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Tag Archive for Education

Organic Valley Farm Friends

Posted by Brande on May 10, 2012
in Coupons, Deals, Downloads, Education, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Thrifty Thursday

This was the first time I visited Organic Valley’s Website! Shame on me, right!?

We are all trying to keep our families happy and healthy, well Organic Valley will help. They have a fantastic website and even two apps for Apple devices (Organic Valley and Organic Moo Can), they are FREE and you can download them from Organic Valley’s Site! **Sorry, they don’t have it for Android at this time**

On this site you can Find your Farmer, Organic Valley Products, Recipes, Reason to Choose Organic Products, and more. Organic Valley’s website is full of wonderful information.

Head to the Tab “Community” – on the right you can a subscribe section. Enter your email and zip code. It will then take you to where you can sign up for newsletters and the “Farm Friends Welcome kit” – “The Kit contains Rootstock Magazine, a Kid’s Activity Booklet, a Go Organic! bumper sticker, and a booklet of useful Organic Valley coupons.” Sound good to me!

Head to Organic Valley and start your next organic journey!

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Nudge Your Kids

Posted by Brande on May 9, 2012
in Children's Clothing, Cleaning, Clothing, Education, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Fashion, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Humor, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, Reviews, School

Nudge your kids with a Nudge Tee that is! So, what has your child accomplished on their own? Brushing their teeth? Making their Bed? Feeding an animal? Reading or writing? Celebrate with them! For $20.00 you can praise their efforts, and by wearing one of these tees they can let everyone else know of their good doings!

Guess what! They have them in adult sizes also! If your husband’s like mine and doesn’t like washing dishes. Get him a shirt that says “I wash dishes”! lol……! I Love You, Honey!

My Review:

Here’s the shirt my daughter received from Nudge Tees.

Granted we are still working on this, but she’s getting better. I would have shown my daughter in her new shirt Nudge Tee shirts as my daughter achieves more accomplishments. I love these shirts and what they do to boost my child ego.

Head over to Nudge Tees and encourage your child!

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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FREE Samples from Dover Publications

Posted by Theresa, Owner on May 3, 2012
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff

Our family loves the coloring books and paper dolls from Dover Publications and when I recently opened our email with free samples I thought, “This is something I should share with my readers,” so here I am!

I know you may be thinking, “Who plays with paper dolls anymore?” To that I say, “We do!” Our children play with their paper dolls more than they play with their other toys. Paper dolls allows them use their imaginations and creativity. There are paper doll books from different time periods which teaches the children about the clothing people of those times wore. My girls are more interested in this than my boys. However, there are paper dolls for boys too and while they are fewer than the girls’ selection it’s enough to keep my boys happy. Soldiers, knights and sticker dolls have been favorites with my boys. My children even cut out the covers of their paper doll books!

A word about the little sticker paper dolls, they do not last long as the adhesive wears off pretty fast if they play with them a lot. However, they are very cheap at $1 or $2 for a few days of fun.

Dover’s coloring books are not only fun but educational as well. Included in the coloring books are fun facts, brief history and information about the topic of the coloring book. We have purchased them to learn more about birds, flags, butterflies, horses and I may be missing a couple.

My Boys Favorite Coloring Pages (so far)

My Favorite Sample Pages (so far)

My Youngest Daughter’s Favorite Coloring Page (so far)

To get free samples from Dover Publications, such as coloring pages, book pages and more, which arrive to your inbox twice a month, just click here.

For more information about Dover Publications and to see the other products they have to offer visit their website: www.DoverPublications.com

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Earth Day 2012 Giveaway – $50 Gift Certificate to UncommonGoods!

Posted by Theresa, Owner on April 20, 2012
in Contests, Eco Friendly Products, Education, Faith and Family Reviews Friday Giveaway, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giveaways, Kids Toys

We love educational products and tools. UncommonGoods not only has educational toys, but also gifts for plant lovers, hummingbird feeders and unique home accessories. Many handmade and eco-friendly products all very different. Recently we were able to review two of their educational kits for kids – Cheesemaking and Crystal Explosion….And UncommonGoods is providing a $50 gift certificate for one happy winner of our Earth Day 2012 Giveaway! A great way to start off Earth Day weekend!

Cheesemaking Kit Review

We have always been interested in cheesemaking so this was a cool kit to do. My older girls actually did this one and we let the younger children do the Crystal kit.

