Smart Kidz Radio (A REVIEW)

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I've often had the thought as my kids have grown that it would be wonderful if they had more radio stations dedicated to kids. At least one would've been nice! We used to listen to kids music a ton, but access to it hasn't always been easy. We would have to find CD's at the library or purchase them. But, I think I finally found, with this review, something that totally rocks in the kids music department, Smart Kidz Radio! 

Smart Kidz Radio website home page

Smart Kidz Radio is an online, on-demand, radio station for kids that is available on any device or computer with an internet connection and a paid subscription. We received 6-months access to Smart Kidz Radio: Member's On-Demand Radio Program Library for this review, and love all the choices available for our listening enjoyment. There are many stations to choose from! Let's see what they have:

• Living Skills
• Early Learning
• Cultural music such as Latin or Native American
• Inspirational
• American patriotic songs
• Bedtime lullaby's and relaxation
• Fun Sing-alongs
• And so much more! 

There are too many to list! 

Just a few of the radio stations on Smart Kidz radio to choose from

Listening to Smart Kidz radio is a fun experience. It even sounds like a radio with an announcer that talks about what's playing and happening on the station. The first thing we chose to listen to was America's Heritage in song because it was the featured station. I was pleasantly surprised to hear it, and that it was sung by the Smart Kidz Boyz Choir. My son (4th grade) liked it too. 

This is what the station looks like as it's playing. You can even skip tracks if you want to.

We mainly listened to Smart Kidz radio at the table while doing school work because it made for some nice background music. Especially the classical station. There are some great stations that would tie really well into school lessons too. This could be a great thing to take in the car too if you can stay connected to the internet. The kids can listen to this radio on their own devices too. I'd be happy to let my kiddos listen to whatever they want. It's all very kid friendly, no surprises! There are stories for bedtime too!

Our setup to listen at the table. It sounded great on my little portable speaker.

 

Overall, I really like Smart Kidz Radio. I am kinda sad that my youngest is almost too old for it and that all my kids will be grown/uninterested in listening to children's music very soon, so I'm definitely going to continue to use this with my 9 year-old as much as he continues to like it. I'm sure all my kids would have loved something like this when they were younger, I know I would have!

Smart Kidz Foundation. When you purchase a membership 20% of your membership fees goes to the Smart Kidz Foundation-- A non-profit foundation that financially supports programs for young people, supporting them in making a difference in the world through their talents and following their dreams. It's so good for our youth to get involved and have the opportunities to change the world to be a better place if given the opportunity. 

 Thank you for reading this review!

If you'd like to see what other's had to day about this review you can click on the banner below!

Math Sprint - The Mental Math Game (A REVIEW)

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

 

Our games for homeschool time are growing in number this fall. This school year I am purposely adding many new games to our collection that stretch our brains and make great learning tools, so I was thrilled to be chosen for this review of Math Sprint - The Mental Math Game from Byron's Games. It challenges the students to think about/mentally figure out math problems while racing around the game board. 

Math Spring - The Mental Math Game box cover

Having a physical board game that's not online or connected to any screen is always a plus. There are tons of online programs that can challenge kids in mental math but that's the last thing my boys need. They spend enough time on the screens. I'm excited for ways to challenge and engage them in math that use physical objects, so I'm always so thankful for these kinds of new games that are coming out. This game is a fun way to learn how to quickly do math mentally, and it doesn't even feel like it's learning time. It's exciting racing around the track and trying to answer the problems!

The game board with our "runners" on it and cards with the math challenges in the middle.

The age ranges for this game are any age, really! I had a 4th grader and a 7th grader playing, but the difficulty of the math problems can be lowered to just addition and subtraction if needed for younger players. We included all the operations (including multiplication and division) a few times and it proved to be a bit too hard for the 4th grader. I even had to think a bit! The game also has 3 varying lengths to how long the game lasts. There's the 100M, 200M, or the 400M race to choose from. The 100M being the shortest distance to "run" around the board and therefore the shortest game, and the 400M being the longest distance to "run" (all the way around the board) and the longest game. I think our shortest game was about 30 minutes.

