Disclaimer: “Blah Blah Blah” is complimentary receivedproduct.
Hi Loves!
I have another review for you today. We are a homeschooling family which means our home, values and belief dictate how we educate our kids. Not the other way around. With that, nothing comes into our home unless it offers goodness, beauty, truth and/or wonder.
This game hits all the marks. From its funny name, to multi-level and multi-person player options, to the connection and to the fun with learning. My kids ask to play this all the time.
I do have a con- the cards sometimes stick together. That’s it. To be fair, this also happens with card games that are not more than 10 years old. You can purchase this game and find more of their products here.
WAIT- There’s more you are going to want to stick around for!
Per their website, “Blah Blah Blah is a card game to integrate bite-sized learning into kids’ lives. They’ll learn: How to recognize the letters and sounds in sight words; The clear pronunciations of core sight words; How to decode words to phonics.”
On top of that, this game can be played with all reading levels! My entire family has played this several times and it is always enjoyed. My children don’t even realize this is “learning” because we all have so much fun.
Feel free to explore the product and/or purchase here.
As we are in the holiday season, this would make a great gift for littles as it can be enjoyed by many for years to come.
I am back with another great review for you. Again, while this product, Wonder Crate Jr., was a complimentary received product, the views and thoughts below are all of my own. (Read: I am not here to lie to you!)
OK, here’s the thing, I have been burned several times with subscription kits. That’s the short-end and honestly me telling you all of the details would take far too much time that neither of us have. Just know I was incredibly skeptical about this product.
That means you get a very thorough review. Starting with the customer service and the shipping. I mean, I kind of feel like all companies should provide quality customer service, however Wonder Crate goes above and beyond. I was honestly impressed. Their shipping was very fast and my package was not damaged. If you know anything about USPS you know that is highly unlikely.
Next the packaging – So part of the reason that I have been burned on subscription crates in the past is because I physically have had to do way too much for a subscription crate that was supposed to be for my children. I just don’t feel like they should require 90% of parent involvement and direction. So, I opened this box fully expecting that. Spoiler alert: I was wrong.
For those of you not familiar with Wonder Crate, they are a kid-based subscription that focus on inspiring change-makers from Civil Rights leaders to Artists and allow kids to learn about them through engaging hands-on learning like completing a couple of quality crafts and a book relating to the said person’s life. The box we received was all about Frida Kahlo and I don’t know why this worked out so well for us, but she is the next artist we’re going to be studying. (Note, I planned this in May of 2021. I didn’t change plans based on this box.)
Per their website, each box comes with a biography book, hands-on activities, parent guide and reusable tote in the first box. “Wonder Crate Jr. introduces kids ages 5-7 to inspirational role models, sparks curiosity and connects them to their own possibilities. Possible role models include: Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Alan Turing, Greta Thunberg, Maya Angelou, Jane Goodall, and MLK Jr.
I also love that this product was created by a mom who felt defeated after the 2016 Election and turned her pain into passion to make change in the next generation.
I personally am thrilled about this and plan on adding to Christmas and birthday wishlists. You can find out more and purchase it here. Check out what my fellow Melanted Gold Squad Review Member thought about Wonder Crate Jr. here.
Is anyone struggling to plan during this time? Some days, I’m all over it. Other days, I forget I haven’t changed the wall calendar since MARCH! So, I guess you could say I am tight-rope walking that fine line. Today, we are talking about what I used for our 2019-2020 homeschool curricula and how I felt about them. Disclaimer: I was not given a single one of these products, if they were free it is because they are offered as free downloads. Let me note, that title is quite misleading. There is no “tea spillage” or anything ugly for that matter, in my opinion, and that is definitely not my intent. Per usual, I am sharing my truth and my experience.
Let’s start with brother Jude.
For the record, I know his age and I know a lot about early learning and development so don’t come for me in the comments about “let them be little”. Jude demanded a learning bin and workbooks like his brother daily for months to the extremes of committing violent acts sooooo, I found lots of free resources to make him some workbooks. I initially thought he would be over it really quickly. To date, he is not over them and when he saw next year’s curriculum he looked at me like I was Steve Harvey holding a check for a million dollars. What can I say? The kid likes learning.
The main items I used for him where these alphabet bubble finding worksheets from The Measured Mom. She is a gem and very generous. I’ve shared in stories how we use them so head over to my IG and check that homeschool highlight.
For math, we used a curricula company that I will not mention or publicize as she not only doesn’t have a stance and/or doing the work on racial injustice, when I inquired about said stand via social media, she blocked me. In the least, that’s terrible customer service so I contacted her shop provider, Teachers Pay Teachers, and only then did she unblock me and give a very basic unweighted response. We will call refer to this curriculum as No Name B. Back to math for Jude- All year long, we worked on number recognition (1-10), counting items to a specific number, shapes and colors. For my auditory learner, the multi-sensory approach offered in both of these curriculums were just what the doctor ordered and I’m very pleased with what is selected for him for next year.
Next Up, James.
