Category Archives: Review Products

Gutzy Gear Party and Study Skills Workshop

Well it is BACK TO SCHOOL time again. I thought it would be fun to get the kids off to a great start in a new school year by inviting their friends to a Study Skills Workshop and Gutzy Gear Party.

I have been hosting outdoor learning programs in the local parks for two years now. We call them Take Action Tuesday programs. We get together for picnics, playing games, and a learning program.  This summer I expanded the learning programs to Fridays too. So all summer long, we have been in three local parks on Tuesdays and Fridays.  We’ve added a subheading to our learning programs and have been calling them “Build It” Workshops and “Learn It” Workshops depending on our focus.

Today’s Study Skills Workshop is a “Learn It” Workshop. You can see more stories about our workshops here and more stories will be posted soon.
Brilliant Builders Build It Workshop
Lego Racers Build It Workshop
Clean Water Learn It Workshop
Solar Science Learn It Workshop
Flying High Build It Workshop
Snack Lab Learn It Workshop
Summer Games and Nature Science Learn It Workshop

The park is such a great place to do learning programs, because I have the use of a great big open shelter, tables with built in seats, bathrooms, and a wonderful playground for the kids to run, jump, climb, and enjoy each other’s company. It is so great because we get to enjoy the fresh air and learn at the same time!

Study Skills:

Our guest speaker was Tony Carboni from the Sunshine Learning Center in Asheville, NC. He taught the kids a fun and useful technique for memorizing lists of information. Today, the kids worked on learning to memorize a list of 10 random items.

He taught the kids and parents a system of association for things that are unrelated, by teaching the brain how to relate the items to something we will remember. It was fascinating.

The technique involved asigning a rhyming word for each number. The amount of numbers and rhyming words all depends on the number of items you need to memorize on your list. We were memorizing 10 items, so we needed 10 rhyming words, one rhyming word for each number.

Then he added a mental picture association for each rhyming word. By combining a number, a rhyming word, and a mental picture of the item you need to remember, the brain was able to quickly recall all the information.

For example, say you need to remember glasses on the list. Lets say that glasses are the 10th item on your list. Say the number TEN and the rhyming word DEN. Then think of the mental picture of a lion in its den with its arms on glasses.   Now, when you need to recall the list you say the numbers, rhyming words, and the mental picture pops in your head and you remember glasses.

It was amazing how quickly the kids picked up this technique. Tony explained you could remember thousands of unrelated bits of information from lists using this technique.

He spoke for 30 minutes, and at the end of his presentation, several children stood up and had completely memorized 10 difficult unrelated items both forwards and backwards and were able to skip around and still get them all.

My 12 year old son, and another boy age 13 both volunteered to show the method in action. Both boys were able to recount all 10 items by going through this process. I also checked with my son 5 days after the workshop. I said to him, tell me what you remember from the list of items at the workshop, and he repeated everything again to me, perfectly. It is unbelievable that 10 random items are still stuck in his memory after 5 days.

Next, I shared note taking techniques with the kids. We focussed on three specific kinds of note taking, the Cornell method, mapping, and outlining. These systems work very well for our family, and many students report success using them. You can read more about these note taking methods and see examples on the links below:

                    Cornell Note Taking Method

                    Mapping Note Taking Method

                    Outlining Note Taking Method

We also discussed breaking our studies down into managable goals by using yearly, monthly, and weekly planning sheets and calendars that mom’s and kids can write on and keep track of their assignments and their progress in their studies. You can find lots of free resources for planning sheets on the internet. Check out some of these resources from Donna Young. She has wonderful free printables for every area of managing your home and school. Just select what you need, print it, and put it in your binder or hang it on your wall at home. It is easy to reach your study goals (or any goals or work) when you have broken them down into managible steps and planned them out on paper.

                    Homeschool Calendar

                    Homeschool Planners

                    How To Plan Your Schoolwork

When planning your studies, be sure to look at the overall picture and break it into manageble steps and include: weekly planning; monthly planning; yearly planning.

We also discussed using modified workboxes and color coordinating the kids school work to help them develop a mental picture of what they need to do next and help them stay organized. This method also encourages them to work independantly when that is desired. We discussed the use of a binder to help organize a portfolio of the work they accomplished during the upcoming school year. I hope to host a future workshop on how to use various techniques such a workboxes soon.  Our family has been using modified workboxes since we began homeschooling and it has really helped us. I have modified and tweeked the workbox system each year to meet our needs as we change and grow as a family.

