Measure & Pour

This month we are learning about Food & Fitness with Mother Goose Time.  Week 1 was all about the food groups.  Now we are in week 2 and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

This is how the week "In the Kitchen" was laid out, Cleaning & Safety, Measure & Pour, Chop & Stir, Bake & Cook, lastly Set & Serve.

First up on Measure & Pour day was to sing the song I'm a Little Teapot.  What's funny about this is that my boys have probably sung a song to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot a thousand times.  But I am not sure we have sang the original.  It was a great reminder to teach them the classics.

Next we built our lemonade stands.  Mother Goose Time provided us with a lemonade stand cut out to fold and tape.  They also provided MGT money, an open and closed sign and little plastic cups.  There were enough cups so each child could have 2.

Lachlan set his up in the kitchen while I made lemonade in a water bottle with a nice pour spout.  I was Lachlan's first customer. Lemonade was $1.

 He poured it perfectly.

AB Seas

AB Seas is a game that came in my Discovery Toys starter kit.  I am a big fan of games that can be played together as a family and I am an even bigger fan of games that teach.  This game is all about learning their ABCs as the name of the game so perfectly hints at.

Since the theme is fishing and the seas, I thought bringing it to the cottage at the beach would be a perfect place to try it out.

There is not a television at the cottage, it's a perfect place we are so blessed to be able to go on a regular basis.  A place where we can connect with each other, with no distractions. 

So the first morning we woke up at the cottage we got out this game and played as we were still in our pajamas.

 The game is pretty simple.  There are 4 cards and 4 magnetic fishing poles.  Inside the box there are fish with metal rings.  Each fish has a letter of the alphabet on it in lowercase form. 

 The 4 cards are double sided.  One side has lowercase letters on it and the other side has the same letters in the uppercase form.

 The youngest child gets to go first.  They use their pole to find a fish and read the letter on it's side.  If they have that letter on their card they place it over that letter.  If they pull out a shark, they throw it back and get to go again.  The goal is to be the first to cover all of the letters on your card.

As with all Discovery Toys, this one is designed to grow with them, by having the two sides to each card.  If they are older children they can use the other side with the uppercase letters.  When they draw a fish that has a lowercase letter they have to pair it correctly with the uppercase letter on the card.

 You can see that Lachlan is still quite tired.  Big yawn here.

 I love games that you can play as a family, especially ones you can play with kids that are quite young.  I struggle with turning the TV on more than I would like.  The other day, all I wanted to do was to turn on a cartoon for the kids and have a little down time.  But instead, I realized the baby was asleep and I should take advantage of the time I had to spend some quality time with my precious big boys instead.  So I pulled this game out, we looked at each other eye to eye and enjoyed each others company.  Added bonus, we were also reinforcing their knowledge of letters!

 So far I have ran into one negative, the box that sits up right and hides the fish inside, easily gets bumped out of place.  When it gets bumped the fish inside slide under its edge and its a bit of a pain to have to keep putting back.  I actually took it off altogether when we played with it again later.  This worked out fine because my boys were peaking anyways.  But another friend of mine said I should just get those little Velcro tabs and put one part on the base and one part on the edge of the shield so they stay together during play.  I thought that was a brilliant idea, I just need to get to the store.

Overall this is a great game.  You can easily use the fishing poles in all sorts of other play scenarios.  They get to learn and pretend to fish, which my boys love.

I am a Discovery Toys Education Consultant, so if you make a purchase through my website, I do get a percentage commission.  However, I do hope to give an honest and straight forward review of all the toys. 

Hydro Launch by Discovery Toys

The Hydro Launch is an awesome summertime toy.  I wish I had something like this as a kid.  In fact, it makes me feel like a kid again.  I think I want to play with this one just as much as the kids.

This thing comes with a launch pad, the yellow base there, which has a hose running from it to the red throttle type controller.  The garden hose get's plugged into the throttle.  The throttle controls the pressure of the water stream coming out of the launch pad.  If you slowly increase the pressure it will rise gently and hover on top of the stream of water.  From there you can decrease the pressure and it will drop.  It will balance on the stream of water for quite sometime and you can move it up and down very easily.  When it is hovering in the air it sprays water all around it and actually works as a pretty good sprinkler.  Lots of fun for the kids to run through as well.

Or you can push the throttle up quickly and launch the thing sky high. 

As you can see this thing can fly.  It looks like it is higher than the peak of our roof in this picture but that is just perspective.  But I can tell you, it is very high.  The stream of water with out the rocket on it, is almost as high as our 7 year old birch tree.

It is best to play with this toy on a level surface, although, on a slight angle the rocket still corrects itself, it just won't balance as high on the stream of water.

