Smashing Saxons Unit Study

Robotis PLAY 600 Pets Review

Are you looking to introduce your child to the world of robotics? Check out my Robotis PLAY 600 Pets Review and join the fun today!

What is Robotis PLAY 600 Pets?

Robotis PLAY 600 Pets is an introductory robotics kit for children ages 6 and up. This kit includes:

• 1 geared motor 
• 50+ parts
• Assembly manual
• Downloadable interactive 3D assembly instructions from ROBOPLUS Design app

With this kit your child can build a puppy, bluebird, cricket, whale, goldfish, polar bear, and a tank. 

How did we use the Robotis PLAY 600 Pets?

Jack started off by building the first animal in the assembly manual- the bluebird! Similar to a LEGO kit, the assembly manual consists of easy to follow picture instructions. The first page of instructions includes a picture of the animal and a list of everything you will need to complete the build.

After gathering the materials it was time to start building!

In about 15 minutes Jack built this cute little bluebird.

Next up he tackled the whale! The assembly manual only includes instructions for the bluebird, puppy, and cricket. So we had to download the R+ Design app to find the correct instructions. After downloading the app you simply click the build you want to work on and follow the included instructions.

NOTE: Directions for the whale, goldfish, polar bear, and tank are available free online on RoboPlus Design (R+ Design).
R+ Design can be found on iTunes here.
R+ Design can be found on Google Play here.

Homework and Horseplay’s final thoughts…

I think this is a great introductory robotics kit. I really enjoy the fact that this kit uses picture instructions, so that young children or special needs children like my son who struggle with reading can still build the robots without difficulty. Jack was able to completely build two animals on his own, and plans to build the other 5 robots soon. Right now he is too busy playing with his “cute whale”.

My only complaint about the Robotis PLAY 600 Pets kit is that the assembly manual did not include the instructions for all of the builds. Although there is a free app with instructions available, I did not like having to use a device for Jack to continue building. The instructions on the app were a little harder to follow because you couldn’t just look on the next page quickly to make sure you had the right placement for the pieces. You are able to click the next arrow and go back on the app, but it was more time consuming this way.

Robotis PLAY 600 Pets is part of Timberdoodle’s 1st Grade Curriculum Kit, but I believe children much older will definitely still enjoy it (Jack is 11). Since these robots are simple to build I believe a child just starting out would feel confident building a robot and want to learn more. In fact, Jack is already asking for me to purchase another kit for him. I call that a win!

Thank you for checking out my Robotis PLAY 600 Pets Review…

Are you ready to purchase your own? Robotis PLAY 600 Pets can be purchased separately or as part of Timberdoodle’s 1st Grade Curriculum Kit.

As always, I just want you to know…

 

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Cut-Throat Celts Unit Study

Check out my Cut-Throat Celts Unit Study to find out just how cut-throat the Celts really were… Or were they?

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Cut-Throat Celts {Horrible Histories} by Terry Deary

In Cut-Throat Celts Terry Deary explains how much of what is “known” about the Celts was written by the enemies of the Celts, particularly the Romans and is therefore possibly unreliable except when backed by other evidence. 

Suggested Schedule

We try to have a light workload on Fridays, so we read the entire book in just four days. This is the reading schedule we followed:

• 1st Day- Read pages 5-37
• 2nd Day- Read pages 38-70
• 3rd Day- Read pages 71-102
• 4th Day- Read pages 103-128
• 5th Day- Complete quiz on pages 129-134

If you are reading this book with younger students you may want to split the reading up over two weeks rather than one. My children are 11 and 13, and have no trouble sitting through our daily reading. 

Extras…

This year I am using the whole Horrible Histories set with Julia and Jack as our core history curriculum. As I am sure you have already figured out these books are not a curriculum on their own, so I will be adding extra materials to our schedule to take our learning a step further. Want to join in on the fun? Here is everything I added in this week:

Books

In addition to Cut-Throat Celts, we also read: 

• Celtic Tales  by Kate Forrester
• Celtic Mythology by Philip Freeman

 

Videos

This week we went back to the other version of Horrible Histories on Amazon Video, and skipped to Season 3 Episode 12 (If you want to skip to just the Celtic portion of this episode it starts at 10:10). In this episode you get to witness a Celtic warrior boast battle!

We also watched Empire Games Season 1 Episode 5 on Netflix. 

Special note: This episode does show the naked backside of a man. It also discusses how Queen Boudica’s daughters were raped by Roman soldiers. 

Project

This week to change things up a bit I printed out Celtic Coloring Pages like the one below for Jack and Julia.

This is not something that they would like to do all of the time, but with everyone feeling a little under the weather lately it was nice for them to have a relaxing activity to do while listening to some fantastic Celtic tales. 

Thank you for checking out my Cut-Throat Celts Unit Study…

We have also completed the following Horrible Histories Unit Studies:

Savage Stone Age

Awesome Egyptians

Groovy Greeks

Rotten Romans

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Word of the Year | 2019

With a new year upon us I have been thinking a lot about what I want in my life and what goals to work towards. The last few years have been very complicated, and this year I just need a little simplicity in my life. Creating a whole list of “resolutions” is out of the question (because let’s face it a mile long list of resolutions is anything by simple)... Instead I want to focus on just one word!  One word that can cover multiple areas of my life and bring me back to living simply. So what is my Word of the Year | 2019?

My Word of the Year | 2019 is BALANCED…

Why balanced? In analyzing why my life has been through so many ups and downs the last few years I have come to realize that I am an “all or nothing” kind of girl… When I join something new I give it my ALL, and sometimes that means I end up doing way more than I should. Which leads to burn out or sometimes someone taking advantage of me! 

To get back to a simple life in 2019- 

I will live a balanced lifestyle.

Living a healthy life is not about extreme dieting… So I will give myself grace when I have a “bad day”, and make poor food choices or skip a workout. Being extreme with my food and workout regiments may work in the short term, but losing weight is not a short term thing. I want to lose my excess weight and keep it off. To do this I need to be balanced with my food and workouts and allow myself little treats and breaks. Otherwise I will just  fall off the bandwagon again.

I will make balanced decisions for our homeschool.

In 2018 I made a number of commitments to review products and be a guest writer for another blog. As much as I loved the opportunities these writing jobs brought into my life it also changed our homeschool. We had to put certain things aside so we could properly review products, and not all of those products were a great fit for us. To help balance things out I will only be reviewing items for Timberdoodle in 2019. 

I will be balanced in all the roles I play.

As a stay-at-home homeschool mom and wife, my life tends to revolve mostly around being a mom, a teacher, and you guessed it- a wife… This year I would like to take time to just be ME! For the past 15 years I have not allowed myself a lot of “me time”. Recently I started going to coffee with a good friend a few times a month, and it has been amazing. I love our coffee chats where I get to just be me. Having a little break here and there will definitely make it easier for me to focus on all my roles and relationships in life too!

What is your Word of the Year | 2019?

No matter what you decide to focus on, I hope you find only happiness in 2019. Happy New Year!

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