Ruby's Gem Quest Game Review

  

Ruby's Gem Quest

Play Time: ~10 min

Players: 2-4

Ages: 2+ (3 for choking hazard)

Video Overview:

Review:

The game itself is pretty simple and straightforward, which is necessary for the younger crowd. You spin the spinner to get colored gems for your treasure chest. The first person to get all the colors wins. There are also a couple of "bad" spots on the spinner to add to the "game" feel. For a really young or sensitive kiddo, you could skip them for a re-spin.

The components are great. Both my 2 year old and 6 year old went straight for the gems! I've actually had to make it clear that these gems stay with this game and other gems can go in playdough/kinetic stand. Ruby is super inviting! I like that the top hole is a little smaller for her thumb and the bottom one is a bigger for all of her fingers to help her orient the dragon/scissors (we have some training scissors that don't have this so she isn't as good at getting her thumb/fingers in). Having the gems be in the box is convenient and makes them easier to pick up, however, they never stay in their little color regions.

I love that Ruby got my daughter practicing her fine motor skills! She likes "feeding" the dragon and actually wants to do that more than she wants to play the game. I think this will be a great table activity for her while I work on homeschool work with big brother. Like I said in the video, when we play the game, we don't actually use the dragon. It is too hard for her to select a color with Ruby at this point. As she gets older, we will be able to play as intended, so I'm glad that gives us a little longer with this game. 

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2nd Grade Curriculum Choices

 It's time again to start prepping for the start of a new school year! Here is our current plan for the 2024-2025 year, although it can always change along the way. I it 2nd grade even though he's technically in 1st grade, most of his work is actually at a 2nd grade level or above.

Math:

• Last year we did Beast Academy Level 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 2A. This year we will continue with Beast Academy Level 2. We also have the Puzzles 1 book.
• He also reads a math "story" every week. This might be a Mathstart book, a Sir Cumference book or section out of one of our other math books. He really likes Amazing Visual Math, Lift-the-Flap Math Shapes, and even likes to steal his brother's Math with Bad Drawings books. We also got him How Did Romans Count to 100?, which he loved, so we might get some others in the series.

Language Arts:

• Read aloud - I read him a chapter book. Either one that is a little above his reading level or one that may be the first in a series I think he will like, but is hesitant to start. I will also try to tie some of these to our science and history units.
• Spelling - we will continue with All About Spelling. We ended last year about halfway through level 3.
• Grammar - This year we are adding in some grammar, in two parts.
• Grammar Galaxy - I bought level 1. We will do about 3 lessons a week.
• Grammar mini units - I bought the book How to Be Good at English Language Arts. At the beginning of each week, he will read a couple of pages and then I will get books from the library to read throughout that week. We might do things like a part of speech or punctuation. This is intended to be light and fun. We have some of these types of books and he enjoys them (A Mink a Fink a Skating Rink, Greedy Apostrophe: A Cautionary Tale, and Crazy like a Fox)
• Reading Comprehension - We started Daily Reading Comprehension part way through last year and we will continue. Probably only a couple of pages a week.
• Poetry - at least once a week I'll have him read a little poetry. He LOVES Shel Silvertein and Brian Cleary books. I also got him a book of Poetry Comics, so it shouldn't be hard for him to do.

Logic

• Solo Logic Games - we have a bunch of these. I want to make an effort to have him play one at least once a week. (I'll eventually do a post on these)
• Logic Grids - he's currently on Mind Benders Level 2. He only does about one a week.
• Books - I got a few logic and critical thinking kids books (and will get some from the library). I'll try to throw one book in his book basket a week, although some he may need to read with me. We started out with Think Like a Detective, Maybe Yes, Maybe No, and There's a Dragon in my Garage

Science

• Units - We're going to do units based on the Next Generation Science Standards for science this year. We will do some labs, watch videos and read books based on the different concepts. Loosely, they are sound and light, biomimicry, how plant an animal offspring look like their parents, but not exactly, the sun, moon and stars, daylight and engineering. I'll try to post as we go, these are just a few of the books we will use.

History

• Units - I gave Archer a few choices as to what we could do for history this year. We ended up going the ancient history route, planning units on Archaeology, the Stone Age, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient China and possibly the Aztecs, Incas and Myans. The plan is to watch videos, read books, find some activities and maybe even play some games related to each. I have booklists made already, but how long we focus on each and how deep we dive will depend on his interest level. 
• I plan to give him How the Seven Wonders  of the Ancient World Were Built at the beginning of the year, just to increase interest. Then I have several of the books from the See Inside Ancient Greece Series. We also plan to use a bunch of You Wouldn't Want to Be books.

