Science – Page 4 – Little Learner and Mom

Homesteading, Parenting, Reviews, Science

Fermentools Starter Kit Review!

May 8, 2020May 8, 2020 Little Learner and Mom

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.

By now everyone in the world has been faced with having to shelter in to limit there exposure to Covid-19. While adjusting to this new way of life I have found myself doing more canning and food perservation. I have been wanting to try fermenting foods so I was excited to review the Starter Kit from Fermentools. I am pretty good with canning jams and vegetables but fermenting is something entirely new process for me.

The the Starter Kit from Fermentools is a easy at home kit that doesn’t require much skill and know how or a bunch of special equipment. The Starter Kit from Fermentools comes with a stainless steel lid, glass fermentation weight, air lock, 2 rubber stoppers, Himalayan powdered salt and instructions. The process just need your size of wide mouth glass jar of choice depending on what your you are fermenting and patience. The Starter Kit from Fermentools comes with a basic sauerkraut recipe but for this review we did something a little different.

My family isnt a huge fan of sauerkraut so I decided that we would make Pineapple Tepache. We use the beverage recipe from the Fermentools Tepache A Feremented Beverage. My son LOVES Kombucha I knew he would love tepache. I grew up drinking tepache, the Starter Kit from Fermentools make this childhood favorite beverage super easy and tasty to make.

The process took all of 5 days to make I started it with my son on a Sunday so it would be ready on Friday for family movie night. We spent the week learning about why its important to grow our own food and food preservation and whats happens to food during the fermenting process. The next few times we made Pineapple Tepache my son pretty much did it himself with very little help from me.

The cost of the Starter Kit from Fermentools at the time of this review is $21.49 plus applicable tax and shipping. This a great way to start your fermenting journey with your family the possibilities are endless and its easy to do. The Fermentools website is full of great recipes to get you started along with the enclosed instruction book.

Fermentools are giving your readers a 15 % discount coupon valid from now until June 30th. The coupon code is: Crew2020. Be sure to check out the other Crews reviews of the Starter Kit from Fermentools by clicking the banner below.

Until the Next Time,

Mom

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fermentools/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/fermentools/
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/fermentools/

2nd Grade Curriculum, 3rd Grade Curriculum, Education, Homeschool, Reviews, Science

Calvert Homeschool Online Review!

November 1, 2019November 29, 2019 Little Learner and Mom

This year I was all set with our curriculum purchases and ready to start our new home school year in late July of this year. I had done my research and was positive that we had everything we needed. What I hadn’t planned on was my son wanting to jump into his 2nd grade science curriculum. So well this was an epic fail he blew through the entire science curriculum over the summer which left back at square one. To my luck the Crew was offered an opportunity to review Calvert Homeschool online subscription for Calvert Homeschool Online for grades 3rd-12th grade 6 month subscription.

If you are not familiar with Calvert Homeschool they provide printed homeschool curriculum for grades K-2 and mobile online curriculum for grades 3rd-12th grade. For this review I will be reviewing the Calvert Homeschool Online. The set up was pretty easy parents can assign work, check daily work and check the report. Assignments are self grading except for those assignments that are essay format. Parents receive updates when assignments need to be graded and also notifications when student miss assignments. Parents can easily adjust assignment as needed and review assignment questions and topics.

For us the science was a huge importance because at the time of this review we were just winging it. I started my son with the Science 300 which is 3rd grade science and the topic “You Grow and Change” . I was very much impressed with the depth of coverage in this area, Calvert Homeschool Online really goes into depth with the learning. My son was completely thrilled because this is something we struggled with other curriculum he wanted more information about what he was studying. Calvert Homeschool Online gives detailed lessons about what your child is study through information they can read to themselves or have read aloud to them from the platform. There are also instructional videos, games and experiments. Students are tested on their knowledge with brief quizzes, projects, test and essays that are graded. For the essay part I would have my son answer the question orally and I would record his answer and use this time to evaluate if he needed to redo lesson or I need to supplement.

Calvert Homeschool Online offers parents the flexibility to go at the child pace or interest in a lessons. I really liked the ability to be able to assign things in Science, Geography and History that we are covering as he shows interest and we move along in our homeschool year. I also like the ability knowing exactly that the information he is learning can be evaluated and I can printout his reports to slide into his home school portfolio without having a collage of papers. There is also flexibility of not having to do all the subjects at once you can select which ones you want to use.

