Friday Games: Mystery at Hogwarts

Ages and ages ago when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came out, a friend gave me Harry Potter Mystery At Hogwarts Game for my birthday.  It plays a lot like Clue, but there’s some fun differences added in.

As you can see, the game board is set up to be the school.  You roll two dice and move around the board gathering clues to figure out who cast the spell and in what room (see, just like Clue).  That part’s the same.  Here’s where it’s different.

You can choose to move the ghost instead of yourself and make people reveal cards to you without making guesses.  Also, if you roll a “one” (which is a Hogwarts seal), you draw special cards that can protect you from effects, reveal hidden passages, or complete missing stairs.

 

If you’re familiar with Clue, than you already know how the game works, but this adds in the extra layer of strategy with the ghost and some more randomness with the Hogwarts cards.

 

I would say it probably requires at least a mid-second grade reading level to play it well because my boys struggled from time to time to find the right names.  It also requires kids who don’t feel the need to tell everyone what they have and can hold their cards without showing them to EVERYONE.

 

On the random to strategy side, I’d put it closer to random.  Movement is based on a die roll and the cards you get at the beginning are completely random.  But, it’s a lot of fun.

Heritage History Review

I told you I’d write a more full review once I’d had a chance to use it more, and then I got busy reading the books included in my Early American library and planning for the school year that I forgot to do that.  But now I have a REVIEW AND A GIVEAWAY for you!

I wrote a detailed how to get your books loaded onto your Nook post a few weeks ago, and the advice there is still how I do it.

Since then, I’ve taken the time to read two of my books, and I love them.  To make it easier for me to find them, I created a special bookshelf of my American history books.

They are all formatted very well, and like all other Nook (and I’m assuming Kindle) have a touchable Table of Contents to get to specific chapters within a book.  I enjoy that feature since for most of these books I’m not planning on reading the whole book to them.

At first when I got the books I assumed I was only going to be able to use it for the fall semester, thinking the spring semester would be too recent to have books included.  But, I was surprised to learn there were some books for World War 1 included in the set as well.

PROS of these CDs
1.  They’re an affordable way to add in some great classical litereature to your school year, each of the Curriculum CDs has at least 40 books, and the libraries look to have at least 30 books.  That’s a great buy.
2.  Well organized.  They break the books down into beginner (green), intermediate (orange), and advanced (red).  I’m planning to use both beginner and intermediate books as read alouds for my kids.
3.  The books themselves are well-formatted for all of the different formats (e-reader, PDF, etc).  They are easily navigable.

CONS of these CDs
1.  If you don’t have an e-reader it could be a lot of printing.  You’d have to decide for yourself if that was worth it.  I’ve had times before I got my Nook I thought it was, but that’s one only you can make the call.
2.  Some of the books on the Early American library are compilation types, which means I have to go to each book to find what I want, and the titles aren’t always descriptive enough for me to know what it is.  Now, I don’t think this is a total con, because it gives me an excuse to read the books.
3.  You might get sucked into reading about something you’re not studying.  We finished studying Lafayette awhile ago, and yet I still took the time to read all about him.  Why?

and how I’m using it with All American History

I’ve only got the lesson plans for the fall semester, but here’s my general plan so far…….  Of course this is subject to change.

Prelude to Civil War

excerpt’s from Uncle Tom’s Cabin for Young Readers, this was such an influential book
Underground Railroad short story from This Country of Ours

Civil War (this is 4 chapters in

All American History)

American Book of Golden Deeds: Sympahty of Abraham Lincoln (short story)
Battle Between Ironclads short story from This Country of Ours (very important battle for military history)
Death of Stonewall Jackson short story from This Country of Ours
Grant’s Campaign from This Country of Ours

Reconstruction

President is Impeached short story from This Country of Ours (I still remember the political cartoon about this from when I took US history in high school)

Gilded Age and Westward Expansion

True Stories of Our Presidents for Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur (just finished reading one of those for myself out of curiosity)
Stories of Theodore Roosevelt (in particular Battle for San Juan Hill)
Antoine of Oregon
(I’m still looking through for this portion)

TO BUY IT

Go to Heritage History and check out their stuff, if you buy a history curriculum, add the Spanish Empire library to your cart and enter the code TICIAJOY in the coupon box to get the Spanish Empire library for free!

BONUS, FREE RIGHT NOWI just got an email that the Story of England is free right now!

