Today I received a parcel for 4 items I purchased as gifts.
(They are really cool by the way. Check them out here.)
However, only these items showed up...
Oh and one of these...
No, there's no need to adjust your screen. It IS just an empty cardboard box.
Oh it was nicely sealed though. All shrink wrapped and ready to assemble into this lovely display box.
Now I know they say that kids have more fun with the boxes and wrapping than the actual gifts themselves, but I think this might be taking it a bit far...especially when that box cost me $35!!
I have just written to the online store I purchased it from (not the one from above) and I hope that they can rectify the situation for me...
otherwise...
someone is getting a cardboard box on Christmas morning.
Why hadn't I thought of this before? Something so simple as a desktop hanging file box.
I'm always printing out this or that that would be nifty for school. Or a great article I want to read. But then I lay the piece of paper down in my diary or in a drawer or worst still a folder in a drawer, never to be seen again...well until the unit study is over or we've accomplished that particular skill.
Into the same piles I put the boys' completed worksheets and printed narrations...I do find those again...I have to...but the hunt is long and arduous.
But gone are those days...I hope. I have bought myself a cheap desktop hanging file box. I've even done the hard yards and properly labeled the files, using categories that I will use and not a bunch of hopeful categories that will never get used. Been there, done that.
It's home is right next to our workbook basket. I didn't want it cluttering up our table. Plus this makes tidying up at the end of the day so easy. Workbooks get popped in the cane basket and now I can quickly and easily file papers into my new hanging file box.
Quick, simple, cheap...all the things that make it a winner in the organisational world.
This week I bought the full version of Timez Attack for my boys...well mostly for Ethan as he's just getting into multiplication now...although Brayden was calling out the answers just as easily. That's how good the game is. It doesn't just review the answers, it teaches you how to build the answer and gives you practise at recalling them.
But generally other educational software is...well...not terribly exciting to children who are used to all the bells and whistles of normal gaming programs. My boys however have used very little other than educational software..so for them this game was a whole new level of "WOW", and they had to answer the multiplication facts in order to experience more of the medium.
Timez Attack combines learning with great gaming graphics. It's the best I've seen and we've tried a lot of different stuff.
You don't have to buy the full version to experience the fun and learning though. You can download their base version which still teaches all of the facts, but you just don't get the same variety of entertainment while you are learning. Over time the kids are bound to get bored with the same creatures and worlds so I figured it was well worth spending the money to update to the full version.
Now if you are opposed to ogres and funny looking green men, this game may present an issue for you. But other than ugly looking creatures that kids enjoy, they are harmless enough. However if you do answer incorrectly or too slowly the troll thingie will shoot goo at you out of the end of his club. So there is an element of stress and pressure involved in the game which some children don't handle well. For us it's been a teaching tool to relax and think clearly rather than panicking and rushing the answer. With practise though I'm sure this'll no longer be an issue.
Okay, so I spent a lot of time brushing up my multiplication facts too...when the boys weren't hogging the game. I discovered that my gaming skills are horrible. I may know what 6 x 9 is but do you think I can jump across a little ravine without falling down and having to try again...repeatedly?? So, yes, a game not just for the kids. Mum and Dad can learn something from it as well!!
(No I'm not reviewing this product for money or any other benefit. If it's on my blog, it's something I bought because we wanted it and loved it. If I reviewed it, it's because I wanted to share a great find with others.)
These are just some of the books that have arriving over the last month. With the strength of the dollar recently hubby suggested that I purchase some of the books I might like for next year. You don't need to tell me to go book shopping twice!!
I didn't actually get that much, although it does look like it. Usually I buy a grand list of books for our Story of the World studies as our library just doesn't have any of the great titles that are suggested as wonderful books to read.
Recently though I've found that things are a lot easier if I just purchase a few of the SOTW suggested titles here and there as topics approach. This way the books are new and exciting and often we sit down and read them straight away. Whereas, if I purchase them all at once, they are set aside as "for next year" and often we forgot the great titles that we popped into the shelves for later. It's also a lot less overwhelming to do it a little at a time.
The books you can see here include:
- several history titles that we are reading about at present (Incas, Aztecs, China)
- several read alouds for the boys for next year
- a Math title that completes a series we have collected and loved (Sir Cumference books)
- a few Trailblazer books to read to the boys later but in the meanwhile I'll read them
- another of Jackie French's titles for me to read
- a book about the Plague that I bought super cheap (I'll read it and set it aside for the boys for later)
- a Christmas story novel (as in the REAL story and not that Santa fellow who we've expelled from the house)
- a book about Einstein as I stumbled on it while searching and just loved it
- a book about large numbers as Brayden is obsessed with googles (that's a number that starts with 1 and has a hundred zeros behind it. In this book Brayden learned about googleplexes which is a 1 with a google zeros behind it. Woah!!)
