REVIEW: Drawing Program by Creating a Masterpiece

My daughter really enjoyed the painting program in years past, so when I was given the opportunity to review the new Drawing Program by Creating a Masterpiece with my 11-year old son, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to help him feel successful with art.

WHAT IS IT?:

The new Drawing Program by Creating a Masterpiece includes online access to a variety of drawing projects for artists of any age.  Instruction is provided for beginners as well as for levels 1-3, so the program offers projects for learners of all skill levels.

The online program provides a necessary supply list for each project, as well as links to purchase supplies directly from an online art supply store.  Each project has video instruction to guide students in a step-by-step process so that every student can be successful. 

You can purchase monthly access for $19.99/month, or annual access for $199.00/year.

OUR EXPERIENCE:

For this review, I decided to have my husband, Steve, my 11-year old son, Holden, and myself all try a different project.  I used to draw in high school, but that was 30 years ago, and I haven’t done any drawing since then.  In the process of raising three kids, I’ve since reverted back to stick figures on most occasions!  My husband can draw very well when it comes to caricatures, but he doesn’t take on any drawing projects with realism.  My son struggles even with stick figures, and he’s never really enjoyed any kind of art in the past.  However, he recently started asking if he could learn to draw, so when this review came up, I figured it was perfect timing.  And if this program could get the three of us drawing anything even remotely noteworthy, then it was worth its weight in gold!

I was the first one to try it out.  I decided to select a Beginner Level project, so I chose the caricature of the giraffe from the eight choices in that level.  The website clearly laid out a supply list for me, and I ordered everything through the provided link to the Dick Blick online store for all of the projects the three of us planned to do. 

When I clicked on that project, it showed me a series of four videos that would provide the step-by-step instruction that I needed to follow. 

The teacher’s tone of voice was a little bit annoying to me as an adult (and my husband said the same thing), but it was perfect for speaking to a child.  She made every step seem so easy.  I simply paused the videos along the way if I needed a little time to make adjustments.  I liked how she didn’t try to make the project a one-size-fits all format, but instead, she suggested ways to change it up to fit your style or the look you wanted to achieve.  Sometimes she suggested changes, I would make them, and then she’d have me erase them and go back to the original approach.  I was a little frustrated at first, but then I realized that she was teaching me to have a freestyle approach and not feel stuck in conforming to any one way.

In the end, I really liked how my giraffe turned out.  When I showed it to my husband, he said if he didn’t know better, he wouldn’t have believed that I had drawn it.  Remember, caricatures are his thing, not mine, so I took that as a tremendous complement!

Steve was the next one to give it a whirl.  Since he’s slightly more experience than we are, he decided to choose a project from Level 1.  But again, anything but caricatures are out of his comfort zone, so he selected the Penguin Family project from the seven choices in that level.

His video instruction was broken down into eight parts.  The convenient thing about having the lessons broken down this way is that you don’t feel pressure to even complete your drawing in one sitting, which is especially helpful with younger children.  They are free to leave their project and come back to it later in the day or even over the course of several days if they prefer to break it up into shorter sessions.  However, all of us completed our drawings in one sitting of about 30 minutes.

Steve was also really happy with how his drawing turned out.  He mentioned the alterations the teacher made and how she erased them later, as well, but we both understand that she was teaching flexibility in the process.

Next up was the true test of the program…Holden.  He has never had an artistic bone in his body.  This is a child who never even liked coloring.  In fact, he doesn’t even like to write that much, so his fine motor skills have always left a little to be desired, simply because he avoids doing any activities that would hone those skills.  I knew if this program could get him drawing anything remotely recognizable, it would be nothing short of a miracle.

He chose the Beginner Level project called Simplicity.  This had some barren trees in the foreground and some hills in the background.  That means this project involved some use of perspective, so I wasn’t overly confident that he could pull it off.  His project was broken down into six videos.

