The post New Toys from L.O.L., Miniverse, TMNT and more appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: We received some product in exchange for this post.
Keep those kids busy with the following toys from L.O.L., Miniverse, TMNT and more
These new L.O.L. dolls are perfect for warm weather because she comes with water balloon hair and water balloons to play with as well. In fact you have to fill and pop the regular water balloons that come with her in order to rescue her shoes! For Ages 4+
Once you unpackage your doll, add her clothing, accessories and hair pieces onto her. Then fill up the syringe with water and feed it to the doll to pump up her hair! They wibble and wobble and are squishable so your child can use the doll as a fidget toy too.
My daughter (10) had TONS of fun so far with her Water Balloon Surprise doll. But play with it outside or on a water proof surface JUST in case. We had a little leaking.
Find at Walmart, Amazon.ca or Toys R Us
From the MGA Miniverse company comes mini appliances that actually function. Instead of just creating the mini drinks by hand, you can use the machine to make the mini drinks and then keep it for pretend play. This is the first round of mini appliances so who knows what they will come out with next. For ages 8+
My daughter got the one shown above and had so much fun putting it together although she needed a little help. It was mostly straight forward though, especially if they are familiar with Miniverse toys. Some kids may need supervision as they are using resin if you aren’t familiar with Miniverse. You know your child best.
Find at Walmart, Amazon.ca or Toys R Us
From the Mutant Mayhem movie, pick your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy and use the RC to move him around your house or outside. Maybe your kids could go all out and create a course for them. Comes in all 4 TMNT guys and is great for ages 3+
Find at Walmart or Amazon
Here are some more featured toys for this season for kids ages 3+ or 8+. We recommend Pictionary and Kerplunk as they are both fun games. However Kerplunk WILL end up with small pieces on the floor so don’t play near babies.
If your child loves RC but is more into trucks than TMNT, the Cat® Micro RC would be a good choice. The Thomas the Tank Engine tracks, Double Bubble Blaster and Playmobil Dressing Room would be great for any kid.
Look for any of these toys at Walmart, Amazon.ca or Toys R Us.
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]]>The post Homeschooling World Geography appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Twinkl, my favourite educational resources site, has lots of ways to learn about other countries and cultures. I use Twinkl Canada but there is a Twinkl site for many countries, just go to twinkl.com and it might auto go to your website. If not, the bottom of the page has links to other countries.
Disclosure: I’m a Twinkl Brand Ambassador.
So what should you teach and at what age?
There are not hard and fast rules as far as I know about a specific age you have to teach about Europe for example. But here are some general guidelines. Check your local school boards curriculum if you want to know what your local area is teaching at what age. But you don’t have to follow that unless your local homeschooling rules say you do.
Ages 4 and Under – What our world is called, that different people live in different places and they are look different and have different rules and ways of living.
Ages 5-8 – That the world is made up of 7 continents (big pieces of land) and each continent has many countries, the name of the city, country and continent they live in, learning about holidays celebrated in their country that are and aren’t ones they celebrate (to see the variety of people in their country.)
Ages 9-12 – The names of the continents and oceans and where they are located, start learning some of the countries in each continent starting with their own and then ones they have family or friends in and then the most popular ones in each continent, ideas about diversity and inclusion, learning more in-depth about your own country and continent and starting studies about other countries or continents.
Ages 13+ – Usually focuses more on the other parts of geography like land, tectonic plates etc. But continue working on the above and add in more knowledge about other countries, including ones that are often overlooked. Continue more in-depth with countries your children are interested in learning about. By end of high school, should be able to name at least 15 countries in each continent (less in Oceania and including Central America with North America.)
Twinkl is your best bet for printable resources of course but I’ll include some other resources as well.
With Twinkl you can sort search for exactly what you are looking for. It will also include suggestions for related resources. You can find mostly worksheets but they often have powerpoint presentations, bulletin board decorations or posters and printable games. There is also sometimes ebooks too.