Craft:

The kids then decorated and personalized their own three ring binders and folders for school. This was such a fun hands on craft project to do.



We used over 20 different colors of permanent markers with bold, bright and metalic colors. We also used colored duct tape and lots of different stickers: scrap booking stickers, three dimensional stickers, and color your own stickers for this project. Their notebooks turned out awesome and so unique!

Gutzy Gear:

Next we talked about Gutzy Gear strap covers and patches.

Gutzy Gear is a brand of strap personalization gear. You can transform anything with straps such as backpacks, duffle bags, book bags, computer bags, camera bags, purses, seat belts, luggage pulls, guitar or musical instrument straps or case straps, etc. with Gutzy Gear strap covers and embroidered patches. No sewing is required.

With Gutzy Gear, you will be able to transform your backpack from average to awesome! Gutzy Gear strap covers easily attach to any bag and Gutsy Gear removable patches go onto the strap covers. The strap covers wrap around any existing strap and secure with velcro. The patches also attach with velcro and are quick and easy to change as often as you like. This feature allows kids to change them as often as they like.

Kids can get together and trade their patches like trading cards. It is a fun, easy, and a creative way to personalize their backpacks and other items that have straps.

You can choose from an amazing list of patches:
                    Gutzy Patches List 1
                    Gutzy Patches List 2

Gutzy Gear Strap Covers and Patches are available online through the Gutzy Gear website, Amazon.com and retailers near you. Check the website for a full list of stores selling them.

We drew tickets for lots of Gutzy Gear prizes, goodie bags filled with school supplies and candy, packs of markers, folders, and student planners. I just love doing giveaways and handing out prizes!

Gutzy Contests:

Right now, Gutzy Gear is hosting two different contests. One is a Gutzy Gear Patch contest and you design your own patch and send in a picture to Gutzy. The second contest is “How Do You Get Your Gutzy On?” and you must send in your picture showing how you use your Gutzy Gear. The prize for the Gutzy Gear contest is gift cards to spend at Toys R Us. The grand prize is a $500 card, and there are several smaller prizes too.

Gutzy Gear Patch Craft:

Next the kids made their own personal designs for a Gutzy Gear Patch and we took pictures to send in to Gutzy Gear. It would be so exciting if Gutzy Gear chooses some of them to make future patches with. The kids did such a great job creating these patches and had so much fun showing off their creations to their friends. Here are just a few of the patches the kids designed.





Fellowship, Picnic, and Games:

We played several games, enjoyed playing on the playground, and visiting with our friends too. We also ate a delicious picnic lunch together.

This was such a fun party / workshop. I am so excited we were able to host this.  Having a special “Back To School” focus really helped the kids get ready for a new school year. We enjoyed learning some great study skills, personalizing our school folders, and personalizing our backpack straps with Gutzy Gear.

Tony from the Sunshine Learning Center is offering a month of free math classes to kids in the Asheville and Charlotte North Carolina areas, and Greenville South Carolina areas. Be sure to check out the Sunshine Learning Center to find out more.

You can connect with Gutzy Gear on their website and on Gutzy Gear on Facebook too.

My family made a short video of the Gutzy Gear party, and the strap covers and patches we put on our backpacks at home. They all look so cute in their decked out backpacks.

Disclaimer: Special thanks to Gutzy Gear and Mom Select for giving me this product review party opportunity. I recieved Gutzy Gear as a member of Mom Select for the purpose of writing an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. Special thanks also to Tony Carboni from the Sunshine Learning Center for sharing his knowledge with the kids at this workshop.

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Discovery Scope

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My children and I are enjoying using the Discovery Scope for our homeschool adventures. We are seeing the world around us in a whole new way over the past six weeks.

The Discovery Scope is a small lightweight tool that goes with us everywhere and allows us to see microscopic details of things. That’s what we are doing, observing the world on a microscopic level, but not in a ” traditional science lab”. Oh no, we are not in a traditional lab, but instead we are using the world as our science lab, and we can conduct our observations right where we find something interesting to look at.

