Chocolate Challenge DNG Review

We had every intention of immersing ourselves in chocolate this week. Thanks to our satellite internet provider, we weren't able to access any of the internet-linked sections of the Chocolate Challenge unit. We did, however, read some books about chocolate and Brazil, and sample some different chocolates. I excel at chocolate indulgences. The average American consumes ten pounds of chocolate each year. I think I am above average! Oops!

In Download N Go's Chocolate Challenge, each day we learned about Brazil and a famous chocolatier.

The daily objectives for Chocolate Challenge are:
Day 1: Chocolate - What is it?
Day 2: Chocolate - The Story
Day 3: Chocolate - The Types of Chocolate
Day 4: Chocolate - The Science of Chocolate
Day 5: Chocolate - Have a Chocolate Party


Check back tomorrow for the results of our chocolate tasting party educational experience. As the Bad Apple tells Larry Boy (and I told Trish to get her to agree to the chocolate tasting), "don't eschew chocolate, CHEW chocolate." It's all about education here, people.


Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in so you don't see any of the other stuff on youtube pages. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

You can purchase your copy of Chocolate Challenge for $7.95

To see what others think of Download N Go's Chocolate Challenge, check out the blog hop.



Check out the convention season closeout sale on CD sets.

I was provided with a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mother's Day Week in Review

It has been THREE weeks since I've posted an entry here. Oops! I have plenty to share, but I want to tell you about this Mother's Day Download N Go before I get the other posts put together.

M-O-T-H-E-R
M is for the million things she gave me,
O means only that she's growing old,
T is for the tears she shed to save me,
H is for her heart of purest gold;
E is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
R means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.

Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

Mother's Day is Sunday, May 8 this year.

This week we learned about Mother's Day; how it began, how Mom's get loved on in other countries, LOADS of great ideas for Mother's Day gifts that the littles could do, and some of the wonderful mothers of the Bible.


I really enjoyed learning about the details of this holiday and Xav, especially, loved watching the craft videos, but I have to say I felt awkward teaching them about Mother's Day in such an in depth way. To me, Mother's Day is the day that (hopefully) Daddy or perhaps a grandparent tells the littles about and helps them celebrate their love for their Mommy. Mother's Day is about doing something for Mom in secret as a surprise. I guess when we decided to homeschool, I never thought about the kiddos making gifts in school to surprise their parents. :)

That being said, I think for older children who can do more of the study independently, it would be especially great! There seemed to be no end of ideas for surprises for Moms (and Grandmas!) and, as always, Download N Go has done a wonderfully thorough job on this unit study.


The daily objectives for Mother's Day are:
Day 1: What is Mother's Day?
Day 2: The History of Mother's Day
Day 3: Celebrating Mother's Day
Day 4: Preparing for Mother's Day
Day 5: Goodies for Mother's Day

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in so you don't see any of the other stuff on youtube pages. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

You can purchase your copy of Mother's Day for $7.95

To see what others think of Download N Go's Mother's Day, check out the blog hop .


I was provided with a copy for my honest review.

Our Trip to the Holy Land: DNG Review

Can I just say, I was super excited to hear we would be reviewing Expedition Israel for Download N Go this spring? I was so excited, that when sweet Marcy announced sign ups for Expedition IRELAND in February, I rushed to the library to look for books for our Israel study. Poor Marcy. She teases me about taking the blog name a bit too seriously. :) Oops!

I am not going to pussy foot around. This is without a doubt, my absolute favorite DNG we have ever done. Ever. Xavier really enjoyed the Moody Bible videos each day. Mal liked learning about the animals. His favorite was the dugong. He always sings the Barbara Manatee song from Veggie Tales to me.

{Photo removed.  Ezekiel 20:5-6.}

I loved this study so much, I spent a few hours just searching out more information for myself. I always picture rocks and sand and dry, boring desert when I think of Israel. I imagined it was all just like the rest of the middle east. Sort of like this:

{Photo removed.  Picture rocky desert.}

Was I ever wrong! It's beautiful there, farms, vineyards, gardens. Just incredible. No wonder it's called the Land of Milk and Honey. I don't pretend to know anything about geography and history. I never was very good at it. I figure I'll learn with my boys as we go. Well, my ever so clever husband told me about the incredible national water carrier system built in Israel. So I had to spend an evening reading up on that. And now I know why some of Israel looks like this:

{Photo removed.  Picture green fields.}

Beautiful!

The daily objectives for Expedition Israel are:
Day 1: Where on Earth Is Israel?
Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Israel
Day 3: A Bit of History
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Israel
Day 5: Fun and Games in IsraelYou'll learn a little Hebrew, see the animals and foods of Israel, and get in a bit of Bible and history. I hope to see Israel someday to walk the streets my Savior walked. Someday.