Suggested Resources:
Seven Continents Labeling Worksheet
Blank Country Snapshot – there are snapshots for almost every country if you search but this blank one is good if you can’t find the specific ones or you just want the same sheet for each country you study.
Around the World Scavenger Hunt – Have your older children search the internet to find out where these popular locations are.
Geography Country Project Specification – looking for a project for your older children? Try this.
Geography Trivia Game – printable game about world geography!
Non Twinkl Resources
Seterra – learn where the countries are with this fun online game. My teen has almost all of them memorized!
Youtube – you can find videos of everything. Try searching all about (country name) for kids or see vlogs or drone videos from different parts of the world. WARNING: Preview each video FIRST as some will swear or otherwise not be appropriate and you can’t tell from description.
Enjoy learning about the world!
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]]>The post Wedding, Holiday, Invite and Baby Cards appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.
You will find lots of choices such as Basic Invite save the date cards, holidays cards, invitations and even more such as stickers and business cards.
Basic Invite has over 180 different colours to choose from so you can customize your card exactly how you want it. The instant previews allow you to see what your colour changes would look like. You just select a basic design and then you can change the colour of each element on the card.
Once you have the card the way you think you want it, you can order a printed sample of the invitation before you place your final order to see how it looks. Evaluate the paper quality, print quality and make sure the colours you selected are perfect.
Each invitation order comes with FREE envelopes, ready to be addressed. They are white peel-and-stick envelopes, no yucky licking needed. For a small cost you can upgrade to printed envelopes with your guest’s names, return address or both. You can also upgrade to one of a few envelope colours if you wish.
Want help gathering addresses? Basic Invite offers a service to make it easier. Share a personalized link on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, through text, or any other media to request friends’ and family’s addresses. The addresses are stored securely in your account and you can select them when you print.
Foil cards are available in gold, silver, and rose gold. You can choose flat or raised foil on all of Basic Invite’s foil designs. Foil cards would be good for Basic Invite wedding invitations.
Right now Basic Invite is offering 15% off with coupon code: 15FF51
Start shopping for invitations now at Basic Invite and get ready for your event.
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]]>The post Carnaval de Quebec Resources appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: Some links may be referral links.
“Carnival is an outdoor festival that celebrates winter between late January and mid-February. For a period of 10 days, the city is transformed into a snow festival with many decorations, ice sculptures and lights. On the agenda: several activity sites for young and old, a parade of allegorical floats and musical evenings. This is the winter event not to be missed!”
https://carnaval.qc.ca/en/
Whether you are an in school teacher or a homeschool teacher, you may want to teach about Carnaval de Quebec because French heritage is a part of the Canadian culture. If you are Canadian, you should definitely teach about this event especially if your children/students also learn French. If you live somewhere else, you still may want to teach about it as it’s fun to learn about other cultures.
Twinkl is always there when I want to teach a new subject. If you don’t know, Twinkl is a website for educators with tons of high quality resources. Some are free but most require a subscription which just happens to be very affordable.
A simple search of Carnaval de Quebec on the Twinkl website shows all they have to offer. You can see what there is without a subscription. You’ll notice if you scroll through the results there are resources for other Carnavals from around the world. Make sure you have the right event!
There are resources in English and French. Reading Comprehension, colouring pages, quizzes and word cards.
When you’re done learning about Carnaval, check out their other resources. If you’re NOT from Canada they have a Twinkl site for many countries and their resources tend to be available on all.
This website has a link to some Youtube videos that may interest you. Here is a Carnaval de Quebec Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers. Or if that’s too pricy try this Carnaval de Quebec French reader.
Have Fun!
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]]>The post Neakasa by Neabot S1 Pro Pet Grooming Kit appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: I received product in exchange for feature. This post contains affiliate links.
This thing looks like it’s from another planet, but in a good way. It’s a state of the art pet grooming kit with a vacuum and eight tools for shedding, clipping, trimming and home cleaning. All the accessories fit into the base of the fur storage container for easy transport from room to room.
It is useful daily, monthly and whenever. Daily you can groom your dog or cat especially if your have a very furry one. Then monthly you can trim her fur or give a more detailed shave down in the summer. Whenever it is needed, you can clean the fur off your furniture with the same product.