The rocket itself is completely hollow.  It's just a light weight and flexible plastic, but it's pretty sturdy.  The tip of the rocket is a foam cone.  It takes a lot of the impact when it falls to the ground.  The foam tip on ours has a split in it.  I am not sure if this is just from wear and tear or if a little one stuck their finger in it.  Even though it has a split, it's holding it's shape and not coming apart.

The rocket is super easy to place on the launch pad.  There is no exact science.  It just sits on top, nothing has to be perfectly lined up for it to work.  If it's sat on top of the launch pad crooked, it corrects itself.  This is nice, because kids of all ages can fully play with this toy. 

On the inside where the water meets the rocket there is a ridged surface.  I think that's what makes the rocket spin when it's hovering.  There is definitely a lot of engineering that went into this toy to make it work so well.

Some things to be aware of.  The pressure of the water coming out of that launch pad is pretty intense.  If a child was leaning over it while another child turned it on, I would think it could be pretty painful to the eyes.  The other danger is the rocket falling on a child as it comes down.  This has happened a couple of times to new users.  There was no significant injury, just a bit scared, and they quickly moved on.  Once everyone knows how this thing works and has had some time with it, it hasn't been a problem.  It falls with in a pretty small radius, and it's easy enough to be out of it's way.  The wind does play a factor in where it falls.  Once you know the direction the rocket lands, you can make sure the throttle is not in that direction, and then everyone can be safe.

I have been moving the location of the Hydro Launch around a bit because it does do a good job of watering.  We don't have a sprinkler system, so the Hydro Launch might just help keep our grass green this year.  I would recommend playing with it on grass.  If you set it up on pavement or gravel, the rocket would get a lot more beat up upon landing.

The only major problem you are going to run into is how to take turns because everyone is going to want to play.  I have been letting each child go twice in a row before their turn is over.  I might even bump that up to three next time we get it out.  If they only get to do it once, then by he next time they get a turn, they have forgotten the feel of the throttle and the effects their movement has on the rocket.  When they get to go a few times in a row, they can really enjoy experimenting with it, while at the same time learning all about the laws of physics. 

Adam 12 weeks and 5 days old - Super Yummy

Adam will be 3 months old in 3 days.  I put him in his Go-Pod and attached his Super Yummy to it. 

 Here he is staring down his black and white panda.

Happy Boy

He leans himself forward and chomps down.

Looking straight into the camera.  Love that face.

Oh man that feels good on my gums!

This Super Yummy is really neat.  It has 4 different textures on each of the little numbs for him to explore.  It also has a light vanilla sent which is nice.  It will be fun to see how this toy is enjoyed in different ways as he grows.

I was so glad this toy was in my Discover Toys starter kit because Sophie the Giraffe which my 2 older boys enjoyed, will just not make it for #3.  Sophie got dirty and washed too many times.  So far this is on par with Sophie, although in some ways, I think this one might be better.  Lachlan and Peter would always like to chew on the legs of Sophie which are so long, they would often end up gagging themselves.  These little nubs are perfect for their mouths and it has a very similar feel as Sophie.  Nice and squishy.

Here's another bonus to this one over Sophie.  Sophie is normally 20 bucks at the cheapest and this one is only $10!

Busy Farm by Discovery Toys

I've been trying to get out the new Discovery Toys one by one.  When you get a giant box of new toys, it's hard not just to pull them out and play with them all at once.  But I thought I would get more play out of each toy if we played with them individually.  I really want to watch the reaction of my children with each toy so I can write about it here.

On this day, I pulled out two new toys.  One that Peter chose and one that Lachlan chose.  Peter picked out the Busy Farm, and boy was I impressed.

I call this one preschool in a box.

First you can see, it includes, this big bag of farm animals.  There are 6 different kinds of animals and they each come in all of the colors.

Along with the animals, it comes with these awesome cards that are double sided.  They ask you to do all sorts of different things.  Like finish a pattern, find the animal that's different, put the animal, on, in, over or under.  All the things little ones learn in preschool.

 The one above asks, which one is different?  Place a cow on the one that is different.

This one is a pattern for them to finish and the other one here asks where these things come from.  So he set the cow on the glass of milk.

 This one asks you to put a cow in the green triangle and a pig in the brown rectangle.  So they are learning colors and shapes.

 As you can see, he loved it, so we just kept going.  I just kept laying out the cards and he happily played along.

 Until he decided to be a stinker.  I would read the directions and he would choose to do the opposite.  So I decided to beat him at his own game.  I told him, okay, I will do it.  The directions say to put the pig in the rectangle.  I picked up a pig, put him next to the rectangle and threw my hands in the air celebrating.  I did it, I did it!