So let me break down key points Calvert Homeschool Online

Mobile Comprehensive Online learning for grades 3rd-12th grade
Affordable
Self Paced Learning
Access to over 45 in depth courses
Covers Math, Science, Language Arts, Spelling, History and Geography 3rd-6th grade
7th and 8th grade covers all of the above except Spelling and World Civilization (7th Grade)
9th -12 grade also includes the core subjects and students will be able to study Government, Consumer Math, US and World History, Chemistry and Physics .
Lesson Planner, Parent Tracking, Self Grading, Automatic Report Card and Portfolio Builder
Single student cost is $39.95 a month or $399.95 for a year
Family cost up to 3 students $69.95 or $699.95

Calvert Homeschool Online is a comprehensive online homeschool program if your family is looking for a new curriculum. I feel like the family plan is a great plan for families homeschooling more than one student and need affordable option to homeschool. There is very little prep to be done and you can easily add in some hands on learning, gameschooling and unit study to add more to the lessons. The online dashboard is a great help to parents who are looking for low maintenance portfolio building and transcripts. We give Calvert Homeschool Online thumbs up.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Crews reviews on Calvert Homeschool Online by clicking the banner below.

Until the Next Time,

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

Brain Blox Wooden Buildings Plank Review!

October 16, 2019October 18, 2019 Little Learner and Mom

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:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mybrainblox
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brainblox
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUttakNtthj_haX8LwRlwA

2nd Grade Curriculum, Homeschool, Science

Marine Biology Unit Study

August 27, 2019 Little Learner and Mom

Every year we end our summer science lessons with the study of the ocean. This year we are studying Marine Biology. We are going to be using the The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology unit study for grades K-5 as our guide, but we will be using other hands on and interest led activities.

The best part of our Marine Biology study is the new Magic School Bus Rides Again Exploring Oceans kit sent to us from The Young Scientist Club. We are both super excited about diving into this kit. My son has been bouncing off the walls since it’s arrival and has been begging to open it.

One of the things I felt was important to include in this unit study for my son was marine biologist. I have chosen Roger Arliner Young, Ernest Everett Just and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. I had him pick out a few books about coral reefs and animals of interest from the ocean.

We are fresh off from shark week and so he still has sharks on the mind, so the transition won’t be hard. This year for shark week I decided to just let him do his own thing and I just set out resources and let him explore.

So we are ready to kick things off and we will end our unit study with a trip to the aquarium at the end of this month. Now if you want to see a peek inside the new Magic School Bus Rides Again Exploring Oceans kit head over to Little Learner and Mom Instagram Igtv So you can check out the unboxing.

As a special thank you to our followers the The Young Scientist Club is offering 30% discount when you use SCIENCEFUN code at checkout on any of the following subscriptions:

Pre-pay 12 months of Magic School Bus science club
Pre-pay 12 months of The Young Scientist club
Pre-pay 6 months of Clifford science club

Critical Thinking and Logic, Education, Homeschool, Morning Basket, Parenting, Science

Why We Like Zoey and Sassafras!

October 13, 2018October 13, 2018 Little Learner and Mom

I first came across the Zoey and Sassafras series when a good friend of mine started her Melanin Books 4 Melanin Kids Facebook group she posted about a book that was diverse and told a story about a little girls love for science! I was instantly intrigued and decided to check it out for us.

Over the last several years schools and companies have been focusing on the need for children to study more about S.T.E.AM ( Science,Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). While we love technology in our home we try to find a balance so our son stays up to date, but also enjoys hands on learning. At the time I was in search of a good read aloud that introduced science to him in a fun way but appealed to his natural curiosity to learn about a topic.

We hit the jackpot when we read the first Zoey and Sassafras book Dragons and Marshmallows he was instantly hooked! There are now 6 books in the series and we have read them all. The books are easy to read and the illustrations are cute. He has learned about the scientific method, journaling and other fun topics. I love how the author uses real science terminology throughout the book that appeals to the child’s understanding.

In this series you will find:

Positive Family dynamics
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Clean literature
Strong Science Connection
Exploration of Nature
Fun and Humor
The series makes for a great read aloud and can be easily paired with a science unit study!

We were so excited about the newest book release Unicorns and Germs we held giveaway on our Instagram. My son was thrilled about the new book we received it on Tuesday and we finished it on Friday! All he can talk about is doing the experiment from the book, so we are waiting on his The Magic School Bus: The World of Germs to show up so we can test what we learned from Zoey! If you are looking for a series to help your child learn more about science and how fun it can be I would definitely recommend checking out this series. This also a great series for girls in science and also for the inclusion of more diversity in science. Zoey is a sweet little girl with some special abilities and your child will grow to love her family and friends!