Idea Kids Box

We're in full summer mode over here now. Kaiden just finished his 2nd grade year up. Yay! We're so ready for summer hangs and road trips. My kids are normally pretty good at keeping busy but if your kids are anything like mine, your probably used to hearing the dreaded "I'm boredddd" every once in awhile. In comes the Idea Box Kids.

The Idea Box Kids is a company that specializes in simple educational activities. And I mean secretly educational. The activities are so fun they won't even realize. 😉 So what are they? Well, there are a bunch of different themed boxes to choose from and each box contains coins with activities revolving around that boxes theme. Each activity is child led and simple to do.

We own the Backyard Box which is so perfect for Kaiden. He's currently 8 but it would defiantly be great for kids below or above his age. This box is all about the outdoors. Some of the coins we've tried out are: take nature photos, look for leaves that have been chewed on, make a pet rock, smell different things and compare, and more.

We also have the Wiggley Toddler Box which is super fun for my almost 2 year old. They include simple activities for you to do with your toddler. Some of the ones we have done are: repeat clapping patterns, touch your toes, do a big belly laugh, get a piggy back ride around the house, and more. My sons development teacher that comes to our house thinks they are a great way to connect with him and help him focus on a task.

If you guys would like your own box you can check out www.theideaboxkids.com. They make such a great gift!

{Disclamer: We received product for free in exchange for pictures and promotion. All statement are our own}

Experimenting with Peeps

We're getting in the holiday spirit around here and decided to have a little fun with Peeps. I personally hate the taste of them but of course my kids love them. I mean there almost pure sugar. We tried out two different experiments that we found online. One involved trying to figure out which liquid would dissolve the peeps best. The other was seeing how big we could grow the peep by heating up the marshmallow. I'll go into detail about each one below.

Experiment one: Dissolving Peeps

First up we tried dissolving peeps in 4 different liquids. I let my son choose the liquids that he wanted to test. He chose: apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, orange juice, and boiling water. He wrote down his predictions before poring the liquids in the containers.  He went with lemon juice for working the best. Next he filled them up and popped a peep in each one. We should have had level glasses but went with it anyways. After the peeps were settled in we could instantly see the one in the hot water changing and appeared to be getting smaller. We decided to let them sit for an hour and come back.

No, we didn't use any alcohol! Just wanted to use clear glasses 😄 

After an hour we came back and checked them. The one in the water was already half it's size. The one in the lemon juice looked like it was loosing its color a bit. We decided to let them sit overnight and see if there would be any more changes by morning.

Kaiden ran out first thing in the morning to check on his peeps. The one in water was almost completely gone. We pulled the others out of their mixtures and put them on a paper towel. We observed the changes. He wrote down what happened to each peep including their color and texture. It was pretty fun to see what happened to each one. Then he decided to eat the one that was in the orange juice 😷

Experiment 2: Grow Peep Grow

This was his favorite experiment. We first discussed how we could possible make him bigger. He thought that heat would be the best way to make the change. We decided to nuke him in the microwave and see if his size would change. First he measured the peep's size and noted how he looked. Next we put the peep in the microwave for about 20 seconds. He was amazed watching it grow while it was heating up. We pulled it out and marked the changes we saw. He had doubled in size and his coloring had changed. He also smelled quite gross from the sugar burning. It was fun comparing the peeps.

Do you guys have any more fun peep experiments? These were a hit at my house!

Homeschooling with Minecraft

Does anyone else start to feel like they are in rut after the holidays!? I know I do. The break does help a bit but sometimes we need to add in new activities to our homeschool routine. In my plans of giving us some fresh new books/ activities to do I came across Fun Schooling with Minecraft. My guy is a huge Minecraft fan so I thought that this would be right up his ally.

He received this book as a Christmas present. I know, books for a present isn't to thriller for the average kid but this was actually on his wish list. We have been adding it into our day now for about 2 weeks or so. I feel like I can share some of our thoughts about how it is fitting in.

About the book:  This book is meant to be used as a curriculum meaning you could use this and add in a few other resources for your homeschooling day. In the beginning few pages it gives detail about what you would all need. We personally just use it as a fun add on to our day. The book says that if your child is under 10 to do 5 pages a day and if over 10 to do 10 pages a day. We normally just do as many as we see fit or that he wants to complete that day. Here's a full review about what the book contains from Amazon. 

Don't worry your child won't be playing Minecraft all day with this 😉 Heck, I don't like my guy play even everyday day but the book does give them fun ideas to build in their world. Today we learned about different rocks and minerals found in our state. So he's learning how mining relates to the real world. We found out some really neat facts. He also can't wait to add some of these new types of rocks and minerals to his game now that he knows what they really look like.

Pro's: 

• Fun daily activities to keep him interested.
• Easy to use and very customizable (easy to add into what you are already using)
• Learning and play go hand in hand in this book.
• Reasonably priced for how many pages you get.
• It comes with many different subjects in it.

Con's

• A bit repetitive.
• Easy to add into our day but we aren't using this as a sole curriculum so some of the pages are wasteful to use. (Ie. some of the math pages because he is using a different math book)
• It is easy to use but some of it does take preplanning by you the teacher. (Ie. The watch an educational film pages. I didn't have anything planned so we just skipped it and planned it for the next day. Not really a big deal but something to consider)

Overall I would recommend this as a add on to your homeschool day. Or even if you don't homeschool this would be really easy to add on after school or summers. My son seems to be enjoying it which is what's important. Click here to find our more and where to purchase the book.

If you'd like an inside peek into the book click here to check out the Youtube video I made for it.