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Penguin and Pinecone Unit Study with Ivy Kids Kit Review

 Penguin and Pinecone Unit Study with Ivy Kids Kits

{disclaimer ~ Ivy Kids is a blog sponsor and sent us a kit for this review}

We continue to be in love with Ivy Kids Kits.  These are by far the best monthly subscription kits I have seen.

Not familiar with Ivky Kids Kits?

Ivy Kits are a monthly educational subscription for children ages 3-8 developed by early childhood teachers with children of their own. You can tell these kits were developed by people who truly know young kids.  The activities are awesome. Not only can you subscribe to a monthly kit, you can also buy past kits.

Each Ivy Kit contains instructions with ways to modify games to best suit each individual child and provide adults with questions to structure a child’s learning. There are enough games and materials in each kit to engage and cognitively stimulate a child throughout the month and can be replayed for years to come.

This is a photo of the inside of the box, there is a fabulous reference guide on the box to show you all of the items and activities included at-a-glance. We were sent  “Penguin and Pinecone” for this review. 

Ivy Kids -2835

 

When you subscribe to Ivy Kids, each month you will receive a very well organized kit containing a book and ten or more activities based upon the story. Everything you need to learn and play is included in your kit.  I mean EVERYthing.  These kits are incredible!

Each activity has a very well written instruction and idea sheet.  I organize all of these in sheet protectors in a binder.  They come in these great plastic baggies, but this method works better for my brain.

I keep all of the bigger items in the box, and when we chose an activity, I go to the box and grab what we need.

 

Activities From Our Box…

I showed her the book first and she immediately curled up to read it herself.  I read it to her also.

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She LOVED it!

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We began by extending the story and making scarfs for the tree and the pinecone, just like the book.  She loved the little plush penguin and sled.

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Planting her own pine tree seed was a BIG HIT! I was hoping the seed would actaully grow, and thankfully it did!

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Ivy Kids -3024 Ivy Kids -3035

About 2 weeks later she has a sprout! We will plant it in our yard in the spring!

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We used the cute little walking penguin to play a game together using the included alphabet board.  She wound up the penguin and let him walk on the board, wherever he landed she had to think of a word that started with that letter!

Ivy Kids -3169 Ivy Kids -3171

 

Any craft is her favorite craft.  She loved making the penguin bag and the snowflake mobile. The mobile took her awhile, each snowflake is laced!

Ivy Kids -3173  Ivy Kids -3198

 

One of the best things about these kits is the organization.  The clear instructions allowed me to leave activities for my mom to do with her while she was babysitting one day!  They did the BINGO activity together and played the Feed the Penguin game with the cute little fishies.  Nanee even took some pictures for me!

Ivy Kids -3008 Ivy Kids -3010-2

 

We explored a pinecone together and learned lots of facts about them!  She loved this!

Ivy Kids -3279 Ivy Kids -3281

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She spent SO long getting her pinecone craft just right.  We are planning to use it as a Christmas tree ornament!

Ivy Kids -3303 Ivy Kids -3309

 

We ended with a bang, a very successful pinecone in water experiment.  She had to guess what she thought would happen to the pinecone after it was in water for awhile.  Based on what she had learned, she guessed that it would close up.

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It did!  She was amazed!  It closed up even more after I took this photo! 

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Her enthusiasm for these activities is through the roof, she loves her “box time” and begs me to do something from the box all the time! You can see ALL of the activities included in the box here!

We also loved our A House for Hermit Crab kit, which we reviewed a couple of months ago.

Ivy Kids Kit Review

 

20% off your first kit for NEW Subscribers to the monthly subscription kits!

Use code: IVY20

10% off all past kits during February 2016

Use code: IVYWINTER

A huge thanks to Ivy Kids for sending us these kits to review.  If you are looking for a simple way to do unit studies with your young child, I highly recommend Ivy Kids Kits!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged with: 1st Grade with Ladybug, Ivy Kids, Ladybug, Penguins, Reviews

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What a day! We moved @kyler_hinson into college to What a day! We moved @kyler_hinson into college today at @greenvilleuniv! Such a fun new chapter beginning for him! He moved out here a couple of weeks ago to train with his gymnastics team so I got my crying out then. I’m purely excited for him today!!! 

So thankful for this awesome school, everything about today was just perfect! We are all so happy with his choice and future here. 🧡🧡🧡
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His amazing coach for the past 10 years has been such a constant in Kyler’s life and it’s hard to imagine him not having by a daily place in Kyler’s life. 

His gym had a little surprise goodbye party for him and one of the awesome gym moms made the sweetest video filled with memories of Kyler’s gymnastics journey. The love for him  from our gym family just blows me away. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by many families and teammates through the years who have been amazing. He truly has had a home away from home for the past 10 years.

Thanks @lisabethcooper for EVERYTHING you did. ❤️
My daddy left this earth to be with Jesus on July My daddy left this earth to be with Jesus on July 9. It has been a rough couple of weeks to say the least. It was a shocking end although he had been sick and was in the hospital. We fully expected to bring him home but septic shock stole that from us. 

The first photo is my final photo with him, taken on our cruise back in late May. The rest are a few favorites of mine from my childhood and another from a cruise.

Although things have calmed, nothing feels right. My momma lives close to us now (she is 6 miles from us) and soon will live in the house she and my dad were building in our backyard. Praise God we got them moved into their rental back in April, His timing is everything. We got to have our final cruise as a family right before daddy got really sick. On the night we lost him, we were all able to stand around him and pray together and share our hearts with him before his body was done. 