At one point in one of the videos, the teacher compared the branches for the trees to roads that veer off the highway.  You can see how she illustrated that to the right of the drawing she was working on.  That was a clever way to explain it so even a child could understand it!

To my great surprise, this was Holden’s completed project, which turned out so remarkably well that I could hardly believe he had actually done it without any help!  My husband watched him do it and said he was so excited throughout the project, because he realized he could actually draw this all by himself!  I must say, I was totally impressed!

So as you can see, this program really does work some kind of miracle.  It got the three of us drawing things we never would have believed that we were capable of drawing so well.  My son was talking about it for days afterwards, too, and he asked if he could continue with the program, working on some additional projects going forward.  When I told him he had a whole year of access to do so, he was very excited!  I absolutely love how this program built up his confidence and encouraged him to try new things and not feel discouraged or self-defeated.

We all enjoyed it so much that I ordered all of the supplies necessary to complete all of the drawing projects and not just the ones for regular drawing pencils.  We also got charcoal pencils and a nice set of Prismacolor pencil, as the program recommended, so we could eventually branch out into some of the other mediums, as well.  The program really stresses the need the quality art supplies so you can achieve a high quality result, and I must say that in doing so, we were very happy with the results we got.

I highly recommend this program for anyone interested in drawing or even just in trying something new.  I found it to be kind of therapeutic, as it was relaxing and fun for all of us and didn’t require a huge time commitment, either.  Personally, I can’t wait to see what else we can churn out!

Take a look at what other Crew members have to say about this wonderful art program by clicking the banner below.

Favorite Money-Saving Sources - Part 2

Last week, I talked about saving money with general purchasing.  Now I want to talk more specifically about groceries.  As I mentioned before, coupons have almost become a pastime.  So now, you have to be more creative when planning your grocery shopping trips.

When it comes to buying meats, I try never to pay full price for any type of meat unless full price happens to be really cheap!  Club memberships can really come in handy when it comes to meats.  I buy a lot of meats like extra lean ground beef and boneless, skinless chicken breasts at Sam’s Club.  They have really good quality meats at reasonable prices all the time.  You just have to be prepared for buying those things in bulk.  I’m still feeding 5 people most of the time, 3 of whom are adults, so I can get away with buying 7 or 8 pounds of chicken at one time and still use it up in a few days.  I’ll generally use a couple of pounds in a recipe and then bake the rest with seasoning on it and just keep it in the fridge for my kids to use after school or after work when they need a quick lunch/dinner or snack.  They can quickly shred it and use it in a wrap, on a salad, mixed with hummus as a dip with pita chips, or to throw in a quesadilla.  These are all things they can make for themselves, and there’s no real cooking involved since I’ve already cooked the meat.  It saves them time and ensures they can have a healthier snack or meal on the go.

I like to shop for most meats when they are marked down on or just before their sell-by date.  Keep in mind that a sell-by date is not the same as a use-by date.  It’s worth checking the USDA’s recommended guidelines for how many days beyond a sell-by date you can still safely use certain meats.  I’m careful about food handling procedures, so I’ve ready those guidelines repeatedly and follow them religiously.  I’m not above using them to my advantage, though, to get some meats at what is the last minute for the store to sell it.  This generally saves me half off the original price, and as long as you have a deep freezer handy, it’s a great way to stock up so you have a variety of meats on hand when you need them.  I particularly like to shop for these marked-down bargains at Albertson’s and Kroger.  At my Alberton’s I know I can go in the evening after 5 PM and have my pick of the meats.  If they haven’t already marked them down for the day, then I know I can check the dates and carry what I want to the meat counter and ask them to mark down anything that has to be sold that day.  I can usually buy a healthy amount at one time in this way.

