Fermentools -- my REVIEW

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew 

A few years ago I was given the opportunity to try a fermenting kit by Fermentools and I enjoyed it, though I was trying it out while we were packing up a household for a big

move. Somehow in and after that, my fermenting tools got lost and I just kind of forgot about it. I was so excited to have the chance to review the Fermentools Starter Kit this summer--and we are now huge fans. 

I knew that you could make sauerkraut with fermenting and a few other things as well, like kimchi, but I didn't really know what any of those tasted like (other than sauerkraut). I wanted to make something exciting, so I looked around the Fermentools website  to see if inspiration struck.

I found something on their site called "Curtido: Central America's Kimchi Cousin" and frankly, I have no idea how I found it on the site, as I had a hard time finding it a second time! (Fermentools people--if you are reading this--please make some sort of index or listing of your recipes!!)

I had the ingredients that were called for in the recipe so I decided to give it a try! It is basically just cabbage, carrots, onions, and a few jalapenos shredded/sliced very thinly. There is lime juice (I didn't have lime juice so I used lemon) as well as salt and fresh oregano (from my little herb garden, yay!) and I decided to add a little rosemary as well (since I brushed up against it in the garden and the smell was so enticing!).

Basically all I had to do was mix these ingredients up and press them into a 1/2 gallon mason jar--and let the salt do its thing--it made enough liquid within a few hours to almost cover the veggies so I made a little more brine and poured it in. The glass weight that comes with the Fermentools Starter Kit fits right in there and holds all of the veggies under the brine. The lid to put on has a little hole in it for the stopper and the airlock--and then I put it in my cupboard (for darkness) and waited!

Here are some pics of the "during" process:

After about ten days I took it out and voila! It is an amazing, crunchy, little bit sour, spicy, and salty delightful ... curtido! I don't really know how to categorize it--it is definitely not like sauerkraut, more like a spicy coleslaw with a little zing. 

Anyhow, we love it. We have been eating it just straight for snacks yummmm and with dinner too.

We are new fermenting fans! Seriously, if the only thing I ever make is curtido--I'm good with it--but looking at the Fermentools website, there are tons of other recipes to try, so I'll probably branch out! :) 

The Fermentools Starter Kit is super easy to use, and we got amazing results. Check out some other folks' reviews by clicking on the link graphic below and hear what delicious adventures they had!

Virtual Physics Labs (CollegePrepScience.com) by Greg Landry -- my REVIEW

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Having homeschooled two kids all the way through high school, we have done our share of upper grade sciences--including lab work. Sometimes people ask me about lab sciences and if we have the opportunities to do lab work. In our family, many of the "labs" in the book are just read through by my kids--some are performed, but with me (a science teacher-type!) as a parent, they have already done many of the activities prior to the course! (just for fun, you know!) :) Others are done in a home setting, many with regular household items, others with lab equipment that we have.  The most recent review product we got to try out is Greg Landry's Homeschool Science  and the particular segment of that which we received was the 12-month access to Virtual, interactive homeschool laboratory for physics. My youngest is just finishing up physics, so this seemed like a good one for her to try. 

 

The lab course is set up in the Canvas environment, so everything is laid out right there, easy to see--easy to use. [[side note--it's great for kids who anticipate heading to college to get to use Canvas, as they most likely will use a learning management system similar to it (if not Canvas, itself!) when they attend college. Okay, enough for my rabbit trail!]]

Within the Canvas platform, the student begins by reading an introductory paragraph from the teacher, and they may also view a lengthy video by the instructor which welcomes them and walks them through the importance of labs, the scientific method, how to write a lab report, and more. He also gives a little "field trip" through the virtual lab environment so that students will know what they're doing once they click into a lab. [[another rabbit trail--I appreciate the fact that when he is explaining writing the lab report he does not make it seem like this is the only way to do lab reports--every instructor wants these done a little bit differently--but he shares how to gather and include the appropriate data and information,which can then be formatted according to any instructor's preferred lab report style.]]

After viewing the introductory information, the student is ready to begin! For Physics, there are eleven labs for the student to perform:

Measurement in Science

Average Velocity and Speed

Effect of Pendulum Length on Period

Archimedes Principle

Work, Power and Caloric Expenditure

Viscosity of Liquids

Density Determination

Acceleration of Objects in Freefall

Electricity and Ohm's Law

Momentum

Newton's Second Law of Motion

The student selects a lab and begins by watching an introductory video 

They then log into the virtual environment (so handily the username and password are on the Canvas page!) and the laboratory set-up is available and the lab instructions are on the left hand margin of the page. 

