Review: GridBlock

Our daughter loves to play games at school so we always get a few when we order our curriculum from Timberdoodle. We’ve been play GridBlock quite a lot because it really is that much fun. The pieces are very well made which is great because then they stand up to the wear and tear of a 5 year old. I think the board isn’t as well made as the pieces which is a shame but doesn’t inhibit the game play in anyway. We did lose of the pieces recently though. So I contacted Fat Brain Toy Co and they are sending us a replacement piece free of charge which is very nice of them. The game can be played with 2 to 4 players. The object of the game is to get all your pieces on the board before the other people. The first one to not be able to place their piece loses. The rules are very simple. 1: pieces much touch a piece of the same color. 2: pieces of same shape can not touch.

What is very nice about this game is that all the pieces fit nicely inside the board so if you’d like to toss the box then feel free. This is one of our daughter’s favorite games at the moment so we do play it weekly if not daily. What I like is that this is another of those great games that helps kids with those critical thinking skills without the child actually knowing that they are learning anything at all. What our daughter likes is that the game is fun. I do have to remind her of the no same shapes touching rule but that’s about it.

This would be a great game to take to a homeschool meetup or play date. I may end up buying a couple more just for meetups and such. I have noticed with every time we play our daughter gets more and more strategic with how she places her pieces which shows me that she is definitely developing those critical thinking skills more. I love that! Critical thinking skills are so important to learn early on and your child will use them for so many things as they get older.

So in conclusion, I would recommend this game. It is well made, fun, for 2 to 4 players and helps with the ever so important critical thinking skills. It’s easy to travel with which is nice. Our daughter really enjoys it so that is a plus from a kid’s point of view. This will definitely be a game that we play for a long time. We actually keep it in the bedroom right now so we can play before bed. Let us see if you can guess what our next review of our second grade curriculum will be! Here are your clues:

1. Cartoon themed fun for the whole family

2. Introduction to four science concepts in a really fun way

3. Fun stories with nostalgic characters

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Tips & Tricks: Making a Review

I recently posted on social media the reviews that my daughter did. They were for the 1st 6 weeks of our 2nd grade year. I got asked a lot about them. How did I make them? How did your daughter remember all of this? I also got comments that it is too much, public school does not do that, your history is too involved, etc. So let's start off with how I make a review. For math it is very easy I make a list of everything she learned. On the last week of that 6 or 12 week any math she does that is on that list counts towards the review. Anything on the list that is not done during the week I give her a few problems on each. Because I want to make sure that she has understood the concepts I make the problems hard. If they are too easy there is no way for me to know if she really understands or if she can just do easy problems. For history I make questions based off what I have read from the textbook. I pull out the key information. We also do social studies and geography. I make questi

Review: Sensory Tissue Box

We have been trying out a lot of new baby items this year and here is another one we did not have for our first daughter. It is called Sensory Tissue Box . What makes this toy so much fun? Let's be honest babies love to get into things. We have tried before to let her play with a regular box of tissues. Big mess. The tissues were everywhere and they have like 250 tissues in a box, she torn them up to so an even bigger mess. Our daughter even went as far as to rip the box itself up. This sensory tissue box though is made of very soft fabric so she can not tear it up, it has 15 tissues so less to keep track of and the tissue can not be easily torn up either. This is the biggest positive of this sensory box in my opinion. Another positive to having this sensory tissue box instead of a regular one is that the tissues are different colors and sizes as well as having different textures to them. There are 6 see-through ones, 6 see-through ones that have dots on them and 3 crinkly ones. T

Tips & Tricks: Grading

When grading first thing you need to do is check your state laws on homeschool. Some states require you to keep record of your curriculum and and grading while some don’t. I do not have to keep any records or grading. Since I use Timberdoodle they have an awesome online scheduler that I use. It has all the curriculum that we use and in the check boxes I put the grades. At the end of each year I keep the scheduler pages so I have records. Below is how I grade things. I also do not show our daughter the grades or tell her them. I don’t want her to worry about getting a bad grade. When she’s in middle school and high school grades that’s when I’ll start letting her know about grade. My grading system: Pre-K - 2 Grade: she will not see the grade E: excellent; no extra work needed; 100-90% S: satisfactory; give a little extra work; 89-80% N: needs improvement; give a lot of extra work; 79-0% 3 - 5 Grade: she will only see letter grade if she wants to know her grade A: 100-90%

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