Review: Super Beads by Zirrly

Issac enjoys doing almost anything crafty and he especially loves things that are vehicles or somehow related to vehicles. He currently has an obsession with a Ford F-150 and constantly talks about how that's the vehicle he wants to own when he turns 16. Granted that's almost six years away, so he's got some time. I knew when I was looking at the Super Beads  from Zirrly that his first choice would more than likely be the 3D Car and Truck set.  When I showed him our options he immediately said he wanted the Ferrari!! The 3D Car and Truck set had a red car in it and he thought it looked like a sports car!  We had tried other bead sets with my older kids, but Issac was too young at the time for him to be successful. The type we had used required an iron to fuse the beads together, but with the Super Beads from Zirrly water is the agent that fuses the beads together. When you have younger children working on projects parents are going to chose water over heat almost always.  The day that our kit arrived Issac wanted to open it up and get started right away.  We got a nice, colorful box that had pictures on the front of the projects we'd be making as well as a list of what was included on the back.  

The above is what was included in our set minus the yellow Super Beads that didn't make the picture. I liked that the colors were in fairly small bags, so we didn't have a ton of beads out that we weren't working with at the time.  We had the two paper patterns and they were on fairly sturdy paper.  It was also helpful for Issac that the patterns have cutouts that match those on the trays to help line up the project. We also had a great little tool that aided in putting the beads on as well as removing the finished product.  

I liked the setup that came in the box because there is a plastic container that holds all the product and it's great for the kids to keep the beads in while they are working. We found that by keeping the beads in the tray less ended up on the floor which meant we didn't come up greatly short while finishing up our projects.  Issac decided that he wanted to work on the orange jeep first, but before he could complete it he decided to jump to the red car. He calls the red car his Ferrari and was truly so excited to work on both of them that he just went back and forth. There wasn't an issue to work on both vehicles at the same time because the set included two trays, so he was able to have one tray for each project and work on whichever he preferred.  He did have a little trouble when starting the jeep and following the pattern. He somehow just got above the pattern line that he could see through the tray. He was able to quickly fix his error once we noticed it by just removing that line of beads.  He really liked the little green tool that came in the set. It helped him make sure his beads were on correct and lift the finished product off the tray.  Issac often times has difficulty working with small items or anything that takes a lot of fine motor skills. He more often than not also gets tired more quickly, but I found he didn't have too much trouble while working on this set. He was able to pick up and maneuver the Super Beads without hardly any issues. He dropped a few, but he didn't get frustrated and was able to follow the process with minimal help from me. He really enjoyed spraying the water to fuse the beads together. We left ours overnight before we pulled them off the tray. The directions recommend about an hour, but we were usually working on them after dinner. I did have to watch him carefully as he removed the items because a few had thin rows and he ripped those apart while taking them off the tray. Thankfully we were able to put it back on and spray again to refuse that section. 

When it came time to actually put the vehicles together Issac struggled a bit more.  The directions have great pictures which really helped him be able to work through each step. Where he struggled was when he actually took the two side pieces and needed to connect them with the plastic pipes. That was a real struggle for him to get each of the pieces to meet up. I have to admit that I helped him and I struggled at that point as well.  At one point on the second vehicle my husband and I were both working to match the parts together.  I'm not sure if we approached it in a way that made it harder or if that is truly difficult to mesh all those pieces together. Even with that issue Issac really enjoyed these and wants to do more projects. He was able to complete almost both of the entire vehicles on his own. His favorite part might have been to spray the water to mesh his Super Beads  together. I think maybe the 3D set wasn't the best fit for Issac and if we had chosen one that wasn't 3D he could have completed the project totally on his own. That said he still felt he was successful on making his vehicles and that's what's truly important I think! 

Sadly we somehow lost one of the pieces that keeps the wheels together, so one of our vehicles doesn't have wheels. I have a feeling it got knocked to the ground and probably swept up.  That could so easily happen that I think it would be nice if maybe one extra of those rods were included. We are going to try and see what we can come up with to replace the rod, so both vehicles have wheels. He actually put large wheels on the front of the car and the small ones on the back. He apparently had his own style for the wheels! There were plenty of all the colors as well as the plastic pipes to do both projects and we still have beads. Issac plans to use them to make up his own project.  