This is where it gets dicey. James has all three learning styles. (He gets it from his mama!) Said learning styles must be met and then reinforced to achieve retention and application. Still with me? So, this is where we get really eclectic…
Language Arts: During the summer of 2019, after James was reading CVC word family words, I took it back and worked on sight words, rhyming and syllables. Why? I felt like his foundation was solid-ish, and I wanted full-force, no slip, no-fall, no cracks foundation. So, we used The Measured Mom’s Rhyming Clip Cards, Syllable Clip Cards and Rhyming Games. We also used No Name B’s sight word packs. Jude is currently using the same rhyming slip cards and will use the other resources as well. We also used Explode The Code workbooks to continue working on phonics, word families and reading. We also read pack one of Dash Into Learning as a summer reading challenge and we both loved those!
Still with me? (I know this a lot and I am condensing as much as I can, promise!)
Enter the start of his “kindergarten” year, quotes because he isn’t school-age for K but we homeschool and I can say he is in Kindergarten if I want to because that’s my business. I digress. For Language Arts we used yet ANOTHER curriculum that I have used before but they will not be mentioned because they too will not take a stand on racial on injustice AFTER committing to making their curriculum more diverse. I’m baffled and honestly pissed off. They will be known as No Name A from here on out. He finished level K of that program and I am so incredibly pleased with what I selected for him next year. Like, I’m over the moon. Here is why- No Name A ALWAYS had gaps I had to supplement and fill with other activities or curricula. I thought that was normal. That is until I didn’t want to use them and found wonderful curricula solid.
Math: We used No Name A, level k. Y’all it was gorgeous. That was about it. It was taxing to complete a lesson because they took forever, had lots of manipulatives, and got to the point where it wasn’t fun. We only finished book 1 and only did the actual lessons, none of the other fluff. I sold book 2 and level 1 happily. Another thing, that curriculum only allowed you to go into the next level of the same curriculum successfully. James would’ve floundered with any other curriculum. That’s a no-go in my book.
James also used Math U See, which will refer to as, “MUS” from this point on. This is a math curriculum by Demme Learning and was referred to me by several mamas. I initially had this as my main curriculum until I realized one lesson is like four problems. There are about 5-7 lessons per chapter. James did MUS Primer and we LOVED it. I love the concept and it truly helps a child who has multiple learning styles “see” what they are doing. It is a mastery program and the company has been committed to racial injustice before it was “cool” and has receipts.
And everything else we did together…
That’s right! Circle time (calendar, weather, morning menu), Bible, Black History, Social Studies and Science were all done together with the Jesus storybook bible, a map and lots and lots of books.
I failed at Nature study after November because I now realize I am not exploring in rain, temps colder than 70 degrees or with ornery kids. However, when those were not factors, we explored and we learned.
Alright, peeps, That’s enough for now. Coming up, everything *I think* we are doing for next year.
So, our little homeschool niche of community exploded this Spring and it is only going to grow this fall. To all the rookie homeschool families, WELCOME! I can only imagine how many times your head has spinned so hard, it nearly fell off. You aren’t alone! From my understanding, even the most seasoned of homeschool parents have to re-evaluate, research and sometimes start from scratch. This was me last year. I learned so much about my kids and how they learn and even after ordering curriculum and making videos on said curriculum, I read some books and the game was forever changed. *Note: I’m only stating one book and author as she has publicly made a stand against racial injustice and the others have not.
The Brave Learner, Julie Bogart
The books explained and taught me some foundational things I never had before in our homeschool journey. For starters, proper goal setting. I had no idea I was making goals incorrectly. From these books I also learned that I was homeSCHOOLing not HOMEschooling, see the difference? I wasn’t infusing our home, lifestyle, values or traditions into our learning, I was trying to create a class/ learning time that didn’t really include those things. Finally, I realized my standards fro teachings aids and curricula were wayward. There were a multitude of varying standards that ultimately added up to me having lots of things I didn’t love, forced or gave up on, etc. From these books, I learned to create my standards and how to stick to stick to them. What are my standards? Goodness. Beauty, Truth. If it doesn’t add one or more of those, it doesn’t come in. These standards aren’t just applied to learning materials, it is infused al through my home.
My hope is to be able to re-read these books every year for a “refresher” if you will. I will need it, for sure.
The next thing I always advise is to learn your child’s learning style(s) and love language(s). These are crucial for learning to take place, in my opinion. Since we are talking about my opinion, I will add that not only are learning how your child(ren) learn and feel love crucial to their learning, I feel like not giving them love how they feel love and not teaching them in the manner in which they will learn will lead to further detriment and who needs that???
Ok, so I know you want the headlines, what I am using to teach what subjects at what age/grades, how and why? I get it. I’ve scoured the blogs myself for this exact thing BUT I wish someone, anyone, would’ve started with the things above.
Now, for the curricula, I’ll be sharing them in a blog post per subject because, your scrolling limits and attention span matter to me.
The subjects for grade levels I will be sharing are:
