My Tiny Planets--TOS Review

 

My Tiny Planets is a big website with equally large credentials and endorsements.  It was co-created by Sesame Workshop and has been endorsed by Montessori International.  It has also won two BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards – Interactive Best Entertainment Website and Best Children's Interactive.  Quite admirable, I'd say!

Here's the rundown:

Tiny Planets TV:  Here you can watch the Tiny Planets television episodes.  Their website notes that Tiny Planets TV "emphasizes science education and early learning goals, such as social and emotional development, language and literacy, problem-solving and reasoning, knowledge and understanding of our world, and creative development." 

Both Amélie and Jack enjoyed the TV episodes.  Bing and Bong are a nicely-wrapped cartoon package of lovable, entertaining, and educational!  The first episode is free, but additional episodes cost a certain number of keys.  Keys can be purchased in the parent account for the following amounts:
10 keys: $1.95
25 keys: $3.95
85 keys: $9.95
250 keys: $25.95
600 keys: $49.95

My Tiny Planets is an online community and virtual world where kids can create an avatar (their "space cadet") and "solve galactic missions with Bing and Bong, sharpen their wits with fast-paced mini-games, navigate their spaceships and avoid wormholes, adopt and care for their own planet, and nurture exotic plants in a biodome, all the while racking up achievements and special badges for their accomplishments." 

Amélie especially liked adopting and caring for her own planet (I mean, who wouldn't like to create their own planet???).  She got a little tired of the games that required spaceship navigation (I think she wished for a little more variety, perhaps?), and sometimes she got a little confused as to what she was supposed to do.  I should confess right now that I am not a fan of computer games, so I honestly don't like to figure out how to do things Amélie can't decipher.  I probably could have figured things out faster if I had a teeny, tiny bit more patience (maybe). :)

Tiny Planets Fun is a spot where kids can "enjoy brainy puzzle games (like fractions, sound and seek, and symmetry), as well as coloring books and comics."  The TV episodes are also on this site.

Amélie likes games, so she had fun deciphering the puzzles.  I liked it that the games were educational and were helping her learn concepts and symmetry in a fun way. 

"On Tiny Planets Books you'll find interactive story books for younger children featuring Bing and Bong, their friends the locals and the flockers, and all the endearing planets in the Universe of Tiny Planets. Read these books with your child, or teach your child to read on their own!" 

My kids really, really enjoy digital books (which kind of makes me a bit crazy, if you want to know the truth).  I have an app that downloads a free kids' book every day, and they are always clambering to be the first one to get to read it.  As such, they enjoyed these books, and it was fun that they had the connection of Bing and Bong from the TV Series and the games.  You can read two books for free and then purchase additional books with keys.

Tiny Planets Labs is the spot where kids can try out the games that are in the testing phase.  Amélie had fun trying out the games, although she seemed to have more fun checking out the other parts of this site.

"Tiny Planets Learning is the site for parents, homeschoolers, and educators. Here you'll find lesson plans that include educational activities and science experiments to do at home. Also, you'll see how every episode in the Tiny Planets television series maps to early learning goals."

OK, I have a confession to make.  I didn't spend very much time on this portion of the site.  The thing is...I already have my hands full doing our rather time-intensive curriculum, and I chose to use this site as a fun site for my kids...with the added perk that it was also educational.  However, it looked like there was some great information here for parents who might want to take what is offered on this website one step further.

Whew!  That was A LOT of information!  It is a huge site, though, and it takes awhile to navigate, figure out, and unlock its fun potential.  We have enjoyed having this site to play with.  One of my favorite parts is that much of it is free.  There are definitely more things to do if you purchase the keys, but it's not like some sites that I know Amélie has gotten really frustrated with because it seems like all of the fun stuff requires money.  It was fun having some keys to use up (we received 25 keys to use), and I would say it would be worth it to purchase extra keys, but I honestly am not sure that I would do so.  However, I have never bought any extra stuff on a game site, so that could just be me and how I operate.  :)

If you would like to see what my other crewmates are writing about this site, you can check out their reviews here.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was provided a free copy of this product for my honest evaluation. Aside from the 25 keys deposited into my account, I was given no other compensation for this review.

my Christmas poem...

I don't pretend to be a poet.  I'm more of a poetic prose kind of girl.  However, this poem won me 100 bucks two years ago, so I'm reposting it. 
(Just don't sing it to the tune of "Oh, Christmas Tree," because it doesn't work.)

