aylward, we’ve learned of the trials and disappointments that accompany their daily lives.  We’ve gained insight into the dedicated long-term commitment needed to fit in with the culture, gain the trust of the native people, learn their language (which is often unwritten), and spend years translating the bible into that language.  We’ve seen how the missionaries endure attacks and brushes with death, conflicts of all kinds amongst the native peoples, and all the while, try to embed the word of God into the hearts of those who have never heard it.  That’s the true life of a missionary.  It involves immeasurable personal sacrifice, patience, and perseverance to reach the hearts of strangers.

These Growing Up Wild videos lack that element of sacrifice that most missionaries endure.  And the episodes we saw showed nothing of the disappointments in attempting to reach the hearts of the native peoples whose way of life and thinking are so different from our own, largely because they do lack knowledge and understanding of the ways of God.

While these are great videos, and I could definitely recommend them, I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed that they are filled with the lighter side of missionary work and not a complete picture of what it’s really like over the long-term.  However, they are definitely worthwhile for their ability to inspire a child to think in terms of spreading God’s word to those who do not know it.

Take a look at what other Crew members had to say about the Growing Up Wild series by clicking the banner below.

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I received Growing Up Wild Volumes 1 and 4 free of charge for review purposes, but all opinions are mine and reflect my family’s honest use of the products.




Sunday, November 4, 2012

REVIEW: Science Activity Bags eBooks 1-3 and Travel Activities in a Binder from Activity Bags

My family was blessed to receive a variety of eBook products to review from Activity Bags, including Science Activity Bags eBook 1, Science Activity Bags eBook 2, Science Activity Bags eBook 3, and Travel Activities in a Binder eBook.


FROM THE WEBSITE:
 
The Science Activities in a Bag e-Books give an introduction to the wealth of material in many other books available in libraries and bookstores. They engage young children with experiments they can see, touch, manipulate, and modify; situations that allow them to figure out what happens. All of the experiments have been tested by a group of moms, and they work great! Kids of all ages are observing, asking questions, learning science, and loving it! And science experiments are not a hassle anymore, because it’s all in the bag!  These science e-books are recommended for grades K-6.

         

Science Experiments in a Bag E-Book 1:  This book provides examples of 25 simple experiments in biology, general science, and nature that you can do with your children.  $15.00

Science Experiments in a Bag E-Book 2:  This book provides examples of 25 MORE simple experiments in chemistry, human body, science, and general science that you can do with your children.  $15.00
You can purchase Science Experiments in a Bag E-Books 1 & 2 as a bundle to save a few dollars.  $27.00
Science Experiments in a Bag E-Book 3:  This book provides examples of 25 MORE simple experiments in chemistry that you can do with your children.  $15.00
Together, with this book, parents and children can:
  • learn how fires are put out
  • learn how to make glue from vinegar and milk
  • learn how much iron is in different juices
  • learn how to make invisible ink
  • learn how to grow crystals in the sun
  • learn how to make your own perfume from common garden plants and spices
You can purchase all 3 Science Experiments in a Bag E-Books 1-3 as a bundle to save even more. $39.00
Travel Activities in a Binder provide a whole host of activities that a child can complete inside a binder using only a dry erase marker and a piece of fabric to be used as an eraser.  These are great for times when you might be waiting at a doctor’s office or other appointment, or when traveling in your vehicle.  The travel activities e-book is recommended for use with elementary aged students.  $15.00 

If you’d like to try out a variety of the activities included in many of the eBook products, register here and complete a quick survey to receive a free sampler by email.
 
 
OUR EXPERIENCE:
 
In order to give these a fair try and give you an accurate assessment of these products, we assembled and completed 4 science experiment bags from each Science Activities eBook, plus I prepared the whole Travel Activities Binder.  I took a photo before we started showing all of the required supplies.  Then I took a photo midway through, and a final photo to show the results.  Haylee is a 3rd grader, and I her dictating everyone’s predictions and responses to the questions on the activity sheets for each experiment.  Then we read the answer aloud together after concluding the experiment.

In Science Activities in a Bag eBook 1, we chose:
    1. CAN CRUSHER:  This one may have been the coolest of all of the expScience 1 - Can Crushereriments we tried!  All 3 kids participated in this one, but my 13 year old son, Hayden, did the handling.  He enjoyed this one so much that he immediately did it a second time!  The first time, the noise generated by the instantaneous implosion of the can startled him and made him jump backwards, abandoning the can in the pan of cold water.  I had to laugh at that!  The second time through, he knew what to expect, and he totally got a thrill out of it.  This was good stuff!  It was an excellent way to demonstrate the power of air pressure.