WIN IT

Now you get a chance to win one of their CDs for yourself!  Use Rafflecopter to enter below.  I was so excited to post this I forgot to put in the:
RULES AND CONDITIONS:
Giveaway closes one week from today, August 15, 2012
United States or military base mailing adress only
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm sharing this at:
Learning All the Time

Science Sunday: Review Apologia Junior Journal

My co-op buddy and I had been using the same science and would get together from time to time and have science lessons together, then she switched on me from Swimming Creatures to Anatomy.  Why?  So she could use the junior journal, but I was already committed having bought the  Swimming Creatures lapbook (which is on sale right now, and I do still recommend), and really liking it.

This year I gave my kids the choice of doing the lapbook again or using the Junior journal.  I brought one of their lapbooks and we sat on the floor of the local Christian bookstore and compared the two.  Thus ensued a long discussion about the pros and cons, here they are as my children decided:

 

PROS according to my kids

 

1.  coloring pages, this was Superman’s big thing, he loves to color and actually wants more pages to color

2.  Places to draw pictures of what we’re learning about.

3.  Fun looking experiments.

 

PROS according to me

4.  Perfect amount of space for young writers.  My kids struggle to write on their own, they want me to spell EVERYTHING.  I’m working on building their confidence writing on their own and helping afterwards.

 

5.  Copywork for working on handwriting.  The copywork is either definitions or Bible verses, and there is an option for print or cursive.  Along with space to draw.

 

 

6.  Additional resources and ideas.  Each lesson has about two pages of itty bitty print of extra resources, if you did everything you would easily take a month or more for each lesson.  Obviously we’re not going to do it all, but many of these videos are on Netflix or youtube and it’s a fun way to pass an evening.

 

7.  Lesson plans- it does a great job of breaking down how to use the textbook and journal together.  I partially based my lesson plans on their layout.  Slightly different, but same idea.

 

8.  Additional experiments, you know my kids are all about those experiments.  ALL ABOUT.  They actually are in the process of creating their own experiments right now.

 

CONS

1.  Since it’s not a download I have to buy one for each kid, but the plus side of that is I don’t have to print it out myself.

 

 

Let’s see what others did this week:

Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously.  Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.

Source: books4learning.blogspot.com via Ticia on Pinterest

Books 4 Learning shared about a new picture book series showing animal life cycles.  Isn’t that mole picture amazing?

Source: littlewondersdays.blogspot.com via Ticia on Pinterest

Little Wonder Days has a wonderful experiment that leads to making homemade bread.  Anything leading to homemade bread is a good thing in my mind.

 

Source: creeksidelearning.com via Ticia on Pinterest

Creekside Learning shared her science curriculum for this year.  I have to say it looks intriguing.

 

 

 

<a href="http://adventuresofmommyness.blogspot.com/search/label/Science%20Sunday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/Ticia1/AiMScienceSundaycopy.jpg" alt="Science Sunday" /></a>

Review: Amoeba Math

Amoeba Math is one of those unexpected finds.  I was given this at the homeschool convention I went to after talking with the owner for almost an hour.  I bought their board game, Math Gym, but didn’t have the budget to buy Amoeba Math as well.  However he was nice enough to give me a review copy and one to give to ya’ll.  So, score for all of us!

 

I thought about waiting until Friday to post this, and continuing it as part of my Friday Games series, but didn’t want to.  First because I’ve been wanting to get this done forever, but hadn’t because I need pictures.  And second because it’s a computer game.  I’m focusing more on board games there.

Amoeba Math is a fun math review game.  The graphics are somewhat simplistic, but my kids thought they were hilarious.  Especially when their guy got hit by running into a wall, “he made funny sounds Mommy.”   (I need to clean my computer screen, it’s got so many fingerprints)

 

There are several different options to make it work best for you.

 

Game Difficulty- you can choose from Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Master.  Basic only uses single digits and gives the most time.  As you advance in difficulty it becomes and adds in negative numbers!

 

You can also choose what types of problems you want to do.  So far my kids have only done addition, but I’m planning on adding in subtraction soon.

 

 

What I like:

1.  I can choose types of problems and level of difficulty.

2.  It’s very user friendly and the company has easy to understand and use help center (I had problems installing and with their help figured it out).

3.  I can leave one of the boys playing it while I go work with another child, and not worry about their accidentally getting into something else.