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in so you don't see any of the other stuff on youtube pages. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

You can purchase your copy of Expedition Israel for $7.95

To see what others think of Expedition Israel, check out the blog hop here.



Also, a brand new Download N Go for Easter is now available. Easter Promise.



I was provided with a copy to use in exchange for my honest review.

Kite Capers Week in Review

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly. ~ Lauren Bacall

This week's exciting Download N Go was new Kite Capers.

In Kite Capers, we headed over to the NASA website. We learned some of the science and math behind kites. That was mostly for older children than the littles, but very interesting.

Kite Capers' daily objectives were:
Day 1: What Is a Kite?
Day 2: The History of Kites
Day 3: Kite People and Places
Day 4: Science Secrets of Kites
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Kites

I love flying kites. Right now, with a ton of snow and our wind gusts of up to 80 MPH, we aren't quite ready for kite flying. It won't be long now though and I'm really looking forward to getting a kite up again soon. Even though we couldn't fly a kite, we did head out to a helicopter and pinwheel class to make something we could fly.



National Kite "month" is from March 26 to May 1, 2011. So get your kites ready for lots of springtime fun! I'm thinking about trying my hand at this centipede kite. Or maybe I will just trot out to the hardware store and get a new dowel rod for our big kite.

And just as an aside, doesn't Alexander Graham Bell look like Santa?

(Photo removed - you can look him up yourself.)

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

You can purchase your copy of Kite Capers for $7.95

To see what Kite Capers every once else got into, check out the blog hop here.

I was provided with a copy to use in exchange for my honest review.

Winner - Hoppin' Popcorn!

The winner is... Trisha! Trisha, if you are my friend, let me know! If not, I need your email. I tried to get it from your blogger profile and couldn't access it. Enjoy!

Hoppin' Popcorn {{{Giveaway}}} and Week in Review

"God Almighty first planted a garden.
And, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures."
Francis Bacon, Essays: Of Gardens
An ear of corn averages nearly 13,000 kernels. That comes out to a lot of popped corn! Hmmm... I should figure that out sometime.Download N Go's Hoppin' Popcorn has five daily objectives.
Popcorn - What is it?
The Story of Popcorn
The Flavors of Popcorn
The Science of Popcorn
Fun With Popcorn

And who doesn't want to have fun with popcorn? What a yummy treat!

You'll learn the mystery science that causes some kernels to not pop. I have actually chipped a tooth on an "old maid" (unpopped kernel). I imagine dentists love popcorn even though they tell us to avoid it.

This study brought back fond memories of stringing popcorn for Christmas. I think we only did it a few times, but it was fun. Now that the birds are coming back to VT, it might be time to treat them.

This study was fairly heavy on US geography, which I love. We learned about five of the 12 states in the corn belt, which is actually not very belt shaped. Each day we took note of the state's flag, bird, flower and more. It would be pretty easy to extend this study to learn about the other states in a similar fashion.

Corn mazes and movie nights, what would we do without corn? One night, I popped popcorn for the littles while they set up their seats and popped in a movie. We turned out the lights and pretended we were at the theater.

We learned about Cracker Jacks and I was transported back to Micah's proposal. Such romance!

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

You can purchase your copy of Hoppin' Popcorn for $7.95

Download N Go is allowing me to give away a copy here to one of my readers.

**First, the required entry,** go to Download N Go and look around. Come back and tell me which DNG title is your favorite.

After that entry, you can get one entry for the following:
1) Tweet about or share this giveaway link on Facebook or your own blog. Must link to this blog entry, not my main page or the blog hop page. (One entry)
2) Follow my blog. (One entry)
3) Tell me your favorite way to enjoy popcorn. (One entry)

So you can enter a total of four (4) times. Post a separate comment for each entry. Be sure to include your email address or that I have a way to contact you. Otherwise I will have to select a different winner and that would be unfortunate.

Winner will be selected late on Tuesday, March 8 using Random.org.
DNG affiliates including the DNG Review Team are not eligible.

Check out the Hoppin' Popcorn blog hop for more reviews and giveaways.



