Bright Light Pillow Review

A pillow, a night light....it's both! Seriously my girls have been asking for one of these since they first saw the commercial maybe a year ago! I was thrilled to be able to review one to see if it lived up to the hype.

We were gone the day it arrived, so that evening before bed I presented it to Nadia, the lover of all fuzzy things. She was thrilled! 

We put in 3 AA batteries and she immediately turned it on and hugged it. Eli thought he needed a turn too, and who could blame him, it is super soft!

At first it only cycled through individual colors and I started to get a bit skeptical, but if you want a few minutes it starts glowing many colors at once. It continues to glow for about 15 minutes before turning itself off, but you don't have to wait the 15 minutes. If you want it off before (because you are driving and keep thinking a cop is behind you from the flashing lights) you just push the power button again.

I was actually quite pleased with this pillow. It is super soft and does exactly what is advertised. I hate that it is surface clean only, but obviously with all the lights in it there isn't another choice. I can say that blackberry yogurt comes off of it nicely with a damp cloth (thanks to Eli for that test). 

You do want to make sure you don't give it to a child who is unlikely to follow instructions like "don't throw the pillow" because that battery pack would hurt! It actually says ages 8 and up on the instructions.

Overall it is a nice pillow and Nadia is thrilled with it (she calls it her luma for all the Super Mario Galaxy fans out there; yes, we're raising nerds here). 

To purchase your own Bright Light Pillow visit www.brightlightpillow.com. They retail for $19.99 with $7.99 shipping and handling; you can get free shipping and handling if you order three or more. They currently have squares and hearts, but I am sure in time other shapes will pop up! 

Fairy Tea Garden Kit Review

Today I want to introduce you to one of the new Fairy Garden Kits produced by Horizon Group USA, the Fairy Tea Garden! My girls have made fairy gardens with their grandma before, but I knew they wouldn't be able to resist the tiny tea set in this kit! (We received this kit in exchange for our honest opinions!)

The kit includes a planter, arbor, little fence, two chairs, a table, a tea pot, two teacups, and a little fairy. It is also supposed to include fairy dust, but ours was somehow lost during opening; I am afraid it got thrown away with the packing in the box thanks to all the help I had!

As you can see the girls were thrilled with the garden kit. Flowers and soil are not included, and we chose to go with silk flowers since fresh aren't too plentiful right now. Once we had those picked out I filled the base with soil and turned them loose.

I did make suggestions along the way, so we were still able to see the fairy in the end, but they chose where most of it went. And even though we lost the fairy dust I did have some glitter (kindly provided by CraftProjectIdeas.com) to sprinkle the garden with.

And here is their finished product! 

The fairy looks quite content in the pretty garden too.

I do think we will be reworking this at some point because the little chair didn't sit well on the dry soil. Either I will buy foam and moss for the bottom, or we will plant real plants in it so the soil will be firmer with water. Either way should work fine, but I wouldn't recommend going with real soil and fake plants!

I was a little concerned with how quickly the fairy could be broken, and we tested that right out of the box (not on purpose of course). Nadia dropped her during the unpacking! Her wings came off, but they were easy to put back on. If it happens again they may get glued on.

The girls really loved this kit. I honestly think they each would have loved one of their own. I mean, what little girl wouldn't want to decorate her own little fairy tea garden! 

The Fairy Tea Garden Kit along with a Traditional Fairy Garden Kit or a Terrarium Fairy Garden Kit will hit WalMart Garden Centers for 6-8 weeks starting now with limited availability through the holiday season. Then they may be back for spring. They are expected to retail for $19.97. These would definitely make a good gift option for your fairy loving little girl as they allow her to create something beautiful and yet all her own. If you use real flowers you can introduce gardening too!

Printable Books for Emergent Readers Review and Giveaway

Do you have an emergent reader in your home? If so you may notice how difficult it can be to find books on their reading level! It seems the easy readers (even the level 1) at the library (at least our library) are all too advanced for very early readers! Seems silly when reading books (not just words on a page) gives kids a sense of accomplishment and helps early readers gain that much needed confidence! 

