Archive for Education

Pentel Pencils

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our review is our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

It’s back to school time and if your children are anything like mine they go through an amazing amount of pens and pencils! Pentel was kind enough to send us some samples for our Back to School Product Guide and I am finally getting around to writing the review. Readers and PR reps alike have been very patient with me as I try to get caught up.

The samples that I received included Hyper G Ultra Smooth Retractable Gel Rollers (pack of 3), The Study Pack – The Pink Pack! – Pencil, Pen and Highlighter that Pentel sells and donates five cents from every purchase to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a Tri Eraser and two .e-sharp mechanical pencils that take different size lead (0.7 and 0.5).

I have loved all of the Pentel products. The only negative that I have has nothing to do with the product, but my children. My two-year-old broke my “Think Pink” pen, which seemed to glide across the paper and it actually was pink ink, my favorite ink color. And my four-year-old lost my red Hyper G pen. Guess I shouldn’t have shared, huh? (Just kidding!)

Tri Erasers – This is a novel idea and new to me to see an incased eraser like this one. I really like how well it erases and how easy it is to erase with it in this form.

tri-erasersmall2

Hyper G Gel Pens- These are a fine tip pen and write well. I’ve had no problems with them thus far.

Mechanical Pencils – Really like these and used all the lead in one already keeping track of Sir Eats Alot’s nursing and input and output :-)

Think Pink Study Pack – This neat little pack held the pen with the pink ink that I really liked. The highlighter in this pack is retractable as well as refillable, pretty handy.

THINKPINKSTUDYPACK

For more information about these and other Pentel products, please visit www.pentel.com


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Hyper Dash – An Educational Game

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

hyper-dash game

Overview

Hyper Dash will challenge you to be your best. It takes no time at all to learn, but selectable skill levels and four completely different game modes mean the challenge, like a real sport, will last a lifetime.

Hyper Dash consists of one electronic tagger and five different colored and numbered targets. The tagger plays pre-recorded music and calls out which targets you need to strike. It tracks the amount of time taken to complete each course. It can be set up side-by-side, or spread out across the length of a football field. There’s no limit to the distance between targets. Farther targets result in more running and exercise.

Hyper Dash can be played indoors or outdoors; solo, in pairs, or in teams. Parents vs. Kids is an entertaining option. Cooperative siblings can work together to beat their best time, while more competitive kids prefer the head-to-head mode.

As your speed, skill and agility improve, the series of commands becomes longer and more challenging. Level one calls out the colors you need to tag, level two includes numbers, level three adds special commands (Double Strike, Triple Strike, Reverse, Double Reverse) and level four features Compu-Strike (addition/subtraction problems in which you tag the sum or difference of the numbers called out).

Other play modes include the memory game of Micro Dash and multi-player relay races that promote teamwork. For a game of Hide ‘n Dash, let your opponent hide the targets before you begin. Every game has encouraging cheers and upbeat music to keep kids on their feet, expending energy and having fun.

Features
– Follow the commands and tag the targets with the handheld unit — fastest time wins!
– Set the targets on a table, around the room, or outdoors to test your speed and agility.
– 4 game modes to challenge your speed: skill, memory, coordination and teamwork.
– Play solo, head-to-head, or in teams.
– Music and voice drive the action.
– Includes ergonomically designed Hyper Dash unit and 5 targets.

Recommended Ages
Ages: 6+ / Players: 1-8

Battery Requirements
Requires 3 AA batteries, sold separately.

Retail $32.95 currently on sale for $26.95 on Hyper-Dash.com

Our Review

Most of our children really liked Hype Dash. They thought it was fun. One of our daughters said she could not get to level 2 or 3 on the harder ones. Another one of our daughters said she thought it was cool and that she really liked it. She especially enjoyed the multiplication, as that is what she’s been working on in her school work. Our boys though were disappointed that the game pieces didn’t shoot out like they thought they were going to, but that is the only real complaint we heard from them. ;-)

Hyper Dash is educational while being fun. It provides children a way to get energy our of their system while learning, thus making learning a fun activity. It gets a thumbs up from us!


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Bitten by the Business Bug – A Book Review

I received the following book in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the book.

