Satori Smiles » Other Products

Smart Lab You Explore It Human Body

Angela — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:42:02 +0000

The Smart Lab You Explore It Human Body has been a cool homeschool investment. It comes with a body model that you can explore with the included plastic tweezers and forceps. Lots of fun squishy organs, skeleton and muscle examples, and a clear “skin”. There are already very thorough Amazon reviews, so I won’t go in that much detail, just wanted to share a few photos.

You then place the organs and parts on the Organizer sheet.

As you’re doing all this, you’re following a pizza slice going through the human body and hitting all the major systems. Step by step they guide you where the pizza is and which systems are processing it.

It was really a great educational toy!

And then it helps you reassemble your body. Here he is with his organs back in the body.

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iPad

Angela — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 05:07:43 +0000

David and I are sharing this new toy. So far our favorite apps are: Scrabble, Rush Hour, Plants vs. Zombies, iBird Pro and Kindle. Once I get more used to the iPad, I’ll list all of our favorite educational apps!

Unfortunately, we did give up our iPhones. (I think we’ll be lazy and sell them on a service that makes it super easy to send it in for cash.) We’re not phone users and I never really used mine as a phone, only for email, so I’m not going to miss it too much.

The entire family played Plants vs. Zombies tonight! We kicked zombie butt.

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Pencil Grip

Angela — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:02:39 +0000

We’ve taken a step back in our handwriting progress, but it should help out in the long run. This year I’ve noticed that Satori doesn’t have extremely neat handwriting, especially at a point where I thought she’d be improving. This became apparent to me after having local girls her age over, who demonstrated very neat and in control handwriting. Then I saw in one of the photos I took that Satori’s grip was all wonky.

I then discovered that I myself had an incorrect grip! Actually I have two different grips, both not good. I’m not too worried about myself, as I mostly use the keyboard now and the little handwriting I do is still neat and legible. But this is an opportunity to correct Satori’s grip. She is really working hard at it now. We used all of Handwriting Without Tears tips on using a correct grip. It got a little frustrating trying to get everything right. Poor girl might get turned off of writing at this stage if I push too hard though.

A few months ago I believed that pencil grips were unnecessary, but we need some kind of help! So I found these colorful pencil grips and got a bag of 6 – The Pencil Grip Crossover Grip Ergonomic Writing Aid. They have little flaps so your thumb and index finger stay in the right place. There’s a comfy spot for your middle finger to rest, and together, it all promotes a proper tripod grip. It is ergonomically correct for both right- or left-handed people.

Both Satori and I are using them. For me, my fingers just fall right into perfect place. My thumb won’t cross over anymore. For Satori, all I have to remind her is to keep her middle finger tucked under, as she used to keep it up on top. We’ve been using them for just over a week now, and they are fun and feel good! Time will tell if Satori can get this new grip ingrained in her head and use a correct tripod grip from now on.

We’re also working on tilting our paper up on the right side while writing. Here she is doing some copywork for Writing With Ease, a program we are growing to love.

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World Map Shower Curtain – Write-On/Wipe-Off map

Angela — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:18:58 +0000

Last week we put up a World Map Shower Curtain in the bathroom attached to our Learning Loft. I only regret that we hadn’t done this sooner! You can find this shower curtain at Target for just $14.99 or online on Amazon (ships from Target). Here’s our view while sitting on the toilet, it is such a great tool to catch up on some geography when you’re sitting captive.

It’s very easy to read and it doubles as a huge write-on/wipe-off map of the world! We can use our dry erase markers to highlight sections of the world we are studying, and they wipe off super easily. Here’s a closeup of Egypt and the Fertile Crescent area we are reading about this spring.

People looking for an inexpensive map might like to mount this on a few large poster board pieces and have the perfect dry erase map.

Right now we’ll be using it as a shower curtain.

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Classic Science Archaeology Pyramid Kit

Angela — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:32:23 +0000

If you are studying Ancient Egypt, I highly recommend the National Geographic Classic Science Archaeology: Pyramid kit by Thames and Kosmos. It ties all of Satori’s interests together: archaeology, hieroglyphs, mummies, and of course pyramids.

It comes well-protected in a perfectly designed box and you’ll find your pyramid and treasures within, archaeologist tools (hammer, chisel, brush, peg), protective goggles, full-color manual, and a 3D paper cross section model. Satori fondly remembers her “paleontologist days” when studying prehistory, so she was so excited to begin excavating!

*READ THE DIRECTIONS* first, or you might miss out on some of the clever surprises! (You may not wish to read further if you want your own kit to be a surprise.)

Click on the image above to get the full detail and you’ll notice hieroglyphs on a certain level of each side of the pyramid. Satori quickly wrote down a translation, she needed no manual, she already had them memorized! These hieroglyphs of course had a few vowels and other letters that used the same translation, so once Satori wrote down the letters, Mama still had to help translate. But overall, this was a very cool puzzle. Satori was so happy that she basically solved it herself. Each side gave a message to tell you if this side was the entrance. Our first side said “TRY AGAIN”.

(There are more pictures, but I don’t want to spoil this kit for the people who want it to be a surprise!) Click “continue reading…” link below.

Once we figured out the way in, Satori started carefully chiseling away.We found the secret latch and with a bit more wedge taps around the edges, the top lifted off!

Inside was packed in sand that got inside the pyramid, so more excavating was needed!

We then found its contents, a mummy and 4 canopic jars!

The mummy came in a gold sarcophagus, a gold death mask, and its wrappings were incredibly realistic!

We loved this kit! The top of the pyramid goes back on easily (if you chiseled it off carefully) and it now sits as a centerpiece on our kitchen counter.

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