Tag Archive | Wonder box

Wonder Box

Education.com is a favourite resource of mine for print outs and crafting activities. Well, recently they came up with something called Wonder Box for the preschool/Kindergarten age. Sadly I was unable to test the product when they were first setting it up as it could not be shipped up to Canada. I figured it would be a wonderful thing to get for Trinity. I was especially lucky and won a box in a draw on The Adventures of Supermom site! So here goes!

Wonder Box

The boxes come with a theme and our theme was Mad Scientist with some crafty bits, magnets AND a baking activity! 

I love the packaging, even cloth bags

We started with what quickly became Trinity AND Echo’s favourite project. The I Spy Bottle. I love the little blurb that came along with it: Shake up some science with this twist on the classic game. Kids make a portable treasure hunt using two liquids  that don’t like to mix. Challenge your child to find a letter or a sound as you show density in action, then shake it up and start again. 

This activity came with a bottle around half full of corn syrup, some colourful letter beads and some sequins. First we went through the letters and spelled out Trinity’s name and then picked a few of her favourite letters to drop in. Then some of the sequins… top it off with water and shake (with the lid on). I am hoping to find some more bottles and make a few more of these as Echo absolutely LOVES it. Though we did find the beads float right up to the top rather quickly. Someone else linked me something called a time out bottle that totally reminded me of this craft. That is my next project… once I get my hands on glitter glue and clear tacky glue! 

Checking out those letters

Dropping them in

 

Thus entertaining the baby sister very well

Our next activity was Magnet Magic. You have a “magic wand”, some magnetic chips and a couple bingo sheets with a colour dice. First we scouted out all the magnetic things we could find in the kitchen. Echo was right down there for that. 

Magnetic??

And then we played colour bingo using the wand to clean up our sheets after. Trinity was quick to catch on that we needed metal items to have them stick to the wand.

Collecting the chips

Our third activity was a mosaic one. Three cards with different shape outlines in varying colours on the image with a corresponding sticker sheet. Each of the three cards had some neat scientific fact. Trinity was more than willing to allow a very enthusiastic Emanuel to help! 

Mosaic

The final activity in our Wonder Box was a baking one! Bubble Bread!!! Very hands on and lots of fun! I will share the recipe:

What  you need:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • raisins or other mix-ins (optional)
  • mixing bowl
  • large cup
  • mixing spoon
  • round greased baking pan

What to do:

  1. preheat your oven to 400 degrees
  2. mix milk and vinegar in a cup and set aside for about 10 min. The acid in the milk will react with the baking soda. Don’t worry, the bread will still taste delicious!
  3. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and raisins (if desired) to the bowl
  4. Stir in the milk and vinegar mixture into the dry ingredients and mix them until smooth. As the dough stiffens, little hands may need some help with the kneading
  5. scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured surface
  6. Shape the dough into a disk about 1 inch thick, and place it into the greased pan
  7. Bake about 15 min, and keep an eye on the bread as it rises. Science in action!

Since we couldn’t see through the window in the stove well enough to really see the growth we opened the oven door a few times so that the kids could marvel in the rising! And then when we cut it open – BUBBLES in the bread! They were very impressed and it didn’t taste half bad! 

Working with Mommy

Maybe a little more flour on the counter??

Bubbles

We really enjoyed our time with the Wonder Box.  I am hoping I can get one right after Christmas for Trinity again. So if you are looking for a fun activity box for the little ones in your life AND live in the USA… Wonder Box is a TERRIFIC option!! I am so thankful we received this one. 

Three children thoroughly entertained!!!

Ending Yet Another Week In the US of A

The second week of homeschooling officially for our year was a little more of a struggle BUT Thursday we had Zander’s first spelling quiz – 3 out of 5 right! I am very proud of my often frustrated learner. He is understanding that he has to learn five MORE words over the next week AND practice the two he got wrong. I am so proud of him, he spelled “a”, “all” and “about” correctly. The next set of 5 in our big sight word book are rather simple ones like “and” and “am” but those are GREAT for confidence boosters! Gavin is staggered in time and won’t have his first quiz until next Wednesday. He is starting at the end of the list with words like “yellow” and “would”. First steps to really writing their own sentences and stories.

First quiz

We got a VERY special package in the mail – our Wonder Box that I won from an online draw done by the site The Adventures of Supermom. We had to open it right up and look through…

Wonder box

Even with our not so motivated week I was amazed at how quickly we got through our list of to do’s. Math was conquered, reading done… Trinity started a new workbook with great joy and Emanuel was over the moon with his letter practice. I am so glad that my littles are learning as well as their brothers.

I managed my first tie in of yarn. I had to move onto my second ball of yarn for Ken’s scarf. I think I did a pretty decent job. If you want to learn how to change colours, add that next ball, there are some great left handed instructions in this video. 

Loving the colours

Our investment in beads and plastic string was a great one! As the whole group of them were huddled over the stash creating away! I definitely need to purchase some more. Though there may be an issue with the string and smaller beads. The big draw of the plastic string is that it is easier for the little ones to use and does not fray… but I am sure we will figure it out!

Beading

With results

We ended our week rather quietly. Since Ken was dealing directly with HR in regards to the test code they wanted and NOT the developers it turned out that the HR guy was using a term improperly and muddied the waters. So any plans to really go out and about were completely blown out of the waters. Thankfully we DID make it out to Target to ask questions at the optical place and do a little shopping… oh and get a free cookie. Gotta love the cookie clubs at grocery stores!