Oh, Christmas Tree. Oh, Christmas Tree.
How lovely are your branches.
My little son pulls you down
In ornamental avalanches.

The fat little Santa from my first year
The bulb from my great-grandma
Are crushed and how I long to cry
With loud holiday drama.

The next morning, though, I awake
With sweet anticipation.
The art of cookies must be passed
Down to the next generation.

Hours later I emerge
Sticky and flour-y and sick,
And decide that perhaps next year
A bakery might just do the trick.

I decide to go and Christmas shop.
My babysitter bails.
We scuttle from the mall
Amid toddler tantrums, screams, and wails.

We escape the mall as fast as I,
My bags, and child are able.
I decide we need to spend some time
With the baby in the stable.

In awe I lead him by the hand
To gaze with reverence at the manger.
I do not know that holy child
Is cloaked in mortal danger.

The baby curled up in the hay
Looks like a soft, fun ball.
In horror I watch as with delight
Jack hurls him down the hall.

sigh.

I could give you cookie crumbles
Or a half-wrapped Christmas gift,
But instead let’s think about
How my priorities need to shift.

So I will wrap up for you
Some faith, family, hope, and joy.
These gifts will last much longer
Than a transient Christmas toy.

blog reconciliation

I haven't posted anything besides a review on here in so long that I don't even know what to say anymore. There is sort of this awkwardness that exists now between myself and my blog.  We don't quite know what to say to each other.  My blog is sick of hearing my excuses for not posting.  I feel a lot of guilt, so I just tend to avoid our relationship.  Maybe we need therapy. 

A blog is so tricky, really.  I came home from a meeting with someone a few weeks ago, and I had so much to process.  Normally, I would hash it out with Matt after the kids were in bed, but he had the audacity to go meet some guy from Canada for sushi that night after the kids were in tucked in, so I didn't have my usual sounding board.  I tried to journal, but my thoughts were flying so fast that my pen couldn't keep up.  I opened up a "New Post" window here, but it was really too personal (and fresh and unprocessed) to post publicly.  I didn't know what to do with myself!
I think I actually ended up just talking to myself.  That worked pretty well, but if just wasn't the same.

Do you talk to yourself?  I don't mean muttering things like, "Now where the heck did I put those keys?" but like a real conversation, like talking to yourself as if that self were sitting beside you in the passenger seat while you were driving.  I am a big fan of talking to myself.  If you ever drive up beside me, please don't tell me at a later date what I look like, because then I will have to hold my phone up to my ear or something to make it look like I am actually talking to someone.  Maybe it is a wee bit crazy, but if I am by myself, a rare enough occasion in itself, chances are I have a lot of unfinished thoughts in my brain that need to be thought through.  And the easiest way to do that is to talk out loud.  If I think inside my head, then my brain will wander 20,000 different directions, and I won't ever complete a thought. 

I really didn't mean to write a post on talking to myself.  I didn't really mean to write a post on anything.  I'm just breaking the silence and trying to reestablish a relationship with my blog.  I hope this is a first step towards getting back together again.  I'm uncomfortable with our awkward silence and am hoping for a reconciliation.

TOS Review--Good Morning, God

I am always happy when we receive a book in the mail to review (I think I've mentioned that on here before once...or twice...or more).  :)  One afternoon I went out to my mailbox and found a copy of the book Good Morning, God by Davis Carman and published by Apologia Press.  Even before I read the book my kids liked to sit down and look at the pictures.  The illustrations, by Alice Ratterree, are absolutely beautiful.  In fact, the illustrations were my favorite part of the book.

The idea of the book is good.  It is based Deuteronomy 6:6-7, which says "These commands that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."  The story then repetitively threads the ideas from these verses throughout the book in a story of one family's dweekly activities.  At the end of the book, a little study guide is included with some ideas of activities to do with kids each day of the week.  I like children's stories with repetition, and Jack especially loves stories with repetition, but I did not think that the story flowed very well.  I tend to like repetition in books when it is more lyrical (or maybe rhythmical is a better word to use), but the repetition in the book seemed a bit clunky to me. 