The kit gives you a choice of making mozzarella cheese or ricotta cheese. We chose mozzarella since we eat more of it than ricotta. The instructions were very well laid out, easy to follow and included photos so you could actually see if your cheese was doing what they said it should at each step.

Everything you need is in the kit except for a gallon of organic milk and a pint of half and half. Those need to be purchased separately. Each little tablet shown has to be cut into quarters, so you can actually make 30 batches of cheese with this kit – bonus!

One of my daughters was worried that the cheese did not turn out, but once we tasted it was fine. We lightly salted it when we tried it and liked that better than plain.

This kit is for older children (teens) to do on their own or for younger children to assist a parent due to needing a heat source, like a stove or microwave. We really try to limit our microwave use.

The girls enjoyed their cheesemaking experience. Now we need our own cow so we can truly make our own cheese.

You can purchase your own kit here($25).

Crystal Explosion Kit Review

Our children have been studying rocks and have been fascinated by what they are learning. The Crystal Explosion kit was very fun for the younger children.

The crystals (bath salts) were a bit messy but the enjoyment the children got from completing the crystal experiment far outweighed the small mess on the table!

Again, this was another kit that is very easy to use. Instructions are easy to follow. Due to hot water being required, some parental guidance and help is required.

It was fun to wake up to the crystals in the refrigerator. We still have them in there! Every now and then the children will bring me the cup and say, “Mommy, look at the crystals” because they are in awe. Very cute.

To order your own Crystal Explosion kit visit this link. It is available for $17.99.

Both of these kits are winners in our house and we give them two thumbs up. Thank you UncommonGoods!

Now you can enter our giveaway….

Earth Day 2012 Giveway – $50 Gift Certificate to UncommonGoods

Enter to win a $50 gift certificate to UncommonGoods! Open to the USA only. Winner will be contacted in 2-3 weeks, if not before.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Factory Tours USA

Posted by Brande on March 29, 2012
in Deals, Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, News Worthy, Parenting, Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday, Travel

Spring Break and Summer are getting close, what are your plans? With gas prices soaring and admission into places doesn’t seem to be getting any lower, family fun is getting expensive! Try this site Factory Tours USA . I did a spot check and from what I could see, most of the Factory Tours are FREE, granted I’m sure most have a gift store at the end. By going on a tour, you and your family are having fun and don’t even realize they are learning! There are many great places to visit. There are just about 50 categories ranging from candy to racing teams to musical instruments to mines and mining. You can search by state too. Here’s the website! http://www.factorytoursusa.com

Happy & Safe Travels!

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FREE “Dummies” Books

Posted by Brande on March 29, 2012
in Articles, Books, Downloads, Ebooks, Education, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom

I’ve used “Dummies” books before and they are helpful. Check out these 3 that I ordered. “Living the Boomer Life for Dummies“, “Well-Being for Dummies“, and “Retirement for Dummies” – Get these FREE Dummies books as a download if you need them faster or in hard copy. They are available at REAL Powered by Humana, which so far, for me at least, seems to be an equally good site for various information about work, family, self and play. If you look near the middle of the page you will see Marketplace that’s where you will find these “Dummies” books too. They are on the right side of the Marketplace link.

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Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics Program Review

Posted by Theresa, Owner on March 25, 2012
in Education, School

I know you all must remember Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and Tweetie Bird, The Tasmanian Devil and others. Very funny characters that make you laugh and remember your childhood days of watching these cartoon characters. I use to watch them with my Dad. He loved them and would sit and chuckle over their antics.

My children have had limited exposure to them, only because I am concerned about them learning to talk correctly and well, Tweetie and a couple others leave much to be desired in the pronouncing words the right way.

Nevertheless when we reviewed Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics, they loved it!

My Review of Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics Program

I really liked how the phonics lessons were organized, repetitive and fun! It is so important to have an element of fun when children are learning or else it just seems like drudgery work. After all we want them to love to learn!

When I set up an account for our daughter, I chose to start at level 10 because she already knew her ABCs and basic sounds, so my review is based on lessons 10-15, as those are the only ones we made it through. Nice features were: you can change settings for slow, medium and fast sounding out, parents may also set the length of the lesson which is a bonus for children with short attention spans!