Bitten by the business bug cover

Jason O’Neill was one of the people to respond to our Back to School Product Guide with a pitch about his Pencil Bugs and new book, Bitten by the Business Bug. He generously offered to giveaway a copy of his book to our readers, which is our current giveaway. The book was written by Jason, who is a teen entrepreneur. It is filled with common sense tips for business and life, all from Jason’s own experience.

I had hoped to have this review posted earlier but a certain little “Sir Eats Alot” (our two-week-old son) arrived earlier than anticipated and threw us off our posting and reviewing schedule. Bitten by the Business Bug is a must read for parents and their kids, whether you are interested in business or not. Jason is an inspiration. I am having my daughters read his book. Right now my oldest daughter is working her way through it and is about half way done. I will have her post her review, as well as her sisters’, so you get different perspective from them.

Schools do not teach entrepreneurship or thinking outside the box. That’s why my husband and I are interested in books like Jason’s to help fill in the gaps of our children’s education with supplemental material.

Bitten by the Business Bug is a close look at a young entrepreneur’s adventure into business ownership, the opportunities that have come with that ownership and the lessons learned. These opportunities and lessons have taught Jason so much more than he would ever learn in school alone. He and his parents have been wise in keeping school first, being a normal kid second and business third. In doing so this has allowed Jason to be a kid, but even more than that has taught him that just because he is a kid doesn’t have to limit what he can accomplish. Jason has big aspirations for Pencil Bugs and it will be interesting to see all that Jason will do in the future.

Pencil Bugs

Jason is a philanthropist at heart. Since the advent of Pencil Bugs has given portion of his earnings a to kids in need, whether that is helping kids in foster care or sick children in the hospital. From donations to gift bags, Jason has helped meet the needs of children in his community.

I think both parents and children will learn much from Jason. I know I did and hope my children do too.

Visit www.PencilBugs.com for more information about Jason, his book and business.


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FFR Friday Giveaway – Bitten by the Business Bug! *CLOSED*

Congratulations to Carmen!!

Bitten by the business bug winner

Comment #3 chosen by Random.org

Thank you to those who entered and a huge thanks to Jason and his mom for sponsoring this giveaway!


giveawaygrandmabutton

Our fourth FFR Friday Giveaway is……Bitten By The Business Bug Book by Jason O’Neil! Jason O’Neil is a award-winning 14-year-old entrepreneur/author, creator of Pencil Bugs at age 9, donating to children’s hospitals,on Forbes Top 10 list, and much more.

If you want your child to be an entrepreneur one of the best things to do is to expose him or her to other young (and old) entrepreneurs. It helps them start thinking like an entrepreneur, it gives them an “I can do this” attitude and will prepare them for their future. After all, entrepreneurship isn’t taught in schools.


Bitten by the Business Bug-1

Here is what he says about his book: “Every student from age nine on up should read my book. It’s filled with personal stories about life lessons I’ve learned from my parents, grandparents, and even my great, great aunt who turned 100 years old this summer. I share my creativity, strategies, values and tips that people of all ages can relate to. You’ll get many “ah-ha” moments as you read it.”

So would you like to win his book?

Required Entry: Simply leave a comment telling me which product you like best on Jason’s website!

Extra Entries (Please be sure and leave a comment and link for extra entries):

1 Entry: .

1 Entry: Follow Faith and Family Reviews on Twitter.

1 Entry: Like Faith and Family Reviews on Facebook

1 Entry: Friend Pencil Bugs on facebook.

1 Entry: Follow Pencil Bugs on Twitter.

2 Entries: Tweet about this giveaway, but only one tweet per day please. Include your tweet url with your comment. You may write your own tweet or use this one:

Giveaway: Enter to win a Bitten by The Business Bug Book @faithfamilyrevw! http://tiny.cc/wznr1 Please share! Thx!

5 Entries: Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post.

1 Entry for every comment you leave anywhere else on this blog, but please leave a link with your comment!

Details:

Please note: This giveaway will  run for two weeks - from August 20th until September 2nd at midnight CST. The winner will be chosen through Random.org. Winner will be contacted on or before September 30th (giving ourselves a bit more time to contact you in case baby comes! Thanks for understanding!)  and asked for their contact info. Winner will be emailed and then have 48 hours to send me their info at [ffr] [giveaways] [at] [gmail] [dot] [com] (without spaces and parenthesis). Our giveaway sponsors will ship one Bitten by the Business Bug book directly to the winner. Please note: This giveaway is open to the USA only.

