MomReviews

Electric Circuits KitBook

A KitBook combines the visual features of a textbook with hands-on learning through a complete kit. We received an Electric Circuits KitBook to review, which contain alls the instructions and parts needed for each experiment, plus a “PowerPage” for building actual working circuits. I handed my boys (who are 12 and 10)  the KitBook and asked if they needed any help with it. “No no, we got it” I was assured.

I waited maybe five minutes and went back to check on them. They had already hooked wires up to a battery and were powering a spinning plastic disk! This is a sample photo that shows what they had built:

The Electric Circuits KitBook includes nine cool experiments:

- Turn on lights, spin motors, buzz buzzers.
- Make series and parallel circuits.
- Build a circuit to test insulators and conductors.
- Learn about and use two different kinds of switches.
- Discover the difference bewteen primary and secondary batteries.
- Send Morse Code with a series circuit and
a buzzer.
- Detect magnetic fields in wires using a
compass.
- Make an electromagnet with a battery,
a wire, and a nail. See what you
can pick up… and what you can’t.
- Learn fun facts about electricity!

KitBooks are terrific for teachers to use in classrooms and for homeschooling parents as well. Kids can use them as part of lessons or just for fun. They include everything needed including batteries and are safety tested.  There are other “toy” science kits available, but this is the real deal based on my experience with other types of home kits.  Check out KitBooks Electric Circuits for yourself at www.kitbook.com!

Get Great Custom Invitations From VistaPrint

I’ve written before about how much I love VistaPrint.  I’ve been using them for business cards since 2007, taking advantage of  sales and even free offers. I’ve also purchased custom magnets that I handed out at BlogHer last year, and I even bought a t-shirt with the old header from my blog Table for Five on it. Everything I get from VistaPrint is always high quality, and one time when an order of magnets was the wrong color, they replaced them for free immediately.

One category of items I haven’t purchased from VistaPrint yet is party invitations. Which just goes to show that I need to throw more parties and actually invite people to them! LOL For my daughter’s birthday this November, we are planning to have her first real “big” party, which means I’ll need birthday invitations. VistaPrint has a great selection of party invitation designs that can be customized with all of your information. I made up a sample for you to see:

There are 34 PAGES of party designs you can pick from. Whether you need to send an invitation for a graduation, barbecue, bridal shower, family reunion, Sweet 16 party, 4th of July party, even just a party at the beach, VistaPrint has a design you can use.

You can order your design as a flat card or a folded card, you’ll get envelopes that fit them as well. VistaPrint also sells customizable address labels that you could buy to coordinate with your party design.  You can get thank-you cards too so that you can thank your guests for coming to your party (and bringing you presents!)

I wouldn’t recommend that you buy from VistaPrint if I hadn’t done so myself. The prices are great, the customer service is exceptional, and of course, you are getting great quality products.  I hope you’ll check out the site!

How do I wash clothes if I can’t get water into the machine?

This is a guest post from Michael Brown:

A washing machine can only be filled up by a washing machine fill hose. That may sound a little obvious but when you have an appliance repair experience like I did you will understand why I am making the statement. I learned painfully that using anything but proper appliance parts, in this case proper Whirlpool parts, will lead to disaster. In my case, it led to a flood in my basement.

Here’s the story. The fill hose connected to my washing machine broke when we were moving and my brother-in-law dropped the machine on top of it. I suppose I should be grateful that he didn’t break the entire washer, but I really don’t like my brother-in-law so I’m going to be inexplicably angry with him for as long as I can. We were moving the machine off the truck and he put it down on top of the fill hose which was still attached (my fault there). This led to a need for a replacement fill hose.

This is the part where the adventure begins. Needing to get a load of laundry done as soon as possible, we put the washer in the basement and looked around for something we could use as a fill hose. Two guys who don’t like each other very much, a couple of six packs, and an angry wife who wants to get the move done are factors that do not lead to intelligent problem solving. We rigged it with a garden hose, turned the machine on to do a load, and left it. An hour later when I came down to check it there was water everywhere.