Instead they created a Lego tree full of parrots!

Trinity and I did her Wonder Box… I am going to do a separate blog entry on this wonderful amazing gift! I cannot thank Supermom enough for her draw! I have wanted to get Trinity a Wonder Box since they came out with the program and here I had the opportunity to share it with her. I have high hopes that in the new year I can get another one for our budding learner. She was so lovely about sharing it with Echo and Emanuel as well!

Sharing her project with her sister

Miss Echo even let me sit and take a few pictures of her in the sunshine. 

Pretty baby

I have a few freebies to share that I have been linked through emails!!! There is an ABC Notebooking set that is free now… you can find it on Currclick HERE. With Emanuel’s new interest in the Turtleman and the Crocodile Hunter I was so excited to see that Activity Village has added him to their famous people section now 6 years after his death. You can find print outs for him HERE. Moffatt Girls has a free fall themed math print out you can download right now as well. You can find that gem HERE. And there is a daily notebooking set you can download and print off HEREfrom Confessions of a Homeschooler. I hope to utilize these soon. I picked up sheet protectors for reusable notebooking sheets for  Trinity so I guess in my spare time this weekend it is time to make Trinity up some learning material.  

Working together (Zander)

Long Weekend-ish

The brilliant part about homeschooling is the ability to take on or not take on a long weekend. In this case we decided to forego the Labour Day weekend and start our school year officially on the 3rd. But first… Sunday…

After the excitement of the Abundant Harvest and our exploration of the grounds in front of the Walker museum there was a lot to accomplish here at home. I am still attempting my homeschool organization with limited space for stuff to actually stay out. Our corner with Grandpa’s desk is completed, laptop and netbook and all. I am quite happy with the corner that we have set up. Now the boys can have their time there and do a little bit of fun time on the computer. After all, now that we are in the US we can actually properly use PBSkids.org.

Corner!

 

We did take some time out to run errands. Target for school supplies (gotta replace those pens with the spirograph) and dental supplies (where does that toothpaste go?) and then to Home Depot to attempt to replace a broken wheel on Ken’s desk chair. Apparently Staples chairs are not a simple match and instead we got our non soil stuff for the herb garden AND some new duct tape for under 4.00… now to have TIME to work on it! 

That left the rest of the day for naps (Echo) and playing (the rest) and for yours truly to take the yarn in the house and take it from skeins to balls. I definitely do not want to have knots to deal with when I do eventually get good enough for more complicated projects. And there IS something lovely about a stack of tidy ball of yarn put away. 

Boys up a tree… can you see both?

I am so glad that the kids are starting to realize that doing school together full force is not only necessary but could be fun too. They are getting excited about working on their observation journals. I think our herb garden will help as well… and then there is the Wonder Box on its way and Emanuel’s surprise. I am getting excited about all of this as well. I have started my own journal, well sort of. At Target I picked up a cheap scribbler to record what I think we will get done each day, to plan a day or two ahead (after the first week’s trial go) and to have visible progression for myself. That way I can alter lists, carry on things that we don’t get to… make notes. There is something absolutely wonderful about writing stuff down to me. 

Waiting for their mail

Sunday night was prep night. So Ken and I assembled the banner the kids had previously coloured and cut out… you can find it HERE. And of course printed out our back to school booklet (sadly I cannot find an active link for the file I use). 

Our banner

So our first day of the “new” school year and our first school year down in Minnesota… how mean are we to skip the long weekend? The best way to start… colouring our interpretation of the signs I have seen all over the internet for the first day pictures. I made up one for each of the 3 little kids (I especially like Echo’s) and then one for the twins to share… handed the kids crayons and said GO NUTS! I love personalizing things! 

Colouring the signs!

Finished sheets!

With them all dressed and hair brushed it was time to go into the front yard and take some photos. Echo was determined to include the baby doll, stroller AND her paper! 

Our girls

1st Grade

3rd!

After that, back inside for breakfast and then time with Daddy finishing the Mars book while I snuck in my bath. They discussed how massive the sun must be and the colours things are… lots of gluing and chatter and best of all – time with their Daddy! 

Gavin’s Mars Rover!

We had each of the kids draw a picture with something they would like to learn about this year… we have to add in cats, platypuses and of course Emanuel’s favourite… DINOSAURS! I think we can work on ALL of those over the year! And then, of course, there was the books for the 3 boys… I love this booklet, it includes a goal for the year, things about them… the family… I hope we can do these EACH year!

Finished!

With lunch approaching and a beautiful day outside we put Echo down for her nap and took the rest outside to start our indoor herb garden! We all helped! I am REALLY hoping this thing grows!!!! We have to water it every second day so I had Ken print out a September calendar page and have marked it with a W for the days to water. 

Herb garden

Add in some extra pictures, a room to clean (and 5 min to lose each boy from their computer time for the day for not doing it nicely) and of course that much wished for computer time… I think we did rather well! And we ENDED our day with popcorn and watching the Labour Day Marathon on Animal Planet – Call of the Wildman.

Popcorn and tv

Yours truly has been busy winding yarn onto balls, working on her… crochet… thing… and hunting for further how to steps… Ok I think I may need a person to show me, (hint hint Shandai) but I have joined Ravelry (as Ayjah) and started doing some YouTube vid hunting (did you know that the UK has different names for stitches!!!)… progress and increased difficulty will be accomplished… eventually! 

All 5 in a row