Jackie over at Ready-Set-Read, a reading specialist turned stay-at-home mom, created several Printable Books for Emergent Readers just to help those beginning readers! I received a copy of her books in exchange for my honest review, and we have a great giveaway too!

Jackie offers a variety of books for different levels of beginning reader. Each group of books contains 4-6 books, and you can read about each set in more detail in the links below. The 5 groups of emergent readers she currently offers are:

Nursery Rhymes
Dolch Sight Words Pre-Primer 1
Dolch Sight Words Pre-Primer 2
Christmas Books
Fall Holiday Books


Her readers are created with pictures that aid the text and a single sentence per page for beginner readers. There is repetition in them too which helps them remember the words they just read! For more information about the books head over Ready-Set-Read!

When you print them each book is a half page, so you get two books out of each page! This was perfect for us since I have 2 beginning readers! Most of the books are in black and white, so your child can color the picture which gives them more ownership of the book (at least in my mind it does). The few readers that are in color focus on finding specific colored objects.

My girls were super excited to see the little books. It had been a while since I had printed out any little readers for them, and they immediately grabbed them and started reading! The books I printed were actually a little too easy for Bria who is mid-1st grade level, but they were perfect for Nadia!Nadia read one and then declared, "I read this book all by myself!"  Honestly, Bria lacks confidence in her reading, so even though they were easy for her they were also good for building confidence.

These are great little books for early readers and can be used at home or in a classroom setting. They help improve reading skills while building that confidence kids need to read well! To purchase any of Jackie's great little readers head over to Teachers Pay Teachers!

Jackie is also generously giving away a set of ALL 5 GROUPS OF READERS to one lucky winner! Enter below! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Easy Canvas Prints Review and Giveaway

I love photographs, and I have always loved the way canvases look on the wall, but I have never been brave enough to spend the money one. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to review one from  Easy Canvas Prints and offer a giveaway for one of my lucky readers!

But first my review! Honestly, the hardest part about ordering this canvas was getting a picture to put on the canvas (never an easy task with my kids)! After that the ordering process was simple: upload the picture, choose your size, choose your edges, and proof.

When you upload your photo Easy Canvas Prints will check the quality of your photo based on the size of canvas you selected. You can even add your photo from facebook or instagram!

Here you can also zoom in or out and check the cropping  (different sizes crop differently). Then you move on to select the edges. You can choose to have the edges mirror the image, wrap the image, or be a solid color. I selected to have my image wrap around the edges.

You also have the option of getting your canvas in black and white or sepia or having it retouched for an additional cost.

The canvas arrived quickly and well packaged and ready to hang! When I say ready, I mean ready, the hanging equipment was already attached!

Here is the original picture I chose (I wanted a recent one of the family, so we all headed out to our Alma mater in nerd gear).

And here is the canvas (well a picture of it)!

The colors seemed a little muted compared to what I normally get with prints, but it is hard to compare something like that since it is a completely different medium and a different printer.  Still if I did it again I think I would choose color enhancement in the minor retouching (I am a fan of bright colors).

However, I am very pleased with the end result, and the only real complaints I have are with my own picture editing. It still looks nice on the wall and is quite fitting of our family! I would definitely love to add a couple more in the future!

And now I am also happyto announce the kind folks over at Easy Canvas Prints are offering a chance for one of you to win your own 8x10 canvas! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Math Mammoth Review

Looking for an affordable Math Curriculum for your homeschool? Math Mammoth could be your answer! Math Mammoth offers full math curricula for grades 1-6 in their Light Blue Series as well as worksheets for some of the older grades. You can also purchase individual books on specific topic. 

In exchange for an honest review, we were provided with a copy of Math Mammoth Grade 1 Light Blue Series.

Math Mammoth offers both a downloadable version or a paper format. When we downloaded our version I was instantly impressed with how much was included in the curriculum. It included worksheets for an entire year of work as well as answers keys, reviews, and tests. 