Thanks and have fun!


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Back to School Product Guide: School Supplies Part 1

Back to School Product Guide 2010: School Supplies Products


backtoschoolschoolsupplies

Check out all these great backpacks.

1.) Beposh Backpacks-We like the Gigi backpack. It’s stylish and perfect for a middle schooler. It is ($35). The print is bright and colorful.

beposh#1

2.) Sewing Loft Backpacks- We liked the Owl Backpack in Pink Perfection for girls, but for the little boys will love the Owl Backpack in Candy Carmel.

Candy_Carmel_Owl_7-21-2010_4-10-05_PM_5120x3413

3.) Living Green- Fjord Ecogear Bag the Fjord is a super-functional, yet stylish messenger bag, perfect for school or everyday use. Roomy enough to tote even a small laptop, the Fjord is sure to become your go-to bag. It comes in grayish blue, and pink. ($29.95)

Fjord Ecogear bag

4.) Living Green- Palial Eco Gear Backpack this red and black backpack is perfect any boy that wants a cool looking backpack for back to school. Perfect for male Middle and High school students. ($39.95)

Palial ecogear bag

5.) Sobongo- Caribee Ghana Daypack ($32.99) this cool backpack sports a camo print and is great for any male Middle and High school students. The Caribee Ghana Backpack features an action back harness system, bottle pocket, heavy duty auscam material construction, and a camo print.

ghana

6.) Sobongo- Ducti Stiglitz Messenger Bag. ($44.99) Made for boys and girls, this new Ducti bag is guaranteed to haul all your gear and turn some heads while you do it. Perfect for high-schoolers.

ductimessangerbag

7.) Disney- Personalized Lightning McQueen Backpack ($19.50) this cute backpack is perfect for your little boy under 8! It has alot of features and I know my son was oohing at it. :)

disney#1

8.) Disney- Personalized Disney Princess Backpack ($19.50) This adorable backpack is so cute for your little princess. It becomes even more royal when you personalize it with your little princesses name!

disney#2

9.) Disney- Personalized Toy Story 3 Backpack ($19.50) Your child will be sure to reach for the stars in this super cool Toy Story 3 backpack. The Toy Story 3 Backpack features some of your favorite Toy Story friends including Buzz Lightyear and Rex.

disney#3

Look for part 2 later on today!


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Sam’s Club Back-to-School Event & Gift Card

Disclosure: The Sam´s Club Plus Membership, gift card, information, and giveaway were all given to me from Sam´s Club and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.com

As we mentioned the other day in our Sam’s Club $25 Gift Card Giveaway post, we still needed to head out to Sam’s to spend my $25.00 gift card for my General Mills/Box Tops for Education products. So over the weekend we did. We couldn’t find any regular Cheerios, so we got Honeynut Cheerios and two big boxes of Ziploc bags that will last us a long time, we hope. They will be very handy for sandwiches and freezing the rest of our garden produce! We were also able to find a few other things that are yummy and needful for quick lunches, picnics and snacks, like peanut butter!


Honeynut Cheerios

Honeynut Cheerios

Ziploc Sandwich Bags

Ziploc Sandwich

Ziploc Freezer Bags

Ziploc Freezer

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway and let us know what you’d buy with a $25 gift card to Sam’s Club during their Back-to-School Event.


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Back to School Product Guide

backtoschoolproductguide2010

Even though we homeschool, back to school sales are on our minds too. After all we need school supplies just like everyone else. We are looking forward to taking advantage of the IL tax break starting August 6th, I think.

Thanks to a HARO query, we have many wonderful products to share with you over the week or two starting on Monday! Bear with us as we try to post as many of them as possible. We received close to 100 pitches, however, not all of them will be featured. We are trying to narrow them down to our favorites and ones that we think best fit our Back to School Product Guide.