The virtual lab is filled with "drawers" from which students can choose their required materials, whether they be beakers and test tubes or timers and pendulums. The sink is easy to use to dispense the required amounts of water and there are balances which the student can use to take the mass when necessary. Students quickly become familiar with lab equipment as it is available to them in the drawers and labelled for ease of use. Students click on items and drag them to use. Some of the "items" are a secondary virtual simulation environment that the student clicks start and stop and the data is displayed.

Students follow the instructions on the sidebar and collect the data. When they are done, they are encouraged to put the materials away and then create their lab report. The lab instructions on the left hand sidebar direct students to perform the calculations and data manipulations necessary for the lab (these are also introduced in the background video for the lab). 

There is a sample lab report on the Canvas page and students can follow its pattern. Here's a sample of one which my daughter made after going through the Average Velocity and Speed lab: 

In summary, the  Virtual, interactive homeschool laboratory for physics were easy to use and showed the concepts that they claimed to. I am definitely a fan of virtual labs for homeschooled students, as they can "experience" a laboratory setting (though nothing can fully replicate the actual experience!) I have previously written about a neat virtual lab that I found elsewhere. So I do like virtual labs. I do think that this program is a great addition to the homeschool science program, if you do not mind the cost. Our family would not purchase access to these labs because of the cost. The virtual environment that is presented is very professional and easy to use, very nicely done.  You can read about other families' thoughts on these products by clicking the link graphic at the bottom of the page.

This company not only provides virtual labs, but they also offer a wide variety of different high school science courses. Several people from the Review Crew got to review these as well, so you will get to read about other products by the company also. Please click on the graphic link below to see reviews of the different products by Greg Landry's Homeschool Science. 

Knitting

 New project...working on some little knitted trees for Christmas craft fairs! Cute, huh? :)

Summer rains

Summer rainstorms can be so soothing and almost mesmerizing...when you have nothing you need to do outdoors and when you are cozy and dry...on the other hand, when you're camping or working outdoors it is hard to be as appreciative! :) 

Thankful for a relaxing rain today.

 

CTC Math--my REVIEW

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Math. Homeschool families have so many different ways of teaching math to their students! There are so many different curricula and so many different ways of teaching and learning. It can be overwhelming to try to figure out what works well for your student! Last year I was able to review a program called CTC math and this year I got to try it out again--checking out a different level of coursework. CTC Math is a 12-month subscription to a huge lot of math lessons for different ages of students. 

This math program is something that every member of the family can use, learning math topics from kindergarten up through calculus! It is easy to use for both the parent and the students and is quite comprehensive on math topics.

 From kindergarten to calculus!

 

The lessons are easy to use--they consist of a teaching video (not too long--all of the ones I viewed are less than ten minutes)--the videos themselves are easy to follow, clearly taught, the speaking is slow and precise, and the lessons are easy to understand.

Each lesson also has questions for the student to answer--some are in an easy fill-in-the-blank type format and they are marked as correct or incorrect right away. In the upper calculus course they are in a different format where the student opens the worksheet, solves the problems, enters their solutions and receives the score and the solutions. If they get some incorrect, they are given the opportunity to re-try.

I really appreciate the fact that the student is allowed to see the solution, because if they got it incorrect, this is a huge help--also if they guessed and got it right ( not my recommendation!!) they will be able to see the proper way to solve the problem.

In the precalculus class students view the video then complete the questions and then there is the additional option to complete a worksheet--which is downloadable as a .pdf--this is great for students who like to work from a paper worksheet.

There is a really neat feature which allows this to be used with a device without a keyboard--check out the picture below to see how the keyboard pops up when the keyboard icon is clicked. This is a nice feature to be included!

From the parent side of things, the program is so easy to use as well. The parent can set lessons for the student which need to be completed or the student can work straight through the course. The parent can view the student's progress very easily--and they can also view how much work their student has done...and when they did it. Actually, a progress report is emailed to the parent weekly! This most recent email I received about my own work on the course shows nothing...we were on vacation :) But it will give you an idea of how the email reports work:

This is emailed weekly to the parent email.

Parents can also easily access their student's reports from their parent dashboard.