He's (the coach) asking the other player what the math problem is on the card.

How does the game work? Everyone takes turns being the "coach." This person asks the person whose turn it is the question on the card. If the person gets it right they move forward a certain number of steps. If they don't get it right they stay where they are. There are also cards that can take them back a few spaces. The "runner" that makes it to the finish line first, wins! There can be as many as 8 runners on the board which means up to 8 students playing!

This game is awesome. It's well-made. Sturdy box, cards, board, and playing pieces. They all feel thick and like the game will last. The instructions are simple so it can be pulled out for a quick math review to warm-up the brain, or a longer game to enjoy together. I would absolutely purchase this if I were looking for games to add to our homeschool collection. As it is I am considering Byron's games-Continent Race game to purchase for our homeschool collection as well.

If you'd like to see what other crew members had to say about this game, you can click on this banner below and it will take you to all of the reviews for this great game!

Thankful Thursday: voting

 Today I'm thankful that I could take a walk in the beautiful fall sunshine

 

 and turn in our ballots.

 

 I"m also thankful to be done with that task!

My Weekly Notebook: Fall, games, and books

Life this week...

Life has become busy and full again, so that means that weeks are starting to fly by at a very fast rate. I can't believe it's already mid-October. So even though it's a new week, here I am sharing about the last one.

Homeschool this week...

Alex chose to learn about Colorado for his United States Journal, and one of the things he's supposed to do is watch a movie about Colorado. I found a fun YouTube video called Unboxing Colorado. It's not your average here are the Colorado state facts type of video. It's actually not even really meant for kids specifically, but it's pretty funny. Alex really liked the song at the end. If you'd like to see what the video is you can visit YouTube Unboxing Colorado. The song at the end is just one made up by the YouTuber, but Alex just thought it was funny and sang it all day. He even had me write the words down in his journal so he could remember them.

But first, let's dance to it....

For Columbus day we tried to get some pumpkin globes painted. It ended up taking a few days because we started so late that night. Alex didn't even make it past painting his blue ocean. He just decided to call it done after that.

He chose a metallic blue to paint his ocean. I'm not sure the other colors would have shown up on it very well, but it's a pretty color!

Painting a globe is not as easy as it looks! I loved the challenge though!

Alex read some facts out of this book about space for his Space Journal. He wrote about some of the things he read in his journal.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

I took this picture of my crocs for a friend whose foot Dr. told her to wear crocs around the house to help her ankle heal and keep the pain down in her feet. I told her that's exactly what I do! I wear crocs because my feet get tired and painful fast when I'm on them a lot. So my crocs really save my feet when I have to stand to do dishes or things around the house. They have great cushion and space so feet aren't squished, and great for around the house becuase they are so easy to get on and off. So, that's my advice this week. Take it if you need it. If your feet get tired, give it a try! I never thought I'd be sharing that for advice, but there it is. Also, it's my advice that if your crocs are as old and worn as mine are, it's time for new ones.

My favorite thing this week was...

Putting fall/halloween decorations around the house and the outside.

 

I was excited to finally be able to put up the vampire Mickey that I purchased last year after halloween on a cleareance sale. He's so fun and festive.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Playing Rodeoopoly! He loves pretending to be a cowboy. 

Something I accomplished...

Starting the process of weeding out books and curriculum, and getting rid of ones we don't need anymore. I'm going to have a lot of things for sale soon! Trying to figure out the best way to go about getting books into the hands of those who need/want them.

What we're reading...

We read J is for Jack-O'-Lantern, A Halloween Alphabet by Denise Brennan-Nelson. I love these alphabet books, and we have quite the collection now. We've read this one every year for a few years now. This time we paired it with a fun craft/treat, little tissue paper pumpkins with candy inside. Hoping to pass those out to friends soon!

In the back of the jack-o-lantern book it has some recipes. We are looking forward to trying the witch's brew drink.

