Website Review ~ Amazon.com

Website: Amazon.com

Appropriate for ages: all ages

Helps with: Getting school supplies

Review: By now, I think we all know that you can buy things easily and safely from Amazon.com. You can even order your toilet paper from them! They have everything. But, have you considered ordering your school supplies from Amazon? I suggest this for a few reasons:

1. When you take kids to shop for school supplies, a lot of overpriced, unnecessary items catch their attention. You'll end up either fighting them off with a LOT of "no's" or you'll spend more money than you needed to spend. In this economy, that is probably not something you want to do. By ordering from Amazon, you can pick out school supplies when your kids are not around to drool over Hannah Montana notebooks and Transformer folders.
2. You can find good deals on Amazon. Often even after you pay a shipping fee (or qualify for FREE shipping) you spent less than you would have at the store.
   
3. It's convenient. We've all fought the crowds that surround the back to school section in stores. It's unbelievable! Avoid the crowds.
4. It's easy. You can buy packs that are pre-assembled with everything that your child will need. For example, there is a Back to School Kit with Essential School Supplies that includes Fiskars scissors, an 8 pack of Crayola Markers, 4 oz. bottle of Elmer's glue, 24 count box of colored pencils, a pink pearl eraser, a spiral notebook, a 12 inch ruler, a box of Puffs tissues, a 2 pocket folder, a box of No. 2 pencils, a pack of Crayola crayons (16 count,) a glue stick, a pack of loose leaf paper, and a one inch three ring binder all for $22.52 (valued at $56.29). Sounds like the basic supply list for an elementary student, doesn't it? There is another elementary school pack called the Grade School Age Back to School Kit with Essential Supplies that includes most of the above plus an additional, glue stick, 300 more sheets of loose leaf paper, 3 extra spiral notebooks, a 12 pack of erasable ball point pens, a pencil sharpener, 2 more pink erasers, a canister of Clorox disinfecting wipes, and a pencil box. (This one does not include the Elmer's glue or the folder.) This one sells for $33.90 (valued at $84.69.) Of course you can also buy packs for middle school, high school, and even college aged kids as well as individual items in case you are missing an item or you really do want Hannah Montana notebooks and Transformer folders. To see all items click here.
   
5. I know that most schools provide textbooks for the students to borrow during the year, but if by chance you go to a school where students must buy their own textbooks, or you home school and buy your own textbooks, Amazon is a great place to find those as well. Search for textbooks here.
   

Nature Identification Part 2

Growing up, my grandparents loved nature. They had books to help you identify different birds and flowers. I think they were in alphabetical order, and each kind had a picture so you could learn what they looked like. Sometimes, my grandparents would find a new kind of bird or flower and look in the book to see what kind they had found. Look at your library. They should have books like this as well as books on trees, leaves, bugs, and other things that your kids may like. Then come up with some activities to incorporate the books.

Some further ideas are:

• Have some fun with photography. Kids love taking pictures, and now that most people have digital cameras, it is easier to let them take a lot of pictures. Go on a walk. Let your kids take pictures of flowers, trees, or birds that they see.
• Make a collage of the pictures you take, and label them. You can even make a digital collage on your computer.
• Catch different kinds of bugs to look at under a microscope or put into a bug box to observe.
  
• Label or draw pictures of your bugs.
  

Nature Identification Part 1

Growing up, my grandparents loved nature. They had books to help you identify different birds and flowers. I think they were in alphabetical order, and each kind had a picture so you could learn what they looked like. Sometimes, my grandparents would find a new kind of bird or flower and look in the book to see what kind they had found. Look at your library. They should have books like this as well as books on trees, leaves, bugs, and other things that your kids may like. Then come up with some activities to incorporate the books.

Some ideas for leaves are:

• Collect as many different kinds of leaves as you can find. When you get back identify them in a leaf/tree book.
  
• Add to the activity by drawing pictures of the leaves you find and labeling them.
  
• You could also make leaf rubbings by putting paper of the the leaves and rub a pencil across so the veins and shape of the leaf show in your pencil rubbing.
• Another leaf activity for kids who like to be creative is to put your leaves in a book. Get page protector sleeves to drop the leaves into. Put in a piece of paper first with the name of the leaf on it. Then you can put a leaf on each side of the paper.

Penny Science Round 2

This is a fun experiment for kids to try. You will need, a penny, an eyedropper, and rubbing alcohol, and a cup of water. First, fill the eyedropper from the cup of water. See how many drops you can place on a dry penny before it spills off of the penny's side. (You will be surprised if you have never done this before. I usually get between 30 and 60 drops of water on a penny.) Next, repeat the experiment by dropping drops of rubbing alcohol from the eyedropper onto a dry penny. (You will only get around 10-20 drops.) Explain to your kids that the difference is that water is cohesive (bonds with itself) while rubbing alcohol is not. (In kid terms, "water wants to stick to other water like best friends. We call this cohesion. Rubbing alcohol does not do that because it is made of different stuff and it happens to not stick to other rubbing alcohol very well.")

The Goal of American Education

Recently I read an article about American society and how we view education. The article mentioned that we,as a society, push all kids to go to college and tend to look down on vocational training. If you want to read the article, click here. Of course I think that education is important, but he does have some good points. College may not be for everyone, and there should be no shame in vocational training. Those positions are necessary in our society, so we should appreciate the people who do these jobs.

I must admit my favorite part of the article was when he talked about parents not accepting their child's scholastic achievement level. He is exactly right. Most parents believe that their child is a genius, so if they do not understand they immediately blame the teacher. Of course we all want our children to be smart, but most children need extra practice at home in a few subjects to achieve their full potential.

I think it is still a good idea to push kids towards college for the most part, but there is nothing wrong with vocational training.

Penny Science

I learned about this from a child's magic book. It fascinated me quite a bit as a child, yet the science behind it can be quite an educational moment. You will need a few cups of different sizes and a large stack of pennies. Put the cups somewhere that is OK to get wet. (I did mine in the sink) Then, fill the first cup with water. It must be full to the point of spilling if one more drop was added. Then, rub your finger around the rim of the cup to make sure that the rim is dry. After that, slowly place pennies in the water (carefully so as not to make waves.) You will see the water level bubble up out of the cup eventually. (It should not take too long if you filled the cup enough.) Let the kids discuss why they think the water is bubbling over the top of the cup, but not spilling. If you want, you can use this chance to teach them about the cohesive (bonding) properties of water. (It bonds to other water molecules so it stays together instead of spilling - to a certain point.) When the water eventually spills over, you can count the number of pennies that you put in the cup before it spilled. Then, repeat with a different size cup. After doing this a few times compare the number of pennies you got into each cup. Did larger cups hold more pennies?

Brain Tuner

For those of you that have an iPhone, your child must want to play on it all of the time, right? Let me suggest an application that will be great for your child ages 6 and up. It is called Brain Tuner. It gives your child basic math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and then asks them to select if the answer given was right or wrong. Kids can pick 20, 60, or 100 facts and compete against the clock to be the fastest one. I love this because it encourages kids to know their facts so well that they can do them quite quickly. Kids love to get a new speed record, and parents love that they are practicing their math facts. If your children are younger, you can touch the small "i" in the bottom right corner of the main menu. From there you can turn each opperation on or off. That way younger kids can do just addition or even addition and subtraction. Older kids can do all four, or just pick one or two they need extra practice with. Another nice option on that page is the review option. You can turn this on so it will review the ones that your child missed.

The best part is that the lite version is free. (I have not bought the full version, but it is only a couple dollars if you are interested.) I personally think that the lite version is enough. It lets kids practice their facts as much as they need to or would like to, but with the feel of a game.