Here are the categories we will be covering:

School Supplies

backtoschoolschoolsupplies

Fashion

backtoschoolfashion

Lunches

backtoschoollunchproducts

Eco Friendly Products

backtoschoolecofriendlybutton

Technology/Electronics

backtoschooltechnologyandelectronics


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Educational Kids Toys

This is a sponsored post.

November-2009-300x225

We have many educational toys in our home, as most homeschooling families do. But educational toys are not just a normal occurrence in the homes of homeschoolers, many parents desire their children’s toys to have a multi-purpose.

So what educational kids toys can you find in our home?

Games

From Scrabble to Monopoly and quite a few in between. We also have a Math Facts game, memory card games, and many other card games that assist children in learning their numbers, as well as how to count and add.

Puzzles

Puzzles have always been enjoyable kids toys at our house. We have two or three large floor puzzles that are about jungle animals, bug and pond life, plus at least three or four different geography puzzles that all of our older children still enjoy doing on their own or with their younger siblings.

Then there are all the educational shapes, colors, numbers, alphabet, left hand, right hand wooden puzzles that we have for preschoolers and early elementary aged children. There are many different ones that I am probably forgetting we own.

Educational Toys

I think most of our educational toys are more for younger ages. Like our wooden clock and blocks, as well as shape sorter. We even have pull toy turtle that opens via its shell and fits three little baby turtles inside, all different sizes and colors to teach not only colors but big, bigger, biggest, etc.

Historical paper dolls can be very educational for younger girls, especially when reading a book series on a particular character or if you purchase the Dover brand, I know you get an overview of the character and/or time setting.

Dominos, jump rope, and probably many more that I am forgetting may be of interest to older children.

Do you have any favorite educational toys that you’d like us to know about? Let us know!


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A Child’s Treasury of Prayers, Poems and Verses

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the featured product.

A Child's Treasury Cover

The photos in this book are beautiful. We happen to love the old-fashioned look though. One of our daughters said she thought this handwriting book was cute and she really liked the poem about the baby titled, “God is Giving Our Family a Baby” (Page 70) written by Joy Marie Dunlap, owner of LightHome Publications. It is very appropriate for our family since we are expecting our eighth child this August. Very precious, uplifting verses, prayers and poems to fill our hearts and minds with.

Most of the verses, poems and prayers in A Child’s Treasury of Prayers, Poems and Verses are God, family and character centered, as it is a Christian penmanship book. It is geared for the K-3 grade level. If you click on the red link it will take you to a product page where there is a product preview to allow you to look at a portion of the ebook before you buy it.


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Artistic Nature Magazine

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

American Deserts Cover

American Deserts is the November-December 2009 issue of Artistic Nature Magazine. It is a magazine published by LightHome Publications, which is owned by a homeschooling family. It is a Christian magazine written for kids. One unique thing is that it has a creative focus in each issue and teaches children how to draw. It contains both fictional and true stories about the monthly topic of the magazine. For example, American Deserts taught us about American Deserts.

Animal Homes Cover

We also received the August-September 2009 issue on Sea Mammals and the January-February 2010 issue on Animal Homes. Then we decided to buy a subscription, currently only $10.50 for 6 issues! So we won’t even miss any issues this year since we also have the current issue about Australian Animals.

Sea Mammals Cover
Each magazine is reproducible for each family’s home use, which really comes in handy when you have multiple children like we do.

Here are our older girls thoughts about these magazines:

“I think these magazines are great. I really liked the deer and coyote stories.”

“I think these magazines are really interesting. I had never heard of manzanita berry! I haven’t heard of a lot of different types of trees, bushes, flowers and animals mentioned in these magazines.”

“I thought that all 3 of the magazines were very informative. They told us about many types of different things that we have never heard of before! I also like the fact they included a lot of coloring pages, puzzles and games tha tyou can print off for your younger siblings. They had a lot of color photographs, which is great if you have a color printer (we don’t though!).

Inside the American Deserts magazine it talks about everything from dangerous snakes, Native American Indians, Cowboys to many different animals.

In the Sea Mammals issue it talks about dolphins, sea otters to all sorts of whales.

Animal Homes talks about everything from bat homes, crab homes to squirrel homes.

All of these magazines are a really great resource and I liked them a lot.”


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