Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Byron's Games - Math Sprint - The Mental Math Game

 

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.



Practicing math facts can become very tedious.  We had the opportunity to review Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game from Byron's Games.  This is a great addition to our math routine.



Most math games have some sort of younger kid theme to them, since they were created for kids that are younger.  Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game was created for ages 7 and up.  The theme though was a running race.  Caty is older and still working hard at practicing her math facts, she really appreciated the fact that we were running a race and not skipping along a candy trail.  


Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game has easily adaptable rules for the age and skill of whoever is using this game.  If you have an older special needs student who is struggling to practice their multiplication and division skills,  adjust the length of your game to their attention span.  This helps to avoid frustration and keeps math fun.  They can see progress, and will want to play more.


Set up for the game took no time at all.  The game board is made of a durable, coated cardboard.  Included also with the game are over 92 addition & subtraction cards, 106 multiplication & division cards, 30 Wild cards, and 30 Challenge cards.  There is also 10 dry erase cards if students need to do figures, and even 8 runner playing pieces.  All of the materials are well made, and they seem to be able to withstand a lot of use.  So Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game would be a great investment for families, or even co-op or public school classrooms. 

You can set the game to whatever length works best for your student.  So if they want to play a longer game, that's great.  If they have a shorter attention span, then you can adjust to that.  Since set up is very easy, you can plan to play a game in just under 15 minutes. 

Each one of the pieces represent a different character personality.  Your child can pick a piece that represents their own personality.  Not every kid loves sports, but they still love to use their minds.  So maybe they will be the blue Crystal Reaction, red Groovin' Gabby, even purple Bootstrap Byron.  

I really love the addition of Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game to our homeschool week.  The girls were struggling remembering their facts, but playing Math Spring has really helped the girls to remember their basic facts better.  In fact, after playing a few games, Caty started surprising herself with how many facts she was remembering.  She would see a card and spit out the answer, all while reaching for the dry erase marker thinking she would need to use a dry-erase card to figure the answer.  She said that she didn't feel like I was making her play a "little kid" game.  As the girls get better with their facts, I'm thinking about ways that I can use Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game over Zoom for my tutoring students.  I definitely can use it this way also.  The flexibility with this game is amazing!

Still need a little more information?  Here is a video from Byron's Games.


Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to Sprint to the Finish Line with Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game in their homes.  Click on the link below to see how they used this game in their home, and how their students felt about it.

Math Sprint  - The Mental Math Game {Byron's Games Reviews}

 

Monday, October 12, 2020

Menu Monday




Life has been a struggle to balance.  I am working to try and keep everyone fed (in a healthy way), dishes cleaned up, and not kill myself all at the same time.I have broken down and bought an Instant Pot.  It finally came Saturday.  I made Joe some beef roast chili in it.  He LOVED it.  So I guess so far so good.  We will keep going with it.

Sunday
B- Cereal
L - hm pizza rolls
D - Chicken enchilada soup w/ rice
Snack - apple slices or popcorn

Monday
B - Honey Bun cake
L-  Mac and cheese casserole
D - Pumpkin Gnocchi (Caty taking a cooking class)
Snack - hummus and crackers

Tuesday
B- Cereal
L - Open
D - Burgers on the grill
Snack - Apple slices / celery  / carrots

Wednesday
B- Breakfast Tacos
L- Hamburger soup
D - Creamy chicken noodles
Snack - Popcorn

Thursday
B - Oatmeal/Cream of Wheat/Grits
L - chicken ravioli soup
D -  Baked Ziti 
Snack - Apples and frozen grapes

Friday
B - Apple Coffee Cake
L - Instant pot mac and cheese
D - Pad Thai noodles and coconut mango rice
Snack - Peanut butter crackers

Saturday
B - pumpkin muffins
L - chicken and dumplings
D - Orange pork w/ rice and eggrolls
Snack - Apple/Pumpkin cookies


***This is important.....some days I change things around.****  I print a menu and keep it on the cabinet.  If something happens, I change the menu in pencil.  I make sure to keep track at the bottom of the menu of the meals that get moved, and we still have the ingredients for.  

This biggest thing to remember.... BE FLEXIBLE!!  I cannot express this enough.  Do not down yourself if you need to move your menu around.  You might be exhausted, need to work over, or a sports practice gets moved....all these things have happened to me in the last few weeks.  Flexibility is the key.  I also have given up some control in the kitchen and make sure that the kids are involved as much as possible in making meals.  Some day they will be able to cook the entire meal themselves!!  Whoohooo!!

I know I didn't share any recipes, but if you are interested, please email me.  renitakuehner@gmail.com.  I'd be happy to share a close variation of what we make.  I seriously do not really follow recipes well...lol

Hope that these ideas help and everyone has a great week!!!


Saturday, October 10, 2020

I Need to Take More Pictures....