Sample Lesson from Looney Tunes ClickN READ

The Looney Tunes Phonics Program has a fun little robot character that acts as the teacher. He instructs the children and takes the children through sound lessons first.

After doing some phonics work, there is a little break with the Loony Tunes characters. Then Mr. Robot takes the children through some words.

Again after a short lesson on sounding out words, there is another little break with a show about some of the Loony Tunes Characters. The next phase of the Loony Tunes Phonics Program is sentence reading.

Looney Tunes ClickN READ offers a free sample lessons to review before you make any purchase. There is lots of repetition. The robot talks clearly and concisely. This program is very easy for children to follow along and do their lessons with supervision and after each lesson part they get to practice what they learned by doing an activity where they clicked on a letter sound, word or read a sentence. Upon completion they are told how many they get wrong.

The only negative I see to the program is what I mentioned in my introduction and that is the way Tweetie talks, especially with children who are already struggling to say sounds correctly, but that is all. Overall it is fun, entertaining and educational.

Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics Discount!

Get Your Kids Reading With Bugs Bunny and Friends! Get Started with Looney Tunes Phonics for Only $9.95!, plus they have other purchasing options. If you are interested in trying it out, we were given a promotional to share with you of 15% off any purchase through 12/31/12 with the code: 15PERCNS15

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Faith and Family Reviews Announces…Schoolhouseteachers.com Giveaway!

Posted by Brande on March 22, 2012
in Contests, Downloads, Education, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, News Worthy, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, School

Remember when I told you about the SchoolhouseTeachers.com from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine? Well, they are having a giveaway for 1 year PREMIUM level membership!

Here’s the link! http://networkedblogs.com/vsCFp

If you’d like to sign up for any of the SchoolhouseTeachers.com levels, here is the link to do that also!

http://schoolhouseteachers.com/dap/a/?a=3429

Happy Educating from Faith and Family Reviews!

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Hungry for Change: From the Creators of Food Matters

Posted by Theresa, Owner on March 21, 2012
in Community Issues, DVDs & CDs, Food and Treats, Free Stuff, Health, Health and Nutrition, Movies, News Worthy

I love sharing about new resources that educate people about our current Big Ag food system and anything that helps people realize we do not need big corporations controlling our food. Hungry for Change is a new movie from the creator of Food Matters (another must see!). This is a direct quote from FRESH’s email as I am about to watch the movie with one of my sons and whoever else is propelled towards the sound of a movie playing…..so here it is:

Today marks the worldwide premiere of Hungry for Change, and you can watch it online for FREE until March 31st. Check it out today!

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/fresh

In this movie, you’ll hear the truth behind “diet,” “sugar-free,” and “fat-free” products, and learn what to avoid in your supermarket. You’ll be inspired by transformational stories from people who have recovered from being sick and overweight. You’ll find the solutions to vibrant health for yourself and your family. So, watch the movie and share the knowledge with a friend–it may save a life!

To a more energetic you,

Ana and Crystal
The FRESH Team

P.S. Want to support good food and our work at FRESH? Consider adding to our tip jar.

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Bingzy Bee App Review

Posted by Brande on March 19, 2012
in Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Parenting, Shopping

Join Bingzy Bee as your child has fun through this new learning app! Just released in January, this app is available for iPhone, iTouch, & iPad. This adorable character is directed for your younger ones (ages 2-6). There are 4 activities to choose from: “Bingzy’s ABC Song”, “Song & Games”, “Letter Drag & Drop”, and “Bingzy to the Rescue”

Bingzy’s ABC Song – This great little song goes through the alphabet and sounds out the letter, give you a picture, than gives you a word. Perfect for your little ones learning the alphabet

Song & Game – Starts with Bingzy’s ABC Song, then you play a game after the letter D. For example, Letter A is Ant. The app gives you the picture of the Ant and give you _ NT your child then must pick the correct letter out.

Letter Drag & Drop – Similar to the Song & Game section. Except, you get the picture of the Ant and give you _ NT your child then must pick the correct letter.

Bingzy to the Rescue – Save Bingzy’s friends by loading them in the rescue copter in alphabetical order.

My Review

This is a great app for my daughter (3 years old), we are still working on our ABC’s all the way through and this is perfect for her! She’s not quite to the Letter Drag & Drop and Bingzy’s Rescue. But, this is what makes it a great app. She can use it for years to come. At last check this adorable & useful app is available on Itunes for only .99!