We are having so much fun. I have been taking the Discovery Scope with us to the park on Tuesdays and Fridays, and we are using it in the house, and in the yard too. It has really enhanced our walking and exploration time at the local parks. We are blessed with some very beautiful parks here in WNC. We are looking at soil at the baseball fields, plants in the soccer fields and play areas, the water in the ponds and creeks, sand in the sandboxes, the insects on tree branches, flowers, seeds, and so much more. In the next few weeks we hope to share our Discovery Scope with some friends during a Take Action Tuesday learnign program we host in the park. We plan to use it in a Sea Weed Science program and for some other things too.

The Discovery Scope is a small lightweight, hand held, wide-field microscope that fits in your purse or backpack and can go everywhere you go. It has a 25x magnification and is great for looking at just about any object you are interested in.

My kit came in a small zip-lock plastic container and it fits into my diaper bag or purse very well. We also have taken it stashed in our back pack and it leaves us lots of room for taking along other items for our learning adventures too.

It uses natural light instead of a light bulb. You don’t need a power source, and you don’t need a prepared slide to view with it like traditional microscopes, though it does come with an optional quick slide as well as several helpful tools and it all fits into a small kit that hardly takes up any space.

Though it may look simplistic, it is a revolutionary technological tool.

Though it is compact, at only 3 inches long, it is an engineering marvel and it will advance your student’s understanding of the world around them.

Description adapted from their website:

Advantages of Discovery Scope®

Sturdy: Discovery Scope is practically indestructible. If your Discovery Scope experiences any problems during normal use – in the home, classroom, or field – we’ll replace the defective part, free.

Child Friendly: Young people of all ages love Discovery Scope. Children of about age 6 or 7 and up usually need about 2-5 minutes of instruction to master the use of Discovery Scope. It’s a great educational tool for children because they can share their discoveries with other children or adults. Discovery Scope encourages children to explore and enjoy nature.

Pass It Around: You can focus on a specimen with Discovery Scope and then pass the ‘Scope around so that everyone in a group can see. It’s great for teaching, for sharing with the family, and for opening the minds of others about the world of the small.

Ideal For Field Use: Discovery Scope is so convenient and compact, it can be used anywhere you go. With no metal parts, Discovery Scope will never corrode. It’s small enough to fit in a loose pocket or a small nylon bag. It’s ideal for backpacking, park exploring, kayaking and all outdoor activities.

No Stray Light: The optical pathway is a dark tube, capped with an eye cup. This eliminates all stray light, giving you the best possible view of the subject, whether it’s a tiny flower, the eyes of a spider, or the swimming legs of a water flea.

It Does The Holding: The subject is held in place in front of the lens by the unique holding system. Once the subject is in focus, it’s fixed in place; until it moves or you move it. You can easily observe your subject for many minutes, or come back to it later.

Light Makes the Difference: The secret to great micro/macro viewing is great lighting. With Discovery Scope you can move the entire imaging system and the specimen into any light conditions you want. You can easily get light to bounce off the front or side of the subject, or you can shine light directly through the subject to see details right inside.

When you look at a square foot of your yard or park, what do you see? How would you like to carry a practical tool with you, where ever you go, that allows you and your children to view the world around you in a new and exciting way? Would your kids be excited, and like to conduct science and art projects on a whole new level?

The Discovery Scope Basic Kit retails for $40 and comes with several attatchments and useful tools: one Discovery Scope, multi use chamber holder, one quick slide, two clear view chambers, one water dropper, one mini clamp. You can also order a camera adapter, and other accessories, and the Discovery Scope is also available in a Naturalist Kit with a custom pack too.

Our experience:

I used a digital camera, and the camera on my cell phone, and took these photos. I could also have made simple videos with these two tools already in my possession. But I do hope to acquire the Discovery Scope camera adapter someday to make shooting these pictures and videos easier, because it can be difficult to keep the focus when trying to capture the pictures. The adapter would hold everything in place for you and make it much easier. Here are some of the amazing things we have been looking at with our discovery scope:

A patch of grass.

A flower head of a weed we found at the park.

Clover flowers.

A mature dandelion flower head.

Here we compared different salts.

Here is Coarse Mediterranean Sea Salt (France),

French Celtic sea salt (Brittany Isles),

and Real Salt (Utah).

