Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Caving Field Trip
Being the explorers that we are. We took a little rocket ship trip about 50 miles from home to Cave Springs Park. Here we got to do a little gem panning, and fossil digging, Then we stepped into the underground world with a cave tour. We had a wonderful guide that taught us all sorts of fascinating things. We found some cave creatures. We observed some stalagmites, stalactites, and columns. We waded through water and ducked under low hanging ceilings. They had a great museum with snakes and lots of geodes it even had a snake or two and some turtles and ducks. All in all, we had a fantastic time and we will be taking another Caving field trip to a bigger cave in just a few weeks. If you have a cave near you or have the opportunity to visit and tour one you should. They are fascinating and amazing and wonderful to be in on a hot summer day.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Friday, May 18, 2018
Camping shenanigans
We took a little trip in our favorite rocket ship. I would like to introduce you to the Cargo Pod that we haul behind our Rocket Ship on occasion.
I didn't take many pictures this go around. We spent most of our time riding the mountain bikes and hiking. The girls ran into a couple of friends from last fall's camping trip and spent a good deal of time bike riding with them and soaking each other with the water guns.
I am pleased to announce that my Kodiak Flex Bow Tent holds up well to a summer thunderstorm with some pretty stiff winds. Me and the girls road out a good one Monday night. The girls were so comfy in there sleeping bags and camp cots that they slept through the storm and didn't know it had rained tell they next morning.
Then I found this Pillow on Facebook and I must make my own version that says:
Sorry for what I said while we were parking the Cargo Pod
This is our Cargo Pod. It houses my parents and all the extra gear the elderly require like memory foam beds and AC.
These two and my self don't use such nice accommodations and sleep in the tent you see behind my goofy girls. That other Cargo Pod behind the second goofy girl is not ours. It decided to photo bomb us because it thinks its cooler than our Cargo Pod.
And this is what happens when you hang upside down from a Hammock.
I didn't take many pictures this go around. We spent most of our time riding the mountain bikes and hiking. The girls ran into a couple of friends from last fall's camping trip and spent a good deal of time bike riding with them and soaking each other with the water guns.
I am pleased to announce that my Kodiak Flex Bow Tent holds up well to a summer thunderstorm with some pretty stiff winds. Me and the girls road out a good one Monday night. The girls were so comfy in there sleeping bags and camp cots that they slept through the storm and didn't know it had rained tell they next morning.
Then I found this Pillow on Facebook and I must make my own version that says:
Sorry for what I said while we were parking the Cargo Pod
Happy Camping!
Monday, May 14, 2018
Kids Email Safe Email for Kids Review
I was well into high school before email came about. Times have changed now and kids are diving into the internet at younger and younger ages. Getting your own email account now seems to be a right of passage and most kids my daughter's age have had email for a while. But the internet is a scary place for parents, with preditors and all the other things floating around that young kids, have no business seeing. For those younger children who want email, Kids Email has come up with a kid safe email program. We received A one-year Subscription to Kids Email Safe Email for Kids.
This program is packed with cool safety features.
Mail Monitoring: This feature allows you to get a copy of each ingoing and outgoing email to and from your child's account.
The Mail Queue allows you to intercept that does not meet the safety rules you have preset for each child.
Time Restrictions: This feature is handy. It allows you to set a time of day and or days of the week they are allowed to use email. You can even ground them... When grounded and they try to log in they will get a personal message from you. I tried this out even though my daughter is not grounded. I put in a message that said YOUR GROUNDED FOR NOT BRINGING ME A CUPCAKE! GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND BRING ME A CUPCAKE! She yelled back GET YOUR OWN CUPCAKE! YOU DIDN'T SAY PLEASE....
Contact Manager: this allows you to add family or friends to your child's contact list. It also allows you to block emails from senders that you don't wish your child to have contact with. I have my daughters account set so that she can only send and receive emails from people I have added to her contact list.
NO ADS big plus!
Spam Filtering: this is great my daughter has yet to receive spam so she is not getting hit with inappropriate content.
Setting Kids Email up was easy to do. It took her longer to come up with an email address than it did to actually set up the account. You can set up the account in one of two ways. As a younger child or as a teen. The main difference between the two is how the email address is seen one will show as @kidsemail.org and the older teen setting the email shows as @kmail.org. The teen option also has a different login page and a more adult feel to it. You can change your child's account from one to the other as they grow. During set up it will give you a list of safety options you simply select which ones you want to use and what things you want to allow.
Once your child logs in they send and receive email just like any other email program. They notice no real difference other than they can only email the contacts I have set in the contact list. The look and feel are very similar to other email programs I have used.
The thing I liked the most about the entire program is the fact that she can only email approved contacts. Currently, it is her email pen pal and me and a cousin. I also like how easy it is to change the settings and that I can check in with her and her friend to see what they are discussing. I like that it gives her some freedom in a safe environment. I don't have to worry so much about who she is emailing or who is emailing her. I also like that I can set time limits, for us she is blocked from email tell class time is over.