As much as I detest grocery shopping at Walmart, I do find that taking advantage of their free grocery pickup service can really come in handy at times.  The downside is that you can’t use any coupons with the pickup service.  I’m not sure why they can’t work that out…I’ve certainly suggested it to them via social media…and perhaps they’ll get to that eventually.  But you just can’t beat having the shop for you and get it all ready for you to pick up in a 1-hour time window.  It saves a ton of time and headache.  Now because Walmart stores are so bad at keeping food adequately stocked on various days of the week, you’ll sometimes encounter substitutions (which you can reject) in your order, or they will simply leave something out and let you know when you pick up your items.  But I’ve found that certain locations are better than others at keeping stock on hand.  I have my pick of 3 different stores within about 5-7 minutes of my home, so I’ll rotate between them since some carry items that the others don’t.

For meal planning, I’ve really come to enjoy and rely on the emeals service.  I love cooking and enjoy trying new recipes, so having a variety of recipes sent to me every week saves me time in trying to hunt for what to make for dinner.  For about $5/month (paid as $60/year), I can download a whole bunch of meal plans of various types (low-calorie, low-carb, paleo, keto, Mediterranean, heart-healthy, kid-friendly, etc.) every week and then pick and choose the recipes I want to make.  I can even have it make a shopping list for me and then load it automatically into my Walmart Grocery order to be ready to pickup, or I can use the list to shop for myself.  I generally pick about 4 recipes for the week and count on using up leftovers on the other nights.  Since there are so many extra recipes to access each week, I generally download all of them and go through them periodically and save the ones I want to try in a separate folder.  Then when I’m meal planning, I choose from recipes in my folder and only print out the 4 I want to use for the week.  That way, I know which ones I’ve tried and which ones I still want to try.  It makes my meal planning super fast and my shopping list super easy.  It’s no longer the massive chore that it once was.  And I must say that with a picky family, I’ve had tremendous success at finding lots of new recipes that are really wonderful that everyone enjoys and wants to have again.  I hate eating the same things over and over again, so this service is great for me.  And when I’m really busy and need to rely on old faithfuls, I have plenty of tried-and-true recipes to choose from that I know we all enjoyed.

These are some of my favorite ways to save time and money on groceries.  Sometimes, my time is just as valuable as my money, so that’s why I mentioned tips for saving both.  Happy shopping!

REVIEW: Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks by Brain Blox

Holden and I were happy to review Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks by Brain Blox and try out our creative building skills!

WHAT IS IT?:

Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks are solid pine wood, uniformly-sized, smooth, flat building blocks that can be used in a myriad of ways.  Children can use them to make letters and numbers, build creative structures, or demonstrate math concepts like understanding fractional parts.  In fact, adults can enjoy building with them, too!

They come in sets of 100, 200, or 300 pieces.  For this review, I received a set of 200 building planks, which can be purchased for just $44.95.  They come in a cardboard box with a canvas draw-string backpack inside that can be used for easy storage and transport of the blocks.  The package also includes an idea booklet to help you get started.  In addition, more free resources are available on the company’s website, including downloadable idea cards with 8 levels of difficulty, an e-book, brain puzzles, curriculum, building videos, and more!

OUR EXPERIENCE:

There are so many things you can build with these blocks.  The possibilities are endless!  I am not that creative, so I was happy that the idea booklet was included to give us ideas on how to get started building really cool things with these planks.  My 11-year old son and I worked on the projects together.  We started out just using the pictures in the idea booklet.  Our first project was to build the Parthenon.  We have been studying ancient Greek and Roman history, so that was a natural choice for us.  Holden loved the way it turned out!

 

Next, we built the boat dock from the booklet.  That was pretty cool, too! 

 

As we chose more complicated structures, we realized we needed more help than just a picture of the finished building.  That’s when we noticed in the booklet that you can go to a series of step-by-step instructional videos on YouTube that show the construction process for each project in the idea booklet.  The videos were entertaining, too…when we built the pirate ship, the video had a wooden plank cartoon character that was a pirate who called the shots on how to complete the project.  At the end of the video, he jumped into the finished pirate ship to sail away.  Cute!