 

I have been horrible about pictures.  The girls are chugging along on schoolwork.  Caty has started filling in book report forms.  I am advancing Lydia to a book report outline. 

We learned about Japan and a little about Bolivia this week in Geography.  Our geography program from Guest Hollow has us learned several different little facts here and there each week.

Caty took a class on how to make a zebra cake on Outschool.  The teacher was energetic, but forgot to change the measurements to match American students.  It was a bit chaotic.  But didn't turn out horrible.




Turned out cute.

I made homemade cauliflower gnocchi.  It was yummy.


I got up and made homemade pumpkin spice doughnut because someone ate Brayden's last doughnut.  The kids liked them.


Lydia has riding on Monday mornings, so Caty and I played a new to us game - Math Sprint - to practice her math facts.  Watch for our upcoming review.


After her lesson, Lydia helps with a class.  This was her leaving the arena after helping.


Caty's Japanese is driving me crazy...lol.  I'm trying to help though.


The craft I made with my class for storytime online.


The girls and I attempted to make homemade mozzarella.....it did not turn out.



It seemed like it would, but it did not set hard enough.


Lydia at YEDA Practice on Tuesday.


We made a Japanese themed meal.  This was the bean paste I made to eat as dessert.


The main course was rice balls and Japanese curry.



Here was the dessert - Anmitsu


Her Zoology certificate of completion from a Nature Glo class they finished.


Learning about the garments worn by Israel's priests and coloring a chart of the jewels worn.


Beautiful full moon on Friday morning with fall leaves.


Brayden bowled his heart out this week.  10 strikes in 2 games!!


Her Cosplay class....transforming into Poison Ivy.




On Saturday I told Caty to assemble her own supply drawers.  She did a great job!


Check out our part-pit bull puppy snoozing!.  Love this sweet baby.


I ordered this shelf off of Amazon.  I need more to grow my microgreens on.  That's why I ordered it, and instead it now shelves Lydia's succulents.


Next week, I'll post some pictures of how we are doing school.  It's a little different this year.



Friday, October 9, 2020

NatureGlo's eScience - NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle 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.

We had the neatest opportunity recently to review the NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle from NatureGlo's eScience.  The NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle has given us a lot of extra fun science lessons and even a great reminder that math is all around us.


In the past we had the opportunity to review NatureGlo's MathArt program, and it allowed us to see how math is all around us.  The kids had so much fun, oh let's admit that I had lots of fun too, studying and creating art with math.  The kids still talk about those hands-on lessons.

This time when we had the opportunity to review the latest updates with NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Bundle, we concentrated more on the science side.  The girls are definitely into animal science.  Lydia is taking a Biology course also, and she is getting ready to start a Pet Grooming/Care Certification.  It seemed like the perfect way to take some more relaxed science studies.

The girls are doing a pretty detailed chemistry curriculum.  So we are all getting a little exhausted trying to keep up their schedule there.  I began scheduling some of these nature studies every few days to give us a break as I adjust our study schedule with their chemistry program.  The girls were very excited.


We are pretty fortunate that we can project the screen onto our television.  This makes it so that we are not all huddled around a laptop.  Each unit also contained printable comprehension guides.  The girls did not even mind going through and answering the questions.


The interface is extremely easy to use.  The girls would select what course they would like to explore that day.  The list of available classes is amazing.







Once they selected their course.  You simply click on it to open it.  Inside of each study there are a series of pre-recorded classes, extra video lessons, and even extra lesson ideas for hands-on activities.

The videos are all pre-recorded of the Live classes that Gloria has held.  I like this option for the flexibility.  I do know if she offers live sessions again, we would definitely be signing up for them.  The unit studies are created for roughly Grades 5 and up through high school, depending on the comprehension level of your student.  Gloria used several different online book resources to help students explore each topic that we watched.  

The videos were not what I consider a lecture session.  We could easily open up the same materials, if we chose to.  The videos were roughly 15 minutes long, depending on the topic.  She also included extra links for National Geographic, and other science resources to watch.  If you have a visual child that learns best from hands-on and even does better with video vs reading a book...you need to check out NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle.

Some more examples of lesson material.

Comprehension questions....
Video links for outside hands-on activities also are included:


So far we have studied about Redwoods, bubbles, and went through several lessons on herpetology (A huge passion of Lydia).  Each lesson completed you can print off a certificate of completion.


These individual unit studies are a great way to make learning more fun.  I know it definitely reminded me that science DOES not need to be all textbook based.  We will continue to plan on using the Science side of 
NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle and also plan on exploring some of the MathArt courses that we completed a couple years ago back into our lesson plans over the next couple of months.  Give the girls some "fun" math to explore along with their art. 

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle from NatureGlo's eScience.  Click on the link below to see how they used this program in their homes and with their families.

NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle { NatureGlo's eScience Reviews}