What I liked about the Super Beads set from Zirrly were that they were Non-Toxic, no heat or glue were needed.  They fit well on the board, so when Issac bumped the table they didn't go flying all over the place.  They also didn't come off the pegs while he was working on the project which was an issue we had previously with other beads. The best part of all is probably that the beads fuse together with plain old water.  What I didn't care for in the 3D Car and Truck set was that the process to connect the pieces to make the vehicles 3D seemed harder than I thought and wasn't something that Issac, or really even I, could easily do. That being said I would highly recommend trying out these Super Beads. Issac says he recommends them to ALL of his friends! I have my eye on the Mega Pack because the project options would be endless with that kit! The crew reviewed a variety of sets, so make sure you head over and check out what the other families made. 

Jungle Animals

3D Animals

Birds

3D Car and Truck

Spinning Tops

Jewelry Set

Mega Pack

As always don't forget to follow the social media sites for the most up-to-date information on the products. 

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Review: Home School in the Woods

I have heard about the wonderful products from Home School in the Woods for almost as long as I have been schooling my kids.  Last year we were blessed to be able to try a few of the projects.  We reviewed HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study:Ancient Greece and World War II Time Travelers American Series. They were both chalked full of information and fun activities.  This year we are trying projects out from their new series:  Á La Carte. 

This time our choice was a little different. Usually we are given one item that we can review if we are interested or we might get to choose one item out of a few. This time we were basically given a $10 credit and allowed to chose up to three items that fit in that $10 range. I thought this was kind of cool because the projects ranged in prices. You could chose one item that was more expensive, one medium price range and one less expensive, etc.  I showed Issac our choices and explained the monetary range we had and let him chose what his top three were. Then we set down and talked about whether they would fit in that $10 range or not. He ended up choosing two that he really wanted to do and I had one item that I was interested in doing.  Issac chose The Jamestown Replica (3D) for $2.95 and the  Name That State! File Folder Game for $4.95. I chose the The Art of Quilling (3D) for $1.95.   I thought this downloadable project of making the 3D Jamestown replica would be a great project for my husband and Issac.  I downloaded the item and printed the pages.  Issac doesn't really care for coloring, so I actually colored them for him. My original thought was if he didn't want to color them then was that ok. It was his project, so if he didn't want to color it that was fine.  Then I started thinking it would look so much nicer with some color.  I enjoy coloring, so I spent a few minutes working on it. He and his dad ended up cutting the pieces out and putting the project together. I realized as the project progressed that this really wasn't something that was a great fit for Issac unfortunately. I noticed that my husband did the majority of all the work. Issac struggles with fine motor skills and that seemed to make this project very hard for him. My husband did most of the cutting as well as the basic construction of the product.  The directions were just a bit too hard for Issac to be able to follow. I think he loved the idea, but when it came to executing it the project was just too hard for him. The suggested age range is  3rd-8th grade. Issac is in 5th grade, so I thought it would be a good fit with a little help from my husband. He just needed much more help than we had expected he would have. My older son at the same age would have been able to complete this project on his own. Probably with no help from my husband or myself. For Issac it was just too hard to do right now.  I personally thought it was a really cute project and would be a great extra for a homeschooling project. The The Jamestown Replica (3D) is actually just one small part of Time Travelers: The American Revolution.  I like that we are able to pick projects and games in the new  Á La Carte section because sometimes you have your own plan for a time period and just want a few fun little activities to add to it.  

