Tried and Tested: Playmobil Native American Superset

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I was able to get some really great deals during the Black Friday sale. One of which is the Playmobil Native American Superset.  As I mentioned earlier this month, Playmobil is one of the open-ended toys that we love and consider “educational” due to its historical figures and environment.  This Playmobil set will be perfect for our American history study next year.

What’s inside?

As you can see, the packaging and organization of the items are very much similar to LEGO’s.  The contents are packed into separate plastics just like LEGO.  Just be careful when you open them as some accessories are too small (well, not as small as LEGO).  I like the Playmobil boxes, they are sturdy and can be reused as storage boxes. 

Though it comes with an instruction pamphlet, Mavi still needs assistance setting up the environment.  Assembling the environment can be sometimes tricky, thus an adult’s assistance is needed just to be sure.  But I love the Playmobil environments!  They are not easily detached or broken.  Most of it comes with a base which gives the child a real feel of the environment. Our Native American set is perfect for habitat tubs as well (with extra materials of course!).

The Setup

How beautiful! You can’t have a toy that’s as detailed as this these days and that depicts the life of Native Americans!  The attention to details of Playmobil is totally impressive! 

Mavi decided to paint a backdrop and this is how it looked like.  The playset comes with a totem pole, a beautiful teepee, plants, tree, a horse and a beautiful canoe.

It has 3 native american figures: a tribe chief, and two members.  Look at those bodypaints and the details of the costumes.  They come with accessories too!

I love that they have a tribe chief, and his headdress is super cool!  Mavi was like “so they made that with feathers? I’d like to have one!”  He has his own staff with feathers to signify his status in the tribe, and the figures sit well on the horse.

Vito’s favourite is the canoe and he loves playing with it while singing the “Row row row your boat” song.  My husband thinks that the best item in this set is the canoe, the shape and the design is totally awesome!

The figures snap on the canoe, brilliant!

And look at the teepee…  the artwork is impressive.  It is made up of a cloth-like material, which I can guarantee you that it won’t get ripped easily. It is securely fastened in the bars, though it was a bear to assemble it.  I was thinking that we can design our own teepee int he future, using the existing teepee as a pattern. Another amazing activity for the kids!

Here’s Vito playing, I took this picture with Mavi in school.  I couldn’t get a descent photo when both boys are playing.

I’m naming and identying ALL  the objects in this set for his vocabulary and here he is enjoying the word “skull”.

He calls this figure “Daddy”.

The Verdict

I highly recommend this Playmobil set! It also comes with a lot of accessories like pipe, bow and arrow, oars, head dresses, bonfire, shield and a lot more!  The material is just exceptional!

Tried and Tested: How Machines Work Book

I wanted to give this book a review and a little presentation as I really like its concept.  You know how much I love hands-on activities, and if you are learning about machines, nothing is best than having a real experience.  The problem with this is we don’t have the scientific tools and the space for this kind of experience.  So I was really really happy when I came across this book kit from Suzie’s Home Education Ideas last year.  I immediately placed an order as you seldom see stuff like this available in Amazon.

What is the book all about?

This is a book about simple machines.  The book has a colourful presentation of the history and usage of each type of the machine/invention.  The timeline of the invention is very helpful. Mavi loved reading it, and discovering how each machine evolved through time.

Now the book comes with cardboard kits, bolts, nuts and other kits.  The kit is combination of cardboard and plastic.  After each discussion of the machine, you are instructed to create the blach blatch.  To assemble the blah blach, you need the instruction sheet for that. Yes, it has a separate sheet for instruction, while the book will simply explain the theory behind the model.

So this is basically this is what it looks like.  The book is readable by younger kids who love machines.

 

This is the kit (made of cardboards) that is included in the book.  Some would say that this is the downside of the book.  The cardboard wouldn’t last long if you keep on using the kits.  As fro me, I’m fine with these cardboards.  The book is not that pricey, there I expected that it doesn’t come with fancy materials like those of KNex and LEGO.  So far, they served their purpose and was able to demonstrate the concepts behind the simple machines without breaking apart.