Need other ideas for investigations? Try out some of these we have been doing:

1. Look in the pantry and observe:
grains (oats, wheat, rye, rice, corn, millet), nuts & seeds(cashews, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, almonds, sunflower, pumpkin, etc.), flours (all purpose, whole wheat, corn, spelt, rice, potato, etc.), sugars (sucanat, demera, turbinado, evaportated cane juice, rapadura, white, powdered, etc.) pastas (whole grain varieties, rice varieties, regular semolina varieties spaghetti, elbow, penn, rigatoni, etc.), spices, etc.

2. Observe local water sources (ponds, creeks, lakes, rivers, ocean).

3. Observe fresh fruits and vegetables.

4. Observe tree leaves from different trees.

5. Observe insects.

6. Observe small creatures.

7. Observe sea shells.

8. Observe toys.

9. Observe different soils and sand.

10. Observe a variety of plants and their parts: flowers, stems, roots, seeds.

11. Observe animal poop.

12. Observe various rocks and minerals.

There are so many ideas, you will never get bored!

I definitely recommend the Discovery Scope for every family, homeschool, classrooms, teachers, and one for grandma and grandpa too. It is a must have for homeschoolers! I’ll be encouraging my friends to get one of these wonderful Discovery Scopes and I will be sending some out to family and friends as gifts. These are wonderful, easy to use, take anywhere tools your family will love.

Read the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what others had to say about the Discovery Scope.

Disclaimer: I received the product mentioned above, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew in exchange for writing an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own honest opinion.

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UPrinting Giveaway

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UPrinting is offering the readers of Weiser Academy a POSTER PRINTING GIVEAWAY.

This is a great opportunity to create a family treasure for your home, office, classroom, as a keepsake, gift, fun project for you, or your kids. Or use this opportunity to bless your church, your local charity, club or team, with a special poster. This would also make a great decoration for a wedding, a birthday party, baby shower, or other ceremony.

UPrinting is an online printing company accessible to everyone at an affordable price. They have a quick turn around time, so there is no waiting for printing all of those wonderful projects and gifts you’ve been wanting to get done.

If you have a printing project to be done, check out UPrinting to see if they can meet your need. I am thrilled with the variety of services they offer. They are able to make business cards, brochures, flyers, letter head, canvas prints, signs, posters, calendars, greeting cards, stickers, event tickets, menus, gift cards, and so much more. I am planning to have several of these items printed through them.

UPrinting cares about their impact on the environment and their employees. They use vegetable soy based inks to reduce harmful carbon emissions in the environment compared to other traditional printing companies who use petrolium based inks. UPrinting also offers products made with recycled paper.

The process is so easy. Choose a project you want to make. Choose a template. You can easily upload your photos, add an image and some text, and create designs in just a few clicks. It is professional looking yet made by you with a special touch. It is amazing what you can do with the click of a button on your keyboard these days.

Use the UPrinting design tool program for free and make the project look exactly the way you want. They also give you a free proof of your project for you to approve before you order. You can save your design, and come back to it later whenever you want. They have lots of different templates and thousands of images for you to use to add to your project for a special look. Or if you want UPrinting experts to design the product for you, they offer a custom design service for a $25 fee. How often can you hire a professional for $25? It’s a great deal for sure.

I am currently making a poster for our 4 H club. I plan to use it in a table display for presentations at various places like the county fair and 4H meetings. I am using a collage of several pictures from our meetings and having it printed by UPrinting. I will show you what it looks like when it arrives. I am so excited!

Poster Printing Giveaway

1 (one) Poster Print for one (1) winner

Semi Gloss or High Gloss

1 Business Day Print Turnaround

Free US shipping only

Mandatory Entry:

One Weiser Academy reader will be randomly chosen by Rafflecopter.

To enter the giveaway:

Visit UPrinting Poster Printing page and tell us how many kinds of poster printing does UPrinting offer.

After you visit the poster printing page link, come back here and enter your answer on the rafflecopter mandantory entry form.

Thats It!

But, you can enter up to 11 entries into the contest and better your chance of winning by completing all 11 items listed below.

Best Wishes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Restrictions:

1. This giveaway is open to US residents only, 18 years old and above.

2. No prize substitutions allowed.

3. Winners are allowed to win once over a six-month period.

4. Only email addresses used for the giveaway will be eligible to claim the prize.

Disclaimer: “You should assume that I will receive free print products in exchange for the post. Any and all reviews posted are based solely on my own experience and may be atypical. Please practice due diligence in making any related purchase decisions. Interested to hold a giveaway like this? Please sign up here.”

