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Electric Circuits KitBook

April 13, 2009 By

kitbookA 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:

susan-back-400-x-300

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!

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Meet the Sight Words Review

August 19, 2008 By

When Ryan started Kindergarten, I remember being surprised the first week when the first spelling list came home. The spelling sheet explained that these were words that Kindergartners were going to be taught to recognize ‘on sight’. I had assumed schools used phonics to teach kids to sound words out, but that was not the case for Kindergarten, at least not in our school district. Think about a word like “said”. If you sound it out phonetically, it would be “Sa-eye-d”. Instead of trying to explain the completely baffling rules that make up pronouncing words in the English language to five year olds, the “sight word” concept just gets them understanding how the whole word is pronounced.

Meet the Sight Words, from Preschool Prep Company, makes learning common pre-K and Kindergarten level sight words easier and more fun by animating the words and reinforcing their pronounciation through repetition. A LOT of repetition, which might drive you a little crazy, but if my two and a half year old is any indication, kids don’t mind the repetition of the word because they are watching fun animation at the same time. When each word is shown on the screen, it’s “brought to life”. Some of the actions go along with the word, and some take the shape of the word itself and turn it into an object. For example, “the” is turned into a helicopter with the propellor on the top of the “h” and the “e” turned into the pilot.

Kaitlyn calls Meet the Sight Words “the word movie”, and she LOVES it. Even her older brothers who are 11 and 9 admit that it’s cute and that they find some of the animation clever, which is pretty high praise coming from them. As the three of them were watching, I wrote down some of the words and animations that they exclaimed over the most:

“In” I is holding open a door inside the letter n, and letting animals IN

“To” T is a basketball player, O is the ball, T is going “to” the basket

“Said”-cupcake assembly line! “d” is the oven, the space inside the “d” is the door. The door opens, “i” takes the cupcake out, puts it on the “a” conveyor belt for a plop of white frosting, then it moves to the “s” conveyor belt for some sprinkles. So cute!

There are three DVDs in the Meet the Sight Words series, I’ll definitely be picking up the second and third DVDs. Preschool Prep Company also makes Meet the Letters, Meet the Numbers, Meet the Colors, and Meet the Shapes. Kaitlyn already knows colors and shapes, but I’d like to get her the Letters and Numbers DVDs to help her start learning visual recognition. There are also sturdy board books to go along with them. Watching these DVDs doesn’t replace reading books to your child and pointing out letters and words, of course, but it’s sure a fun way to reinforce reading and help them gain reading confidence by being able to start Kindergarten already knowing some words by sight!

Read more reviews of Meet the Sight Words at Parent Bloggers Network.

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Review: Leapfrog Tag

August 17, 2008 By

I’ve been a fan of Leapfrog ever since we got our first Leapster for Nathan the Christmas he was six, so I jumped at the chance to review the new LeapFrog Tag Reader. Even though Kaitlyn is only 2 1/2, she is already trying to “read” her books and she can hold a crayon correctly, so I wanted to see how she would do with the Tag. And, I wanted to see how it worked for myself! Verdict? SUCCESS.

The great thing about the Leapfrog Tag is that the audio is in the Tag itself, not in a separate (and very easy to lose) cartridge. It comes ready to use with the audio for the book “Ozzie and Mack” already uploaded. You just turn it on and touch it to the book, and it’s ready to use. I also received the book Disney Princess: Adventures Under the Sea but it doesn’t seem to interest Kaitlyn as much as I thought it would, which is probably why it’s meant for ages 4-6. Even though all the books say ages 4 and up, I think Chicka Chicka Boom Boom would probably be easier for her to follow, so I’ll get that one next time.

The Tag System comes with a CD that contains the Connect application, and a USB cable. You get it installed on your computer, and then you have all the audio needed for any of the Tag books or games. When you buy a new book, you go into your Library and select the title, drag it over to the list of what’s on the Tag, and drop. The Tag can hold the audio for up to five titles at a time. It’s really easy to use.

You can watch your child learn with The Learning Path. You set that up through the Application CD, and then when you connect the Tag to your computer, it downloads information about what your child is doing with their Tag and what skills they are learning. How cool is that? So for example, you can see that when the Tag said “touch the letters that spell cat”, you can see how many times your child correctly touched the right letters. I just think that is so cool!

The Tag comes in either green or pink (I’m glad I received green, Nathan uses it too), and you can buy a carrying case separately. Right now you can buy either Tag and a Tag Book, and get a Tag Storage Case 50% off! Enter promo code FL8TGA. I’m really enthusiastic about recommending this product, for a birthday or Christmas gift, or to help reinforce the reading they do at school. It’s fun to use and educational too, and that’s what Leapfrog is all about!

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