Education | Faith and Family Reviews

Archive for Education

Nudge Your Kids

Posted by Brande on May 9, 2012
in Children's Clothing, Cleaning, Clothing, Education, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Fashion, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Humor, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, Reviews, School

Nudge your kids with a Nudge Tee that is! So, what has your child accomplished on their own? Brushing their teeth? Making their Bed? Feeding an animal? Reading or writing? Celebrate with them! For $20.00 you can praise their efforts, and by wearing one of these tees they can let everyone else know of their good doings!

Guess what! They have them in adult sizes also! If your husband’s like mine and doesn’t like washing dishes. Get him a shirt that says “I wash dishes”! lol……! I Love You, Honey!

My Review:

Here’s the shirt my daughter received from Nudge Tees.

Granted we are still working on this, but she’s getting better. I would have shown my daughter in her new shirt Nudge Tee shirts as my daughter achieves more accomplishments. I love these shirts and what they do to boost my child ego.

Head over to Nudge Tees and encourage your child!

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 reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

Share and Enjoy

{4 comments}

FREE Samples from Dover Publications

Posted by html404 on May 3, 2012
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff

Our family loves the coloring books and paper dolls from Dover Publications and when I recently opened our email with free samples I thought, “This is something I should share with my readers,” so here I am!

I know you may be thinking, “Who plays with paper dolls anymore?” To that I say, “We do!” Our children play with their paper dolls more than they play with their other toys. Paper dolls allows them use their imaginations and creativity. There are paper doll books from different time periods which teaches the children about the clothing people of those times wore. My girls are more interested in this than my boys. However, there are paper dolls for boys too and while they are fewer than the girls’ selection it’s enough to keep my boys happy. Soldiers, knights and sticker dolls have been favorites with my boys. My children even cut out the covers of their paper doll books!

A word about the little sticker paper dolls, they do not last long as the adhesive wears off pretty fast if they play with them a lot. However, they are very cheap at $1 or $2 for a few days of fun.

Dover’s coloring books are not only fun but educational as well. Included in the coloring books are fun facts, brief history and information about the topic of the coloring book. We have purchased them to learn more about birds, flags, butterflies, horses and I may be missing a couple.

My Boys Favorite Coloring Pages (so far)

My Favorite Sample Pages (so far)

My Youngest Daughter’s Favorite Coloring Page (so far)

To get free samples from Dover Publications, such as coloring pages, book pages and more, which arrive to your inbox twice a month, just click here.

For more information about Dover Publications and to see the other products they have to offer visit their website: www.DoverPublications.com

Share and Enjoy

{23 comments}

Earth Day 2012 Giveaway – $50 Gift Certificate to UncommonGoods!

Posted by html404 on April 20, 2012
in Contests, Eco Friendly Products, Education, Faith and Family Reviews Friday Giveaway, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giveaways, Kids Toys

We love educational products and tools. UncommonGoods not only has educational toys, but also gifts for plant lovers, hummingbird feeders and unique home accessories. Many handmade and eco-friendly products all very different. Recently we were able to review two of their educational kits for kids – Cheesemaking and Crystal Explosion….And UncommonGoods is providing a $50 gift certificate for one happy winner of our Earth Day 2012 Giveaway! A great way to start off Earth Day weekend!

Cheesemaking Kit Review

We have always been interested in cheesemaking so this was a cool kit to do. My older girls actually did this one and we let the younger children do the Crystal kit.

The kit gives you a choice of making mozzarella cheese or ricotta cheese. We chose mozzarella since we eat more of it than ricotta. The instructions were very well laid out, easy to follow and included photos so you could actually see if your cheese was doing what they said it should at each step.

Everything you need is in the kit except for a gallon of organic milk and a pint of half and half. Those need to be purchased separately. Each little tablet shown has to be cut into quarters, so you can actually make 30 batches of cheese with this kit – bonus!

One of my daughters was worried that the cheese did not turn out, but once we tasted it was fine. We lightly salted it when we tried it and liked that better than plain.

This kit is for older children (teens) to do on their own or for younger children to assist a parent due to needing a heat source, like a stove or microwave. We really try to limit our microwave use.

The girls enjoyed their cheesemaking experience. Now we need our own cow so we can truly make our own cheese.

You can purchase your own kit here($25).

