LOGICO Learning Game Review

This morning I'm very excited to share about a new learning game which we've been using.   The LOGICO Learning System is now available in Australia.  Nathaniel has been given two of the LOGICO Piccolo sets to trial for our review.

What we received

• LOGICO Piccolo - The board is made of durable plastic with ten movable pegs. The pegs are coloured: green, red, blue, orange, yellow and a second set with a white dot in the center. The board is user friendly and compact.  It has no loose parts, is portable (about the size of an iPad) and can be used on the go. The buttons are made of a durable material and are easy to grip and move.
• Geometry 2 - This set contains 16 cards covering: left and right orientation, mapping skills, comprehension, symmetry, spacial relations, logical thinking and imagination skills.
• Math Paths 2 - This set contains 16 cards covering: addition and subtraction up to 20, mental arithmetic (addition and subtraction), problem solving strategies and comprehension skills.

About the Card Collections

• Each of the card sets come in a  plastic coated cardboard folder. 
• The right inside flap has a contents list, listing each card and it's subject matter.
• The right hand side contains a pocket for the cards to be stored in and the right hand flap has a pictorial guide on how to use the cards.
• Each card is numbered from 1 to 16. Each one is printed in colour on quality card stock and plastic coated for durability and ease of keeping clean. 
• The cards are clearly printed and visually appealing.  They are not busy and the use of colour enhances the experience. 
• As the difficulty level increases so does the amount of text increase per card.

Working on a problem

• Visual Discrimination
• Logical Thinking and Reasoning
• Spatial and Geometrical skills
• Mathematical concepts and operations
• Literacy development
• Problem Solving
• Independent learning 
• Self Confidence

How does the system work?
LOGICO Piccolo is an educational hands on game for children in the primary school age bracket.
Before beginning a new card all the pegs need to be placed along the bottom edge in their slots.  Select a card from which ever set you are working on and slide it into the card slot in the Piccolo Board. The instructions for completing the task are contained in the yellow bar along the top of each card. Each question is colour coded to correspond with a peg.  Once the student/child has worked out the answer they move the answer peg to the corresponding answer along the right hand edge.  Upon completing the ten questions the card is removed from the slot, turned over and reinserted to check the answers.

You can view a short YouTube clip on how Logico works here: YouTube  LOGICO

Products Currently Available in Australia

• LOGICO Primo (board with 6 moveable buttons for pre-school ages 3 - 5)
  
  • Concentration & perception
  • Logical thinking
  • Colours & Shapes
  • Numeracy
  • Reading Readiness
  • Sequencing
  • Sorting and classifying
  • Language development
• LOGICO Piccolo (board with 10 moveable buttons for primary school ages 5 - 10)
  
  • School Readiness
  • Reading Readiness
  • Mathematics
  • Reading
  • Literacy
  • Natural Science

LOGICO has been translated into 24 languages and is available in over 40 countries.

Purchase LOGICO 

• Online
• Victoria
•  New South Wales
• Queensland
• Western Australia
• ACT

Checking the Answers

Mission Statement

Play, learn and grow together!
Play is joyful, educational, creative and inspiring.
Our educational toys are creative, innovative and imaginative. We believe in the power of play.

Awards

• 1996 WORLDDIDAC Award
• 2000 Netherlands Game of the Year award
• 2001 is recommended by the Pedagogical University of Lisbon, Portugal.
• 2005 USA Distinguished Achievement Award
• 2006 USA Teachers’ Choice Award
• 2006 Poland “Innovative Product” award
• 2007 Star Award for Design by the China Toy Association 

 Connect with LOGICO

• Phone: 0401 313 979
• Website: www.eutoys.com.au
• Facebook Logico Australia

Overall I thought
When  LOGICO Piccolo arrived I was taken back to my childhood of quality hands on learning that is robust enough for children to use without me worrying about.  I couldn't wait for Nathaniel to use it.  I'm impressed with the quality and simplicity of the system.  I love that the learning cards are categorised into different topics across the curriculum.

LOGICO fulfills its mission to assist children in developing observation, comparison, analysis and reasoning skills.  It is ideal for independent learning skill/task development.  It is portable and can be used when hands and minds need quiet activities.  I love the self-checking aspect of the system as it means that I am not constantly needed to check the answers before Nathaniel can go onto the next card he can do it all himself.

LOGICO learning is the perfect tool to enhance and support your child's learning.