Do you have a very hairy dog or cat? You won’t have to worry about the fur floating around your house with this device. It vacuums the fur directly into a storage bin that you can easily empty at your convenience. I always disliked that part of pet grooming. I would brush my dog outside so the fur would scatter in the air. However then you have it flying in your face.
You’ll find the following tools included: Pin brush, De-shedding tool, Dematting tool, Electric Clippers, Paw Trimmer, Nail Grinder, Lint roller and Crevice tool. Everything you need all in one! The electric clippers come with 6 sizes for different lengths of fur.
Can you believe the packaging can be repurposed into a cardboard house for small dogs or cats to play in? Isn’t that unique? Simply follow the instructions to change the cardboard box into a little house. What a sweet idea. Don’t have a small dog or cat? Share with someone you know!
If you’re wondering if the vacuum will scare your pet, don’t worry. You can groom your pet noiselessly and then when you’re ready to suck the hair into the vacuum, press a button to do so. This can be done when your pet has gone if you groom them often enough.
It can be purchased at Amazon or check your local stores.
What an amazing product for dogs or cats or perhaps even rabbits or guinea pigs, who knows! This would make a great gift for the animal lover in your life or yourself if you have lots of pets. It can be used for the long haired or short haired or curly haired pets in your life. It collects 99% of pet hair!
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]]>The post Lightning Literature Course appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: I received access to this course to review it.
Lightning Literature is from Hewitt Learning and comes for all ages from Grade 1 – Highschool. We tried out Grade 4. It’s first and foremost a literature course but includes grammar and writing as well.
It’s a open and go course once you’ve purchased the necessary books that go with it. You can buy as a group from the website, purchase yourself or use your local library and/or thrift store which is what we did.
The course comes with a student and teacher guide. You can buy hardcopies or ebooks. We used ebooks and printed as necessary instead of printing the whole book at once. I just access the teacher’s guide when necessary online.
Each day (1-4) you read, then answer some questions about the book (reading comprehension). There is your grammar lesson for the day and grammar practice. Finally there is a writing assignment which is only shown in the teacher’s guide. If you homeschool 5 days a week, you can either skip LL for that day or include some more book discussion or enrichment activities.
The grade four books have been great so far. We had trouble finding one of the books as it was out of print everywhere I looked but I found someone reading it online on YouTube. All the US homeschoolers I see bought the book from Thrift Books but shipping is too high here in Canada for that. We already owned a few of the books and a few of them I’ve read myself. You can see booklists on the website.
My daughter mostly loves it. Some books she likes more than others of course but that’s to be expected. We didn’t finish the first book because it was too upsetting for her (she’s very sensitive.) I like that it introduces her to a variety of books.
I like that I don’t have to come up with separate comprehension questions for each book we do, or decide which order to teach grammar. Although I do miss picking my own books for her to use. I probably won’t use LL again next year but mostly because our budget is SUPER small. LL is not expensive if you get a hold of the books yourself but we mostly create our own curriculum to save money. I do recommend it to those who want an open and go ELA curriculum.
I read the books out loud to her but it’s designed so she can read them herself too. You can do it however you want. My daughter has ADHD and needs me to keep her focused so we do it together.
We chose not to do the writing component, mostly because she needs to catch up on her penmanship and spelling first but also because it took too long. If you want to do the writing, allow at least 1 hour to do all of Lightning Literature each day. I’d estimate 20 for reading, 20 for literature questions and grammar and 20 for writing. This would probably increase in higher grades.
The grammar builds on the year before so if you have never used Lightning Literature like us, you might find your child is either struggling with the grammar or way ahead on it. I recommend choosing the grade your child most closely matches in her ELA/literacy work in general. If the grammar is too hard, add in some extra practice. If it’s too easy it will be review. We didn’t have too much trouble with this. It was spot on. The grammar DOES include diagramming which we chose to skip.
