Welcome Amelia to the Critique of the Unique! Join Amelia in the kitchen for great down-home cooking ranging from appetizers, to tasty main dishes all the way through to awesomely delicious desserts!!
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Showing posts with label educational toy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label educational toy. Show all posts
Price: Approximately $13.00 (varies with retail outlet)
Need something to keep the kids busy on a rainy day? I've got just the thing!! My two kids had a blast with the Glee Gum "Make Your Own Gummies Kit", where they chose to make cute little gummy bears!!
Glee Gum has been in business since 1992 when the founders of Verve visited a chicle-producing community in Northern Guatemala. It is here that they learned how chewing gum was made and decided at that point to help the economically depressed community by purchasing their main product- chicle (Chicle is the sap from the Sapodilla (pronounced "Sap-oh-dee-yah") tree, which grows in the rainforests of Central America. Chicle was the original basis for all chewing gum, until synthetic gum bases were developed...excerpt from website). Since then, Verve has been producing Glee Gum and the "Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit" so that others can have an educational and environmental experience while having fun making their own Glee Gum. Not only is it fun, but it also provides a sustainable income to those in Northern Guatemala!
The product line soon expanded to include other kits, such as the "Make Your Own Chocolate Kit" and the "Make Your Own Gummies Kit". When our gummy kit arrived in the mail, the kids were super excited! They could not wait to try it out!! We quickly learned that there was a little bit of process involved in making the gum, and we soon embarked on a chemistry experiment of sorts! It's all relatively simple. The ingredients come individually packed and labeled, so no messing up. Simply follow the included directions and in no time at all, you've become a master chemist...well, in a round about sort of way!
Inside the kit is a "secret ingredient".....seaweed! The seaweed stalk contains special ingredients that make the gummies stick together (agar and carrageenan)! After a brief soaking of the seaweed stalk and a little mixing and heating in the microwave, the concoction is ready to pour into the molds! My kids found little erasers to use for their mold. The kit contains a mold base powder that you simply spread out on a plate or large pan. We found that it was a little difficult for my kids to indent the powder with the mold without messing up the one they previously made, so we put the powder into a larger pan and added a bit of cornstarch to the powder to accommodate the depth of the pan. This made it a little easier for them to make their molds! Once the mold is ready, simply drop the mixture onto the indentions and the gel fills the molded areas. Then, place in the fridge to let settle! The kit also contains sour candy coating. All I can say is ....woah! This stuff is S.O.U.R. We put it in a plastic bag and the kids shook them until their little gummy bears were coated!!
Click to enlarge
The last step is best!! Eating time! These gummies had such great flavor! My kids loved them and it was hard for mom to sneak a few for herself!!!
I highly recommend these to anyone that has kids and wants an educational experience that is fun to boot! Word of caution--do not leave the gummies in the bag with the sour candy coating and then put in a hot backpack. They do tend to melt!! Store your finished gummies in a cool place!!
Product:TimeBuddy Category: Children Age Range: 3-7 years old Price: $34.99 Ship Time: 3-5 business days
In today's world of hectic schedules and appointments, we are always in a hustle, as are our children!! We whisk them off to school, then to practices and church and whatever else is on the appointment book that day that we often forget that they too need a way to manage their time.
TimeBuddy is a unique approach toward helping children aged 3-7 to understand the concept of time, without first having to learn how to tell time. The clock arrives disassembled, and with adult supervision and assistance, your child will choose how to decorate the entire clock with the provided stickers. They will choose which color to use for the outer rim, and then they can add a cute smiley face if they desire and then beginning choosing from 150 different removable stickers that help identify the activity they need to do at a certain time. Then, three different alarms can be set to alert the child when certain activities need to be done! This alarm can be personalized with the child's name and a cute prerecorded message from TimeBuddy (which really makes this "buddy" come to life). This one of a kind product offers children a tool toward learning time management skills and helps them become familiar with daily routines.
Dr. Toy Winner: 10 Best High Tech Products for 2010
-and TimeBuddy has partnered with leading child psychologist, Penny Bernath, to help educate parents in the best methods to utilize TimeBuddy and teach time management skills to your child. This valuable information will be available by following TimeBuddy on Twitter or Facebook, and it is here that you can "Ask the Expert" and have your questions answered.