Be sure to check the full range of cards and let me know what your children think of their LOGICO experience.

Chareen

 

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Exploring the Building Blocks of Science Book 7 {Review}

"How will you teach Science?" is one of the most common questions I get asked when people find out I am home educating.  One of my greatest delights after being on this journey for 19 years is finding products which have been designed by professionals in the field of study and home educators for home educators.  Combine the two things and you have a marvelous product! Real Science 4 Kids recently blessed Nathaniel and I with Book 7 in the Exploring The Building Blocks of Science. I had been hearing some fabulous reports about this product and was super excited when they asked us to look over their book.

About the Author

I set up the program from a reversed viewpoint. I asked, “What would a high school student need to know to master college science? What would a middle school student need to know to master high school science? What would an elementary school student need to know to master middle school science?”
The basic concepts of science are broken down to a fundamental level so that a first grader can master a few key aspects of science. I don’t overload students with material at this stage. It isn’t necessary or beneficial. The program offers just enough to get them interested without making it complicated. Those initial concepts will be built upon in second grade, and so on. As learning capacity increases, so does the material. Dr. Keller

Rebecca W. Keller is a homeschool Mom with a difference.  She has a PhD and her professional specialty is science. When Rebecca began home educating her children she came to realise that there was a lack of real science for home educated children.  She realised that most scientific texts had been dumbed down to the point where there was no real content and therefore no connection with real scientific terms and concepts.  She couldn't find any texts containing chemistry or physics which are the foundations of all science.  Born out of many years this labor of love to give children real chemistry, physics, biology etc to inspire children to learn and love science which in turn has grown into Real Science 4 Kids. You can read a more in depth interview on why Real Science 4 Kids Works with Rebecca W.Keller PhD in her interview: Real Science Chat.

Her original series Focus On was set up to meet the unit study approach and focus on single subjects.  Dr. Keller realised that many families prefer to cover multiple areas of science each year so she repackaged the Focus On course materials into grade level books and created the new Building Blocks series.  Each year, students study all five areas of science as they would eventually do if they worked through the Focus On courses. Both text and illustrations in the student books have been borrowed from the Focus On series with minor changes and additions.

We received the following to review and share with you today: Real Science 4 Kids sent us their Building Blocks Book 7 Bundle consisting of: 

• Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Student Textbook - 422 pp
• Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Laboratory Workbook - 264 pp
• Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Teacher's Manual - 116 pp

About the Books

Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Student Textbook this is a beautifully illustrated full color text divided into 22 chapters subdivided into:

• Introduction using Science
• Chemistry - Pure Substances, Organic Chemistry (Carbon), Polymers and Biological Polymers.
• Biology - Plants, Photosynthesis, Plant Structure and Growth as well as Plant Reproduction
• Physics - Chemical Energy, Electrostatics, Electrodynamics and Electromagnetics.
• Geology - The Hyrdosphere,The Biosphere, The Magnetosphere, and Earth as a System
• Astronomy - Galaxies, Our Galaxy The Milky Way, Other Galaxies, Exploding Stars and Other Stuff
• Conclusion Putting It All Together.
• Appendix (Chemistry)
• Glossary/Index

The whole text book is beautifully written and every page contains beautiful crisp full colour photographs or drawings illustrating the point being taught.  It's a visual feast for the eyes and a banquet of knowledge for you and your student.  This books will introduce your student to foundation scientific concepts and terminology giving them a solid foundation on which to build their study of science.

There is no need to go looking for a suitable laboratory notebook for your students.  Real Science 4 Kids has a beautifully presented ready to use Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Laboratory Workbook which corrolotates beautifully with the student text. This 258 pages is printed in black and white and contains:

• Introduction
• Chemistry - Four Experiments
• Biology - Four Experiments
• Physics - Four Experiments
• Geology - Four Experiments
• Astronomy - Four Experiments
• Conclusion
• Appendix

Experiment 8 - Colorful Flowers

 Each section follows the same outline:

1. Introduction and Think About It with questions to answer before you commence the experiment.  This helps the students clarify what they are looking for.
2. Experiment - Here you will find a space to clarify the objective, your hypotheses, Materials you will need and then the Experiment with directions and Results recording page 
3. Conclusions
4. Why? This contains a discussion on what and why with deeper insights on the practical implications of what you are doing.
5. Just for Fun.  Sometimes students are encouraged to dream big and jot down ideas for the future and other times they are challenged to answer an extension question with an experiment.

