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Aug 13, 2010

Download N Go Roller Coaster Review

The littles and I just spent a great week learning all about roller coasters. Thanks to Download N Go's Roller Coasters unit study, we were able to ease into our school year with a bunch of really fun projects.Download N Go is a unit study/lapbooking series created by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse for grades K-4 and is intended to take one week to complete, though with all the resources available it would be easy to expand that. They are bright and colorful and loaded with information. DNG studies have five daily objectives with lapbooking components, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.I spent a little time looking through the entire study before working on this with the boys. You could use this time to decide how many pages you will print, what household objects you will need for the week and what library books to reserve.

The daily lessons for Roller Coasters were:
Day 1: What Is a Roller Coaster?
Day 2: The History of Roller Coasters
Day 3: People and Places of Roller Coasters
Day 4: Science Secrets of Roller Coasters and RidesDay
5: Goodies and Gadgets of Roller Coasters

My boys are very active little guys who really need a bit of excitement to hold their attention. Well, this unit did that! We spent the whole week creating roller coasters, both virtual and physical, with any and every medium. We created coasters with wooden train tracks, Fridgets and paper towel tubes, to name a few. We watched a few great videos chosen for this unit and now the littles are ready to build their own backyard roller coasters. I hope daddy feels up to the challenge!Checking out angles and trajectory. :) When Xav learned how roller coasters are tested, he wanted to volunteer.Grandma offered to take us to North Pole, NY and Xavier was dying to ride the roller coaster. Neither boy cares much for rides, but thanks to this study we were able to enjoy more things at the North Pole.

We did have trouble finding the books from the included recommended reading list at three local libraries, but we are very rural. I was able to find substitutes for most of the topics though and it wasn't long before I was sitting at home reading to the littles and I realized, I was having a discussion about physics with my 3.5 and 5.5 year old boys - and they were getting it. Incredible. If only physics was that fun when I was in school.

You can purchase a copy of Roller Coasters for $8.95 or see below to try to win it!

Giveaway is over!

I've been given the opportunity to pass along a copy of Roller Coasters to one lucky reader. I will choose a winner on Friday, August 20. Be sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you win. Winner will have 3 days to reply or a follow up winner will be selected. To enter the giveaway, leave the following comments on this post.

1. (Required first entry) go to the Download N Go store, browse the unit studies and leave a message here telling me your favorite title.
2. Like DNG on FB and leave a comment.
3. Share this giveaway with your FaceBook friends and leave a comment.
4. In honor of county fairs everywhere, leave another comment telling me what your favorite thing is to do at the fair.

For more chances to win a copy of Roller Coasters, check out the blog hop here. Some of the other DNG reviewers are also giving away a copy.

**I was provided a copy of Roller Coasters to use with my children in order to give an honest review of the product and one copy to give away. The opinions are mine and mine alone.**

15 comments:

Jess said...

This sounds wonderful! My son isn't quite old enough for this, though I think he would be pretty interested in many of these topics! I love the roller coaster, but some of the other ones I think he would like would be Birthday Bonanza, Rockin' Robots and Hoppin' Popcorn!

Soaring Eagle said...

Twisting Tornadoes would be the study that I would get. My dd found a book on twisters the other day and is now fascinating with them. Me too even though I do not want to be living where there are tornadoes.

Soaring Eagle said...

I liked DNG on FB.

Soaring Eagle said...

I posted the link of your giveaway on FB

Soaring Eagle said...

My favorite thing to do at the fair is eating maple cotton candy or cremees. And watching the kids go on rides (I don't like going on most rides myself anymore)

Following my Bliss.....Alonnie said...

You are a natural teacher.. the boys get exposed to some neato things.. and little to they know... so tasty too.. knowledge the fun way. love that and you all.

Jodi said...

I think the Pizza Party looks like a blast! I love the Roller Coaster one too! But one of the first ones we will do this year is Ben Franklin. Thanks.

Jodi said...

If I go to the county fair, the ONLY reason I go is to EAT! I love fair food!

Jodi said...

I am already a fan of DNG on Facebook - have been since the beginning of the summer.

Rebecca Ascoli said...

Goofy Gecko and Dolphin Days look like fun!

Jenny said...

What a great giveaway! My kids would LOVE just about every topic DNG offers but I'd say if I let them chose they'd want to learn about Twisting Tornados, Rocking Robots or Roller Coasters first :)

Jenny said...

I liked DNG on FB!!

Jenny said...

I FB'd my homeschooling Mommy friends a link to check out and enter this giveaway :)

Jenny said...

My favorite thing to do at the county fair is to take the kiddos to see all the different animals up close :)

kewkew said...

Wow, it looks like there are some really cool studies in this series. I had never heard of it before. Thanks for sharing with Throwback Thursday Blog-Style. BTW, I love the pic of your little ones making the roller coaster on the fridge.
Needed to let you know that your post was randomly selected as this week's Featured post!
Hope to see you back again.