- and a Rachel Yoder book, "Schools Out" as we've enjoyed Amish stories and I wanted to try one of these to see if we'd enjoy this series too
There are several titles that are not shown. I forgot about some of them until after I took the photos and a few haven't arrived yet:
- a few weather titles (we are working through the holidays with a weather unit as it's the best time of year to watch our weather at it's best and worst)
- Handbook of Nature (I've always considered this book but culled it at the last moment. With all our nature study this year I decided it had earned a place on our shelves.)
- A Child's Geography (I lost the ebook of this in the big crash of 2009 and decided it was time to buy the real thing, especially since I had hoped to use it for next year).
This week the last few packages started arriving. The boys Singapore Math books (I always buy double of the level Ethan's doing so those books will be waiting for Brayden when he gets there), their Explode the Code books (our absolute favourite phonics text) and our new Latin curriculum. We've already listened to the audio and the boys have tried out a few "salve"s and "vale"s.
I told Ethan this week that since we had all of our books (nearly) we should just keep going and skip our holidays. The look he gave me said it all. I don't think he's as excited about the new books as I am.
Today Ethan asked me to take a narration for him. No I didn't fall down dead with shock. I restrained myself and happily obliged.
Ethan had drawn several pictures and wanted me to type up the information that went with them. Let me tell you...thank goodness I took speed typing in high school. Even then it was hard to keep up with the sentences he wanted me to capture in writing.
He also insisted that I share his "information" with you. Originally he wanted me to link my blog with his so you could all visit. But as we keep his blog a private domain for his own safety, I convinced him to settle for a reproduction of his work on my blog. He's happy enough with that but itching to hit the real stage of the internet with his own blog.
So for your reading pleasure, please enjoy...Ethan's
No Pollution City
This city will have fire engines that are really different. It will have a water pipe like normal but the thing that's different is that it will have a vacuum that sucks up poisonous gases and it will be controlled by a control panel. It will be vented right out of the city.
This is a picture of the fire engine.The blue bit is the water to put out the fire.All the gases get caught while this is happening.This is what the orange bit is.The FP on the picture means “Fire Pipe” and the VP means Vent Pipe.
The city will also have a little place where oxygen can get remade with carbon dioxide.The carbon dioxide will come off as you breathe out.There will be trees in a little zone of this city or state.The trees will turn the carbon dioxide into oxygen.The oxygen comes out and all of that will be great.
There will be a part of city that will be actually made into a station that controls the city.The heat and energy will get through from the sun but none of the light.The light will just be millions or billions of light bulbs on the roof.
This picture is the town.You can see there are two layers.One is filled with pipes and there’s a big vent inside the layer that the people are in.Only fixers can head up into the top layer.When there are problems on one of the lights the light will have to be switched off after there is an alert announcement in every place of that zone.One zone will be called the North Zone and one will be called the South Zone.
There will be a switch that turns it to night time and it will be in 24 hours like the day outside the city.The sunrise time will be controlled by kids and they’ll get woken up by alarm clocks and they can turn it to daylight.There’ll be no sunrise because they will be just switched on quickly so the kids don’t have to stand there for hours moving the switch up slowly.
This one is a picture of the control panel.You can see a switch that says night at the topThe night one means that all the lights can be switched off.Down below there is day.You switch it down there and all the lights go on.Next to the switch you can see a box with an N and S with a dot below them.The N stands for north and the S stands for south .Those buttons turn the lights on and off in the different zones – the top or bottom part of the city.There is no West and East because they are done with the North and South lights.But I don’t know what we’ll do about the moon.If I could refresh this picture I would pop another button on it... well it’s already automatic so I don’t really need to put the button on it.When it’s night some of the lights will stay on to be the moon.You can also see three lines and they show an image of three trees that are the biggest in the forest.But maybe we won’t be able to grow that much if we make the city.
All the pollution will be allowed but the speed of the vents will have to be powered up higher for how much pollution there is measured on the town control panel.The vents will look like those things that they have on the plane to make it go.I think they are called jet turbines.The side that takes the air in on the plane will be the part that sucks the pollution out on our vents.
Maybe the whole state of Queensland could be turned into this city if we ask the Queensland government.
I am a homeschooling mother of two boys, aged 8 and 6 years. We live in Australia and have never sent our children to school...except to visit with their Daddy, my Dh. He is a school teacher (as I was too, a long time ago).
This one is a picture of the control panel.