 

The pirate ship took over 150 planks to build, and it was nearly the width of my huge recreation table!  As you can see, the more planks you have, the more complicated structures you can build.  We really enjoyed building with these, and we would recommend going with one of the larger sets so your projects are limited by the number of blocks that you have.  At first, we were drawing a blank as to what to do with them since they were all one uniform size and shape, but the idea booklet was a great help in visualizing how versatile these blocks really are.  They are really fun!

While you’re checking out these building planks, you might also be interested in exploring Fun Family Chess by Brain Blox, which we just recently reviewed, as well.

Take a look at what other Crew members have to say about Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks by clicking on the banner below.

REVIEW: Fun Family Chess by Brain Blox

Holden used to love to play chess when he was little but hasn’t played in years.  He recently inquired about re-learning how to play, so he jumped at the chance to review Fun Family Chess by Brain Blox.

WHAT IS IT?:

Fun Family Chess is a unique learning game that kids and adults can play together.  It’s created for two players, and it’s designed to get everyone playing right away without really having to understand the rules beforehand.

The set includes a folding wooden chess board, 32 wooden chess pieces that store in a soft pouch, a full-color chess book, 2 reference cards, and a special chess cube.

This set is available for just $34.95.  You can watch some instructional videos on how the game works and see if it’s right for you.

OUR EXPERIENCE:

My husband, Steve, is already a pretty good chess player, and he set out many years ago to teach all of the kids to play.  I, on the other hand, have never played, but that’s another story.  Holden is our youngest child, and he first learned to play when he was about 5.  He’s now nearly 12, and he has not played in so many years that he really didn’t remember any more how to play.  Recently, he asked about learning to play again, so when this review opportunity came up, he was really excited to start over.

Steven and Holden were able to sit down together and start playing right away.  Steve took a quick glance in the chess book, they each took a reference card, they set up the chess board, and they began rolling the chess cube.  With each roll of the cube, the player would learn which chess piece they would be allowed to move.  With a quick glance at the reference card, they would see the ways in which that piece could move on the board and make their play accordingly.  The players take turns and continue in this fashion for the duration of the game.  It’s really very simple, and neither of them had any difficulties!

My husband did say that once they got down to just a couple of remaining chess pieces each, the rolling of the cube became a bit too repetitive, as the cube has a side for each of the chess pieces, so they had to roll it repeatedly in order to get one of their remaining pieces to show up.  He said that made it hard to actually finish the game once they were near the end.  He did say, though, that it made it easy for them to play together, and by limiting his moves, it kept his experience from trumping Holden’s inexperience with the game, helping to level the playing field.

They both concluded that it was a great way to learn all the ways the pieces can move on the board during a real chess game.  Steve said he felt like Holden picked up on it pretty quickly, and it really helped him gain confidence in playing.  He feels like in future games, he’d like to let Holden play real chess freely without the cube while he himself continues to limit himself with the use of the cube.  He said that would allow Holden to practice playing with a real chance of winning rather than letting his own experienced strategies cause Holden to inevitably lose every time.

They both seemed really pleased with the game and its flexibility of play, allowing parents and kids to play together on a level playing field.  The solid wood board and pieces seem to be of great quality, and I absolutely love how the pieces all store inside the folding chess board so there’s no need to keep the box.  Brilliant!
We would definitely recommend this game for families who want a game they can play together or who legitimately want to learn to play chess.  Its gentle introduction and organic way of learning the moves makes it a good fit for everyone in the family.

Check out what other Crew members have to say about their experience with Fun Family Chess by clicking on the banner below.

Favorite Money-Saving Sources - Part 1

Back in the good old days of couponing and refunding, families used to be able to save a ton of money with Sunday coupons, ads, and mail-in rebates.  Sadly, those days are pretty much gone!  Sunday coupons are never for anything good for you, so if you are trying to eat healthier, those low-value coupons will only take you down the aisles with processed foods.  You can get higher value coupons for the same foods at Coupons.com that you print at home, and you can select only the ones you want (you usually get two prints per coupon). 

