Archives for June 2014

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

I’ll admit…I’ve never been much for green tea. I always thought it was too weak in flavor for me, because I love a strong tea flavor. I think it’s because, growing up in the South, I’ve always been an iced tea drinker, and you need strong tea for iced tea. When I heard about Matcha Green Tea Powder from KissMe Organics, I was skeptical. I had heard of matcha, but never tried it before, and frankly I wasn’t sure what I would do with it. Thankfully, a recipe guide is included with purchase.

When I received my package, I was surprised at how small it seemed, even though I knew how many ounces the package would be. Don’t let that fool you, though. The Matcha Green Tea Powder really packs a punch. It’s also pretty versatile. You can add it to smoothies, baked goods, or just drink it straight up. It’s a pretty strong bold flavor on its own. I’ve tasted green tea before, but nothing quite like this. I admit, I don’t care for the flavor plain, but when I add it to smoothies, I can’t taste it. The packaging is great…it comes in a resealable zipper pouch, so there’s no searching for something to close the bag with. I love this! I also love the energy boost that it gives me. The Matcha Green Tea Powder doesn’t give me the jitters, either, which is fantastic. I really love the versatility of the powder, and the recipe book is full of wonderful ideas as well, in case you aren’t sure where to star with your Matcha.

 

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.

We are a Science-loving family here. Especially when it involves experiments. When I heard about the Go Science DVDs from Library and Educational Services, I knew they would be a great fit for our family. The 2 volumes that we chose to review are Volume 2: Life Science, Weather and Volume 6: Chemistry. Both DVDs are recommended for ages 4-12, and cost $8.97 at the time of posting. Each DVD has an approximate run time of 1 hour.

Library and Educational Services in a family-owned business that has been in operation for 35 years. The products that they offer are carefully selected to ensure that their level of standards are met. The DVDs are presented by Ben Roy, a former middle and high school teacher and principal who now teaches at UT Chattanooga. Ben is an engaging host, and uses several children from an audience to help conduct the experiments. The experiments teach us that “Every time we learn more about Science, we learn more about our creator God!”  The DVDs were originally filmed for Christian broadcast television. During experiments, Ben always references back to God as creator, and how nature and things work to magnify His glory.

The Life Science and Weather DVD showcases both physical and chemical aspects of Science. The DVD is divided into episodes and segments of each experiment. You can watch each topic separately, or all together at once. Some of the experiments are filmed outside, some in a gymnasium, and some on set with outdoorsy backdrops. Some of the experiments in these DVDs are generally not safe to do at home  yourself, unless you are very experienced, but they are sure fun to watch! Others are very safe and we have even done them ourselves! Each experiment segment of “Learning Time” is about 5 minutes or so in length. Ben ensures the safety of the children so well…safety glasses are always worn when needed.

In the Life Science section, we get to see different animal skulls, and learn if they are a predator or prey (do you know what makes them one or another?) We also get to see how we may be eating nails for breakfast (this one was a bit disturbing for me, and makes me never want to buy cereal for my kids ever again).

The Weather section is lots of fun to watch. We get to see Ben and his helpers make garbage can vortexes, and they are super cool! It’s like watching someone blow smoke rings, only in a much larger scale. We also get to see a huge liquid nitrogen cloud (the kids were very intrigued by this, it was really fun!), and see Ben make a ping pong cannon. This was one of my favorites because it sort of reminded me of a tater cannon. I love how Ben references the book of James during an experiment using fire making a fire tornado, and compares fire to our mouths and the fact that, like fire, words can also hurt us, and we need to be careful how we use both fire and our mouths.

The Chemistry DVD is divided into 2 sections: Chemistry 1 and Chemistry 2. The Chemistry 1 has a few experiments that we were familiar with, but are still fun to watch. Making elephant toothpaste is a big hit in our household, and is an experiment featured in the DVD. We also learn what makes diapers absorbent and how they keep babies dry, and see how that chemical compound works in a cup of water. My favorite, of course, is making a lava lamp. I was a bit of a hippy in my younger days, and the kids loved making them.

The Chemistry 2 section is equally fun. Here we get to see snow instantly made (this is related to the diaper experiment). Wouldn’t it be fun to have snow in the Summertime when it’s hot out? Another fun experiment is making slime. We’ve done this before, and it’s always fun to see.

 

We loved these DVDs. The kids really love watching Science experiment videos, so we just sat and watched them together. They wanted to see all of the experiments, so we didn’t pick and choose, just watched them all the way through from beginning to end. I really like the fact that Ben Roy incorporates God’s ways into how the experiments work. We’ve actually watched the DVDs several times now. They would be great to supplement with unit studies.

 

You can find Library and Educational Services on Facebook. I highly recommend that you check their website out if you’re looking for great products for your homeschool.

Be sure to click the top graphic below to read reviews from my fellow crew mates. We all reviewed different DVDs, Thanks for stopping by!