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Beeyoutiful

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Beeyoutiful is a company that cares about the well being of their customers. They strive to be a helpful resource to people who want to live a healthy lifestyle.

A quote from their About Us on their website reveals their intentions: “At Beeyoutiful.com, we believe that each individual is responsible for their own health. It is not a doctor’s responsibility to keep you in good health. Instead they are a tremendous resource, especially for those times when urgent care is required. But, they are only one of many resources. And the tools they use, while powerful, are not the only tools available. But a tool is worthless unless one knows how to use it. ……As much as is in our power, we want to aid others in obtaining and maintaining good health.”

I was impressed with their ideals and the products they carry. Many of these products I have used over the years, and carried in my own store. Since closing my store, I am always on the look out for companies that supply the same or similar products and support their customers well. Beeyoutiful meets those standards I am looking for.

They are outspokenly Christian in their faith. A quote from their Values page reveals this: “We are believers in Jesus Christ. We strive to act according to what this means to us. We believe in treating others the way we would like to be treated.”

Their website is set up to shop by product, or by health concern. They offer discounts for some bulk purchases too. They also offer a health forum and health articles to support you in your healthy lifestyle journey.

Beeyoutiful sent me a bar of their Milk & Honey Facial Bar and a tube of their B.A.L.M. to review. I was very impressed with both products.

I love goat milk soap. In addition to carrying several varieties made by local crafts people in my store, I also used to make a variety of goat milk soaps myself every spring when I had a surplus of goats milk after they kidded. So when Beeyoutiful sent me a bar of their Milk & Honey soap and the first ingredient listed was RAW GOATS MILK, I knew I would love this product. And it was true, I loved it.

This soap is definitely worthy of giving as gifts to your loved ones. It is full of excellent healthy ingredients: Raw Goats Milk, Distilled Water, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Vitamin E Oil, Vegetable Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Raw Honey, Bee Pollen, Bee Propolis, Beeswax, and Sweet Orange Oil.

After using this soap, your skin feels soft and invigorated, not dried out or greasy. I love using goats milk soaps for this reason. They are gentle and moisturizing to the skin.

Finally, this product is made in the shape of a bee hive with little bees flying around it. It is adorable and anyone would love to receive this as a gift.

The B.A.L.M. stands for Beeyoutiful All-natural Lip Balm. It is the nicest smelling lip balm I have ever used. There is no taste. It goes on smooth, and the sent really invigorates you.

They carry two different scents, orange and peppermint. I was sent the orange B.A.L.M. It is made from: Organic Grapeseed Oil, Organic Shea Butter, Beeswax, and Orange Essential Oil.

It truly is amazing that these four simple ingredients could come together to make a product so pure and wonderful to lips and to the senses. My lips continued to feel soft and moisturized for hours after using, unless I ate or drank something, and then I would reapply as needed.

I would definitely give these products two thumbs up, both to use myself and to give as gifts. Great quality and value, and wholesome ingredients.

I was given a sample of Beeyoutiful Milk & Honey Facial Bar and B.A.L.M. in exchange for trying it and writing an honest review. See what others on the TOS Homeschool Crew had to say too.

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Zeiss Review

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I recently went for an eye exam and got my prescription updated.   It had been a couple of years since my last visit. Modern technology keeps changing and leaves me in a tail spin. It is no different at the eye doctor. There were three different exam rooms with a lot of new equipment in them.

Each machine was computerized, specialized, and calibrated, and felt like it was from another planet.   I felt a little silly going from room to room with each assistant, putting my chin onto the rest bars of machines, and looking at x, or dots, or getting puffs of air shot into my eyes.   I did not really understand what most of the equipment and gadgets were for. I just followed instructions to look here or there. Finally, the eye doctor put various glass lenses in front of me and I had to verbalize which ones were clear or blurry. Sometimes they all seemed blurry and sometimes they all seemed clear and it was hard to tell a difference in them. Other times, it was easy to tell that one was wrong and one was right.

Thankfully, no problems were found with my eyes, but I did need a slightly stronger prescription as my eyes are changing as I get older. And a new prescription meant new glasses and lenses. One thing is for sure, these days, the choices in frames and lens options can be overwhelming.