    2. EARTH MAScience 1 - Earth MagnetGNET:  We struggled with this one a little bit, and I think it was because the bowl we used initially was too small and kept drawing the styrofoam to the edge where it would get stuck, kind of like the way static electricity would draw something in.  So halfway through this experiment, we switched to a much larger bowl, and then the needle was able to spin about more freely.  My 8 year old daughter, Haylee, had no idea what to expect, so she thought it was neat that it kept turning the same way.






    3. EARTHWORMS:  The kids really enjoyed watching the earthworms crawl down intoScience 1 - Earthworms the soil and disappear right before their eyes.  However, our glitch with this one was that we were terrified of drowning the worms when we poured the water in!  We kept seeing air bubbles emerge, but we couldn’t get the worms to come up for air.  I think we probably just didn’t wait long enough for all of the air in their tunnels to surface, but the kids were getting emotional thinking I had killed the worms, so I relented and poured out the water and then fished out the worms with a plastic fork.  They were indeed still alive, much to the kids’ relief!  This was our least successful experiment because of our early abandonment of that step, but the kids did enjoy watching the worms and handling them.


    4. THIRSTY PLANTS:  The kids and even my husband enjoyed this one.  One adult Science 1 - Thirsty Plantsand at least one kid predicted that the dual-color carnation would come out purple, so you can imagine their surprise when that one ended up half red and half blue!  That was a great illustration of how the tubes in the stems draw water up to a specific part of the flower without any crossover amongst the tubes. We’ll continue watching these for at least another week to see how intense the colors become.  Very cool experiment!






In Science Activities in a Bag eBook 2, we chose:
    1. ANTIFREEZE:  Haylee was really surprised to see that the saltwater never froScience 2 - Antifreezeze.  After 4 hours, the saltwater was completely unfrozen, and the plain water was frozen solid.  Even the following day when 24 hours had passed, the saltwater only had some slush on top.










    2. BLOB:  Both Hayden and Haylee were pretty grossed out at the squishy, slimy Science 2 - Blobtexture of the blob they created!  We were all surprised at how quickly the chemical reaction created a completely different texture.  We added green food coloring to make it look even more cool.  Hayden tried to blow bubbles in it with a straw, but it was so slimy that it wouldn’t stay on the straw!  LOL.









      Science 2 - Color Confusion
    3. COLOR CONFUSION:  This experiment was a LOT of fun!  It was not what we expected, and it was a surprise for all of us to see how our brains were confused into slowing when reading one thing and seeing another.  The timer doesn’t lie, so this was very, very cool!  Hayden and Haylee both tried this one, and they both had conclusive results.  Neat!







    4. FINGER THE CULPRIT:  The kids had SO much fun with this one!  This was the Science 2 - Finger the Culpritone they were all dying to do.  We began by taking a set of fingerprints from everyone in the house on the printable fingerprint form.  Then we went around trying to lift prints from all over the house, stick them to clear tape, and save them on black paper so they could be examined with a magnifying glass and compare them with the known prints we had taken from everyone.  Personally, I found it difficult to dust the baby powder off the prints and still see a visible image!  I guess this probably takes some practice.  The kids are certainly willing to keep trying!  I’m sure they’ll continue using this kit until it runs out of baby powder!  (ha, ha.)


In Science Activities in a Bag eBook 3, we chose:
    1. GET GLUEY:  This was an interesting process.  The kids got to see howScience 3 - Get Gluey quickly the milk began to curdle when we added the vinegar.  They were grossed out by the separation of the curds and whey!  When we added the baking soda and water to the curds, we were really surprised at how it bubbled and expanded very quickly into a foamy sort of blob!  It was pretty cool to watch.  It turned into a nice spreadable paste.  Voila!  Hayden built a picture frame with it using popsicle sticks, and the homemade glue worked very well!





    2. GREEN COPPER:  This experiment was really simple.  We just had to fold over a Science 3 - Green Copperpaper towel and press it into the bottom of a glass bowl.  Then we poured just enough vinegar in it to saturate the paper towel.  Then we simply had to lay 5 pennies in the bottom of the bowl and wait overnight for the results.  Of course, we couldn’t resist looking at their progress after the first couple of hours had passed, and all of the pennies had already begun turning green!  The kids had never seen pennies turn green before, so that was another new concept for them.





    3. MICROBES:  This experiment worked so fast!  It really surprised us hoScience 3 - Microbesw quickly the chunk of carrot in the saltwater solution shriveled up and shrank!  It had dark lines on the outside of it, and it was visibly smaller than the chunk in the fresh water after only a few hours.  We allowed it to continue overnight and observed it again the next morning.  Pretty cool!  You can certainly see how efficient it was for people to preserve foods with salt.