***I was provided a free copy of Hoppin' Popcorn in exchange for my honest review.***

Expedition Ireland Week in Review

“Ocean before,
the summer sky above
Who could portray
the mountains’ purple smiles—
And all the opal hues
of earth and heaven,
Foam fringing forests,
heather-tufted isles.”
From Songs of Killarney,
by Alfred Perceval Graves, 1914

Expedition Ireland's five daily objectives were:
Day 1: Where on Earth is Ireland?
Day 2: The Places of Ireland
Day 3: A Bit of History
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Ireland
Day 5: Fun and Games in Ireland


We learned about a different, interesting geographic location in Ireland each day, like the Giant's Causeway. We also studied animals from Ireland. I thought the Galway sheep were neat. We just loved the look of them. We learned some Irish words, as well. As I write this, I can also tell you it is currently much warmer in Dublin, Ireland than it is in Vermont! Mid-forties sound glorious right now, even if it is raining. We watched videos of Celtic Dancers and learned about St. Patrick. Maybe we even supplemented this week's DNG with a Veggie Tale version of the story of St. Patrick. :)

As usual, we really enjoyed this Download N Go. The expeditions are always a treat. Well planned and thorough, I highly recommend Download N Go.


Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

See what other families have to say about Download N Go's Expedition Ireland on the blog hop.








***I was provided a copy of Expedition Ireland to use with my family in exchange for my honest review.***

Through tomorrow, Monday the 21st, four unit studies will be priced at just $5 each. Choose from the Gardens and Flight four week studies (normally $10.95) or DNG's Expedition China and Goofy Geckos (normally $7.95). $5 days.

Magnificent Moon Week in Review

“The Earth was very small. (It was) the size of a marble. I thought if the Earth is that small, how small am I? Just a speck in the universe, but yet signifcant enough that God would love me and create me and love me enough to touch my life. . . .
I felt privileged like an angel to get God’s view of the Earth.” ~Astronaut James Irwin


Magnificent Moon's five daily objectives are:
Day 1: What Exactly Is a Moon?
Day 2: Getting to Know the Moon
Day 3: The Story of the Moon
Day 4: Science Secrets of the Moon
Day 5: Cool Things About the Moon


I choked up when we watched the NASA video of the Apollo 14 launch. We learned about a different astronaut each day. I took astronomy in college and I must have forgotten A LOT after class ended. Although, plenty of moons have been discovered in our solar system since I graduated, so I can't be held responsible for those facts. Right? Rightrightrightright. :)


This is a painting of James Irwin in prayer by astronaut Alan Bean called We Came In Peace For All Mankind. He uses actual moondust and bits of Apollo spacecraft in his art! On his website, Alan remembers a conversation between Dave Scott and Jim Irwin.
Dave: "Oh, look at the mountains today, Jim. When they're all sunlit isn't that beautiful?"
Jim: "Really is, Dave. I'm reminded on a favorite biblical passage from Psalms: 'I look unto the hills from whence cometh my help.' But of course, we get quite a bit from Houston, too."

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

We found a lot of the suggested reading at our library this time, which made Magnificent Moon that much more fun. I also decided to browse the DVDs at the library this time. We found Space Buddies, Leapfrog's Math Adventure to the Moon, and Goodnight Moon, which, by the way, is absolutely adorable. I hadn't really ever thought too much about adding movies to a DNG, but I was glad I did.

We also had the Build It! theme bag from the library and found some fun acrylic pieces that were perfect for making our rockets to the moon!


This was a really fun study and we all learned a lot. I highly recommend it!

The Cabin Fever Fun Pack includes Magnificent Moon as well as Winter Wonders, Expedition Canada, and Hoppin' Popcorn and is on sale through 1/31/11 for $20 (regularly $28). The link for this product is here.

See what fun other families are having with Magnificent Moon. The blog hop is here.






***I was provided a copy to use with my family in exchange for my honest review.***

Winter Wonders Week in Review

Well, it *is* Vermont. And winter *is* wonderful here, assuming you don't have to drive anywhere or be out of doors for an extended period of time, or *ahem* dig up the last of your carrots when it's 20* outside. :) The mountains nearby, the snow on the trees, the birds at the feeders all combine to create beauty all around us. We are so blessed to have such a nice place to bring up our littles.
This week, we've been exploring Download N Go's Winter Wonders unit study.

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22 (NIV)

Winter Wonders has a five day plan with a different learning objective each day.
Day 1: What is Winter?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Winter
Day 3: People and Places of Winter
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Winter

We have found so many rabbit trails to chase this week, that we are taking two weeks to complete this study. For instance, we found out THE Snowflake Bentley lived very near us. I'll be taking the littles to see his exhibit in Jericho, VT. After our attempts to capture, magnify, and photograph snowflakes, we really got an appreciation for the struggles Mr. Bentley endured during his work. If you go to the Snowflake Bentley exhibit page, you can play a Match the Snowflake game.



Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

Here are some of the great books we found at the library. Snowballs was super cute. I've really enjoyed all of the books we've looked at by Lois Ehlert. We also like the My First Little House book series.