But help is on the way! I recently learned about Zeiss. Zeiss creates optic lenses and is an expert resource to learn about your eyes and how to take care of them.

Would you like to know how to take care of your eyes and get the most from your eye exam? Zeiss, creator of optic lenses has designed an educational website with you in mind.

Zeiss Educational Tools is a handy reference to help you get the most benefit from your vision, eye exams, and vision product purchases.

Included in the list of helpful tools are:

        Important Facts To Know About Vision
        The “How To’s” Tips For Selecting An Eye Doctor
        Get The Most From Your Visit With Questions To Ask At Your Next Appointment
        What Is Happening To Your Vision Facts To Know About Age Related Vision Changes

The Zeiss website also has lots of articles written to help you understand your family’s eye care better.   Here are just a few examples that I found helpful, but there is a whole website full of articles and information for you to check out.
        Children And Sunglasses
        Giving Children Perfect Vision
            “spending time outside is beneficial for a child’s eyes. According to Australian
             researchers, two to three hours spent in the natural light a day lowers the
             risk of a further decline in the child’s vision.”
        Workout For Your Eyes

As a matter of fact, I will be using the information on the Zeiss website for a study of several things in our upcoming learning projects starting soon in our homeschool and local homeschool coop class.

        Vision and Parts of the human eye as part of our human body unit study.

        Glossary of eye related terms.

        Space Exploration

        History of Carl Zeiss company and technology

        Science and Innovation photography, movies, space, eye wear, microscopes, and more.

Zeiss has made the basics of your eye exam understandable in simple terms. They also have a search engine to help you find a reputable eye doctor too. I encourage you to check out their educational tools before going to your next exam.

I received a gift card and eye glass cleaner kit in exchange for writing an honest review about Zeiss.&nbsp
; All opinions are honest and my own viewpoint.

Questions for our readers:
                        When was your last eye exam? How is the health of your eyes?
                        Please leave a comment below. Thank you.

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Oral B Review

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Oral B Stages and Crest Oral B Pro Health For Me are a series of tooth brushes and dental hygiene products designed especially for children. We were sent a box of Oral B Stages and Crest Oral B Pro Health For Me products, and the Cars 2 movie, for the purpose of hosting a party to tell others about these great products.

We invited some friends and their moms to join us. Before our guests arrived, my children and I assembled the goodie bags, and popped the popcorn. We set everything out on our kitchen counter, and decorated our kitchen table too. We also set up our train table with some wooden race tracks and cars to play with. We had a Cars theme bingo game, tic tac toe game, and go fish game we set out on a table too.

Into each goodie bag went a tooth brush ($3.99), tooth paste ($3.25), floss picks ($2.49), sample Cars 2 gummie vitamins, a balloon, and a hand out explaining the different Oral B Stages products, where to buy them, and costs. Also included were coupons for $.50 off future purchases of Oral B products.   We were also given three bottles of fluoride rinse ($4.59) to give away as door prizes.

Oral B Stages products are designed for children ages 4 months to 7 years. Crest Oral B Pro Health For Me products are designed for children ages 8 to 12.

As our guests arrived, we provided each one with a movie ticket.   Then as the movie got started, the kids waited patiently with their movie tickets in hand to exchange for their popcorn from the concessions.

Cars 2 is a great animated movie about auto racing, spies, and has lots of action and jokes to keep the kids’ (and adults’) interest.

The movie also has some world geography as the races take place in different cities around the world such as the USA, Italy, and England.   It is full of automobile terms and secret agent/spy terms and would make a great addition to any transportation study, geography study, or spy/detective study.

The kids were glued to their seat with anticipation.

They loved the popcorn snack.

They were all asking for refills.

After the movie, the kids did a “Yucky Mouth vs. Healthy Mouth” activity. They were each given cards and they took turns placing their cards in the correct category and talk about why it makes our mouth either healthy or yucky.

We also discussed why it is important to brush our teeth everyday. The kids shared their own personal experiences and ideas about good oral hygiene.

We also learned how people clean their teeth in countries where they don’t have tooth brushes.   The kids were really surprised to learn that some countries chew the sap from the Gum Arabic tree and that is where we get gum from. They were also surprised to learn that some people use baking soda and sea salt if they don’t have tooth paste.