In fact, I recently canceled my Sunday paper subscription, which I only got in the first place for weekly ads and coupons.  I wasn’t even clipping the coupons any more because there was never anything I wanted, and I can view the ads that interest me in the Flipp app on my phone or on the computer.  That’s a big cost savings right there, just doing without the paper subscription!  And I read relevant highlights of the paper online, so it’s a win-win.  In fact, if you homeschool or teach, you can sign up with News In Education (NIE) for FREE digital access to your participating local paper.

So how do you save money when shopping for your family?  I do a lot more shopping online these days than ever before.  Since 2001, I’ve been linking through Ebates, now known as Rakuten, for cash back on online purchases I was already making.  In fact, I’ve received over $850 in cash back since I started using it!  That’s no small change, and although that was over a long period of time, it’s essentially free money, because I didn’t do anything extra to get it.  And if you use their browser plugin (which I use with Chrome), you don’t even have to remember to log in to Rakuten…it pops up to remind you to activate it for an eligible website.  It’s free to join, so it’s really a no-brainer.  If you join and make a purchase on any participating website using my referral link above, you get a free $10 cash back, and I’ll get a bonus, too.  Win-win again!

Speaking of shopping online, I really like sourcing deals from 1SaleADay.  They send me a summary of the day’s deals to my inbox with links to special promo codes to get amazing prices for things, usually just for that day.  The deals could be anywhere, but they are often from sites like Amazon and Proozy.  I’ve really gotten some great deals recently on electronics and name brand apparel like Adidas.  With brand-loving teens, it comes in handy for getting reasonable prices on the things they love.

Another great source is Julie Jules’ Facebook feed.  Similarly, she posts deals, mostly from Amazon, that have special promo codes you can use for a limited time to get amazing deals.  Some things are junk, but some are legitimately good deals.  Recently, I got some reusable food storage bags in snack and sandwich size to eliminate all that plastic waste packing lunches.  I paid a fraction of the regular price at Amazon, and the quality is amazing.  So it’s worth having the deals in your newsfeed, and you can take them or leave them.

I’m going to stop there, and I’ll pick up with more of my favorite money-saving sources and techniques next week.  Stay tuned!

Mom’s Meet WOW Summit 2019 in Arlington, TX

I had the good fortune of attending the Mom’s Meet WOW Summit 2019 last weekend in Arlington, TX.  I don’t often get to go out alone with no kids in tow to enjoy an extended outing, so this was a nice treat for me.  A colleague on the Homeschool Review Crew offered me a free ticket to the conference because she already had tickets and had won another one from someone’s blog giveaway, so of course, I jumped at the opportunity since it was taking place so close to home for me!  I am already a member of Mom’s Meet, both as a Mom Ambassador and as a Blog Ambassador. 

Friday was the blogger/influencer day of the conference.  I got to attend some wonderful workshops, two of which I got to choose for myself.  Since my husband and I were already working on starting up a podcast (Coupled with Chaos) as a family project, I went to a workshop on that very thing and also one on building your blog following naturally using Facebook.  Both were very interesting, and I learned some new things that should help me on both fronts going forward.  They were really informative!  There was also time allotted to networking with fellow bloggers.  I met some wonderful women at my table, and I even made a new friend…a first since I moved to TX in 2017.  Since I homeschool and don’t work outside of home, I don’t get much opportunity to meet people outside of church.  The isolation here has been tough at times, so making a new local friend was a real bonus of attending the event!

Saturday was the mom’s day of the conference.  The workshops were children and family related topics.  The two I got to choose were a cooking demonstration sponsored by Wild Planet that taught you different ways to prepare tuna that don’t involve mayonnaise and one on how to get your kids to eat more vegetables.

