Plants activity day

Our co-op ran a great group last week - all about plants.

There were loads of activities including:

Plant classification. 

Learning the parts of a bulb.

Planting bulbs for spring.

Identifying local plants and trees.

Photosynthesis.

Monocot and Dicot identification.

Exploring parts of plants under a microscope.

Making leaf skeletons.

Leaf rubbing and art.

Waxing leaves.

Sprouting seeds.

Seed dispersal.

Various games

Kinderbach discount code

Kinderbach have just contacted me to offer a special discount to my readers - 30% off any order - homeschool, classroom, online or DVDs.

Coupon Code:  TOS_crew2012

Expires: 31/12/2012

Also the KinderBach App is on sale This Friday, Oct. 19th, 2012 ONLY.  The app will be discounted over 50%, down to $12.99! No code needed just the link to the Classroom KinderBach app in the App store:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/classroom-kinderbach-school/id534998629?mt=8

Cloud fun

We followed on from our Water Cycle activities by exploring clouds.
The girls learnt how a cloud is made,

facts about types of clouds,

made a wonderfully messy cloud poster (lots of glue and cotton wool)

and took some time to chill and watch the clouds float by : )

TOS Review - Kinderbach

This is the second time I've been able to review Kinderbach - an on-line piano program. Last time Tulip, Sunflower and Lilly used it but Rose was too young. This time she is three and falls right in their suggested age bracket of 3-7. Tulip was really excited to be using this again and took great pride in showing Rose where Dodi lived (she remembered most of the characters but her favourite was Carla the Caterpillar)

Kinderbach is an online curriculum for younger children. It uses engaging characters and songs to help memorisation. Lessons are just a few minutes long and include games, printable activity sheets, colouring and using a piano/keyboard (so you will also need access to either a keyboard or a piano - I believe the iPad app doesn't require a piano so you can see what my crew mates thought who reviewed the app).  

Lessons cover topics like music vocabulary, note reading, rhythm, singing and composition as well as playing the piano. Kinderbach is an in-depth programme and you can view their full curriculum here.

One thing I still love about this program is the length of the lessons - they are very short which makes it easy to do more than one lesson a day, it's not uncommon for Rose to ask for 'more music'. : )

I also love that you do not have to have a musical background of any kind to utilise and learn from this programme. Their lessons really capture a child's imagination and therefore attention, so much so that months after we last used it Tulip still remembers her lessons.

If you're looking for a fun, effective way to introduce your kids to music then this is a great product choice. We reviewed the on-line membership - a one year subscription is $95.88 which works out at $7.99 per month or you can opt to pay $19.99 per month, billed monthly. There are other options available like the various DVD packages or the iPad app.

If that very reasonable price isn't enough you can try before you buy with the free trial to see how it will work for your child.

Kinderbach are offering a special discount to our readers - 30% off any order - homeschool, classroom, online or DVDs.

Coupon Code:  TOS_crew2012

Expires: 12/31/2012

Also the KinderBach App is on sale Friday, Oct. 19th, 2012 ONLY.  The app will be discounted over 50%, down to $12.99! No code needed just the link to the Classroom KinderBach app in the App store:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/classroom-kinderbach-school/id534998629?mt=8

You can see what my crew mates thought over at the TOS Blog - be sure to check out the iPad app reviews as well.

Disclaimer: I received a free on-line membership of this product for the purpose of providing an open and honest review.

TOS Review - ZooWhiz

ZooWhiz is a fun online educational site, designed to help your child practise their skills in reading, grammar and maths. While it isn't a teaching programme, it is a fantastic way to supplement and review what they've learnt as well as targeting problem areas.

When your child logs on they are taken to the main screen, from here they can navigate though the buildings - Learn and Earn, Milestones, Arcade and Biodome.

Learn and Earn: This is the main educational section. The questions are grouped into math, words and reading and you can set an age appropriate level within each area - so if you have a struggling speller, who excels at maths (like Sunflower) you can opt for a different levels in each section.

Milestones: Here you can have an in depth look at how they are doing. 
Arcade: There are a selection of arcade games to choose from and the age is clearly indicated. It does cost 50 coins to play for 3 minutes so it naturally limits the time your child will spend here.
Biodome: This is where you buy and learn about your zoo animals. When you first log in you have 5,000 coins and every day you log in you get an additional 100 coins (as well as earning them from 'learning').
The selection of animals is varied (even including mythical and extinct creatures) and prices range from 100 to 5,000 coins. Once you have purchased your animals you can click their icon to learn all about them. As premium members we were able to access a lot of information including habitat, diet, threat, classification and more. These pages were a lesson all by themselves.

The parental pages allow you to choose the age levels and see their progress. An added feature of the premium membership allows you to use the Premium Integrated Content Selector

to target your child's specific learning needs - pre-selecting by subject, age, question, category etc.

ZooWhiz is a fantastic way to supplement your curriculum - I liked the content of the questions and being able to target questions with the Premium Integrated Content Selector is a real bonus. I loved that the arcade time was limited (50 coins only buys 3 mins).

Sunflower has enjoyed this programme, she really looks forward to using it and has spent most of her time in 'learn and earn' rather than the arcade (she is saving up for a dragon).

However she was disappointed that she couldn't do more with the animals - she thought she would be able to feed them : )

Overall I think this is a great site to practise and improve skills and the proof that ZooWhiz worked for us - Sunflower is using it outside of lesson time as a recreational activity. 

ZooWhiz is suitable for ages 5 -15. You can opt for a free keeper but you get limited animals to buy and basic reporting information or you can upgrade to a Premium membership for $19.95 a year - this offers loads of additional animals and games for your child, as well as more detailed reports of their work and the ability to pre-set educational activities. They are currently working on a number of new features for the premium level including printable certificates.

A little birdie has told me that ZooWhiz will shortly be running an offer for Premium Membership at $14.95 - so go grab a bargain.

You can see what my fellow crew mates thought over at the TOS Blog.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free premium membership so I could provide an open and honest review.