 

I don’t think of myself as a very creative person, so when I want to teach my children about something and am not sure how to proceed with it, I need a bit of extra help. For a while now, I’ve wanted to teach my children how to be virtuous and have good character qualities with a scripture background, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. When I heard about We Choose Virtues and the products that they offer, I wanted to know more. Would this be easy to implement into our family’s day? Would it be fun? How much would my children retain? For this review, we received the NIrV (New International Readers Version) Parenting Cards, which includes a downloadable Family Character Assessment and the accompanying Download Bundle. This set is recommended for ages 3-11. The Parenting Cards retail for $38.49, and the download Bundle is $7.99. These prices are valid at the time of this posting.

 

The Parenting Cards (also available in KJV) are 8.5 x 5.5 inches in size, with glossy print on cardstock. They are sturdy, but I laminated mine because paper things don’t last long in my house. Each card discusses a virtue, and features a Virtue Kid. The cards themselves are full of lots of information pertaining to the specific virtue. The front of the card shows the virtue, a related catchphrase, the Virtue Kid, and a related Bible memory verse. the backside of the cards contain the most information. Here you’ll find:

• Virtue User Challenge: Challenge you whole family to work on the virtue
• What to Say After “I’m Sorry”: Learn ways to apologize when you break the virtue rules
• Teachable Moments: Several ideas on how to implement the virtue into your everyday lives
• The Kids of VirtueVille: A short story featuring the virtue’s “Virtue Kid” with examples on how not to behave

The following virtues are covered by the Parenting Cards:

• attentiveness
• contentment
• diligence
• forgiveness
• gentleness
• helpfulness
• honesty
• kindness
• obedience
• patience
• perseverance
• self-control

The Download Bundle contains 5 products: a teacher’s handbook, family character assessment, coloring book, butterfly award, and sing-along-song sheets.

The teacher’s handbook is 56 pages long, and covers in detail how to teach each virtue. It also discusses the products that are related to the Parenting cards, and how to implement their usage with the cards.

The Family Character Assessment is a printable form used to determine where each family member currently stands character-wise with each virtue. One form should be completed for each family member. This is a good way to set goals for each person to improve on their character.

The coloring book contains a coloring page for each virtue card. This is a good way to reinforce each virtue with younger children. The coloring pages each feature a Virtue Kid. The end of the coloring book has 3 puzzle pages. These are  better for older children, especially the word search page (Man, I am a sucker for word searches!).

The butterfly award download is simply beautiful. It’s a reproducible designed to be given to a child when they’ve successfully learned a character quality and continuously used it in everyday life.

The sing-along-song sheets are to be colored and sung along to, with the tune to be used listed on the top of the page.

 

The Parenting Cards were very easy to add into our Group Time. You can get a lot done with the cards in just 10-15 minutes per day. I started with the Obedience card, because my kids tend to laze when I ask them to do something. Delayed obedience is disobedience. So, this is a virtue I really wanted us to work hard on. I would like to be able to get some of the accessories to go with the cards soon, because these additional tools will really help drive the point home. After the Virtue Kid story on the back of the cards is a question…”Why is that…do you think?” This question opened up a lot of discussion for us around the table during Group Time. It also helps build some thinking skills, because the kids took time to think about why each virtue was important. Some of the teachable moments are like games, but they all help make understanding the virtue easier. We discussed each virtue’s Bible memory verse a little each day, although I think in the future I think we’ll do them as copy work to help with memorization. The front of the cards also list antonyms of each virtue, so it’s easy to say how we should not act. I haven’t been diligent in trying to teach virtues in my children before recently, so it was a bit harder to get the older kids to stick with what we covered. However, at 5, Lucas really retained a lot of what he learned It’s something that you need emphasize throughout the day, every day.

I love the ease of use of the Parenting Cards.  They are a great size for everyone to see, and beautifully illustrated. I really love the related Bible verses. They are great for having a scripture to go straight to when you discuss a virtue. I do suggest that you start character training when your children are on the younger side, because once they get older, it’s harder to break their bad habits. My older kids were less interested in the cards than Lucas, although they did still glean from them. I can already see that this is a positive addition for our family, and I will continue to use them and other tools as part of character training. They are super easy to incorporate into Group Time if this is something you already do. They would also be great to use at church or a homeschool co-op setting.

I have some great news! We Choose Virtues has a couple of promotions going on that I’m happy to share with you! For the rest of the month of June, you can save 50% on the 11 x 17 Kids of VirtueVille Posters. This is a set of 12! Use code BIG50  during checkout. Also, from June through August, you can save 205 off of anything in the We Choose Virtues store! Use code BTS20 to receive your discount.  You can follow along with We Choose Virtues on Facebook, Pinterest, and their blog.

Click the banner below to read reviews from my fellow Crew Mates. Some received the KJV cards, and others received something different. Thanks for stopping by!