One great aspect of the book, as a homeschooling family, is that the family in the book is a homeschooling family as well!  That doesn't happen very often!  Amélie noticed that right away, and she liked the connection.  Honestly, my kids really did like this book.  It is probably a bit young for Amélie to want to listen to more than once, but Jack has brought it to me several times to read to him, so he seems to give it a thumbs up.  Maybe I should have let him write the review.  :) 

If you would like to purchase this book, you can do so here for $14.00.  You can also purchase an accompanying coloring book for $4.00, which I think would be a nice supplement.

If you would like to see what my other TOS Crewmates had to say about these books check out their reviews here.



Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was provided a free copy of this product for my honest evaluation. I was given no other compensation for this review.

TOS Homeschool Review--Nanuk: A Baby Polar Bear's Story

As a bibliophile, I adore books.  I sometimes keep myself away from bookstores so that I don't spend food money on my preferred form of nourishment.  I always think of the Erasmus quote: "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes."  That sentence quite aptly describes me.  It is a special treat to me, then, when I receive a book in the mail that is free. 

(When I was teaching writing and literature at K State, I took such unfair advantage of the free textbooks I could request from publishers.  Do you have any idea how many free copies of short story and introduction to literature anthologies are on my bookshelves upstairs?  I can't part with any of them.  It's a problem.) 

The book we received in the mail to review was called Nanuk: A Baby Polar Bear's Story, which is part of a series called My Animal Family from Smart Kids Publishing, Inc.  We loved this book!  My kids both loved the story of a young polar bear who loves to romp and play with his brother but who is also learning how to survive in his cold, icy habitat.  The artwork is just as compelling as the story, and each page is covered with realistic and beautiful watercolors of this polar bear family and the landscape that surrounds them.  I know that this will be a book that we will look at together many times. 

Although the hardback book is, in itself, worth its $10.39 pricetag, the book also comes with a companion DVD with BBC footage that shows a mother polar bear and her two cubs in their natural habitat.  My kids both loved the video.  Not only is the footage incredible, but the commentary is wonderful, too.  The narration is done by a child from the point of view of one of the young polar bears, and this pov made the DVD quite interesting for my kids, who sat in front of the TV quite enthralled.  I was trying to fix lunch in the kitchen, and I must confess I kept sneaking back into the living room to watch the footage and learn about polar bears.  The DVD also includes a song to learn, which I was a little disappointed in.  The song was well-done, but I don't think that it is catchy enough for my kids to want to repeatedly listen to and actually learn. 

One fun perk to this book is that when you buy the book you are given 30 days of access to the My Animal Family website where kids can play educational games.  My daughter liked the games, but it took quite awhile to earn enough points to "buy" necessary items to get further in the game, and that was a little frustrating for her.  It seems if at least some of the items were worth fewer points the game might hold kids' interest for a longer period of time.  

Overall, the print and media combination of this book series is quite well done.  There are several other books in this series as well, and I think it would be well worth the money to invest in at least one of these wonderful books. 

If you would like to see what my other TOS Crewmates had to say about these books check out their reviews here.


Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was provided a free copy of this product for my honest evaluation. I was given no other compensation for this review.

missing ed....

Two years ago today we lost our Ed.  I know he was "just" a dog.  I know it's probably silly that I am sitting here with tears.  But to us, he was family.  He was our Ed--our melancholy, deep, beautiful old soul.  In honor of him, I am copying and pasting my post about him from two years ago. 
I still love you, Ed....  <3

Sometime in the blackness of last night I had a dream. In that dream, I looked up and saw Ed, my old soul, my Eeyore, my weimaraner of almost 12 years. He ambled over to his dog bed to lie down, and I threw myself on his back, buried my face in his soft fur, and sobbed. I was crying deep, grieving sobs, but I was also so joyful. “I didn’t know…” I told him between sobs. “I didn’t know that you could come back. I’m so glad you’re here. So, so glad you’re here. I’ve missed you so.” After awhile he sort of dissolved into space, and I was sad, but I was also relieved. He would come back. I didn’t know that could happen after death.


Then I woke up, and of course it was just a dream. Ed was gone, and I knew that he wouldn’t come back ever again. I will no longer be able to stare into his soft, knowing eyes. I will never again wrap my arms around his solid, lumpy softness. I will never again rest my head on his back and breathe in his musky scent.