Experiment 8 - Colorful Flowers Results

This book contains everything you will need to fulfill the hands on section of the course. Every question is clearly asked followed by double spaced lines for the student to write in their answers/thoughts. All the directions are clear and easy to follow and reinforce the subject matter being studied.

Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Teacher's Manual contains 103 black and white pages containing:

• A full list of the Materials at a Glance listed by experiment.
• A list of the Materials quantities needed for all the experiments.
• Introduction
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Physics
• Geology
• Astronomy
• Conclussion

 The purpose of the teachers guide is to assist you to guide your students through the experiments in order to help them solidify their scientific understanding in the five scientific disciplines through the 44 experiments presented. It also provides you with an answer key of what should happen in each experiment and the possible answers your children (and you) could come up with.

You can download and view Samples of each of the books here.

Connect with
Real Science 4 Kids @realscience4kids
Real Science 4 Kids Blog
Real Science 4 Kids @rs4k
Real Science 4 Kids @RS4K_gravitas
RealScience4Kids
@realscience4kids


Over All I thought ...
These books are beautifully presented and well put together.  They are twaddle free, logical  and provide you with challenging science instruction.  This curriculum will make it easy for any parent who has no scientific background or understanding to give their children and themselves a quality scientific education, preparing them for a life long love and understanding.  The books are available to purchase individually or as bundle sets.

Blessings
Chareen

Aussie Fauna Silkworms {Review}

Silkworms have been a part of my childhood so when I saw an add on Facebook for Aussie Fauna Silkworms I just had to contact them to find out more.  This review has taken Paul and I down memory lane for the last couple of months and provided practical life cycle observation for Nathaniel.  As a child it was something we used to do annually at school and I was pretty pleased that we had a huge Mulberry tree in our back yard. This activity at school was one we did among ourselves and had nothing to do with school.  It was purely driven among the students and it contains such fond memories that it's an experience I've wanted my children to enjoy.  Upon further research at Aussie Fauna Silkworms I discovered their Silkworms in the Classroom Program and after chatting to them they blessed our family with a Premium Teacher's Pack to review.

What we received
Premium Teacher's Pack Includes:

• 100 Silkworm EggsThese eggs have been wintered and are ready to develop into silkworms. 
• 500g Silkworm chow - Chow is a powdered form of mulberry leaves from Europe and contains the highest nutritional value for your Silkworms and is available all year round. This product makes looking after your silkworms super easy if you do not have access to a Mulberry tree.  It is easy to make.  You mix with water and cook.  Feeding the worms involves piping some chow into their container for consumption.
• Customized book: Silkworm Life-cycle Lessons and Activities Plan: Linked to the Australian National Teaching Curriculum -
• A1(59.4 cm x 84.1 cm) sized Silkworm Life Cycle Poster -This poster is a gorgeous full colour poster printed on high quality paper.  It contains a combination of actual photographs and drawings of the six stages of the life cycle of a Silkworm along with a short sentence about each stage.
• Piping bag for silkworm chow - This is made of a strong durable thick plastic
• Petri dish to hatch eggs - our worms and kego lived in here for the first week after hatching.
• Plastic mesh for kego (baby silkworms) transfer between feeding.  Full instructions are contained in the book and the care sheet.
• Hatching/care instructions A4 sheet. This sheet contains photo instructions on how to use the mesh and silkworm chow on one side and care instructions on the other.
• Available support throughout duration of classroom project.

Aussie Fauna was established in 2012.  All the silkworms are bred in a veterinary approved facility here in Australia ensuring that the eggs and worms are all well cared for and in excellent health.

How we used our kit
Our kit arrived within 48 hours of ordering via courier delivery.  The kit contained everything we needed to raise the silkworms including a quick start guide to help us know what to do with our worms once they hatched and a food source. Caring for silkworms is a relatively easy process and once the worms are a little bigger easy for the children to participate in their care. We read the quick start guide which contained all the information we needed on silk worm care and feeding. The only item we had to provide was a shoe box.  We also collected a couple of toilet rolls and egg boxes for the worms to spin their cocoons in. We learned that silkworms need an environmental temperature of around 25 - 27 degrees Celsius and approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness to develop well.  It was fun watching them wake up when we opened up the box each morning.

