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Craftsman Club – Win A Makecation
July 31, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Enter to Win ips Natural Egg White Chips
September 11, 2013 By
I recently reviewed ips chips that are high in protein and low in fat.
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3 lucky winners will each win a package of each flavor.
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Weird & Wacky Contraption Lab Product Review and Giveaway
March 25, 2013 By 8 Comments
As a parent of two young daughters there are a few attributes that I especially love to find in toys. I love when toys allow for creativity, science, exploration, and trial and error. The Weird & Wacky Contraption Lab fits that bill. It is a set of 60 mix and match pieces that children use to construct all types of courses for the metal ball to go down. They stick to the special 2 foot board that has a Velcro®-like material on it as do all the parts. Set up is super easy. My 9 year old set the board up herself and was able to make her own contraption within minutes. With so many parts to use, the possibilities are endless. It is a great one or two person toy that makes for hours of creative play with lots of trial and error.
With the Weird & Wacky Contraption Lab my children were testing out and learning about gravity, angles, and more without even realizing they were learning. If you want the ball to travel faster do you tilt the slide up or down? That is just one of the scientific questions that my daughters discovered with this set. The set is well crafted and was easy for both my 7 and 9 year old daughters to use by themselves. I think their favorite part is the flying pig at the end of the contraption they created. I mean who wouldn’t love a flying pig?
Standing over two feet tall, the Weird & Wacky Contraption Lab has 60 mix-and-match pieces to build an unlimited amount of contraptions. Kids can dream up crazy courses, then build and test them using this easy-to-construct Velcro®-like system. Instructions offer tips and tricks on how to best manipulate the kit’s components. It guides kids through five sample contraption designs while they learn how to predict the outcome of each.
Components:
- Cannon with flying stunt pig
- Cleaning machine
- Toilet
- Chicken coop
- Boot buster
- 2 gears and cup
- Funnel
- Zigzag ramp
- 12 tracks
- 24 track clips
- 2 off-ramps
- 6 stops
- 4 steel balls and ball extractor
- Hook-and-loop backer board with stand
- Tri-fold instructional booklet
Make sure to check out SmartLab’s FREE ZONE for fun, FREE activities, trivia, and coloring pages. There are TONS of great activities to do so make sure to pin this post so you can pull it out on a rainy day or a day when you hear those dreaded words, “Moooooooommmm, I’m bored!” The activities range from making “alien blood” to making a spa mask, from making a rubber band guitar to having a backyard scavenger hunt and LOTS More!!!
Want to win your own ? Enter below:
GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED
Disclosure: I was not compensated for performing this review. I received one or more products mentioned for free to conduct my review. The statements expressed by me in this post are my own personal and honest opinions of this product.
English Idioms and Expressions For Everyone, Yes, Even You! A Book Review
October 16, 2011 By 9 Comments
Have you ever taken the time to stop and think about what some common expressions in the English language mean? If English is your first language you might not even think twice when someone tells you to “Keep your shirt on” when you are in a hurry or “I just got a pink slip” when they get fired. You would know what they meant. But if English isn’t your second language, or even if it is, often it can get confusing. In Reza Mashayekhi’s book, English Idioms and Expressions For Everyone, Yes, Even You, he explores many of the idioms and expressions in the English language. His book has easy to understand meanings of more than 2,000 commonly used English idioms, expressions, and phrases. He also includes the origins of some of these expressions, examples and expressions in sentences, and also some interesting expressions from other cultures.
It was amazing for me to realize while reading over Mashayekhi’s book just how many expressions I use all the time that I never really thought about before. It almost reminds me of the Amelia Bedela books where she takes everything literally. This book is a great tool for anyone learning English as a second language but is also important to help those of us who have been speaking it all our lives to remember to phrase things differently when speaking to others who might not understand.
I really found this book interesting but what really touched me the most was a story that Mashayekhi tells of a foreign exchange student who was tragically shot to death when he walked on someone’s property. The armed homeowner yelled, “Freeze!” but the student understand what the homeowner meant and was shot to death. This is an extreme example of how expressions can be confusing but this book did open my eyes. I am also looking forward to sharing this book with my children to help explain expressions to them.
Examples from the book:
Ace in the hole
Origin: Gambling
Big secret help. A winning factor kept hidden.
She is our ace in the hole. With her at our side, I’m sure we’re going to win this thing. But keep it to yourself for now. The prosecutor had an ace in the hole: an eyewitness!
Background:
This may have its origin in the game of poker where you have an ace with the face down, until it’s time to show it.
Burning the candle at both ends
Working too hard.
Overextending oneself.
Doing too many things at once.
Dead presidents
Cash.
Monetary bills.
Dollar bills, paper money, in general, because they mostly have portraits of the late U.S. presidents on them.
A “Hot one” is a $1 bill.
An “Abe” is a $5 bill.
A “Jackson” is a $20 bill.
A “Grant” is a $50 bill.
A “Benjamin” or a “C-note” is a $100 bill.
Want to learn more or get your own copy? Check out English Idioms and Expressions on Facebook and on the book’s website English Idioms and Expressions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Reza Mashayekhi was born and reared in Tehran, Iran. He later attended the University of Michigan, where he received a degree in aerospace engineering.
Reza has always been interested in learning the intricacies of the English language. This is why, alongside of his engineering work, he has taught English to non-English speakers. He has done this because he has wanted to expand his knowledge of English, and he has a good explanation for his reasoning.
“When you want to learn a subject, you approach it from your own perspective,” he says. “Once you feel that you know enough about it, you typically move on to something else. When you teach a subject, however, you have to learn everything about it before you can satisfactorily answer all of the questions that are raised by the students.”
Reza also consults with non-English speakers to prepare them for their public speaking events, or to help with their day-to-day conversational skills, both in the form of workshops and on a one-on-one basis.
Being a non-native speaker of English, living and working in the U.S., Reza’s experience through the years and his interactions with his students and clients has led to the compilation of this book.
Disclosure: I was not compensated for performing this review. I received a free book to read and review. The opinions and statements expressed by me in this post are my own personal and honest opinion of this book.
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