One of the topics that Alex chose for his funschooling journal is learning about food. We found this book, Eat This not that for kids!, in one of the little libraries this week, and I think it might be a fun addition to his food study.

To go along with his Colorado state study we read C is for Centennial, A Colorado Alphabet. Another abc book. See, I just love them! You'll probably see them pop up more here on the blog.

We checked out this book, The Raft, by Jim LaMarche, for Alex's nature journal. It's a lovely book. We both really liked it. Imagine my surprise and happiness at finding it on our own shelf just a day later! I forgot we already owned it!

Movies we watched... 

No really big movies to note this week!

Games we played...

I love playing games, but that doesn't mean I always have the patience or energy to play them with the kids. So, we really don't play them as often as I'd like, but I'm hoping to change that this school year. We have some new games that we just got this week. We also utilized some game time for school too.

We played Asteroid Escape in the van while waiting for Aric to do his piano lesson.

 

We played SkipBo to help warm our brains up before starting school one rough morning. Part of math time too!

 

Alex worked on this space puzzle one evening. I helped him a bit because I love puzzles, and why not? It was fun to build with him.

 

 

I'm cooking...

Nothing very exciting! I made a caesar salad for lunch one day.
 

 That about wraps up our week!

Thankful Thursday: Games

 I am thankful for games in our homeschool and the wide variety that we have.

Playing Asteroid Escape in the car while we wait for lessons to be done

Playing SkipBo for some math fun one day during our math hour.

My Weekly Notebook: succulent pumpkin, IKEA, and a retro game

Life this week...

My porch is looking very festive this week thanks to some little girls that we know from church. They call themselves The Country Girls, and they sell flowers in the spring and now special succulent pumpkins in the fall. I purchased this from them and then Mike made a plant stand for me to put it on by the front door. It's the cutest little pumpkin, and when the pumpkin is done at the end of the season I can just take the succulents off the top and plant them in something else.

 

Homeschool this week...

We received another book to add to Alex's funschooling curriculum. He's almost done with his first Minecraft funschool book, so I have this one ready to go. 

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

We made a trip to IKEA last Saturday because we really need to get some loft beds. It was a fun trip with friends that hadn't been for a long time. This was the line. It was loooong, but it really moved pretty fast. I'd say we were waiting about 30 minutes total. Felt like Disneyland again.

 

Movies we watched... 

We watched Halloweentown 1 and 2. I had forgotten how cheesy these movies are! Still fun.

Games we played...

We brought out our 1970's game of Go to the Head of the Class. The questions are hard! The things people considered useful knowledge back in the 70's is really interesting but some of it really isn't too different from today. I love this retro game though. It was Mike's grandmother's game, and she passed it on to us a few years ago.

I'm cooking...

I made one of my favorite dishes that a good friend shared with me. It's called Buffalo Slaw. Yum!

What's working/not working for us...

The Thinking Tree books are really working for us. They really fit well with our style of homeschooling, and so far Alex really loves them. I need to get Aric on board with them, but he's at the age where he doesn't want to do anything so there's that. 

Questions/thoughts I have... 

Why do some weeks feel like just a big flop? And some weeks are much more productive? This week felt hard in so many ways. I'm hoping for a better next week.

I'm grateful for...

Progress in life, and a good cat. 

That wraps up this week! Time for a new one!

NatureGlo's eScience (A REVIEW)

 Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  

 

One of my goals this school year is to get outside and discover nature more with the kids but putting together nature studies seems like such a daunting task lately. With NatureGlo's eScience unit studies the work is already done! In her NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle, Gloria, the founder of NatureGlo's eScience, has many courses to choose from that directly relate to nature, the outdoors, and include many subjects like math, science, history, botany, marine biology, art, art history, and so much more. For this review we chose to focus on one of the unit studies titled: MathArt: Polygons and Patterns in nature. It took us outside and we discovered what we can create with nature!