You can purchase Winter Wonders here. It's on sale today for $4, regularly $7.95.

Need some more convincing to give Winter Wonders a try? The Winter Wonders blog hop is located here. You can just jump right to the next blog from here.


***I was provided a copy to use with my family in exchange for my honest review.***

Creation Camouflage Week in Review

...eighteen...nineteen...twenty. Ready or not here I come. Remember playing hide and seek? Let's face it, if you are the mom of some littles, you probably played it pretty recently. I always laugh at my boys. They hide in the same old places; under blankets, under the bed, under the table. Not terribly imaginative. This week, we spent some time learning about animals that use camouflage to hide in plain sight.

cam·ou·flage
Pronunciation: kam--fläzh, -fläj
Function: noun
1 : the hiding or disguising of something by covering it up or changing the way it looks
2 : the material (as paint or leaves and branches) used for camouflage

We really enjoyed the Creation Camouflage unit study from Download N Go. The littles are *huge* fans of I SPY type books. It really was challenging to find some of the animals in the pictures and videos we looked at each day.

Day 1: Hiding in Plain Sight
Day 2: Getting to Know the Rain Forest
Day 3: What Is in the Desert?
Day 4: Hiding in the Ocean
Day 5: Cool Things About the Tundra

These were a couple of my favorite pictures.

Boreal owl
{Photo removed.}

Owl butterfly
{Photo removed.}

We also chose this week to watch the Curious George episode when George loses a chameleon.

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse. Intended for grades K-4, my 3.5 year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

Creation Camouflage is normally priced at $7.95, but is on sale for $5.95 until December 18.

Still not convinced you *need* Creation Camouflage? Check out the blog hop here.

***I was provided a free copy of Creation Camouflage to use with my littles and write my honest review.***

Our Trip "Down Under" week in review

"A queer country, so old that you walk on and on, there's a feeling comes over you that you are gone back to Genesis" - Australian bushman

G'day mates! Join us on our Expedition Australia!

Daily Objectives

Day 1: Where on earth is Australia?

Day 2: Some of the special places in Australia

Day 3: A bit of Australian history

Day 4: Cool things to know about Australia

Day 5: Fun and games in Australia

We especially loved learning about marsupials. Xavier wanted to get into my pouch! I was also excited to be able to use some of the information I learned from this unit to prepare for my Friday School class. This week, we learned about kangaroos. I had eight littles hopping all over the classroom like kangaroos. I always love to hear the grandiose ideas they come up with. "I can hop like a kangaroo 18 times around this room!" Three times around and they are wiped out. :)

Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse. Intended for grades K-4, my 3.5 year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

Expedition Australia is on sale right now for $5.95! Grab it at the sale price by November 8.

Over at the Download N Go blog, you can enter to win one of TWO political maps of Ausatralia from National Geographic! To enter the contest, just click over to the blog and leave a comment. You have until 9 PM EST on November 8. Good luck!

Still not convinced you *need* Expedition Australia? Check out the blog hop here.

***I was provided a free copy of Expedition Australia to use with my littles and write my honest review.***

Terrific Tigers Winner!

Random.org chose a winner for me. It's comment number 5. Kirsten! Congrats Kirsten! I know you and your littles are going to have so much fun.

Tigers Week in Review and {GIVEAWAY}

Once on a tiger's back, it is hard to alight.

Actually, once you start this Download N Go unit study it will be hard to stop. I don't know what it was this time, but both boys kept insisting on calling them lions this week. I know. They are strange children. They get it from their father. :)

We created a fun lapbook using the components included in the unit study. My printer is out of yellow and until the lack of color overrides my cheapness frugality, I won't be changing the cartridge. But when I do, I will print a nice colorful cover for the front.Q. What do you get when you cross a tiger with a sheep?
A. A striped sweater!

Terrific Tigers Daily Objectives
Day 1: What is a tiger?
Day 2: Getting to know tigers
Day 3: Where are the tigers?
Day 4: The science of tigers
Day 5: Cool things about tigers

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 components for a smart little lapbook, 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.

You can purchase your copy of Terrific Tigers for $7.95.

Download N Go is allowing me to give away a copy here to one of my readers. There are several ways to enter.

First, the required entry, go to Download N Go and look around. Come back and tell me which DNG title is your favorite.

After that entry, you can get one entry for the following:
1) Tweet about or share this giveaway link on Facebook or your own blog. Must link to this blog entry, not my main page or the blog hop page. (One entry)
2) Follow my blog. (One entry)
3) Tell me the last time you saw a real tiger. (One entry)

So you can enter a total of four (4) times. Post a separate comment for each entry. Be sure to include your email address or that I have a way to contact you. Otherwise I will have to select a different winner and that would be unfortunate.