I would like to share a photo journal of our silkworm life cycle journey.

The eggs arrived in a petri dish along with a wire mesh to use with the Silkworm Chow.  We took our eggs along with us on holidays and found a mulberry tree near our accommodation. As the day for hatching got closer we added a small mulberry leaf to the Petri dish. There were over 100 eggs around 2 mm in diameter.

Newly hatched silkworm which is known as a kego. (29 October 2016)

They are the tinniest worms (kego) I have ever seen! They hatch hungry and eat so very much.  We were stunned at how quickly they consumed the leaves we added to the dish every day.  In fact they grew so quickly that we could look at them in the morning and see a difference in them by lunch time.

Silkworm eggs after hatching along with plenty of frass.

4 days old - Ravenous Silkworm babies (2 November)

Their care involved removing the leaf skeletons and frass (droppings) and adding in fresh leaves. We had almost 150 silkworms.

4 days old - 2 November 2016

Caring for them when they were super tiny was easy. We placed fresh mulberry leaves on top of their depleted food source. They would climb onto the new leaf and eat their way around. We would remove the new leaf with the babies and then clean out their container. We used a paintbrush to remove any stragglers.

The most interesting part of the whole process was watching their exponential growth and it was not long before they graduated to a cardboard shoe box.

30 days old - 28 November 2016

The quantity of food and exponential growth is staggering. Paul made a time lapse of them eating a leaf in ten minutes. Whenever we gave them fresh leaves to consume you could actually hear them eating!

At a month old the head and six legs

Pseudopods

Silkworm Skin

38 days old the first worm was ready to start spinning (6 December)

Collecting fresh mulberry leaves became a daily adventure. On day 38 (6 weeks) our first worm began to spin. It was so very exciting. We removed the worm from the shoe box and placed it in an egg container so it had three points of contact in order to anchor it's thread to enable it to spin a cocoon. Some of our worms took almost two weeks longer to reach this point.

Upon completing the cocoon it's time to de-floss and remove the extra bits of silk and store the cocoons.

De-flossed cocoons

Hatched three weeks later.

Mating Silkworm Moths (28 December)

We learned so much watching the life cycle of the Silkworms. I have a few more photographs about our journey which I will be sharing next week.

About the book

• This book is a soft cover book 
• Written by Sarah Tuckfield and Dr. Brett De Poister  
• ISBN 978-0-646-96090-6
• Linked to The Australian National Teaching Curriculum.  
• Divided into different school year levels
• Full Colour photography is throughout the book.  Beautiful enlarged photographs of every stage of the silkworm life cycle.
• Contains:
  
  • Introduction 
  • A care sheet- Here you are given information on the food, environment, hygiene, growth, cocconing, reproduction, eggs, egg care, wintering and how to feed the newly hatched silkworms.
  • Quick Guide - This is a one page summary of the information found in the care sheet area. 
  • Life Cycle information
  • Lesson Plans- Each lesson plan provides you with: Approximate Time needed,  an introduction, Activity, Conclusion, Extension, Key Scientific Knowledge, Technology Extension and Resource list. The lesson plans are divided into school year levels (Pre-school to Year 6) and there are useful internet links throughout.
  • Silkworm Features
  • Differences between Silkworms and Moths
  • Shelters for Silkworms
  • Silk Production (Sericulture)
  • Pre Schooling Activities
  • Online Resources 
  • Useful YouTube and internet links.
•  Every section contains practical hands on actives and ideas for you to use depending on the age group you are working with.
• Fun Facts about Silkworms.  I found this list particularly interesting.  Did you know that there are no silkworms left in the wild ?  It takes 6,500 cocoons to produce one kilogram of silk! 

Nathaniel and I enjoyed reading from this book and following the links to different YouTube videos.

Connect with Aussie Fauna Silkworms 

• Website
• Facebook

Our Thoughts
What a fabulous hands on journey we have experienced.  The Aussie Fauna Silkworms team were amazing and answered any questions we had.  They touched base with us regularly to find out if we needed any help and were always willing to answer any questions we had no matter what it was.  We highly recommend you investing in a kit whether you are homeschooling or teaching in a public school setting.
 
Blessings
 Chareen

Win a Premium Teachers Pack and receive a 10% discount coupon
For your chance to win a Premium Teachers Pack be sure to head on over to Facebook and comment/share this post from Aussie Fauna Silkworms - Bringing in The New Year with a Term 1 GIVEAWAY and FREE VOUCHERS!!! The winner will be announced at 8pm the Sunday after the post on Facebook receives 300 Shares or on January 29th 2017, whichever comes first.