Without getting into too many details my wife (very angry), brother-in-law (blaming everything on me), and landlord (more angry than wife) let me have it for being an idiot. I knew it and I just let them all vent, then I took out my laptop and did what I should have done in the first place. I went to AppliancePartsPros.com and ordered the Whirlpool fill hose that my brother-in-law had broken. It only cost me $12.40 (good stainless steel hose, not the cheap rubber ones) but I made him pay me $25.00. Then I cleaned up the water in the basement. The hose arrived a day later and I made my wife happy by doing the appliance repair and then doing four loads of laundry. Next time I move I’ll hire movers and skip the drama with the in-laws.

Gifts For Everyone On Your List!

Just because Christmas is over doesn’t mean you don’t need to buy birthday presents or presents for other reasons, right? So I’m going to keep working my way through my list of products that I wasn’t able to review before Christmas, and I hope you’ll keep these items in mind for purchasing!

For the High-Fashion Traveler:

Trinabags has bags in all styles, shapes and sizes so you can pick up the perfect gift for girl who likes to travel in style! I like this “wool-like” blue plaid one called “Rae“, and right now it’s on sale for only $35.00 plus $5.95 shipping.

For the Treehugger

The Modella Fitted Junior Weekender ($8.92) is perfect for guys or gals. Made from recycled plastic bottles, this bag keeps the environment safe while keeping your products in line! You can find it at Walmart stores.

For the Little Ones

Tiny Tillia Plush Set ($12.99) is the perfect gift for children! A loveable animal accompanies a fresh-scented bubble bath or body wash, for good, clean fun any parent will love! Tiny Tillia products are available on their website and at Target.

For the Tweens/Teens

Kids are crazy about lip balms and Alba Botanica’s Hawaiian Lip Balm Trio ($9.99) offers three yummy flavors to keep lips hydrated and healthy! You can find these on the Alba website and at Target and CVS.

There are even more great items available on all of the above websites. Happy Shopping!

My Husband’s Review of Vaseline Clinical Therapy

You may have already seen the TV commercials or the print ads-to spread the word about it’s new Clinical Therapy Lotion, Vaseline created a truly unique word-of-mouth marketing campaign called Prescribe the Nation. From the State of Alaska, known for it’s blistering cold weather and high wind chills, causing skin to become bone dry, they narrowed down their search to the city of Kodiak, and finally to Petal Ruch, a nine-year resident. Petal was selected because she has extremely dry skin, is very active in the community and exemplifies the values of living in a small community.

Petal Ruch was given Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion to try, and was told to “prescribe” it to anyone she knew who could benefit from it. She eventually gave out “prescriptions” to nearly 1,000 people. She’s featured in two video campaigns as well, here’s one of them:

Nicole from M80 emailed me and asked me if I wanted to try Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion and “prescribe” it. She sent me both the Unscented and the Lightly Fragranced to try. The driest skin I have is my hands, I wash them at least six times a day plus we don’t have a dishwasher so I do dishes by hand. I prefer the Lightly Fragranced just because I like to smell pretty, and I found that I only need a very small dab to cover both my hands and make them feel moist and soft.

I “prescribed” the Unscented Lotion to my husband. He has eczema, and the skin on his back is extremely dry. The very first time I rubbed the lotion on his back, after about three hours, he said his shirt felt damp. I felt his shirt, it was dry. It was his SKIN. It had been so long since the skin on his back had stayed moisturized for that long that he wasn’t familiar with the feeling! This is a direct quote from him:

“FOR MY ECZEMA, IT’S THE BEST LOTION I HAVE EVER USED”.

He also uses it on his legs where he often has eczema breakouts. The Unilever company deserves some kind of award for creating this lotion! Anything that can keep the skin of people in Alaska moisturized and make my husband’s extremely dry back feel moist for the first time in a long time, that’s a winning product. I’m officially prescribing Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion to EVERYBODY ON TEH INTERWEBS, effectively immediately! Get more information at www.prescribethenation.com/.