Ed died last Monday of gastric dilatation. I didn’t even get to tell him a proper goodbye, because I didn’t know that Matt would feel his last heartbeats beneath his fingers as he carried our good old dog into the vet that morning. I had been talking to my mother-in-law on the phone, expressing my concern about Ed’s obvious discomfort, when Matt’s call beeped in. I had made Matt promise me he would call me if the vet decided to put him to sleep so that I could go there and say goodbye and hold him as he died. But it was too late. When I called my mother-in-law back moments later, she didn’t even speak when she answered the phone. She couldn’t talk, because she was crying too. Matt came and picked me up and we returned to the vet together with Jack and Molly. He just looked like he was sleeping there on the table, and I don’t think it really sunk in as I held him and hugged him and told him goodbye that I was, in fact, telling him goodbye forever. An hour later we picked Amélie up in the parking lot of her school, and she held on to her daddy and cried as we told her the news.

I know that a lot of people love their dogs, but Ed was special. He truly was an old soul. When we got Ed, he was a reject puppy who was skinny and neurotic and all feet and ears. We instantly fell in love. At the time, I was struggling deeply with an eating disorder, and as strange as it sounds, Ed’s arrival was a crucial impetus in my healing. Ed unconditionally loved me. I unconditionally loved Ed. I honestly don’t think I had ever allowed myself to be unconditionally loved before.

He always seemed so sad, though. When he was three years old we ascertained that his melancholy temperament was due to loneliness, so we brought home a very young soul, Molly. We quickly realized that loneliness was not his problem, and I don’t know that he ever forgave us for ousting him from his only-child position in our family and introducing to him not only a dog sister, but also two human siblings. Still, he loved us, followed us everywhere, and always, always provided a solid yet soft self to wrap hurting arms around.

He was part-human, I think…or perhaps he was more than human. I remember one time, especially, when a dear friend flew in to visit me because she was in the middle of a heart-breaking crisis. We spent hours on my couch talking and crying, and every time my friend would be about to cry, Ed would lay his head on her lap and look up at her with limpid eyes full of sympathy and understanding. It was uncanny. It was amazing. It was Ed.

He should have been a bird dog. He should have spent his life galloping through fields and bringing his master his prey. Instead, he was stuck with us. He patiently stalked squirrels in our back yard, “pointed” at anything even remotely interesting, and climbed, with both increasing difficulty and frequency, on our couch or bed. He watched us through his old-soul eyes, and I think that if I would have stopped, flung my arms around him, and listened more often, I might be a wiser woman today.

My heart hurts as I write this. I can’t even see my comptuer screen.

I miss you, Ed. I love you. Please come back to me in my dreams again so I can busy my nose in your fur, and please, please, God…let there be at least one dog in heaven, and let that dog be Ed.

Corps of Re-Discovery Review--Cornhusk Doll Kit

When we received the Cornhusk Doll Kit in the mail from Corps of Re-Discovery, Amélie's eyes lit up.  She loves it when we get any package in the mail to review, but the opportunity to do a craft together made her especially excited.  She loves "projects"! 

(and let me just insert here right up front that I might have pictures to include except for the fact that my camera has hidden itself in a remote location of my home.  Argh!)

Corps of Re-Discovery is a company that was founded after a homeschooling family took the task of studying American history quite literally and traversed across 47 of the 50 states!  They came back, combined their creativity and ingenuity, and created a company that offers craft projects of several eras and people of American history, including Native American, Pioneer and Colonial, and Frontiersman.  They also offer leatherworking materials.             

We received the girl cornhusk doll to assemble, and honestly, the timing could not have been more perfect for us.  We are studying world history this year, but we just started reading Little House in the Big Woods, and Laura has a cornhusk doll!  Amélie now has more of an idea about what life was like when children were playing with cornhusk dolls rather than American Girl dolls, and she can also use her imagination and play "Little House on the Prairie." 

We enjoyed assembling the doll together, although there were a couple of spots where I got a bit confused (however, it is hard to say whether this is a flaw in the product directions or my own user error!).  At the moment she is naked, because I could not maneuver a needle and thread if my very life depended on it.  We are going to bring the doll to my mother-in-law's house, and I am sure she will be more than happy to help us sew the apron. 

I was very impressed with this educational AND fun product, and at the very reasonable price of $4.50, I just might order more of these doll kids or some of the other reasonably priced items from their website for Christmas presents! 

If you would like to see what my other TOS Crewmates had to say about both the Cornhusk Doll and other Corps of Rediscovery Products, check them out here.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was provided a free copy of this product for my honest evaluation. I was given no other compensation for this review.