Spanish

• We're going to try to add in Spanish this year. We have a few videos (Little Pim, Whistlefritz), flashcards and books in Spanish, and I got him a Spanish workbook. I'm not sure how fast we will work through it. It's one I'm going to play by ear a bit based on how interested he is.

Diced Veggies Board Game Review

 

Diced Veggies

Play Time: 20-30

Players: 2-4

Ages: 6+

Video Overview:

Review:

Because of the way the dice represent ingredients and you use a cleaver to select them, this game feels unique in our collection. It is quick to set up and play without being overly simplistic. My husband, teen and I all like it, but I love that my 6 year old can play too. It will definitely get more use because it fits a wide age range. From an educational perspective, it has a tiny bit of math, in that you have to decide how to get the dice in the right colors and maximize how many you can get, while still equaling a total of 10 or less. You're also trying to balance complete each recipe with a hype card with trying to complete them quickly since the first player to 6 recipes triggers the end of the game.

Check out my board game section of the blog:

Stomp the Plank Review

Stomp the Plank

Play Time: 10-15 min

Players: 2-4

Ages: 5+

Instagram Overview:

Review:

First of all, I'm a HUGE sucker for elephants! The elephant figurines in this game are irresistible! They're chunky and sturdy and add a lot of appeal! The magnetic "planks" on the boat are cleverly done and make the game feel unique.

The gameplay is fast and simple. It is a great introduction to "push your luck" games. While we have had someone actually win by getting all different cards, it is incredibly unlikely. Kids have to balance the chances of getting a duplicate and having to move their own elephant forward with going further and getting to put more weights on their opponent's planks (probabilities anyone???). My younger son often struggles with games where something "bad" happens, but the design of this game is so cute that he usually just laughs if his elephant falls in.

Note: The official rules say that once a pirate goes overboard, everyone else wins. Because the game goes so quickly, we play that the last pirate standing is the winner. I think it is also easier for kids to lose if multiple people lose and there is one winner versus only one person losing and everyone else winning!

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Tot School Birthday Activities

Juniper's birthday was in June. In the weeks leading up to it, we did some birthday activities (I'm just really late on posting!).

Birthday Themed Books!

Birthday Zoo

Can You Catch a Birthday Birkle?

If You Give a Pig a Party

Bee Makes Tea

Red Panda's Party

Elephant Never Forgets

Birthday Cake

The Gifts

Birthday Bear

Cupcake sensory bin with cloud dough, sprinkles, candles and cupcake holders.

We matched some birthday word vocabulary cards (Free here). I just forgot a pic!

Ice cream shape matching from Tot Schooling

Gift shadow matching from Tot Schooling

Cupcake matching from Tot Schooling

Size sorting balloons from Homeschool Creations.

Cake number matching from Tot Schooling. I used number tiles instead of having her write.

Birthday word matching from Tot Schooling

Tot School Shape Trapezoid

 We have been working on a shape a week, as well as doing other themed activities. 

These are the shape related activities. Juniper was about 23 months.

This was her little area on our play room wall. The poster is from The Learning Effect. The rest is her completed work for the week.

This week she put stickers on her dot page.

Coloring some pentagons (Printable found here).

Tracing some pentagons in her dry erase center. She still needs a lot of help tracing, but she enjoys it.

Tot School: 4th of July

 I know this post is at least a couple of weeks late, but I wanted to get it up anyway, mostly to have something to look back on next year when I am looking for more ideas! Juniper was 24 months

Play dough is always a favorite, so I made some blue play dough, had some star cookie cutters, some US landmarks Toob figurines, some star buttons and some other little red, white a blue beads.

I gave her a bunch of cookie cutters to practice size sorting and nesting.

I got out a bunch of red, white and blue math cubes that we used to try copying patterns. She did ok for a while but then just wanted to play with them.

Tot Schooling had this American Flag shape matching activity we tried.

I printed a bunch of sight words in stars onto construction paper. We practiced reading them and throwing them. We also used the to Feed the Woozle (an adorable game she enjoys playing the more normal way also).

I gave her some star pony beads with our beginner 10s frame cards. She only has the patience to do a couple of cards at a time, but she's starting to learn that we fill them left to right.

We also practiced 4th of July vocabulary with her 3 part cards. She doesn't like these as much as the boys do, but matched about half before she lost interest.

While I made this Botley coding game for her big brother, Juniper had a lot of fun watching him play and attempting to do it herself.