TimeBuddy features include the following:
• 150+ activity and decorative stickers • 16-page activity book with 4 non-toxic washable coloring markers • 24-hour quartz movement • LCD digital clock • 3 alarm settings and date/ time (12- and 24-hour modes) • LED dial lights (night light mode) • Language choice (English, Spanish, and French) • Up to 15 seconds message record/play • Up to 5 second name record/play • Removable base • Wall mount feature / Carry handle • Lens release button • ABS impact-resistant plastic construction
Watch the following video to learn more about the concept of TimeBuddy!
Our Experience: I chose to use TimeBuddy with my son, even though he already knows how to tell time and is beyond the recommended age range. He is eight years old, however he has sensory processing disorder and can become very agitated if things in his life are not on a strict schedule. He has to have his day planned to some degree...not minute by minute, but in enough of a schedule where he feels his day is "complete". He must have tv time, free time, and reading time. If any of those things is not in day, it is a melt down at bedtime. The solution to this had always been to remind him of the time constantly. Such as: "It's 8:00, if you are going to watch TV, you have 30 minutes to do so" or "It's 4:00 and we leave for church in one hour. Please read now or you will not get time". These prompts worked, but at eight years old, I wanted him to become more responsible for his own time management. Although he knows how to tell time, he doesn't remember to look at the clock and then fails to allow himself enough time to do things and before he realizes it, it's bed time. With the TimeBuddy, we marked when he needs to watch tv, when he would leave for church, when he would leave for school, and when he needed to start getting ready for bed, plus a lot more. We set the alarms for when he wakes up in the morning and when he needs to start getting ready for bed.
Actual product received: Click to enlarge
Actual product received: Click to enlarge.
Day One: The alarm sounded to wake him up for school. He arose on his own, was dressed and out of his bedroom within five minutes and eating breakfast...all before his sister even woke up! This allowed him 30 minutes of cartoons before the bus arrived. The first night, the TimeBuddy alarm went off to alert him to start getting ready for bed. He hadn't watched TV yet and was upset that he had missed his TV time. I showed him again on the clock when he needed to start watching tv. He went to bed that night a little upset, but understood why he didn't have time to watch tv.
Day Two: Today he took the time to look at the clock and alerted me to when we should be starting supper. "Mom, TimeBuddy says I should be eating supper", so off I went to the kitchen. That evening, he came to me and said "I just put up all my toys because TimeBuddy says it's time to watch TV". A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
TimeBuddy saved us on several occasions over the next couple months. There have been three times when my alarm clock failed to go off to get the kids up for school and my son has awoken me because his alarm had told him to get up!!! He came to me the first time and said "mom, TimeBuddy says it's time to get up...are we late?" Indeed, we almost were, but I managed to get them out the door in plenty of time because of my son and TimeBuddy! Another time, he came and told me that TimeBuddy says it's time for church, and even though there is no alarm set to alert him of this, it showed me that he indeed did look at the clock to tell him how to manage his time. This concept was WORKING!!!
Is this one of those products that the novelty wears off and the child is no longer interested??? The answer to that is "NO", plain and simple. I received my TimeBuddy at the end of September and my son has learned how to use his time more productively during the time frame of a few months. Yes, we have had setbacks. We have days where he melts down over his time management choices. We have nights where he still complains at bedtime, but we have more good nights then bad nights and this is a huge improvement!!
I recommend this for preschools and young children and also for any child that needs a little motivation toward improving their time management skills. It is so much easier to explain to a child that they have made the decision to not use their time wisely when they have a visual tool that assists them with their time management. It puts some of the responsibility on them and teaches them to make good decisions. I have seen my son not play his playstation because he would not have time to read if he chose to play the game, and it's the little things like this that make me love this product so much!!! I give it my seal of approval!!!
FTC guidelines require that I received a TimeBuddy at no cost to me to facilitate this review. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions herein are my own honest opinions. Other opinions may vary. Please see the Legal page for a full disclosure, disclaimer and full giveaway rules and regulations!
If you would like to advertise on Critique of the Unique, have a product you would like to have reviewed, wish to be a contributor or guest author, or need to contact me for any other reason, feel free to send me an email.
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