    4. SECRET MESSAGE:  Haylee really enjoyed this one.  She wrote several messages Science 3 - Secret Messageusing white vinegar and a paint brush on white paper.  We let them dry for a bit, and then we carefully waved them over the candle flame and watched as the vinegar turned brown from the heat and revealed her secret messages!  It case you can’t quite make out the message in the photo, it says “this is secret.”  I’ll bet she’d have fun doing this one again and again with friends. 






For Travel Activities in a Binder, I printed out all of the pages and slipped them into clear page protectors, fastened them into a 3-ring binder, added a pencil pouch with a dry erase marker and eraser, and voila!  It was all ready to go.  This took no time at all to put together, and Haylee began using it the very next day while waiting between games at soccer.  We also took it on vacation with us.  These activities are great to use on-the-go for anywhere you might have time to kill and need something to help pass the time.  It’s always ready to pick up and use, anytime, anywhere.  It got her seal of approval!




All of the products at Activity Bags can be used as part of a group swap, where one person assembles one activity for each of the participants in a swap, with each participant preparing a different activity for the whole group.  Then a coordinator can collect them and create complete sets of activities which are then redistributed to every participant.  I can definitely see where that could be cost effective and time efficient, depending upon which activity you’re assigned to duplicate.

I did spend a lot of time assembling the science activities, but I was using them just for my own family and not as part of a swap. Overall, I can say that we enjoyed these products very much!  I didn’t have to buy any elaborate supplies…just mostly simple things I could pick up at the dollar store for what I didn’t already have on hand.  The experiments were fun, and we all enjoyed them.  The explanations in the activity sheet answers were pretty straight forward and easy enough to understand, and I think the kids really learned some things from using them.  I think they make great rainy day activities and boredom busters, and they are a great way to get the kids doing something productive in their down time, as well as sparking an active interest in science. 

The travel activities were fun.  My daughter says she hasn’t even made it through all of the activities yet, but that she enjoys doing them even if she has done them before.  Despite that, I can see where some of the activities (like mazes) could get old after doing them over and over again, so I’d only want to pull the binder out periodically in order to keep the activities fresh and new.  Some of the activities are timeless, though, such as hangman and some Mad Lib types of games. 

As for the science books, with so many experiments included in each book, there’s plenty to keep your children interested and busy over a long period of time.  I could definitely picture myself assembling more of them and setting them aside in a box to bring out for fun periodically when their regular school assignments have become too monotonous.  I think they’d also be great fun for group projects such as a co-op or with a group of friends to share and observe together.

These are definitely unique products that make learning fun and doable, even for parents like me who never seem to be able to make the time to actually conduct all of those science experiments that should be part of their regular studies!  I think the key is having all of the materials and instructions in one place, ready to use whenever an opportune moment arises!

Check out what other Crew members had to say about this and many other “in a bag” eBook products from Activity Bags by clicking the banner below.

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I received these eBooks free of charge for review purposes, however all opinions are mine and reflect my family’s honest use of the products.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloween 2012

This was the first year that Hayden (13) was too old to trick-or-treat!  It was so strange going house to house without him, but he dressed up as Darth Vader anyway and stayed home to pass out goodie bags of candy.  When we ran out near the end of the night, he caught up to us on our walk home and did one house on our street with the other 2 kids...one we missed on the way out.  He got two pieces of chocolate from our neighbor!  LOL.

The other 2 still did pretty good in terms of candy, although there weren't that many kids out, and far fewer houses were passing out candy this year.  It seems to lessen every year.  They had fun, though, and now that I'm fit and trim from doing PINK Method since last December, I breezed through the neighborhood in record time and wasn't even tired when we got home.  Last year and all the years before that, I had to take Tylenol for my aching legs and soak in a hot bath.  I give PINK all the credit for my new, healthier, fitter self.  :)  It's made such a difference to my overall good health (and I dropped my cholesterol 54 points in 7 weeks) that I thought it was worth mentioning!

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (Win/Mac) [OLD VERSION]Anyway, I wanted to make photo collages for a review I'm working on (Activity Bags...coming in the next couple of days, hopefully), and I was using Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, which I got for my birthday in January of last year.  Trouble is, I hadn't used it in so long that I'd forgotten the shortcut for making photos fit neatly into a collage template window.  I did some research on the internet and found this site which reminded me it was Control G (or Alt Ctrl G) for Create Clipping Mask.  Yay!  I started whipping out photo collage templates for my review in short order, and once I got the hang of it yesterday, I sat down today to make a cool page to showcase the Halloween photos of the kids to post on Facebook.  Piece of cake!

Here they are:  Hayden (13 - Darth Vader), Haylee (8 - Spider Countess), and Holden (4 - Mater).  The kids really loved their costumes this year.