NatureGlo's eScience unit studies are all available online with access from any computer or device that can login to the website. The courses consist of videos (some pre-recorded), documentaries, slides, interactive websites, printables, YouTube videos, nature/outdoor time, fun projects, and many other hands on activities. The courses all have a progression and "mark complete" boxes so there's no confusion as to where the student is at, and they can move through each section at their own pace.

A sample of some of the unit studies offered at NatureGlo's eScience

To start up our MathArt course I first printed up the printable study guide to go with the first section that we worked on which was Polyhedra in History, Art, & Nature. This isn't something you have to do, but it's nice for the students to have this as they watch the videos and work through the course.

Even if it's just to doodle! But, it's also good and challenging for them to find the answers to what is being talked about in the videos/slides. There is also a quiz for when we complete this section.

To begin our MathArt unit study we watched several videos made by Gloria that consisted of slides full of information about the subject (this has been the case for all the courses we've done). These videos were pre-recorded for a live class so there are questions that she asks and they are very interactive. My kids were able to answer the questions and loved getting them right before the other kids that were part of the live recording, so it worked well, and my kids enjoyed it. She speaks clearly, and uses all the real scientific/mathematical terms even if they are challenging to say or understand. I love that she doesn't dumb down anything, and she speaks directly to the children as if they will absolutely understand everything very clearly. The kids pick up more than we know!

Screenshot of one of the slideshow videos we watched for lesson 1.

After the lesson videos that talk all about Polygons and Polyhedra in nature Gloria takes us outside in another video to show us the outdoor challenge. She shows the kids exactly what to look for and an example of something to create, and then how to make a nature journal entry. I loved this! I had never thought to do that! The kids are free to find any shapes and create anything they can imagine. After we watched that video, it was time to get outside.

Our challenge for this outdoor time was to find polygons and polyhedra in nature. In other words, shapes and solids. This was a great activity, and one that I would never think to connect with nature, but here it is! Such a great lesson and fun outdoor time!

My 4th grader decided to find cylinders, or as he loves to call them: sticks. The other part of this challenge of finding the shapes in nature was that the student was also supposed to create a piece of artwork from those shapes in nature, so he collected sticks because he decided he wanted to make his artwork out of mostly cylinders.

We brought our nature journals, colored pencils, and some reference pages for creating our nature study page and artwork. Part of the assignment was to create sketches of the shapes and write mathematical descriptions of the shapes in the journal as well. This is usually my boys' least favorite part, but they each created something, and did really well recording it in their journal. We discovered a lot of shapes in nature!

After my son got all of his shapes down, he created this art masterpiece. He titled it: nature symbol.

He sketched it in his journal and labeled all the shapes he used.

 His completed journal page.

Alex's (4th grdae) completed nature page for Lesson 1 Polygons and Polyhedra in nature.

These unit studies are geared toward ages 10 and up. My 4th grader is 9, and he really liked this. Some things were harder for him to understand in the videos, but he still loved it all. My 7th grader also participated. Here is his work.

He went for more of a 3D, solid shape art piece. He wanted to create a prism using pine cones and sticks, or spheres and cylinders. He worked hard at getting to stand, but he just couldn't quite get it to stand for long enough for a picture, so he held it together for this picture.

Then when he let go it fell and made kind of a cool flat shape!

 His journal page. He did not want to do this part, but it encouraged him to get out of his comfort zone.

As we were working we found and made other shapes. This Pyramid was created by the 4th grader.

 

We all noticed many "cone" shapes in the pine trees.

 And I presented this challenge to the boys, what shape(s) would you find in this branch?

This is the second time we've reviewed NatureGlo's eScience, and both times I've been impressed with the quality of the learning and educational value of her videos and projects. The kids are so drawn to the lessons in the natural world and patterns and truths, and she presents them in a very easy to understand, kid friendly way, but at the same time keeping the integrity and beauty of nature as the focus. If you want some great math and science that include a lot of nature study I highly recommend checking out Gloria's NatureGlo's eScience unit studies. If you'd like to see what other crew members have to say about this review click on the banner below!