These are nuts and bolts with strings.  You can barely see them here. They’re all pretty easy to use and assemble.

 

And here’s the instruction sheets.  Again, so easy to follow.

Based on my experience and how Mavi dealt with it, I realized that this kit is appropriate for kids around 8years+.  For a 6years old, the materials can be too tedious to assemble.  The bolts and nuts are quite a challenge for Mavi and I, unless you are skilled in using these materials.  The cardboard stand is quite annoying, always detached from the board because it doesn’t fit perfectly.  They could have created a more sturdy material that fits on the board.  Other than that, I like the book and the kit that comes with it.  This book teaches the basic with hands-on materials that are handy and doesn’t take up space (like those educational toys that are made up of gazillion pieces).  And much more, affordable! You can get it from Amazon and Book Depository. 

I highly recommend Book Depository for readers from Asia and those who wants free shipping.

Those in Europe, you can get this from Amazon UK.  And in US, Amazon (as of now it is very pricey!), so you’re option is Book Depository.

If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to drop me a comment in this post.  I would love to answer your queries!  And watch out for the actual lesson, I will have a separate post for that.

Tried and Tested: Fraction Pies

Obviously, I love math materials.  Through the years, I’ve been collecting a few, just to give my boys’ learning a boost because hands-on math is totally rocks!  Now, I don’t usually give reviews because I have high standards LOL.  I’m frugal that’s why every cent I spend means a lot to me.  The cost must justify the quality of products. 

Anyway, I have two sets of fractions pies.  The first one is  the soft foam fraction pies from Singapore’s Learning Store which my cousin gave to me a few years ago.  I totally LOVE this.  The pies are huge, it’s the size of my hand, magnetic, sturdy, has a label, with bright colours and it comes with tub (with handle!).

Now, this year, I ordered another set from Learning Resources via Amazon.  I love Learning Resources! Most of my materials are from them, so I was expecting this fraction pies to be of equal  with the ones I got from Singapore.  BUT, I was tremendously disappointed.  When I opened it, I wanted to throw it right away into the bin LOL.  They are tiny plastic tiles and comes with a case that is sooo hard to open.  When I checked the pies, they  don’t have labels either so it is very difficult to identify each of them (unless you are so good in visual that you know that it’s 1/10 right away!).  Because the are so tiny, slippery and sharp on the edges, I couldn’t fit them back in the tiny case.  So I just packed them immediately, covered in newspaper (so no one will get hurt due to sharp edges) and kept them in the storage.  I wonder when will it see the light of day.

See the size difference? And just look at the containers.  I swear, the ones from Singapore are much more cheaper!

And here’s the side.  The pieces are so thin! So hard to put back together 

I couldn’t find the EXACT product our foam pies in Amazon but here are the ones I saw closest to it:

• Foam Fraction Pies Teacher Created Resources.  A little bit small, but they are made of foam and affordable.
• Educational Insights Foam Magnetic Circles.  The pies are big, according to Amazon, “Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 10.3 x 2.4 inches ; 2.5 pounds”
• Lakeshore Learning Giant Magnetic Fraction Circles and Bars.  The circle is “5 3/4"

And that’s about it!  Watch out for my fraction activity… will try to create learning materials and share it with you. 

Have a good day everyone

REVIEW: Sink and Float Experiment using LEGO

It is a known fact that my son LOVES LEGO.  He loves to think that he can make anything with LEGO.  And one of the MAJOR discoveries that we have this year is that we can incorporate LEGO bricks in our homeschool activities.  Because I find it helpful to use LEGO bricks into our schooling, I decided to add a few more to his collection so we can create more stuff together. You can see some of our works in our Geography lessons and our ever famous Eiffel Tower.

I cannot tell you how happy am I when I was asked to review the visual tutorial of the sink and float experiment of LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Manchester. This idea never crossed my mind at all!  And what made it more exciting is that it involves water play (who doesn’t like water play?)!