Then the kids enjoyed lots of yummy refreshments such as Trail Mix, Turbo Turkey Wraps, and Cupcakes. One of the children had a birthday today, so we included some Cars 2 and Snowflake cupcakes to celebrate.

One of our “mom guests” provided the trail mix and turkey wraps. They were delicious!

Each child received an Oral B goodie bag upon leaving. Besides the wonderful products supplied to us for the party, one of the moms also purchased some fun goodies to include.   She added in Cars 2 pencils and pens, note pads, glow in the dark bracelets, and punching balloons. We also included some yummy and festive candy canes.

Before leaving, all the kids had blown up their punching balloons. The kids had such a good time learning about good oral hygiene, watching the movie, and spending time together today. The kids were so excited to receive their goodie bags, and I know they are headed home to try out all the great oral care products.

Thank you Oral B Stages, Crest Oral B Pro Health For Me, and Moms Select for this opportunity.

Cars 2 movie viewing and Oral B and Crest For Me party items we were sent to host this party included:

http://www.crestprohealth.com/crest-products/for-me-anti-cavity-fluoride-rinse-mint.aspx

http://www.crestprohealth.com/crest-products/for-me-fluoride-anti-cavity-toothpaste.aspx

http://www.oralb.com/products/stages-princess-flossers/

http://www.crestprohealth.com/crest-products/for-me-floss-picks.aspx

http://www.oralb.com/products/disney-princess-toothbrush/

http://www.crestprohealth.com/crest-products/for-me-crossaction-toothbrush.aspx

Cars 2 DVD
Cars Gummies Vitamins (Sample packs)
Popcorn
Popcorn Boxes
Balloons
Coupons

I was provided the items mentioned above in exchange for an honest review. All opinions, positive or negative are my own honest opinion.

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E-Mealz Review

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I am excited to write a review about E-Mealz.

I am getting ready to deliver a baby, (we are at 40 weeks now), and the thought of meal planning for our family is just over whelming. To be honest, meal planning through-out the pregnancy has been a bigger chore than I felt up for. I can definitely see where a meal planning service would help any busy mother and especially a pregnant busy mother!

E-Mealz is helping nearly 150,000 subscribers plan their dinners and promote more quality family time together. E-Mealz offers a weekly meal plan for $5 a month. That is just $1.25 per week, and the work is done for you.

E-Mealz prepares the recipe and grocery list for you. All you do is print and you are ready to go. You choose where you want to shop and what meal plan you prefer for your family.

You can choose from 20 different meal plans, including regular family meal plans (4-6), regular meal plans (2), specialty meal plans (gluten free, low carb, low fat, portion control, vegetarian for 4-6), and specialty meal plans (weight loss, low fat, portion control for 2).

You can also choose the store you want to shop: Kroger, Publix, Wal-mart, Aldi, Ralphs, or the Any Store option.

They offer a free weekly menu planner for you to sample and see if you like their service before you buy.

The grocery list organizes items by meal, and lists the price for each item. It also lists out additional items needed for the week that are likely already in your pantry such as salt, garlic powder, and ketchup, etc. If you don’t have them in your pantry, then it is an easy reminder to pick up those items when you are at the store. The weekly grocery list budget ranges from $65-$85 a week for a family of 6, or $35 for a family of two.

This certainly makes the job of putting a shopping list together easier. This service only covers supper, so you can add in the breakfasts, lunches, and snacks that you choose. The suppers include a main entree plus one or two sides and or a bread option.

I really like the fact they did their research for each store, know the prices of the products, and list that right on my shopping list. This makes it very handy if I want to substitute something my family likes better with a similar priced item, or if I find something on sale and want to substitute it.

I like many of the recipes. I am used to a more involved “made from scratch” program using the teachings of the Weston A Price Foundation. So instead of buying beef or chicken broth, I make my own, and we use raw milk, and many more nutrient dense foods rather than buying these pre-made. But these are easy substitutes in these recipes.

I would recommend this meal planning service to other families. It is a good place to start for new moms too, as it can help you learn to plan meals and budget a grocery list in an easy
1-2-3 program.

I was provided a free subscription to E-Mealz in exchange for writing an honest review. If you would like to check out what more members of the review crew have to say, click here

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