I definitely like this CTC Math program--it is so versatile and can be used by students of every age. It is a traditionally-taught math, which is the way I do math and the way I teach math. There are calculations as well as word problems--and the range of topics is extensive and complete. I do recommend this program and hope you will check it out! I'm actually recommending it to my college kiddo to keep his calculus skills strong over the summer--quick and easy to use!

To see more reviews of this thorough math program by CTC Math, please click on the link below and read other families' thoughts on this curriculum!

Baggin' the Dragon by EdAlive -- my REVIEW

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Do your children like to play learning computer games? Some kids (and adults) get so involved in games that they happily run through review or learning activities without realizing how much learning or review they are doing. The game that I was able to review this past few weeks is called Baggin' the Dragon Maths Online and it is a math game produced by EdAlive.

Okay, first of all--let me address the terminology "maths." How have I made it this far in my life without realizing that people in the US call mathematics "math" and those elsewhere (England, Australia, etc) use the term "maths"! I guess it makes sense, as mathematics is a plural word...thus maths, I suppose! At any rate, that is just peripheral :) Read on to hear about this fun math/maths program!

The age recommendations for math game are from ages 5-15+. The range of math topic is enormous, including topics such as numeration, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, chance, patterns and algebra, data, measurement, and space and geometry. I also noticed questions which I would classify as reasoning, logic, direction, and more. They are primarily word problems, which, frankly I think are fun (I'm weird that way) but I know that many students are afraid of that type of problem, or if not "afraid" maybe they are not as confident in them.

The game itself is played like a roll-the-dice and move your marker, with the twist of not just moving directly around the game board but also aiming to capture swords, which are "courage"--as the entire premise of the game is to defeat the dragon (Baggin' the Dragon).

Other points are earned by answering math problems correctly, these are tabulated as "strength". At the end of the game (you can watch your progress as they tell you how many rounds are left) your courage and strength are added up and you will go fight the dragon.

I went ahead and played an entire game through to the ending because if I had young kids I would probably be concerned about what they were to do to the dragon at the end of the game. As the board game portion ends, the scores are added up and the "fight" begins--it is just an animated movie type thing--with plenty of fireballs and fiery dragon breath until the soldier with the sword (presumably the player) throws a weapon with a spiky ball on two ends and a chain in the middle that wraps around the dragon's wings and it plummets to the ground, sinking head-first into a brick floor...the soldier puts leg irons on the dragon and in the ending scenes the soldier relaxes in a hammock, holding a piece of bread on the end of a sword while the dragon lays nearby, toasting the bread with its breath. ANYHOW--maybe that was long and unnecesary to some of you guys, but I would probably want to know that before I had my little child work through to the end :) 

There is also a non-game method to use it, where the student can just do the questions without working through the gameboard and waiting your turn. The questions are the same, you just run through them. 

Questions are very engaging, each with an illustration and little story. The variety is incredible. The questions are chosen from a pool based upon your correct performance on other questions. This way someone in algebra 2 is not being quizzed on simple addition or subtraction. I don't know how they do it, but it is great! 

 

I'd like to show you a few shots of the questions so you can see what I mean. Even when it is just a simple word problem, how much more fun is it to do it with a theme/story?

Upon successful completion of the question, a big "correct" word shows up; if it is incorrect the student gets one more attempt before the correct answer is given.

From the parent side, it is great, because at the end of the game, a list of questions is shown (clickable) and the missed questions can be attempted or explained again:

The other tool the parent might be interested in is a grand compilation of the student's work--showing on a chart which skills were attempted and successful (and which need more work--based on the color)

Basically--I love this game! It is so fun (for a math lover like me haha!). I really think it would be a super fun way to review math problems--and it shuffles topics so much that it is really a review of all skills. I highly recommend this app, Baggin' the Dragon Maths Online  by EdAlive. I think it will encourage students to work on math and if my kids were younger I would probably use it as a "reward" such that if you do xyz you will get to play X number of  minutes on Baggin' the Dragon! It's a win-win.

Highly recommended.

(my 16 year old daughter tried it out and liked it as well!)

EdAlive has a few other programs which were reviewed by the Review Crew as well, so if you'd like to see folks' thoughts on the program I reviewed as well as on the Volcanic Panic Reading Success Online and Words Rock Online, please click on the image link below!

Chemistry virtual titration lab

 I just found this AMAZING virtual titration lab, if any of you are doing chemistry with your students--it's found here https://virtual.edu.rsc.org/

It teaches good lab practices, the student "uses" the equipment, it's just a great simulation. They even do the calculations. 

Great resource!! :)