Since we don’t do the writing and I read the books with her and am pretty good at grammar, we don’t use the teacher’s guide much. However it does include the writing assignments, comprehension answers and grammar answers if you need that.
I made a video on my YouTube Channel Bailey Academy with a walkthrough of the program. This was before I started using it so it’s not a review. However if you want to see more about the program and how it looks inside, you might want to check it out.
Check out Hewitt Learning for more on Lightning Literature.
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]]>The post STEAM Design Challenges appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: I received books in exchange for this review.
STEAM Design Challenges books are from Creative Teaching Press. They come in different grade levels. They are designed for teachers but can be used by homeschoolers or youth group leaders too.
If you aren’t familiar, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. So these books are full of activities you can lead that allow children to explore these topics.
Each book includes a year’s worth of lessons and design challenges in an easy to follow format.
After the getting started section, the books have activities for Life Science, Earth/Space Science, Physical Science and Engineering Design. There are a bunch of appendices too.
There are books for Kindergarten to Grade 5 and the one that is grades 6-8 combined. Each challenge includes the following:
I do wish it included photos of samples though. Otherwise it’s great. Definitely designed for classroom use but adaptable for other groups.
If you want to see the layout, you can download a free challenge from the Creative Teaching Press website if you make an account.
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]]>The post Hamilton Beach Blend Now Portable Cordless Blender appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>The Hamilton Beach Blend Now Portable Cordless Blender allows you to do that in a few different ways.
Disclosure: I received product in exchange for this review.
This blender is light, portable, cordless and easy to use. You charge it first and then it’s ready to use. Add your ingredients, add the mixer base and flip it upside down to use. Once charged it should last 28 drinks before needing to be charged again. How long it takes to charge depends on your charger but a typical gauge would be 4 hours.
The jar is shatterproof and 16oz so big enough for most drinks but small enough to be comfortable to hold. Did I mention when you’re done mixing you just take off mixing base and add lid and you’re good to go? Besides smoothies and milkshakes you can make dressings, sauces and even baby food. Do NOT blend hot ingredients though, very dangerous!
It’s easy to clean too. When you’re done drinking, take the lid off, add a little water and soap and add the base back on. Turn upside down and blend for 30 seconds to clean the cup and blades. Rinse carefully.
Not sure what to make? The instructions include a few simple recipes to try. Here’s a combination my husband stumbled upon if you want a treat more than a healthy shake.
I don’t have amounts but add what you think and blend for a delicious orange banana shake.
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]]>The post Rainbow High Color & Create appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: I received product in exchange for this feature. This post contains affiliate links.
Dolls come with white hair and white clothes, accessories and markers. You can get different hair styles. Use the included markers to decorate the hair and clothes in any way. The markers are washable so when you want, you can wash the doll and after drying, decorate again.
You can even colour the sneakers and scrunchie that come with the dolls. The doll is fully articulated and can even do the splits. Don’t forget to catch the Rainbow High TV show on Netflix.
Buy from Amazon or your local toy store.
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]]>The post Fluffie Stuffiez appeared first on Callista's Ramblings.
]]>Disclosure: I received product in exchange for feature. This post contains affiliate links.
So WHAT ARE Fluffie Stuffiez? They are stuffies that come covered in extra fur that stops you from seeing what one you actually have. For example all Large Panda’s look like the one above at first. However your child will use their love of fidget toys to PLUCK fur off the stuffy until it reveals a different colouring, either common or rare. Below you can see the smaller size Panda being defluffed.
So after your child pulls out the extra fur to reveal a hidden friend, what do they do with the fluff? No worries, the bag the Fluffie Stuffiez come in can be repurposed as a second friend. Or perhaps your child wants to play with the fluff as a fidget toy.
Of course if you are afraid to have fluff all over your house, you don’t have to save it. It’s up to you. In the image below, you can see a different Fluffie Stuffiez that was in the shape of an ice cream cone, has been defluffed and the fluff stuffed in the plastic bag.
Fluffie Stuffiez come in two sizes and many different shapes from animals to food. Collect as many as you like. Maybe you’ll get a rare!
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