Winner will be selected on October 31 using Random.org.
TOS/DNG affiliates including the DNG Review Team and TOS Crew are not eligible.

Check out the blog hop of Terrific Tigers reviews and more giveaways.

***I was provided a free copy of Terrific Tigers in exchange for my honest review.***

Rocking Robots Week in Review

UGH! Do we have to watch the Mars rover videos again?

That was me after a full week of the boys asking for the rover videos every. single. time. I got out the laptop and announced school time. We have a couple of future astronauts in this house. Remember this post?Well last week we learned all about Rocking Robots from Download N Go. Since we were down to one car, I never made it to the library for my usual "browsing of the shelves" to look for great books to use alongside our unit study. Guess what? It didn't matter one lick that I had not one single robot book in this house. It went quite well without them. Except for the little matter of the Mars rover videos!

Rocking Robots has daily objectives, just like all of the other DNG.
Day 1: What Is a Robot?
Day 2: The History of Robots
Day 3: People and Places of Robots
Day 4: Science Secrets of Robots
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Robots

We laughed our heads off watching a fantastic robot soccer video. Someone did a splendid job on those guys! Xavier enjoyed it so much, he used the little paperboard robots we colored and his small acorn collection to reenact a wonderful soccer game of his own!I love that the youtube videos open up in a special DNG window, but even so, we got sucked into watching the next recommended video several times. I mean, who could resist watching squids attack an underwater robot? Not us, obviously! Actually, the same thing happened during our Roller Coasters study! Not the squid part, just the video part. :)

We even made a robot cake. Xav did a great job outfitting this robot with all the necessary gadgets! He loves to cook. Download N Go unit studies are created by The Old Schoolhouse and Amanda Bennett. Geared toward grades K-4, I have found they can be adjusted a bit for the older and younger child. Each study is intended to take one week to complete, but can take longer. Each DNG study covers topics such as spelling and vocabulary, history, geography, science, it's all in there! And best of all, the work is done for you. The only time you need to spend ahead of time is checking out library books and choosing which pages you'd like to print for the lap/notebooks. It does not get any easier than that. A real blessing for busy moms!

Check out the blog hop for Rocking Robots.

***I was provided a free copy of Rocking Robots in exchange for my honest review.***

Autumn Treasures Week in Review

This week, we spent some time exploring the outdoors and learning about the changes that occur in the Fall using Download N Go's Autumn Treasures. We are blessed to live in a part of the country where we fully experience the changing seasons. Real Autumn isn't here quite yet, but some trees are starting to change their clothes.The daily objectives for Autumn Treasures were:
Day 1: What Is Autumn?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Autumn
Day 3: People and Places of Autumn
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Autumn
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of AutumnWe had a nice nature walk and found the last of the summer colors around the yard before the leaves change. Notice the bee on the sunflower?We enjoyed tasty foods harvested locally, including a pumpkin and caramel apple pies. The apple pie is shown here, in progress.Our cut-out cookies really had to be shaped like pumpkins for this time of year. We frosted them with orange and gave them a thorough coating of leaf sprinkles.And just for the fun of it, we had some Butterfinger brownies. Sadly, most of our kitchen treasures went to the Harvest Festival in town for a Friday School fundraiser. Not so sad, really, we were happy to do it and kept some for our family to enjoy! :)

And since you will rarely see a picture of me on this blog. Here I am after baking all those treats. Micah loved my 'do rag. Now that my hair is too short for a quick pony tail, I had to do something to keep it out of the food. Am I right? Rightrightrightright.One thing the littles asked for, but I somehow haven't gotten to yet is popcorn. Maybe tonight.

We painted a fun fall picture on the computer too. Malachi took the photo himself.After discussing migration, we saw a flock of geese fly overhead and I tried a bit of review with the boys. At first, Xav said they were flying into the geese airport, but he pronounced it GEEKS! Later, after some clarification from mom and dad, he told Grandma Wendy the geese were going to the beach. I guess that's close enough for a three year old.

We also really enjoyed reading, among others, Leaf Man and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, both by Lois Ehlert.

Autumn Treasures is normally priced at $7.95. During the Autumn Equinox Special, it's 20% off through September 24!

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 components for a smart little lapbook, 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.

Check out this Download N Go blog hop for more Autumn Treasures reviews.

There's no giveaway this time, but I'd love it if you'd leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about autumn.

*** I received a copy of Autumn Treasures at no charge in exchange for my honest review. ***