The Curiosity Files–Puffer Fish Product Review

The Curiosity Files™ : Puffer Fish

Explorations with Professor Ana Lyze—Expert in Outlandish Oddities
A FUN unit study for kids ages 8–13

I know it is school holiday time but the kids wanted something to do and I was given this product to review so this week was a good time to use it.

I have never used any of the Curiosity Files before.  They are published by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  Each File is $6.95 for a downloadable Ebook in PDF format or you can get a downloadable bundle of all 9 books for $46.00 (or $49 if you would prefer them on CD).   In the series are Cicada-Killing Wasp, Blue Diamond, Blue-Footed Booby, Dung Beetle, MRSA, Platypus, Red Tide, Zombie Fire Ants, Quicksand and Puffer Fish.  All unique and interesting subjects.

The series are written from the point of view of a child asking questions of Professor Ana Lyze (the name appealed to Zebra (10) as she is just starting to understand plays on words).  The information presented about the puffer fish was interesting and even though we had done a short study before on the fish we learnt some new things.  My children love the Magic School bus and this reminded me a little of them  – (zany and strange things of nature)  The difference is that this series are God focused.  The kids (and I) really enjoyed reading about the fish and not having to wade through the normal evolution biased information which seems to be in nearly every book you pick up. 

The information about the fish was interesting, clearly written and simple to understand.  This is the first bit of the Ebook which was a huge 85 pages.  You could print this up if you wanted to or do as we did and just read it off the computer.

The next bit of the Ebook is a review which we did verbally (you could do it as a written test).  I was impressed that the girls could answer all of the questions except one.  Then the fun starts or it would have if my printer had not died. I was disappointed that at this present time I was unable to print out any of the worksheets and lapbook components.  I think there is enough work here for 1-2 weeks of work.  Every subject is covered –

• Bible study and memory verses
• Math, history, and geography investigations
• Literature and suggested book list
• Writing, spelling, and vocabulary activities
• Beautiful copywork pages (manuscript and cursive)
• Science observations, projects, and experiments
• Discussion questions
• Art, crafts, drawing, and coloring pages
• Lapbook and notebook pages
• Internet resources and video links
• Complete answer key at the back making it very easy for Mum to check work.

It would also be perfect to use for a science fair project topic. 

I liked that it was perfect to use with the workbox system as you could just print the bits you wanted and add to the kids boxes.

The age range was 8-13 and I think this was fairly accurate. My children are 5,7,9 and 10.  There were bits that could be used with younger children and my 5 year old was happy to listen to most of the information.  There was a lot that was above my kids work wise so this unit would be perfect for a family that likes to do unit studies together.  Just print and give the appropriate bits to each child.

Having tried this one  I would  buy more in the series as I feel that they are really worth the small cost ($6.95) as all the kids can use them, it was a simple and easy way to do a whole family unit study with no preparation on the part of Mum other than printing out the relevant work sheets.  All the information needed was included along with a list of links for more learning if you wanted to learn more. 

I was very impressed to see a section for kids with special needs giving ideas for extending their learning, with hands on ideas.  Having a son with special needs and a nephew with autism it is nice to know that they can be easily included in the unit study as part of the family with out Mum having to alter things specially for them.

 

Did you know that to become a qualified chef in Japan you have to do 2-3 years of study, and if you make it to the end of the exam have to eat your fish?  About 100 people die each year from eating Puffer fish?  Just some of the interesting facts included in the book.

If you would like to try a sample of this ebook click here.  If you would like to purchase this ebook or others in the series click here  or go to The Old Schoolhouse store website and search under Curiosity Files.

 

**Please note  I was not paid to write this review. 

I was given a free copy of the product for the purposes of review. ***

Science Week 1

We have completed week 1 of Sonlight Science 1 and the girls love it, and so does Mum.  It is sooooo easy.  We read the book and then we do the activity sheet.  We watch the DVD and then we do the experiment how simple is that!

