Critical Thinking and Logic, Education, S.T.E.A.M, Science

Brain Blox Wooden Buildings Plank Review!

My son loves to build things with his hands and the Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks Are perfect for him. I love the Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks because they offer open ended play opportunities. The wonderful people at Brain Blox was so gracious to send the Crew a set of the 200 ct Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks .

The planks are smooth and well crafted and I love the wood smell. They are non toxic and made from natural wood. The planks have no stains and dyes they are really beautiful building planks. Kids and play with them indoors or outdoors.

My son loved them because he was able to mix them in with his other toys and let his imagination run wild. He built towers, mazes, marble runs, mazes and a ton of his own creations. Being a STEAM kid he was able to really apply his engineering skills using the planks.

We used the Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks apart of our math lessons with place value and as manipulative for working on multiplication. We used them in our science lesson to study force and motion by building a chain reaction experiment. He also took them out while we were studying the digestive system so he could use them as a model on how food travels through the digestive track. This week we using them to build the Forbidden City in China along side our unit study!

We received the 200 piece kit but the company also has 100 and 300 piece kits. When you go on the companies website they offer free building model ideas. The website is as equally as wonderful as the planks themselves. I found myself going to the website to get build ideas for my son and learning how I could improve his spatial intelligence. There is a wonderful split level level curriculum the the resource section for those early little stem learners.

Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks start at $39.99 for the 100 Ct and 200 and 300 ct price range for $59.99-$79.99. The Brain Blox website currently has a sale going so you can save some money on these great planks. You can purchase them directly from the merchant or Amazon . These planks will make a great holiday present and did I mention they come with this fabulous sturdy storage bag. We definitely love these and they have replaced our current wooden blocks. I highly recommend you grab a set of these for endless amounts of fun.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Crews Brain Blox Wooden Building Planks reviews by clicking the banner below.

Until the Next Time,

Mom and J

Social Media Links:

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Education, Homeschool, Reviews, S.T.E.A.M

Kids Night In Box Mission Space Review

If you are one of our Little Learner and Mom Instagram followers you know I love pairing our curriculum with unit studies and hands on learning. We recently partnered with Kids Night in Box and we had the pleasure of working through their Mission Space Box. Kids Night in Box is a monthly subscription box service that features an array of monthly themed based activities. Previous themes include finances, manners, gratitude, world community and many more learning experiences. The boxes are meant to be enjoyed as a family and are easy to use. This isn’t your typical box there are several learning activities in each box. The Mission Space box had 6 fun filled space mission and 2 wonderful recipes for us to enjoy.

The Mission Space box was a welcome box for the month of March. We started a new grammar curriculum that paired perfectly with this box. What I really liked is that I was able to extend out grammar lesson with a fun activity from the Kids Night in Box. One day we made the Hot Rockets for lunch and on another day we made the Galaxy Strawberries for dessert after dinner. The reader that is included was a great addition to our bedtime reading time and the reading comprehension questions that are carefully laid out in the training manual by grade level were perfect. One of the missions the children created Rocket Art Work and there is an educational art link provided for your child to watch a step by step easy to follow tutorial. The space themed yoga cards provided were an perfect ad in to our mindfulness time in the morning. My son was super excited about tasting the freeze dried ice cream sandwich this activity sparked all kinds of questions and learning opportunities. I was equally impressed that one the missions was S.T.E.M (science, technology, engineering, math) related.

One of things I really enjoyed is that I didn’t have to purchase any outside supplies. Every thing needed was inside the box. At the end of all 6 mission my son was able to complete his space passport and their was certificate of completion . These boxes are great for homeschooling, family night and extended learning. In this box there was 6 missions and 2 optional recipes so in all you receive 8 activities. The company also included suggestions to continue your learning in the training guide.

Kids Night in Box comes with several different subscription options you can pick which one best fits your family. The company also has faith based boxes available. Orders for the upcoming April box need to be submitted by April 13th 8pm E.T. All boxes will be shipped April 16th-21st. The April box theme is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle we are looking forward to this new box.

If you are looking for something new to add to your homeschool or activities for the upcoming summer days to help prevent that summer learning slide, try out Kids Night in Box .

Be sure to check out the unboxing video on Little Learner and Mom Youtube channel.

Until Next Time,

Mom


Critical Thinking and Logic, Education, Homeschool, Osmos, S.T.E.A.M

Detective Agency Review from Play Osmo’s

We have been huge Osmo’s fans since the launched in 2013. We are pretty strict around here in regards to screen time and we are selective about what he is allowed to watch and play.

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On October 25th Osmo launched a new game Detective Agency.  Osmo’s products never disappoint…the moment he saw the box was from Play Osmo’s he was jumping up and down with excitement. We are members of the Osmo’s Social Club and the anticipation of the new Detective Agency has been a huge topic in our household. The new game is for ages 5 and up, I can also see a younger sibling maybe 4 years old teaming up with a parent or sibling to play. In true Osmo tradition the new Detective Agency challenges your students to learn geography, culture and to use their critical thinking skills.

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The new game comes in with easy storage case with 5 maps and interactive magnifying glass for your little sleuths to use on their adventures. You will need to have a Osmo Stand in order to play, as well as download the app from iTunes! You can play from your iPhone, iPad and if you own the newly released Kindle Fire Osmo Genius Kit. Your students will be engaged as soon as they load up the game. Children will be asked to solve different cases all over the world. The maps are vibrant and easy to read but challenging, children will be exposed to various cultural aspects of each country.  Kids meet some new Osmo characters along the way and can easily follow the story mode on their own!

I really like this new system especially for the geography aspect, we found ourselves pulling the maps out just to look at them while we were doing our China history lesson. The game is very interactive which is great because it removes the thinking that geography is boring. This is a great new resource for teaching geography Osmos did a great job selecting a country to represent of 6 continents, there is also a world map and Osmo Town.  Overall I give the new system a thumbs up as holiday gift and additional resource for your home school or home for learning geography.

So what does my son have to say about the new Osmos Detective Agency, ….he loves Brazil and wants to go there!  He likes capturing the bad guys and he wants to play all day.

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The Detective Agency retails for $39, don’t forget you need the stand in order to play. For those who have Kindle Fire tablets you can purchase the Osmos Genius Kit which comes with the Kindle Fire Stand and you can purchase the Detective Agency kit  and then download the app from the Amazon Store.  For IOS user download from iTunes for free the name in the App Store is Osmo Detective Agency. If you are interested in checking out our youtube review click here.