Crystal Explosion Kit Review

Our children have been studying rocks and have been fascinated by what they are learning. The Crystal Explosion kit was very fun for the younger children.

The crystals (bath salts) were a bit messy but the enjoyment the children got from completing the crystal experiment far outweighed the small mess on the table!

Again, this was another kit that is very easy to use. Instructions are easy to follow. Due to hot water being required, some parental guidance and help is required.

It was fun to wake up to the crystals in the refrigerator. We still have them in there! Every now and then the children will bring me the cup and say, “Mommy, look at the crystals” because they are in awe. Very cute.

To order your own Crystal Explosion kit visit this link. It is available for $17.99.

Both of these kits are winners in our house and we give them two thumbs up. Thank you UncommonGoods!

Now you can enter our giveaway….

Earth Day 2012 Giveway – $50 Gift Certificate to UncommonGoods

Enter to win a $50 gift certificate to UncommonGoods! Open to the USA only. Winner will be contacted in 2-3 weeks, if not before.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Share and Enjoy

{21 comments}

Veggie Tales: Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men ~ Movie Review

Posted by Professor on April 9, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Movie Review Monday, Movie Reviews, Movies, Uncategorized

Another great DVD from our friends at VEGGIE TALES!

Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men

Robin Good has a mission – fundraising from the rich and giving to the poor! But when greedy Prince starts stealing the townspeople’s hams, donations are down and Robin’s band of friends desert him to give robbing a try. Can Robin overcome his hurt, show his friends what’s right and restore the townspeople’s hope?

Bonus Features:

Leapin’ Leap Year Lesson
“Fun”-Raising with Larry
“Things Will Get Better” – Sing-along Songs
“Prince of Ham” – Sing-along Songs
Robin Good’s Guide to Handling Hurt – Discussion Guide
5.1 Surround Sound
English and Spanish Subtitles
DVD Format: NYSC/Region 1

PLUS! Silly Songs with Larry featuring Bubble Rap!

Running Time Approximately 50 minutes.

Our Review:

My family is HUGE fans of Veggie Tales…and this DVD did not disappoint! As a mother I especially liked the lessons presented in this DVD. This DVD came out just at the right time for us, during the Easter season because it teaches of the love of Jesus and what it means to give. Thus, a great lesson for Easter!

One bonus to the DVD is the discussion guide “Handling Hurt” … this was a great discussion in our house… the guide really helped open the children up to conversation!

And of course the Sing-along songs are always a hit! The best we have to say was “Bubble Rap”…the children loved this silly song with Larry!

One added bonus is that on the Veggie Tales website there are games and other activities for the children… nice interactive learning games and activities! You can even watch a preview of Robin Good!

For further information about the product and other offerings please visit www.veggietales.com

I noticed that the video is now on sale at the Veggie Tales store! You can buy your own DVD here: http://store.veggietales.com/robin-good-dvd.html

Share and Enjoy

{One comment}

Factory Tours USA

Posted by Brande on March 29, 2012
in Deals, Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, News Worthy, Parenting, Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday, Travel

Spring Break and Summer are getting close, what are your plans? With gas prices soaring and admission into places doesn’t seem to be getting any lower, family fun is getting expensive! Try this site Factory Tours USA . I did a spot check and from what I could see, most of the Factory Tours are FREE, granted I’m sure most have a gift store at the end. By going on a tour, you and your family are having fun and don’t even realize they are learning! There are many great places to visit. There are just about 50 categories ranging from candy to racing teams to musical instruments to mines and mining. You can search by state too. Here’s the website! http://www.factorytoursusa.com

Happy & Safe Travels!

Share and Enjoy

{No comments}

FREE “Dummies” Books

Posted by Brande on March 29, 2012
in Articles, Books, Downloads, Ebooks, Education, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom

I’ve used “Dummies” books before and they are helpful. Check out these 3 that I ordered. “Living the Boomer Life for Dummies“, “Well-Being for Dummies“, and “Retirement for Dummies” – Get these FREE Dummies books as a download if you need them faster or in hard copy. They are available at REAL Powered by Humana, which so far, for me at least, seems to be an equally good site for various information about work, family, self and play. If you look near the middle of the page you will see Marketplace that’s where you will find these “Dummies” books too. They are on the right side of the Marketplace link.