The topics appear to be very thoroughly covered and coincidentally, the Light Blue Series, through grade 5,  is also Common Core aligned although no changes were needed to make it so.

The first thing I had the girls do was try out the kindergarten review. I have to say they were not thrilled with the worksheets. If you read much here you know my kids are not too into worksheets.

Based on my kids, I have to say the number of worksheets is the down side of Math Mammoth. They would much rather be doing something hands on, and they learn better from manipulating.  While this may be a downside for my particular kids it could be a huge plus for others who have a different learning style. I know lots of kids who enjoy worksheets, and they do provide a great way to keep track of what your kids have mastered.

It does not require a teachers manual or many manipulatives which help keep costs low and ease of use high. Even though my kids like the manipulatives, they can be costly, so this is still a plus! And the downloadable version can be printed again and again, so there is no need to purchase a new workbook for each child! Another way to keep costs low!

I do like the fact that the program includes possible games that can be played to go along with topics as well as Internet resources that may be helpful.

I was also impressed to see the money section not only provided information for United States Currency, but also for Europe, Australia, and Canada!

As I said before the program is very affordable (~$34 for an entire year), so even if you don't use it for your base curriculum, it is possible to use pieces of it to supplement another curriculum if your child needs more practice. This will most likely be our use of Math Mammoth.

I really like Math Mammoth, and I think it could easily fit my teaching abilities. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to fit my kinesthetic learners the best.  I would certainly recommend that any of you looking for a math curriculum look into Math Mammoth.  It is certainly a complete, affordable option for your homeschool!

You can read more reviews from the Mosaic Reviews Team HERE!

Daria Music Review

Today I am pleased to introduce to you, Daria and her wonderful music. Daria is an internationally known folk singer who uses her music to reach kids and promote a better world! When I was given the opportunity to review one of her products I was instantly intrigued by the Earth Day CD with Reduce, Reuse, Recycle E-Book. (I was given a copy of this product in exchange for my honest view). 

This particular CD focuses on being a good steward of the world we have been given. Many of the songs are derived from well known tunes making it simple to learn and catchy too. The girls favorite was "Ride Horse Ride" (naturally, since they area pony lovers) which focuses on the importance of animals and what they can teach us. Other songs on this CD include "Our Beautiful Rainbow World" which celebrates diversity and "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands" which emphasizes the importance of doing all at we can to take care of the natural environment around us.

The ebook was a ton of fun too! It consists of 10 unusual instruments that represent various cultures. Information is given about each instrument and the culture it came from, along with instructions on how you can make your own with stuff you have around the house. 

The girls each picked out a couple instruments to make, so they could play along with the music. They each made a monster jawbone rattle (from the Afro Peruvian culture).  Bria  also made zamponas (from South America) while Nadia chose a turtle shell rattle (from Native Americans). 

Eli liked the monster jawbone rattles best!

Making the instruments really brought the music more alive for my hands on kids!  They were able to rock out with Daria's music as well as creating their own!

These products would be a wonderful addition to any sort of Earth Day or cultural study. I for one plan on including them when talking about history or geography!

Whether you are listening to her play some of the more well known children's songs or her own creations, your appreciation of other cultures is sure to grow just from the interesting instruments  Daria uses in her music.

Daria offers a variety of products:  including her CDs, instructions to make instruments and even actual instruments! Make sure you visit all of her stores to see all she has to offer!

Daria's CD's
Daria's Little Village Store
Daria's TPT Store

You can also hear samples of her music as well as hear some of the instruments over at dariamusic.com!

Be sure to check Daria out and allow her to bring music and culture to your kids!

Wild at the Zoo Review and Giveaway

When we were given the chance to review the Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack by KidQuest Adventures, I was thrilled (we were given a copy in exchange for our honest review). It is no secret how much I love animals, and my kids are pretty fond of them too. This gave us another reason to go to the zoo!

At first glance, I was impressed by the amount of information covered, and how nicely it all flowed. I was also concerned my girls may be a little young for some of it,  but I was really surprised by how much they took in, especially the 4 year old!

The Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack is divided into three parts: things to cover before your trip, activities to do at the zoo, and follow up activities. 

The section you cover before your trip goes over some basic classification of animals as well as specialized terms for what they eat. The classification part sunk in pretty well, but the more specialized terms for what they ate kind of went in one ear and out the other at their ages. At least they have heard the word, so it isn't completely foreign when they hear it again.

The next section contains some fun activities you can do at the zoo.  I actually looked through the activities ahead of time, so we could cover the information,  but we did not fill them out at the zoo for a couple reasons: the zoo was extremely busy and it kept sprinkling on us. Other then the general classification of the animals, they really enjoyed looking at the conservation status (endangered, threaten, etc) of the animals. The Wild at the Zoo pack also covered various people of the zoo. So anytime we saw a docent or a zoo keeper I made sure to point them out too!

Since we had spent the time covering the information at the zoo we were able to go back and easily fill out some of the at the zoo activities. It would have been a lot of fun to play the location bingo, but that is one things we did not get a chance to do this visit.  It would definitely be great with older kids (or maybe just without an extremely active toddler).

The Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack was definitely a fun way to introduce some animal facts to my kids, and I am sure we will repeat it! This will allow my kids to learn each time we go to the zoo while still having fun! Even after this first experience I know they have internalized some of it since a couple weeks later at the Indianapolis Zoo my 4 year old yells out "Look warthogs are mammals!" 

The one thing I did notice that could cause some problems with the at the zoo activity is that some of the information given on zoo signs was incomplete. At least at the St Louis Zoo, where we were, we noticed that some of the current signs only gave the animals name while others gave all the information needed to complete the packet.  All the information is easily found through Google though!

This packet contains a ton of information which is wonderful, but also a lot for little ones to take in. If you frequent the zoo it would be easy to add a little each time to master the material.  We are a few hours from a zoo, but I still plan on repeating it when we get the chance! There is definitely something for every age!

You can purchase the Wild at the Zoo Adventure Pack (includes the download of the student workbook as well as the parent/ teacher guide) HERE! It is normally $9.00, but currently 50% off! This would be great for one last trip to the zoo before it gets cold!

The wonderful creators have also given me the opportunity to provide a copy to one of my readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yummi Pouch Review and Giveaway

Do your kids like those pureed fruit pouches from the store? I know mine are pretty big fans of them (or maybe that is an understatement since they ask for them every time we are at the store)! You can imagine how thrilled I was to review Yummi Pouch! (I was provided with a set of 6 Yummi Pouches in exchange for an honest review.) No more paying ridiculous amounts of money for pureed fruit that I could easily make myself (I mean I made my own baby food, so this really isn't any different). 

                                  

Yummi Pouches are:

- Dishwasher Safe

- Freezer Safe

- BPA and Phthalate free

- Holds up to 6 ounces

- Easy to fill through wide top zipper opening

- Recyclable and fully CPSP compliant

Basically these little pouches open at the top with a little zipper to fill, then you seal it up and suck the food out of the little nozzle. So simple even a very young child could eat from them!

Of course when we tried them out every kid wanted something different! So the first time we used them we tried applesauce and 2 different flavors of yogurt.

All the kids loved them! They ask for them whenever they find them clean!

Now, I was really concerned with clean up! They say they are dishwasher safe, but I was still leery about sticking them in there. I did, and they held up fine. Unfortunately the little nozzle part wasn't completely clean. I rinsed it the next time, and it come out sparkling! Not sure if it is my old dishwasher or not, but I would say just run some water through before you wash, and you will be good to go! That little extra step is certainly not going to stop me from using them to provide my kids with healthy snacks!

Yummi Pouches also come in bright colors or you can get dishwasher safe stickers to add to them! To check them out as well as find recipes to stick in your pouches visit Yummi Pouch!

The wonderful folks over at Yummi Pouch have graciously allowed me to offer a set of 6 pouches (valued at $14.99) to one lucky reader! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway