Saturday 15 March 2014

Egglo Entertainment {Review}

We love all things glow in the dark around here.  Sir N especially enjoys searching for things and recently we have added Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs to our list of items in the house from Egglo Entertainment.  The companies goal is to create a product that would empower parents and those working with children with products that would help children clearly see the light of Jesus in the dark through practical hands on ways. 

We Received



What we did
Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs: Sir N loved receiving the eggs and book in the mail. They are made of a strong durable plastic in four colours. The blue and green egg halves have a cross embossed on them and the pink and yellow ones are smooth. The egg halves clip into each other to form an egg shape.  These can be filled with anything from candy to scripture scrolls. Once they have been fully charged they glow brightly for approximately 45 minutes and then gradually diminish over the next one to two hours.

When they arrived he grabbed the box of eggs and spent the afternoon playing with them.  Mixing and matching the colours.  Hiding the eggs and finding them.  He couldn't wait to see what they looked like charged so they were carefully placed in the box and taken outside into the sun to charge up.

The motivation to create the glow in the dark eggs is found in John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Charging the eggs did not take long at all.  Included in the box is a pamphlet explaining how to charge the eggs for maximum glo effect.

The next day we took sometime to read The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure.
  • 40 pages
  • Author: Darcie Cobos
  • Illustrated by: Golden Streen Animations 

Sir N loved looking at the illustrations which are eye catching and contribute to each part of the story.  The story follows the quest of cousins Hardy, Anastasia, Pascal and their pet dog Zeke.  Not only do they travel through time, they explore many different places and discover what it truly means to follow Jesus and internalise His word and how to apply it to their day to day activities.  As the children discover each egg they are presented with a scripture and a riddle.  Once the riddle has been solved and they understand the scriptural application of the scripture they are transported to the next part of their journey.  Some of the places they visit are Egypt, Easter Island and Iceland. 

Follow the three as they learn what it means to lead and follow.  We enjoyed seeing them mature and grow towards a fuller understanding of Jesus and just what He did for them at Calvary.

At the start of the story these three children are self focused and selfish by the time they return home they have come to understand what submission and walking in the light of Jesus truly means.  There are many life application situations which speak directly to the heart of the matter for your children in this story.

Some of the life application lessons learned are: Don't be bossy, submit one to another;  Do not be afraid for the Lord is always with you;  Listen to the wise and do not be foolish are just three of the life lessons learned.

The book concludes with the children being returned home, realising the Easter is not about chocolate and egg hunts it's all about Jesus and the gift He gave.  It focuses children's hearts on the reason we celebrate Easter. The children then join their parents and enjoy a glo in the dark Easter egg hunt where their parents are surprised by the changes they see in their children's behaviour.

We both enjoyed this book.  You can view an overview of the complete story over on YouTube.

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure (audio book) The audio book is beautifully narrated by Dick Wells.  A gentle tinkle of a bell indicates when it's time for the children to turn the page and follow the story.  This is a great way for children to hear the story over and over or for a presentation at church. Before using this you need to explain to the children that when they hear the bell it's time to turn the page.
 The format of this reading has some extra musical sounds to help enhance the story.  For example when the children arrive in Egypt there is some Egyptian music.

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Program Guide
  • Illustrated by Golden Street Animation Productions
  • Written & edited by Elaina Meyers
  • Pages: 62

This guide is just brimming with ideas to help you make Easter come alive for your children in a practical way with your children by making Jesus the center of every activity and pointing their hearts to Him. All the activities are family friendly and fun.

There are ideas for decorating, snack suggestions, devotions with object lessons, Q & A

Each snack/devotion suggestion gives you a full list of what you need, preparations and step by step tutorials along with questions to ask the students which help focus their attention on what Jesus did and how He is the light of the world.  I'm looking forward to using more of these ideas as we get closer to Easter.



There is a section of ideas to use alongside the The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure book and the scripture scrolls.

All the additional resources are in the book from page 19-58. There are invitations, decorations, resources to fill the eggs, discussion cards, puzzles, posters and coloring pages.  You can see a full range of sample pages on the website.


Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls Scripture is at the heart of this story. Learning how to live by His word and allowing it to be a light to our path in every day life.  Jesus is real and His light can shine through us as we walk in the light of His word and apply the truth of that light allowing it to shine through us.

Each scroll contains a simple verse based on: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Deuteronomy 6:5, proverbs 3:5-6, Matthew 5:16 and 28:20, John 1:4, 1:5, 3:16, 8:12 and 12:46. There are 12 verses in all.

In the Future
We will be decorating an egg carton and for the twelve days leading up to Easter I will be doing an Easter countdown with a scroll and a small item symbolizing some part of the Easter story.  I will hide the egg in the house and after dinner give Sir N a clue as to where to find it.  This will conclude with the resurrection and that Jesus is the light of the world on Easter Sunday.  He will then store the found egg and it's contents in the special egg carton we have decorated.  (I will update here with pictures upon completion of his collection.) My aim is to focus his heart on the incredible gift of the Light of the World who came down to save us.  


Would we change anything ?
We love all the aspects of Egglo and their products. The quality is excellent and a lot of thought has been put into each product.  The only recommendation I would make is for the audio book: it would be helpful if the narrator took some time to explain to the children how to know when to turn the page as he reads.  Something like "When you hear this sound *ting* it is time to turn the page"

 Cost
  • Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs ($11.99)
  • The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure ($12.99)
  • The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure (book audio download) ($2.99)
  • Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls ($4.29)
  • The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Program Guide ($14.99)

Connect with Eggo Entertainment

What we thought
We both enjoyed reading The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure and following the adventure. The glow in dark eggs have been a huge hit with Sir N.  The possibilities of use are only limited by your imagination.  The product is well priced and worth purchasing you will get many years of use from them. 


Blessings
Chareen

Click to read Crew Reviews

Sunday 9 March 2014

HSMJ Time for a break.

In my life this week…
As you read this please pray for us as we are away on vacation near the sea.  Please pray for safety, good rest and fellowship for us as a family.
 I'm someone who has struggled with many low points emotionally I highly recommend this article, it is so true and all the things suggested are spot on 10 Ways to Show Love to Someone With Depression

In our home school this week…
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
Questions/thoughts I have…
Things I’m working on…
  • Resting and regaining strength
In Bloggy world I’m reading…
I’m cooking…
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
When we view homeschooling as the answer instead of a tool, we enslave ourselves and our children to a life of performance and a level of expectation which can never be met.- Jacinda from the article The Silent Killer Of The Homeschool Movement

Blessings

Chareen

Homegrown Learners

Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Motivated Moms {Review}

As much as I dream of having a perfect home the reality is that we have been living in C.H.A.O.S (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) for a while now ... Generally speaking I love being organized, clean and having a place for everything.  Over the past few years as the stresses of immigration, raising a young family, walking a challenging road with teens working their way through issues I have found that more and more I don't have the stamina, mental or emotional energy reserves that it takes to keep our home in order.  Recently I was blessed with a review copy of Motivated Moms.  What a wonderful resource this has become.  I'm a book lady so was really pleased with my Motivated Mom's printable eBook.


What We Did
The hardest part was choosing which eBook I wanted.  I was rather spoiled for choice with 8 options available either in colour or black and white.  Each option has a sample page for you to see.

Some of the options are
  • Colour or black & white in each version
  • Half or full size
  • Page per day with bible readings
  • Page per day with chore planner
I settled on the full A4 size 2014 Motivated Moms Chore Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading {Color}. I took my PDF copy down to Officeworks and had it printed and spiral bound. The planner I choose is a total of 55 pages including the cover page.

Each page is a week in a view.  The left hand column contains daily chores such as make beds, feed pets etc.  If you have children who can read it is an excellent list to help them too to remember what needs to be done and to create excellent daily habits.  Beneath each chore is seven check boxes in order to mark off as you go.  There are four blank lines for you to add in your own choice of daily chores.

Right at the bottom of this left hand column is a weekly Bible reading schedule.  I had good intentions of using this this year but have recently commenced an in depth bible study so I am aiming to take this up later in the year.  I love this feature as it means that all my daily tasks including my bible reading is in one place.  This is an optional add in. 

To the right of this column is your week at a glance special chores.  This contains between two and six tasks a day to complete.  I can say one thing for our home it now has clean light switches, dusted hall way skirting, each shelf in the fridge has a dedicated week it gets cleaned, my pile of to file away is slowly diminishing and even the porch area is beginning to receive some much needed tender loving care.  I like how some of the chores are scheduled on a rotational basis so I know if I miss cleaning that spot this week in a few weeks time it will come around again and I will be able to get it done. 
"Make Every Day Count - Motivated Moms"

I love their mantra of making every day count.  I am seeing how true this is.  If I accomplish just one thing on the list today I have made it count and it has not gone to waste.  Some days we barely get the basics done and on other days we choose maybe two of the six suggested activities.  Motivated Moms is being true to it's name and is motivating me daily to clean small manageable areas in our home.  The fruit of this is becoming more evident.  It is helping me not to feel so overwhelmed with the task before me and I am enjoying having a little more time to do the important things like reading for fun because I am not spending mental energy on trying to figure out what's next to do, it's all been done for me.  It's making a calmer Mom and a happier home.

Each week there is a dedicated de-clutter assignment which I love.  I am a little bit of a hoarder and having this as an assignment is helping me to de-clutter as I go and this in turn is helping to make things more manageable for me and Sir N at the same time.

My favourite part of Motivated Moms is Monday's weekly scheduled Pamper Yourself task.

If you are not a book person and would prefer an app be sure to check out the key features available in the Motivated Moms apps.  Things such as being able to send daily chores by email for printing, assigning tasks to people and the ability to add in an unlimited number of custom tasks.

The last page of the planner contains a two week reproducible menu planner.

My planner lives in the kitchen / dinning area for quick reference. Sir N has recently started reading independently so I have decided to use colour high lighters as a way of assigning tasks to me, to Sir N and some for us to do together.  I will be leaving blank the tasks that are not applicable to our home such as cleaning the stair case or second floor living area.  We use this during our daily half hour cleaning session.

Cost
  • eBooks (16 formats to choose from) $8 each for one complete year.
  • iPhone/iPad/iPod is $1.99 for two months OR a year for $7.99
  • Android from Google Play $5.99
Connect with  Motivated Moms
What I Thought
This is a well presented book with multiple formats to choose from.  It is excellent value for money. Motivated Moms will save you time and mental energy as the planning has all been done for you.

Say goodbye to once a year spring cleaning and hello to day by day clean as you go.  Motivated Moms helps you reclaim your home and has done ALL the planing for you.  This product is Mom's best friend. 

Blessings
Chareen

Click to read Crew Reviews