What she likes: She likes that she can talk with her pen pal. She enjoys having her own email account and that she can customize it. Kids Email gives her some different background options and allows her to organize her email folders. She can change the font and font color. She can attach a picture if she wants to. (this is an option you can turn on and off in the settings)
Overall we are very happy with Kids Email. I hope you will click the link below and see how the other Crew Families used the program.
Mail Monitoring: This feature allows you to get a copy of each ingoing and outgoing email to and from your child's account.
The Mail Queue allows you to intercept that does not meet the safety rules you have preset for each child.
Time Restrictions: This feature is handy. It allows you to set a time of day and or days of the week they are allowed to use email. You can even ground them... When grounded and they try to log in they will get a personal message from you. I tried this out even though my daughter is not grounded. I put in a message that said YOUR GROUNDED FOR NOT BRINGING ME A CUPCAKE! GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND BRING ME A CUPCAKE! She yelled back GET YOUR OWN CUPCAKE! YOU DIDN'T SAY PLEASE....
Contact Manager: this allows you to add family or friends to your child's contact list. It also allows you to block emails from senders that you don't wish your child to have contact with. I have my daughters account set so that she can only send and receive emails from people I have added to her contact list.
NO ADS big plus!
Spam Filtering: this is great my daughter has yet to receive spam so she is not getting hit with inappropriate content.
Setting Kids Email up was easy to do. It took her longer to come up with an email address than it did to actually set up the account. You can set up the account in one of two ways. As a younger child or as a teen. The main difference between the two is how the email address is seen one will show as @kidsemail.org and the older teen setting the email shows as @kmail.org. The teen option also has a different login page and a more adult feel to it. You can change your child's account from one to the other as they grow. During set up it will give you a list of safety options you simply select which ones you want to use and what things you want to allow.
Once your child logs in they send and receive email just like any other email program. They notice no real difference other than they can only email the contacts I have set in the contact list. The look and feel are very similar to other email programs I have used.
The thing I liked the most about the entire program is the fact that she can only email approved contacts. Currently, it is her email pen pal and me and a cousin. I also like how easy it is to change the settings and that I can check in with her and her friend to see what they are discussing. I like that it gives her some freedom in a safe environment. I don't have to worry so much about who she is emailing or who is emailing her. I also like that I can set time limits, for us she is blocked from email tell class time is over.
What she likes: She likes that she can talk with her pen pal. She enjoys having her own email account and that she can customize it. Kids Email gives her some different background options and allows her to organize her email folders. She can change the font and font color. She can attach a picture if she wants to. (this is an option you can turn on and off in the settings)
Overall we are very happy with Kids Email. I hope you will click the link below and see how the other Crew Families used the program.
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KidsEmail.org/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KidsEmail
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kidsemail1/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidsemail/ Tag: @kidsemail
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/112369875076902375218/+KidsemailOrg
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Adventures of the Barn Kittens
They have begun to wonder about and explore their world. They are sticking to the deck where their box is but Momma has begun to bring them mice.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
CodeWizardsHQ Review
The homeschool program offers a once a week 1 hours live class. This course offers Live instruction. This means your child can see what the teacher is doing on there computer and they can interact with the teacher and other students in real time. Class sizes are small generally 6-8 students in a class. They are given graded assignments and practice projects. It uses realworld programming language and is Ideal for grades 5-9
This is what I consider a subscription based program. Which for me means there is a monthly fee for the course. It looks like each course takes about 3 months or 12 weeks. There is more than one course that they can take. Current pricing is $149/Month per student. For this price, you get weekly 1-hour class, 24/7 access to their coding platform, same day email support if you need it, free 1 on 1 extra help, weekly progress updates, class recordings, online student community and a certificate of completion.
My 5th grader was the one to try this out. We received a special one time class that was an hour long. Getting set up was easy. We used my Laptop. You will need a computer that has a web cam and audio. We used headphones that had a mic. They send you a log in which takes you to a dashboard of sorts where you can then enter the class if it is a live class day you also do your assignments from this dashboard. She could log in easily and found her way to her class. We had no problems running it on windows 10 or using it on a laptop.
This was basically a demo of a single class. She called it a teaser class, just enough to be fun but not enough for you to be able to something cool on your own. She had a lot of fun with it but was disappointed to learn that she did not get to continue and do a hole course. She made a cute little comic strip that I feel like she did well on. It looked great and she was able to do what the teacher ask her to do. I'm not sure she could make anything on her own at this point but it was fun for her. She did enjoy being able to ask questions and interact with the other kids in the class. I think that makes a difference with this type of class. When you get stuck or can't get something to work right, it is great to be able to ask a question and not have to wait around for an email reply. I liked that the class size was small most of all I liked that she had fun and was excited that she did something new. I think she could really learn some great things with this class and I would love for her to be able to take some full courses with them but to be honest it's out of my budget range. Below you can see the cool little comic she made. Its great right!
Overall, I think it could be a great class if you have a child that it wants to learn to code. Check out the banner below and see what other crew kids thought of the class.
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