Issac also chose to get Name That State! File Folder Game. When I first saw this option I knew Issac would pick this because he has a great love of anything Geography related.  This is a super cute game that is easily played in several ways. There is an option to have the state map have no writing on it, have the abbreviations or have the full name.We chose to play with the abbreviations and see how we did with that. I like that the cards have the shape of the state on the front and then the back has the state name, capital, rank, when it entered the Union and the region. All that information lets you truly customize the game your way. You can play with the capitals, just the name, both, the region, etc.  The choices really are endless.  This game is part of the larger set Activity-Pak: Make-A-State Issac learns so much more when we are playing games or doing fun activities that he doesn't think of as school :) His entire education could be made of doing projects and playing games and he'd think he was never doing school.

When I saw the option of The Art of Quilling (3D) I knew that I wanted to do this project! It's not often that I do much crafting for myself anymore. I ordered a basic quilling set that had the tool and pre-cut papers.  I knew that would make things easier for me :) This project was one that I was able to complete in an afternoon and it felt very therapeutic! The directions were very clean and I really loved that there were pictures there to help me understand what I was doing. These instructions are some of the best I've ever seen for a craft project.  One thing I would recommend if you buy a pre-cut pack of papers is to make sure you have enough strips of the colors you are planning to use. I realized about half-way through my project that I didn't have enough of the colors I was using. I had to alter my plan just a tad bit, but I was still pleased with the end result. This project is part of a larger unit called Time Travelers: Colonial Life. I had such fun doing this project that I'm already researching other quilling projects to do in the near future. 

We have so loved the  Á La Carte choices we received from Home School in the Woods.  They've got so many options to choose from and you can easily encorporate them into your every day homeschool lessons. Some of the other items Issac and I were interested in were: A Trip to Town File Folder Game, The Erie Canal Lap Book Project,  Art Gallery File Folder Game and Pirate Panoply Game. I have a feeling we'll be trying these out soon! The crew had so many different options to review, so check out what all the families chose and how they fit them into their homeschool days.  Follow Home School in the Woods on social media to keep up to date on all their new products.

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Week Ending 2/10/2018 Fun, STEM & Crafts

This year I wanted to be a little more intentional in doing fun things, experiments, crafts, etc with the kids.  Issac is still at the age where he's game to do anything even if it's a learning activity :) I've seen lots of activities that are for younger kids, but I still felt he would enjoy them, they would be quick to do and ultimately we'd have fun and learn something. This week we were able to do a few different activities. I think Issac enjoyed them equally, but when asked he said his favorite was the cloud dough. The cloud dough was super simple, it was equal parts of foam shaving cream and cornstarch.  We didn't start out with a large enough bowl, so ended up having to try and mix in two different bowls. That's wasn't best because one bowl seemed drier, so we finally found a large enough bowl to mix the two together. Issac made a video of us making this dough HERE on his YouTube channel. He makes funny videos and is always looking for new followers. He's up to 14 and super happy :) Before I could get pictures he decided to add baby oil to the dough and see what happened. It totally changed the texture and wasn't the fun cloud dough we made :) According to him he was experimenting and that's always fun :)

Another things we did this week was talk about how animals in the cold climates stay warm.  This was a super cute activity and really got the point across to Issac. All you need is a bowl, water, ice and some Crisco.  You first put your hand in the ice water for as long as you can stand it. After that we used a finger on the other hand and covered it with Crisco. He then put it back in the ice water and realized he could keep his finger in there much longer. We discussed how the fat the animals have help keep them warm. He asked since he was fat was that what kept him warm?? Oh Issac...... :)

We also did an experiment on whether you can sink marshmallows or not.  Issac enjoyed this, but then again any time he can sneak a few marshmallows he will :)  The last activity we did this week I learned about from my friend Roxanne over at Homework and Horseplay who does amazing STEM boxes each month.  All we needed to build an igloo was a disposable cup, icing and marshmallows. We did find out as we worked that our cups were super flimsy and made the job a little harder :) Issac and I enjoyed doing this project and again he was happy to eat marshmallows and like the icing off his fingers (LOL)

All in all I think we've done a few neat activities this week and made some good memories. I want my kids to have good memories of being at home and not few school as something bad or not fun. There is always something that needs to be done that maybe they don't want to be done, but there is also time for fun and laughter :)