 

What I dislike:

1.  Nothing really, it’s a fun game and easy to use.

2.  Not a problem for me, but it IS NOT MAC COMPATIBLE.  This could be a problem for some.  They are working on making it usable for Macs.

 

 

FINAL OPINIONS:

 

My boys are asking to use this for their math instead of their math curriculum, which they like a lot.  Princess is not a game fan like they are.  I’m thinking of making this at least a weekly game, if not more often during summertime.

 

TO BUY:

Amoeba Math is $29.95.  The big bonus: you can try it before you buy, there is a two week free trial.

 

WIN A FREE COPY OF AMOEBA MATH:

 

Super simple, leave a comment with a favorite way to practice math.  Make sure there is an email address included.

 

RULES: Open to US and International.  I’ll pick a winner on July 7 and email them.  If I don’t hear back I’ll pick a new winner.  Make sure I can email you.

 

DISCLOSURE:  I was given a copy of the game to review.  I almost bought it, but it wasn’t in the budget…….I bought the board game instead.

Games with Kids Fridays:Adventures in Reading with ZigZag Zebra

One of my goals for the upcoming school year is to convert Fridays to a game day.  We’ll still be playing learning, but it won’t seem like it because we’re playing games.

 

When I was given the opportunity to review Adventures in Reading with ZigZag Zebra for All About Learning Press, I jumped at it.

 

If you’re familiar with file folder games or  Take It To Your Seat Games from Evan-Moor, you’re familiar with this concept.

 

The games come bound in a book, the pages are perforated so you can tear them out and glue them into a file folder if you choose to (I’m storing it differently, you’ll see below).

 

Now, I hate cutting things out, my wrists hurt after a while of cutting, so I set my kids loose on it.  This does mean they’re not cut out perfectly.

 

We’ve only played the first half or so of them, but I think these will easily be added into our rotation of games, and extra bonus, they’re not just limited to reading.

 

{I have to admit, I don’t think this was in the creator’s minds when they did it, but I looked at it and saw easy adaption to other topics}

 

 

Apples for Ziggy- Super simple and easy to play, you pick 5 apples off the tree and if they’re vowels you keep them.

 

My kids loved this because it’s a no brainer for them.  No thinking involved because they’ve got it down flat.  Many requests to play again.

 

 

Ziggy at the Market- Ziggy is going shopping and he can only buy things if he answers questions correctly.  My kids loved the variety of things to buy.  Princess bought all the shoes and the boys bought a little of everything.  Including the top hat Superman tried to wear.

 

In case you’re wondering it didn’t fit.

 

Now in the instructions you’re supposed to review phonograms, but my kids need more review of word cards.  I’ve noticed they’re starting to slack on words they knew before, so I switched it to word cards.

 

And that worked just fine.

 

Treasure Hunt with Ziggy- You pull 3 tiles and see if it’s possible to make a word with that combination of color tiles.  Remember with All About Learning Tiles vowels are red and consonants are blue.

 

It was a great review for my kids and got them thinking of examples of words with two vowels in a 3 letter word.

 

Eventually I started challenging them to think up words to go with the tiles they pulled.  They LOVED that.

 

I’m sure I will have many more posts about these games as we work our way through them.  Especially if I keep to my plan of only games on Friday.

 

And, if you’re wondering how I store my games, here you go.  The board is folded in half and put in the mini-manilla envelope along with the pieces.  They all store very nicely in my box for All About Reading Level 1 (post coming up with how I organize it to work for me).

 

Disclosure: I was given a copy of the games to review, but it was on my to buy list anyways.

Lesson Adventures

A friend of mine is in the process of starting a new computer game for kids.

 

So far it’s called Lesson Adventures.  It’s a fun concept, it takes a little bit of Oregon Trail, a little bit of a fantasy theme, and puts it together into a computer game, which my boys would love to play more of.  They can’t yet because right now it requires being able to read, and I really don’t want to read all of the quest text to them.

 

But, it’s going to provide a great incentive to learn to read.

 

When you go to the site you’ll see this:

 

They have a demo up with some questions for the 8th grade classroom that is trying it out. 

 

 

This is your character sheet.  As you complete adventures you get paid money based on how well you’ve done.  You can get armor and different things to make your character look different.  My boys loved what I called the “Wookie look,” and I was corrected it’s the Wolfman.

 

Right now it’s a fairly straight forward quest chain.  You accept the quest and go out and defeat slime monsters and skeletons by answering questions.  The plan once the game is live is to let you put in material your class is covering, and the game will make a quest for you.

 

Doesn’t that sound like a more interesting way to study and review than just drill and kill?  I’d have loved it as a kid.

 

Now, why am I bringing this up?  Well, they’ve got a kickstarter for Lesson Adventures going on right now.

 

So, please help them out and check it out.

THE Math game for the family

So, I started to write a post about going to a homeschool convention, but realized I didn’t have anything super helpful to say, and it was mainly going to be lots of hints of things to come.  I didn’t want to write that.

So (seriously I use that too much), Instead, I’ll just jump write in. 

Math Gym

Here’s the premise, you’re going around the board in either direction to whatever square you want.  You get there by building equations from the tiles you have.  Your numbers can be positive, negative, or exponents (we took out the exponents), and you get operation tiles as well.

I spent a good hour or so talking to the guy there because I didn’t believe him that my 5 year old could play this.  He convinced me, and I bought it.

He was right.

She’s not a huge fan, but she doesn’t like games in general.  The boys who are fans.  LOVE it!

Your goal is to earn money by either landing on squares that give you money or by landing on a workout square where you do math problems (more on that in a second).  Princess worked her way around the board going in a negative direction almost the entire time.  The boys went positive, negative, all over.



When you land on a workout square you grab a card based on your ability.  My kids are all white belts.  That’s first/second grade math.  It goes all the way up through early high school with Algebra 1 and 2.



Our first game took about an hour to play, but this was also my kids first exposure to negative numbers, and they grasped the concept fairly quickly and were making up math problems like aces.

It’s on sale right now for $50 (yes that is a lot, but I think it’s totally worth it).  Considering most of the strategy games we buy cost about the same, and I’m seeing years worth of math practice in this game.  It’s worth it to me.

I LOVE this game (and I’ll have a post up about some of the other games I bought later).  I wanted to talk about this one first because I’m going to have a giveaway coming up soon for their computer game.
Go, look at it, try the online version of it (there’s an online version of the board game), and then discover how cool it is.

PS: I was not paid for this, I did not get a free copy, I bought it and loved it, so that tells you how much I like it.

Review: Lead, For God’s Sake!

Soooooo……..  I kind of accidentally clicked on this book to review it.  I was trying to click on a new parenting book, but accidentally clicked on this one because I was being impatient and the screen wasn’t loading fast enough for me, so I started clicking…………

 

I say that because I’m not the intended audience of this book.  It’s written about a sports coach who is having a hard time teaching his high school basketball players how to work together as a team and how to lead their teammates.

 

I could have been good with that, but the first 70 pages of the book are devoted to his life spiraling out of control as everything is going badly.  That’s a hard section to get through.  Very hard.  It’s compellingly written, and you want to read the next chapter if you’re sitting there reading it, but if I set it down I wasn’t eager to start it up again.

 

That being said if you can survive the first third of the book, the last part start giving the advice you’ve come for.  How to incorporate a leadership style that isn’t just carrot and stick.  But, I really struggled to get to this point.  Really struggled.

 

To be honest, I still haven’t been able to finish it and I have several other books I want to read that I think I will be able to  apply to my life better.

 

Would I recommend this?  Conditionally yes.  I know people who would enjoy this and with the caveat of skimming the first part there’s some good stuff in the last part.  It’s just not for me.  I’m not the intended audience.

 

DISCLOSURE: I received this book free in exchange for my honest opinion.  I was not paid in any way for my review.

Review: All American History Jr.

Apparently I never actually posted this, which would explain some people's confusion on my saying we'd switched curriculum, and everyone should know this.  Instead it's sat in my draft folder for about 3 months now.

Some days.

So, I commented before that I had mixed feelings on our history for the year, and they grew more frustrated as I realized my kids were not really getting anything out of it and the amount of prep work in printing was frustrating me.

After I’d ordered what we were using I saw All American History Jr, and was intrigued, but I didn’t want to look into it too much in case I got curriculum envy, you know where everyone else’s stuff looks better than yours.


I finally gave in and ordered it, and I wish I’d done so sooner.  Since this one starts at the same place as the last one, I figured I’ll go back and start over and then we can actually learn it.

So, what do I think of this one?

I LOVE IT!  Here’s why:

PROS:
1.  I’m not having to print off the textbook, and it’s a hardback, so it’s sturdy.
2.  The lesson plans are a lot more thorough.
3.  The “workbook” portion is a lot less printer intense.  You can see samples here.  The line spacing is perfect for my kids.  The amount of writing expected per day is working perfectly.  It’s got some amount of crafts.
4.  They give you a modified reading plan for younger kids.  Instead of reading the whole chapter you only read a smaller part, and it is broken down into great segments.
5.  They give you a day by day plan of what to do, and some days are so easy you can do two at once.
6.  There are hands on crafts, which you can guess we LOVE!
7.  I love the additional suggestion activities.  When we learned about Eric the Red, they suggested watching “Lyle the Kindly Viking,” and compare what you learned about Vikings with the movie.  SCORE!
8.  Fun coloring pages.
9.  There’s a lapbook part that you can either let the kids fill in, or for younger kids there is a pre-filled in version that you can cut and paste together.
10.  I don’t have to buy 3 workbooks for my 3 kids because this is a download

CONS:
1.  This is only for me, but we were about halfway through the material covered in this book already, so to really get my use out of it, I had to start over.
2.  They recommend getting the teacher’s manual for the older kids, and I think you could really get away with not having that.
3.  Lots of paper and ink to print it all off.
4.  You need to keep track of little pieces of paper for a while because all of the pictures for a quarter are all together (I’ve solved this by paper clipping it to the textbook where we’re reading.).

OVERALL OPINION:

The other mom and I have already decided we're using All American History 2 next year, so obviously we LOVE it!  I only wish there were a lapbooking/notebooking thing like this for Mystery of History.

Review: Making Cents Money Game

I was recently contacted by Lakeshore Learning to review one of their instant download software games.  I am super excited about this opportunity because when I was a teacher I would  spend way too much money at their store in Dallas.  The good news for my wallet was by the time they opened one in our area I was no longer teaching, so I had less of an excuse to spend large amounts of money there.  I still do, just less excuse.

I have several of their game boards, and the software titles look to be very similar to their game boards: bright colorful, high interest, and very interactive.

 

I opted to download Making Cents Money Interactive game.   Here's what I thought:

PROS

1.  It's for 2-4 players.  Many games for kids are just for 2 players, so this means all of my kids can play.

2.  It's very easy and fairly intuitive (with a few minor exceptions).

3.  It's bright and colorful has some sound without it being too overwhelming.  The animation level is just right for my slightly ADD boys.

CONS

1.  It's listed for 1-3 grade, but I'd say the skill level is more of late second grade.  It's a little hard for my kids right now, but it makes for a great game to play together.

2.  When figuring out how much money you have the coins have to be dragged into the slot at the top of the bank.  It took a few tries to remember this (yes, it's a small nit).

3.  It'd be nice if the question could be read out loud for early first grade, but as I said it's really more of a second grade game.

 

OVERALL OPINION:

Would I buy more games?  Yes,  the price is high enough that I'm not going to buy every game, but I really don't need to be buying every game.  The price point is perfect for a teacher who is going to be using this year after year, but as a homeschooler who will have a more limited time frame I'll have to be a bit more choosy.

But, right now they have a sale going on BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF, enter coupon code 7439 through the end of February.

If the game you want isn't on instant download check back because they're constantly adding new ones (including Daily Interactive Math Station, see picture above, which wasn't available for download 2 weeks ago, my original pick to review).

 

I currently have two more games I want to get, the Daily Interactive Math Station, and I"m eyeing the Place Value Mystery House Interactive Game as well.

EXCITING NEWS FOR YOU!

I get to giveaway one free download, to enter simply go to Lakeshore Educational Software and choose which one you want (make sure it is available as instant download).  Leave a comment with your choice and your email address.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1.  Follow my blog through GFC, subscribe, or email (1 entry for each, please comment for each one).

2.  Like me on FB and leave a comment.

3.  Like Lakeshore Learning on FB and leave a comment.

4.  Scan their website and find something else you'd like to get from their store and leave a comment.  I still use on a weekly basis the magnifying glass I got there 10 years ago.

GIVEAWAY CLOSES ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012

 

DISCLOSURE: I received a free copy of the game in exchange for my honest review.  I received no other compensation, but am likely to go out and buy about 3 more games because I like this one so much.  Sigh, my poor wallet.

Science Sunday: review Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day lap book

Whew, that was a mouthful, but I thought I’d show you what we’ve been using with our science pick for the year.

 
This is a printable lapbook created by “A Journey Through Learning” on Currclick.  I got it during one of their periodic 50% sales, at some point I should join their affiliate program because I talk about them frequently enough.
 
There is also a black and white version, but I liked the appeal of color, and if I want I can print it in black and white.
 
Besides my kids are very back and forth on coloring.

 
What has been working for me is printing off a chapter’s worth of materials at a time.  The picture here is showing Princess holding her drawing of what she thinks a mosasaurus looks like.  Apparently they’re pink.
 
Very pink.
 
She thinks a lot of stuff is pink.  But, it’s been an interesting window into their world having them tell me what they got from the readings for the day.  Some days it’s been insightful, others it’s “They eat fish, Mommy.”  Thanks kid, anything else?
 
All in all I really enjoy this.  I especially enjoy that if we go back to this textbook I can just print off the material again and they can fill it out again.
 
Here’s a couple of fun things ya’ll did this week:


Journey to Josie shared about their leaf field trip and I LOVE how they spent time picking up trash first.

Fantastic Five shared how they tested for starches in their food using iodine.

Do you have anything you’ve found super helpful like this?  Something that went with what you’ve been using and made it so much easier?

FYI: I changed how long the linky was open, I thought the people who linked up later in the week weren’t getting as much traffic as other people, so I decided to close it earlier so the people linking later in the week can instead be one of the first ones on Sunday morning.  Oh, and this forces me to visit people earlier……….

Review: Kid Concotions Magic Bubble Art

 

I was given the opportunity to try out this fun kit for Growing Tree Toys.

 

It comes with papers, punch out shapes, stickers, and various other odds and ends to make several fun crafts.

 

But the key to it all are 4 small paper cups, several straws, and 3 bottles of dye.

 

It took a bit of experimenting, the instructions weren’t that clear, but we finally got it all worked out.

 

You fill the cup about an inch full of water, maybe a little more.  Add in about 10-15 drops of dye.  The more you add the brighter the color.

 

 

Then you add a few drops of soap.  Stick the straw in and start blowing.  After you’ve created some bubbles you put your paper on top and it creates a cool marbling effect.

 

The kids had a lot of fun happily playing with this for an hour or so.

 

They never produced any of the projects from the kit, but we came up with some cool marbled papers and projects.  My favorite is Superman's “sunset.”

Doesn’t it look pretty?

 

Here’s my observations of it:

 

PROS

1.  It’s a really cool idea, and the kids enjoyed the process.

2.  There’s enough in the kit to have several rounds of making this.  Just get more cups.

3.  You can see instant results.

4.  The projects in it are open-ended enough for non-project following kids like mine, but there are specific projects and ideas for kids who need more structure.

 

CONS

1.  The cups that came with it are paper and will deteriorate fairly quickly under strenuous kid testing.  By the end of our lengthy crafting session the structural integrity was compromised.

2.    The instructions are not very specific.  They give pictures of what you do, but don’t give specific instructions like “Add 15 drops of dye for a light coloring,” or other information like that.

3.  It can be fairly messy, so keep that in mind, and it is a dye based project so if it gets on your skin it will not come off right away.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS

 

Would I buy this kit myself?

 

Yes and no.  I’m sure I will be buying this for future birthday parties we go to.  My kids would have enjoyed opening this as a present, and I will enjoy giving it.

 

This is a great, “Mom I’m bored” winter activity once you’ve covered it up with lots of newspaper or that old sheet for craft projects.

Owning this kit already, would I buy this kit again?  Probably not for my kids.  My kids weren’t as intrigued by the specific projects in this kit, but they loved doing it.  I know SOME KIDS would love to redo this kit over and over again, but that’s not MY KIDS.

 

I’ve bought some other Alex craft kits from time to time for my kids, and I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with them.  You can get this kit from Growing Tree Toys for $15.95.

 

FYI: I’m planning on using this kit again for Jacob’s Ladder in my Advent Calendar.

 

Disclosure: I received one for review purposes through Blogtricity to review it for Growing Tree Toys.  I did not receive any money, or any other compensation.  The opinions and tips expressed are my own.