He looked at me and smiled, no that's next to it.  Then he would pick it up and put it in the rectangle.

You can see him correcting me here.

 Well look at that.  In correcting me, not only did he better learn the concept of in but also next to.

You can see us all playing together.  Even Adam joined in.  He loved being included in the fun and laid there watching them very contently.  It was such a fun family time together, with the television off.

As you can see, Peter gives it a thumbs up..

What I am enjoying most about all the toys we have tried out so far is that they are "kid powered".  This is the goal of all Discovery Toys.  They want the kids to have to do the work, to use their imagination and to learn and grow as they play.  You don't just press a button and let the toy do the work.

This toy, is amazing.  But for the most part, to take advantage of the cards, someone who can read has to play along.  This can be a pro and con.  Of course it is always nice to spend some good quality time with your children, but there are times you need them to play alone.  However, some of the cards they could probably figure out the instructions on their own.  Like the pattern cards or which ones different.  Even the ones that ask you to place an animal next to or to the left of they could play with on their own, they just might not do what the instructions ask.  You could look over their shoulder at what they are doing and ask them where they placed the animal and in that way, they would still be learning.  But they can also just play with the animals.

These little farm animals in and of themselves were captivating for both the boys.  They got out our barn and used them as the baby animals at the farm.  They have played with them for days now.  In fact, they had to go to time out for a bit because they didn't want to share.  So they will come back out again soon.

Lachlan really liked lining them up inside the little box they came in.  He had a hard time figuring out how the box open and closed so he ended up ripping a part of the box.  The box has a nice little handle on it so that it can be stored away as it came.  With a little tape we were able to fix it up.  Hopefully, it will hold up.

There is a similar set to this one but with bugs instead of farm animals.  It's called Busy Bugs .

If you want to buy this or any other Discovery Toys please visit my website here.  Of course I do get some commission on sales, but that doesn't mean I won't be honest.  I just like to do all I can to help support my amazing family.  Thanks so much!

Sky Spin by Discovery Toys

I just got my Discovery Toys starter kit today.  On the top of all the goodies was the Sky Spin.  My boys were so excited to give it a try.

The photo on the left is just as it's getting ready to launch and the photo on the right is a few seconds later.  you can see it is heading towards the ground.  It didn't fly very high at all. 

As the day progressed and we kept practicing, the boys got really good at this.  They switched hands and held the launcher in their left hand so they could pull the cord with their right.  They could pull it quicker and stronger with their dominate hand.  

I bet if my boys were a little bigger they could get it to really take off.  Next I decided to give it a try.  When I pulled the string on the launcher it went a bit higher, and hovered and flew around for quite a bit longer before hitting the ground.  It was pretty neat.

The wings are a pretty flexible and light plastic, which they have to be to fly.  This also makes it bounce off what ever it may hit as it flies, with out it breaking.  The launcher itself seems pretty sturdy.  Peter is going to be the real test to durability.  We call him Peter the destroyer.  He once broke a glass with his bare hands, a pretty sturdy glass too.  So if it holds up for him it will hold up for anyone.

The boys discovered that if they held the launcher towards the ground and pulled the string, the wing would actually take off and roll like a wheel across the lawn.  They thought that was pretty awesome and started playing with it in that form.

On the website, it says that if you aim this thing just right you can make it come back to you like a boomerang.  So it seems there is more to this toy then meets the eye.

There is a benefits section listed on each toy at the Discovery Toys Website.  For this toy it says:

• Keeps kids engaged and playing outside.
• Strengthens fine and gross motor skills.
• Fosters experiment and trial and error.
• Vary the force of your pull to adjust how high the wing flies.
• Vary the tilt of the launcher to adjust the direction of flight.
• Learn about aerodynamics and simple physics.
• Sharpens hand-eye coordination as you try to catch the wing.

 If you would like to buy this toy, or any other Discovery Toy, click here.

Update:  It's just been a few days since we opened this toy.  With practice, the boys have both gotten really good at making it fly.  Lachlan more than Peter, Lachlan is 5.  He has even begun to aim it and experimenting with pulling the string at different speeds.  

Keeps kids engaged and playing outside.

Strengthens fine and gross motor skills.

Fosters experimentation and trial & error:

• Vary the force of your pull to adjust how high the wing flies.
• Vary the tilt of the launcher to adjust the direction of flight.

Learn about aerodynamics and simple physics.

Sharpens hand-eye coordination as you try to catch the wing.

- See more at: http://www.discoverytoys.com/PublicStore/stores/TracysToysDT/AM/product/Sky-Spin,1414,194.aspx#sthash.LCipARqO.dpuf