 

This week the Discover and Do lesson was on Magnets so we did a workbox activity with it.  So simple – a box of different things and a magnet.  I made up an activity sheet to go into our Science Notebook.  They choose 5 items and stuck the picture of the item onto their sheet and then made a guess as to whether the magnet would stick or not and then tested their guess and crossed out the sad face if they got it right or the happy face if their guess was wrong.  So simple and easy to do.

You can download the Activity Sheet here at Homeschool Launch

 

Monkey did spend a while exploring with the magnets after doing her sheet.  The other girls were happy to do the experiment and move on.  This would also make a great waiting station activity.

 

The set up of the box was specific for a reason – the focus of the box was learning about magnets so I had pre-cut all the answers and the child just had to find the right one and stick it on.  I used little glass containers (from Ikea) to hold the answer pieces.  I have found that the less complicated and simple looking the set up the more the kids are attracted to go and do the activity.  I love the way Montessori sets up the environment as I feel kids are attracted to the simplicity and organization of an environment.

Human Body Box

I am making a Human Body box to sit on our shelf with all our books and resources in for learning about the body. I have found that the girls love hands on things and having all the resources together about a topic means they will explore them in their free time. I will upload photos when I have finished the whole school room re-arrange.

I have been looking for cards for the body for ages and today found the nicest 3 part cards for the body - they came from United Teaching
Here is the download link at 4Shared

I love that they are photos and will be so nice for introducing the names of body parts to Monkey. She knows most of them but this will help her learn the rest and I think the older girls will enjoy using them as 3 part cards and reading the words.

Volcano LapN'notes

Most of these mini books are from Homeschool Share
Volcano LapN'note
These photos are from Zebra's (9) LapN'note. Duckie did one too but hers is very similar so only showing one.

Volcano's

This study was a rabbit trail from our Japan Study that went along with "A pair of Red Clogs".

Did you know that Japan has over 100 volcano's?? So of course you have to study volcano's.

We (of course) made a volcano. We did this as a homeschool group activity. One lovely mum made a play dough volcano at home that we exploded and then the kids made a paper mache one that we exploded on our Japan day. I must admit that the explosions were a bit disappointing. It looks good but if you were expecting a big explosion that did not happen with ours (we used bicarb soda, dish washing liquid, red food colouring and vinegar)

After reading This blog . I want to try again but the opposite way to what we did - we added the vinegar last maybe adding it first and adding the bicarb last without the dish washing liquid might make it better - will have to try it.

Making our volcano

StormTheCastle.com has fantastic tutorials giving a few different versions of volcano's to make, and it contains pictures for those of us who really need a visual guide :)

Our Playdough volcano exploding (it did look good, even it it didn't blow huge)

Lapbooks, mini books and LapN'notes

Mini book at crayola

Volcano Lapbook at Homeschool Share

More fun hands on things to make:

3D paper model of Mt. Fuji

Extra books we read and resources used

The magic school bus blows its top DVD

We have a number of National Geographic and Discovery Channel DVD's and we watched all that had involved volcano's.

The magic school bus chapter book #15 Voyage to the Volcano

The hill of fire (Sonlight Reader 2)

Pompeii: buried alive (Sonlight Reader 2)

We used this volcano web quest, which was lots of fun and saved me from hunting all over the web for the information.

Our Volcano LapN'notes are here.

Magic School Bus Lapbooks

We love the magic school bus DVD's and books and now with Zebra reading chapter books I bought her the set of magic school bus chapter books. I also found this website which has a lapbook for each magic school bus book.

Earth Activities

3 part cards for layers of the earth here
Ideas for teaching about the layers of the earth . This would make a fantastic centre activity

Science Centres

These two links were shared by another Mum on a yahoo group.

Science Centres here and here. These ideas would be perfect for a science centre or workbox activity.

The Homeschool Den has lots of science experiments here I wish I was at their house :) science is not my thing!