Share and Enjoy

{4 comments}

Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics Program Review

Posted by html404 on March 25, 2012
in Education, School

I know you all must remember Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and Tweetie Bird, The Tasmanian Devil and others. Very funny characters that make you laugh and remember your childhood days of watching these cartoon characters. I use to watch them with my Dad. He loved them and would sit and chuckle over their antics.

My children have had limited exposure to them, only because I am concerned about them learning to talk correctly and well, Tweetie and a couple others leave much to be desired in the pronouncing words the right way.

Nevertheless when we reviewed Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics, they loved it!

My Review of Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics Program

I really liked how the phonics lessons were organized, repetitive and fun! It is so important to have an element of fun when children are learning or else it just seems like drudgery work. After all we want them to love to learn!

When I set up an account for our daughter, I chose to start at level 10 because she already knew her ABCs and basic sounds, so my review is based on lessons 10-15, as those are the only ones we made it through. Nice features were: you can change settings for slow, medium and fast sounding out, parents may also set the length of the lesson which is a bonus for children with short attention spans!

Sample Lesson from Looney Tunes ClickN READ

The Looney Tunes Phonics Program has a fun little robot character that acts as the teacher. He instructs the children and takes the children through sound lessons first.

After doing some phonics work, there is a little break with the Loony Tunes characters. Then Mr. Robot takes the children through some words.

Again after a short lesson on sounding out words, there is another little break with a show about some of the Loony Tunes Characters. The next phase of the Loony Tunes Phonics Program is sentence reading.

Looney Tunes ClickN READ offers a free sample lessons to review before you make any purchase. There is lots of repetition. The robot talks clearly and concisely. This program is very easy for children to follow along and do their lessons with supervision and after each lesson part they get to practice what they learned by doing an activity where they clicked on a letter sound, word or read a sentence. Upon completion they are told how many they get wrong.

The only negative I see to the program is what I mentioned in my introduction and that is the way Tweetie talks, especially with children who are already struggling to say sounds correctly, but that is all. Overall it is fun, entertaining and educational.

Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics Discount!

Get Your Kids Reading With Bugs Bunny and Friends! Get Started with Looney Tunes Phonics for Only $9.95!, plus they have other purchasing options. If you are interested in trying it out, we were given a promotional to share with you of 15% off any purchase through 12/31/12 with the code: 15PERCNS15

Share and Enjoy

{8 comments}

Faith and Family Reviews Announces…Schoolhouseteachers.com Giveaway!

Posted by Brande on March 22, 2012
in Contests, Downloads, Education, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, News Worthy, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, School

Remember when I told you about the SchoolhouseTeachers.com from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine? Well, they are having a giveaway for 1 year PREMIUM level membership!

Here’s the link! http://networkedblogs.com/vsCFp

If you’d like to sign up for any of the SchoolhouseTeachers.com levels, here is the link to do that also!

http://schoolhouseteachers.com/dap/a/?a=3429

Happy Educating from Faith and Family Reviews!

Share and Enjoy

{One comment}

Bingzy Bee App Review

Posted by Brande on March 19, 2012
in Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Parenting, Shopping

Join Bingzy Bee as your child has fun through this new learning app! Just released in January, this app is available for iPhone, iTouch, & iPad. This adorable character is directed for your younger ones (ages 2-6). There are 4 activities to choose from: “Bingzy’s ABC Song”, “Song & Games”, “Letter Drag & Drop”, and “Bingzy to the Rescue”

Bingzy’s ABC Song – This great little song goes through the alphabet and sounds out the letter, give you a picture, than gives you a word. Perfect for your little ones learning the alphabet

Song & Game – Starts with Bingzy’s ABC Song, then you play a game after the letter D. For example, Letter A is Ant. The app gives you the picture of the Ant and give you _ NT your child then must pick the correct letter out.

Letter Drag & Drop – Similar to the Song & Game section. Except, you get the picture of the Ant and give you _ NT your child then must pick the correct letter.

Bingzy to the Rescue – Save Bingzy’s friends by loading them in the rescue copter in alphabetical order.

My Review

This is a great app for my daughter (3 years old), we are still working on our ABC’s all the way through and this is perfect for her! She’s not quite to the Letter Drag & Drop and Bingzy’s Rescue. But, this is what makes it a great app. She can use it for years to come. At last check this adorable & useful app is available on Itunes for only .99!