News, Reviews, and Recommendations!

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My educational pick of the week (coinciding with Homeschool Wednesday!) is a little book which we’ve used in our homeschooling program for years.

My Special Word Collection is great for kids who aren’t confident with spelling. Having their own, personalised list of frequently used words which they can access and look up any time they’re writing, can help build confidence as they don’t have to worry about drawing attention to their spelling abilities. Not having to ask for help, and not having to worry that they’re spelling a word incorrectly can give kids more confidence when putting their ideas down on paper.

This tends to help reluctant writers overcome a big hurdle, making writing much less intimidating.

This week, my recommendation is a reading/writing/comprehension workbook series which I’ve discovered here at Brain Spice recently.

It’s not often I get excited about workbooks. They’re great, and they have their place, but “exciting” isn’t normally how I’d describe them. HOWEVER… this is a series that I was pleasantly surprised by - and I would definitely recommend! 

The name of the series is Reading For Me. It’s a fantastic and affordable open-and-go workbook for homeschoolers, or for parents wanting to help their kids with their reading/writing/comprehension skills.

It’s Wednesday! Which means if you’ve been wanting to learn more about homeschooling, today’s a great day to come visit Brain Spice! I thought I’d quickly also mention this cool new game which we’ve started stocking at Brain Spice. It’s such a clever way to help kids practice their reading. It’s great for homeschoolers, parents of school kids, teachers, and tutors!

Hi everyone! Janelle here again (the lucky homeschool Mum who gets to spend 11am-2pm each Wednesday at Brain Spice, chatting about all things education and homeschooling). Something I love about Brain Spice is that the store really encourages “Play is the brain's favourite way of learning”. So in that spirit, I thought I’d share an awesome little game we currently have in stock… 

Japanese company Tenyo has been creating highly collectible pocket magic for almost 30 years!

Tenyo's founder, Akira Yamada, established the Tenyo Magic Research Institute back in 1953, following in the footsteps of his professional magician father.

If you were to ask me to choose just one recommendation for a gift for a child or teen, Jungle Hide & Seek would be at the very top of my list. I’m talking list point number one.

My reasons? Literally everything about this puzzle makes me want to recommend it. It’s one of those perfect puzzles which really does tick all the boxes. If you’ve played it, you’ll know what I mean.

To play, select a challenge from the challenge book. You must then work out where to place the four puzzle pieces so that the featured animals in that challenge are showing, while the rest of the animals are hidden.

The puzzle sounds simple, but the further into the challenge book you go, the more difficult it becomes.

A customer saw these on the shelf and said “Oh I used to love these! When I was at school, my teacher used to have one of these in his drawer. When a student was continually getting into trouble that day, he’d get them to sit aside for a little while and he’d hand them a puzzle like this to fidget with. It used to calm the student down and the student would sit there trying to solve it. He was one of my favourite teachers. I still remember those puzzles”. This customer then went on to buy one, and he left with a nostalgic smile.

The concept is simple. Can you separate the pieces? Can you put them back together again?

The Online Classroom is an educational resource which I’ve used in our homeschooling plan for years now. It’s a series which I highly recommend for both homeschooling and the classroom setting.

I’ll explain the History series in this post, however there’s also the Online Classroom Geography series and the Online Classroom Mammals series, which are both just as wonderful.

The Online Classroom series is incredibly easy to follow, allowing for open-and-go learning with little to no preparation needed, or alternatively you can use it as a base to plan a more elaborate program with excursions and further learning added.
Either way, the series is fully curriculum-linked.

The Three Kingdoms is the most frustratingly wonderful, seemingly-impossible, love-it-hate-it-love-it, simple-but-difficult puzzle I have ever attempted.

It’s been 6 months since I bought this puzzle and I still haven’t solved it.

It’s by far the best $12 I’ve ever spent. I’ve definitely got my money’s worth, that's for sure!