Oh how I wish he would be living in the house being built in my backyard and that we would have had the years we expected and hoped to have. I trust God’s timing while also being devastated. I miss him terribly.
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My parents generously took our family on @royalcaribbean Wonder of the Seas and it was incredible! We went to Coco Cay, Honduras, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.

Best part about family cruise is the laughter and time away together. It truly is unlike anything else and I’m so so grateful! I took hundreds of photos, narrowing it down to 10 was hard!
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He is the NC state champion one final time and hit an all time high score at this meet. We have regionals next and then nationals, and then his junior gymnastics career is done!

#krashthegymnast
Merry Christmas! We enjoyed the past few days so v Merry Christmas! We enjoyed the past few days so very much. So much laughter and joy. Christmas with littles is fun but Christmas with bigs is a whole different joy I love these kids of mine! ❤️❤️❤️
It’s the beginning of an emotional year as a gym It’s the beginning of an emotional year as a gym mom. His final season as a junior athlete has begun with his first meet this weekend. He’s been doing the sport he loves since he was 6 and here we are starting the final year before he competes in college! He had a great first meet hitting 4/6 events and winning the all around and several events. I just love watching him, I’ll miss being able to go to all of his meets next year so I am soaking up the moments this year!

#krashthegymnast
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Click the link in my profile to read my blog post: Why We Chose Study.com for Homeschool. In that post I promised to be transparent and give updates along our journey. Consider this the first update! We switched courses for 9th grade science already! I originally had her in Physical Science and honestly it was too much, too fast - even I was a bit overwhelmed when I went in and did some of the lessons and quizzes. We have switched her to earth science for now. All other courses are going really well and both of my kids like the format. I LOVE the parent dashboard and how easy it is to keep up with them. 

I’m thankful so far because my life is busier now and my kids are older, having something they are independent with is so helpful for them and for me. We communicate often and I’m checking in and very involved but I don’t do the actual teaching. 

So, overall it’s going well so far. Stay tuned, I’ll continue to share!

#homeschoolhighschool 
#homeschool #homeschoolers #homeschoolingrocks #homeschoolingmama #homeschoolmom #homeschoollife  #homeschoolfamily #homeschooliscool  #homeschooldays #homeschoolblogger 
#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed 
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Missing two kids (working) but had a fun night out Missing two kids (working) but had a fun night out to eat with my parents to celebrate my husband’s birthday a  couple days early! Love my time with them! ❤️
Around this time last year I shared the first phot Around this time last year I shared the first photo. I was prepping @compassclassroom History. We ended up using American and Modernity and today I published my full review on my blog! Link in profile!

#homeschool #homeschoolers #homeschoolingrocks #homeschoolingmama #homeschoolmom #homeschoollife  #homeschoolfamily #homeschoolfun #homeschoolkids #homeschooliscool  #homeschooldays #homeschoolblogger 
#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed #homeschoollifestyle #thisishomeschool
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I tried explain these friends to my daughter last I tried explain these friends to my daughter last night. It was hard to find words. 

They have been a huge part of our life since before having children, and we have walked through life together, even when they all lived here in NC and we lived in Philly for 11 years. We began as the “young married couples Sunday school class.” We have been back in NC for 8 years and although we live an hour from all of them, it’s still the same. We get together every month or so, and although we were missing a few last night, we are always thankful for everyone who can make it. 

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Love y’all beyond words and missed those of you who weren’t there last night. ❤️
Our 8th grade year-end post is up on my blog (link Our 8th grade year-end post is up on my blog (link in profile). I definitely didn’t like all of our choices, but I loved most of them. 

Lili was pretty independent this year for homeschool, but we did a few subjects together: logic, government, writing. I loved the addition @compassclassroom for history and vocabulary. We always love @teachingtextbooks for math. @iew wins for writing and grammar with us. You’ll see in the post I didn’t like what I chose for science. She took another course from @theanimcourse and continues to love them. We loved the books we read for logic and government, see post for those!

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#homeschoolteacher #homeschoollookslikethis #homeeducation #homeeducator #howwehomeschool #homeed #homeschoollifestyle #thisishomeschool
#homeschoolcommunity #homeschoolcurriculum #homeschoolersofinstagram #homeschooled #homeschoolcollective #homeschoolideas #homeschoolinspiration #homeschooladventures
Athlete of the Year! Kyler’s end of year gymnast Athlete of the Year! Kyler’s end of year gymnastics awards ceremony was today and once again he received this award from his coach! It still means the world to me, knowing the bond these two share and how blessed we are to have him as Kyler’s coach. He’s been his coach since he was 8, and we enter their final year together in the fall. Time flies. 

#krashthegymnast
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Silver medal at nationals on parallel bars in the Silver medal at nationals on parallel bars in the Junior Elite 17 year old division! So so proud of his fight! 

He had a fall on his first day(Thursday) of competition and sprained his thumb/hand and we weren’t even sure he could compete day two. He competed today and hit all 6 events! He pushed through and really focused on parallel bars since he was sitting in 6th after day one. Well, he did even better and pulled his placement to 2nd!! 

#krashthegymnast #region8mensgymnastics
Birthday dinner with the grands. Celebrating my Ap Birthday dinner with the grands. Celebrating my April/May babies! Pax is 21, Lili is 14, and Kyler will be 17 next week!
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