 

The visual tutorial is similar to the instruction booklet that you get whenever you purchase a LEGO set.  The directions are simple and since Mavi can read, he did the experiment on his own (I end up being the audience LOL).

So he made his raft out of his brown bricks with details of green.  He made it float and later on added objects in the raft and moved them around to test whether the locations would make the raft sink or float.  The tricky part is when he needs to balance the items in the raft so it won’t sink! It took him gazillion of tries to finally succeed :)

Mavi had so much fun doing this experiment and would love to do this again and again. We would laugh so hard every time we fail!  And even I as an adult enjoyed the activity.We are so glad we did this experiment.  It is also a good way to bond with little ones :)  After which, Mavi was like “Mom, can we do more experiments?”, “Mom, can you think of more activities with LEGO?”.

I will definitely look for more science experiments using LEGO bricks. And LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Manchester is one place where I can look for those amazing ideas.  And hopefully in the near future… we’ll be able to visit the place and try out their exciting learning activities!

Review: GeoSafari Igneous and Metamorphic Rock Collection

Hello everyone! This review is NOT PAID nor we received this goodies for free.  I bought these materials for our Rock Unit.  I just wanted to give a review of these materials  for documentary purposes and this is for those who are wishing to get this will have a better idea of how they look like.

I bought the    Learning Resources Geosafari Igneous Rock Collection and Learning Resources Geosafari Metamorphic Rock Collection  so that Mavi can have a real feel of what these rocks look like in real life (not just in books!).  And I am so happy that I got these. How I wish that the entire collection is on sale so I could have purchased the Learning Resources Geosafari Mineral Collection and Learning Resources Geosafari Fossils Collection.

Anyway, these materials arrived on time.  The package comes in a sturdy sealed box with a picture of how the content looks like.  The box itself is medium sized.  Not too small or big for me. Just the right one wherein you can store them easily in a cabinet. 

Once opened, this is what you will find on the back of the box's lid.  Pictures of the rocks and their names.  They are numbered according to how they are positioned in the tray.  The pictures DO NOT LOOK EXACTLY the same as the rocks inside the tray. This is fine with me but other reviewers in Amazon find this disappointing.

The box has a foam cover, just enough to cover the rocks.  There's also a leaflet that gives out some instructions on how to use the materials, how to label and protect them.  As you can see, there's a number stickers that comes with the box.  The purpose of this number stickers is for tagging the rocks.  Using the information on the lid, use these stickers to tag each rock so you won't mix and confuse them with the others.  Now this is quite tricky as stickers can be removed. So there's an alternative tagging solution written in that leaflet. 

This is how the rocks in the tray looks like. 

Some Amazon reviewers claim that the plastic tray is flimsy.  Yet it is but not that much. It can still hold all the rocks inside it.

 

Now, for the rock sizes. I have no complains.  They're exactly how I want them to be. Not too small, not too big. Just the right size for my little ones to hold and observe.  I honestly don't want to keep huge rocks in the house as it will occupy space.  So these pebble-like sizes are fine. 

          

And here's the Learning Resources Geosafari Metamorphic Rock Collection      . 

 

I am sooo happy with my purchase and so is my son.    He loves to touch them and read out their names! I love their sizes as I can easily store them on a cupboard or on a cabinet.   My husband thinks that they're quite pricey for a bunch of rocks.  Well he is right.  But you see, I got them on sale so I'm quite contented with the purchase. And that's the reason why I didn't get the Learning Resources Geosafari Sedimentary Rock Collection    as they're on their original price yet.  Besides, sedimentary rocks are almost everywhere! We've collected a few from the beach and will look for more of it here in the park (in the creek). 

I cannot really say that I HIGHLY recommend them or say they're SO GREAT to have.  It all depends on your taste. If you're happy with these sizes and can see that it's going to be useful, then get one. But if you find them pricey (not on sale) and if you have an alternative means of collecting these rocks... then don't go for it.

And that's about it.  I hope you are happy and satisfied with my review.  If you have questions that I didn't get to answer in the review please don't hesitate to leave me a comment or send me a message in Facebook.

Till my next product review!