Great Find: North Star Games "Wits and Wagers Family"

Looking for a fun, simple to play, great for all ages family game? Then I would definitely recommend Wits and Wagers Family!  Before playing the game I went to the website to check out the company. The makers of the game set out to design games with "personality." Wits an Wagers Family!  is full of personality. When we have played the game it is with two adults and two children ages 11 and 8. It has been fun for the whole family. The variety of questions made it an game everyone has a chance to win. Our 8 year old has won fair and square several times! (We played with the suggested idea of letting the reader of the card pick their question to even the odds.)

I also found this description from the December 10, 2007 Washington Post:

Wits & Wagers is a trivia contest, but with a gaming table twist. Players seek to answer numerically based questions and use casino-style chips to place bets on their responses and those of other players. Whoever has the most chips at the end wins. Since that date, the game as been adapted to the family audience. The premise is the same but now it has a family feel and Meeples shown above instead of chips.
The instructions are simple and easy to follow. You can play the game by teams or individual.  The game is a guessing game. You can answer questions (150 come with the game) such as "How many texts does the average teenager send each day?" "In miles, what is the furthest a person has traveled on a unicycle in one 1 hour?" Each person/team writes down their "wager" the person closest to the correct answer without going over scores. The first team to score 15 points wins. There are 3 ways to score which is a variation to the game and makes it fun. I would suggest you buy the game to found out those 3 ways! You can purchase the game from the site. Currently the game is out of stock which is an indication of its popularity but you can purchase from Amazon for $17.24 which was recommended when I called the company directly about how to purchase.

In conclusion this is a really fun game. I like the eco-friendliness of the packaging also. All materials are supplied and instead of paper you use dry-erase pads (pens included). It would make a great gift but I would buy it to keep!


Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how I used the product within my family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.

Apologia Press Good Morning, God

Apologia's Good Morning God is a beautifully illustrated 44 page book.  The sweet story follows a precocious little boy through his week. Woven throughout the story is the theme text of Deuteronomy 6:6,7 where parents are reminded to inculcate God's standards on their children when they are at home, walking on the road, when resting and when getting up. You can read this book as storybook, use it to teach the days of the week, or for bible study for children.
At the end of the book there are suggested questions and activities that are organized by the theme of each day in the book. For example, Wednesday's theme suggests drawing a picture or taking a picture of your child, read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and discussing questions like " How can you take care of your body?" or "How can your sins be forgiven?".
Alluded to are ideas identifying Jesus as God, heaven and the cross. So if you want book that is more secular in nature you might take that into consideration. You can examine a chapter at the link sited above.
In conclusion, attractive watercolor and black and white illustrations, simple text, and introduces scriptural study to you children all for $14.00 plus tax and s/h.
Another quality product from Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc.

Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how I used the product within my family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.

Master Innovations "The Master Ruler"

We love the Master Ruler. It is simple to use+easy to read+and hands-on=Great product! You can get a ruler that measures metric or standard units. The concept is easy to read using clear, color coded overlays that flip over each measurement (from largest to smallest unit of measurement). The standard Master Ruler has blue bindings and the metric Master Ruler has green bindings. The measurement increments are marked on clear overlays in blue, green, red and purple. There is also an available workbook.

My children are in the 3rd and 5th grades. I was able to adapt the workbook to both of their levels. I used the workbook to introduce them to them to the Master Ruler. I watched the YouTube videos from the company's website before giving it to my children. The videos on the website are very comprehensive and easy to follow. I have to say that I fully agree with the testimonials on site!

After watching the videos, the children and I worked the workbook pages. It took them a second to get the hang of deciding which ruler was needed by looking at the color coding to check for the standard (blue coded) or metric (green coded). After that the workbook pages identify which ruler should be used and then the children were able to follow the directions and complete the problems. The workbook follows a simple progression from comparing fractions, equivalent fractions, reducing fractions, converting fractions and then computing with fractions. Note: We focused on fractions because this was an area of need in our family. The book very thoroughly covers standard measurement also). The problems were challenging to my students but the Master Ruler is very self correcting. When in doubt count it out. That is what my children did and that help them see the math behind measuring too. With the clear marking it is easy to count if you have not yet learned to remember the measurements of say how many millimeters in a centimeter.
You can purchase a starter set for $41.25, this includes the workbook, metric and standard rulers and the teacher ruler which is clear so that you could use it with and overhead projector. As a homeschooling family though I would recommend purchasing the standard and metric rulers individually and then the workbook, which would save you some money.
"Master Innovations, Inc. was originally formed with one simple goal in mind, each child in the classroom should own a Master Ruler."
  
Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how I used the product within my family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.