Both days included time spent in the vendor hall.  I had such a great time getting to know these wonderful vendors of natural and organic foods, natural cleaning products, homeopathic remedies, etc.  Not only did I get to sample lots of foods and products, but many of the vendors passed out samples as well as full-sized products to take home and try, as well.  I fell in love with many products that were totally new to me.  Many also passed out product coupons, either for free products or for substantial discounts.  All of the vendors really put forth a tremendous effort to educate the moms about environmental impacts, uses of their products, and how take a more natural approach to everyday things.

Two of the vendors asked for my information and offered to mail full-sized products to my home!  Both followed through, and I received the promised products this week.  I was duly impressed!  Many thanks to TRP (The Relief Products) for sending me the homeopathic tablets for arthritis and to Angelo Pietro for sending me the assortment of their awesome dressings!  They taste so good on vegetables, and I can’t wait to use it on stir fry!  I’d also like to thank the representative from Cocina Fresca who gave me a stack of free product coupons to pass out to friends at church.  That was the best store-bought salsa I’ve ever had!  It tasted so fresh and contains no preservatives, and I can’t wait to pick some up in the refrigerated section at Kroger, Albertsons, Tom Thumb, or HEB. 

My 11-year old son would like to thank the folks at Lindsay for sending me home with such a stack of their drip-free olive snack tubs!  He has enjoyed them immensely, and they will definitely be on my shopping list in the future.  I love how we can open the container and not have to be near a sink to drain off liquid.  It’s totally mess-free!  He also really loved the Chum Bites fruit snacks, which have an impressive full cup of fruit and no sugar!  The flavors were all so good, and they sent home lots of packs for him to try.  And I’m looking forward to buying some Brainiac yogurt tubes and yogurt smoothie drinks for him, because they have 40% less sugar than other brands and no artificial flavors.  They were delicious, too, and contain probiotics!  I had some of each while I walked around the event and kept thinking to myself how good they were and how much I knew he’d love them.  We both enjoyed the bite-sized samples of the Ocho Organic Candy chocolates we tried, too.  So good! 

At the end of the summit, all the attendees turned in their badges on the way out in exchange for a goodie bag.  Wow!  It was loaded with full-sized products to take home and enjoy!  My favorites from the goody bag were the fabulous gluten-free, dairy-free brownies from Flax4Life, the original and turkey pepperoni snack sticks from Vermont Smoke & Cure.  Yum!

I really enjoyed the informative presentation made by Wild Planet, too.  Not only were their albacore tuna, sardines, and salmon delicious, but I learned a lot about the need for sustainable fishing and the long-term impact of various commercial fishing methods. You can learn about it, too, by going here.  Not to mention that their recipe for Salmon Spread (which does NOT contain mayo) was absolutely delicious!

All in all, it was an amazing weekend that was fun, informative, educational, beneficial, and a nice break from my busy life at home.  Next year’s WOW Summit is set to take place in Orlando, FL, so I’m thinking a visit to my sister (who lives in FL) might give me just the excuse I need to do this conference again!  I just have to be sure to pack an empty suitcase to hold all of my free products!

Celebrate National Coffee Day!

Photo courtesy of NationalDayCalendar.com

Sunday, September 29, 2019 is National Coffee Day!  Take advantage of these special deals on a cup of your favorite brew:

Dunkin’ Donuts:  B1G1F on hot coffees.

7-Eleven: Use your 7Rewards app to get any size coffee for just $1!

Silk:  Many coffee shops charge you a premi um to use soy, oat, cashew, or almond milk in your coffee drink.  If you order a dairy-free alternative milk coffee drink on this day, you can send a Paypal request to Silk at silknationalcoffeeday@gmail.com for the cost of your drink from your local coffee shop, and Silk will reimburse youup to $5!  Just explain in the comments what you ordered.  What a bonus!

Krispy Kreme:  Enjoy a FREE coffee and a FREE Original Glazed doughnut, no purchase required!  While you’re there, treat yourself to the limited time Glazed Coffee-Kreme filled doughnut…today is the last day to get one!

Enjoy!