CrossTimber Name Gifts {Review}

I want to squeal with excitement over CrossTimber! I love this product and am so very happy to have discovered John and the company. CrossTimber specialise in Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse gifts. 

I emailed John and asked him if he can help me find the name meanings of a few names and he was super helpful.  It was less than a day and I heard back from him. He has a huge database of names and loves to share the meanings of names.  If you would like to know the meaning of a specific name email him and he will get back to you with it's meaning. 

I'm so looking forward to giving these as gifts for Christmas this year to my children and to my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary.  I LOVE that I can have them as a printable. CrossTimber make two name plaques as well, these make wonderful wedding, engagement or anniversary gifts.  I love that the work is done for me. (I know how many hours go into creating graphics and this is why I haven't made these for myself ... ).

I chose to order  Multi-Name Plaque gift for Paul for his birthday and am so pleased that I did. I love these extra large plaques for up to three names at once. I used his first and middle name on the Golden eagle's Wings (NG-8x10-AN24)  These prints are designed to be 8" tall and 10" wide. For more detailed information on the Multi-Name Plaques read this page: What's a Multi-Name Plaque?  John sent me a note with the meanings of his names and attached my order via email.  I took it on a memory stick to Big W and had it printed in 8" x 10" gloss print and framed it. 

I want to do them for my grown children too so I can give them a beautifully framed name meaning board so they will always remember our love upon them through the choosing of their names the possibilities are almost endless!

A little back story to my passion about the meanings of names...
For many years names and their meanings have held a special significance to me and it all started with my first pregnancy.  It was important that the name be one of blessing. We called him Timothy (One who brings honour to God) our daughter was named Jane (Gift of the Lord) and then we waited many years (10 long tear filled years) for our third blessing and we named him: Nathaniel (Asked of the Lord).

About 15 years ago we became more aware of the significance of names and their meanings and so started telling our children what their names meant.

I recently realised that knowing what my children's names mean and knowing the positive meanings has been a huge encouragement to me through the many valley's we have walked in parenting.

When ever I look at Nathaniel I am reminded that I asked God for him and God heard my cry. His second name means brings joy/laughter and this is true too. He has brought comfort and joy into Paul and my life and we love him dearly.

When I hear my older two children's names I feel the hand of God and know that He is working in their lives daily.

For many years I really struggled with my own name ...
My name is a combination of my grandparents names (Charles and Kathleen) of which I am very proud. With my initial research I found out that Charles means manly and Kathleen purity. For many years I wondered why God would allow me to be called manly?

My passion for names and there meaning continued and so my quest to know more names and their meanings deepened. I soon discovered that the original meaning of Charles is actually strength not manly! I was not being called manly, my name actually means Strong Pure One or Strength in Purity.  I received my name/life verse: Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

Knowing that my name means Strong Pure One and that God delights in me and rejoices over me with singing has made a huge difference to how I see myself.
Name Meaning Gifts
Name meaning gifts have a HUGE impact on the person receiving the gift. I have watched people cry tears of blessing and seen the change in them when reading a note to them saying this is what your name means and this is who you are.

Types of name meaning gifts

CrossTimber have a large selection of options available for you to choose from.

• Name Plaques 7x9 frame
• Multi-Name Plaques 10x12 frame 
• Name Coffee Mugs
• Name Meaning Music Boxes
• Names of God
• Name Meaning Bookmarks

The process is super easy.

1. Choose the type of gift you would like to purchase.  
2. In the drop down menu choose the style of photo you would like and select it.   
3. Select the type of frame etc
4. In the notes section write in the name you would like on your gift 
5. Hit the Add to Order button.

Once you have paid for your order you will receive a confirmation email. I will be purchasing more of these gifts in the future.  CrossTimber mail their products worldwide. If you would like to order be sure to email John and he will get back to you on the cost of postage for your order.

**Please note the names and gifts photographed in my review are in frames I purchased locally.  I was given and purchased pdf versions of the names, meanings and scripture to print at my local store.

CrossTimber are sponsoring a name gift giveaway.  For your chance to win a name gift of your choice be sure to visit CrossTimber and enter their giveaway.  The giveaway ends on 4 December.