News, Reviews, and Recommendations!

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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… 

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.

Multispin is a fun maths game, designed specifically to help students practice their multiplication skills.

Multispin has been designed by Dr Paul Swan, who is fantastic at thoroughly teaching maths concepts by including as many games and hands on activities as possible. (And he’s from right here in Western Australia!)

A few years ago, a fellow homeschool Mum hosted a workshop, where she taught other homeschool parents how to teach their kids maths in such a way that kids actually felt inspired by the subject rather than dreading it.

For me, this was my lightbulb moment...

Kingdomino is an award winning tabletop game for kids.

Along with skills such as strategic decision making, turn taking, patience, and puzzle solving, Kingdomino also teaches maths concepts and skills...and it’s also FUN!

Playing Kingdomino is like completing a puzzle. The game can be competitive, but it’s also a mindful activity.

Sometimes a game is able to be played by the whole family, but it’s not something that adults will choose to play once the kids are in bed. Or sometimes it’s a good game for kids and adults, but the younger kids will have a hard time with the rules.

Qwixx isn’t like that.

Qwixx is ACTUALLY fun for the whole family.

For kids to play, for kids and parents to play together, for adults, for grandparents. Everyone will love this game no matter their age.

Think Yahtzee, but quicker, better, and much more fun.

And homeschoolers, teachers, and parents, this is where you will love it even more…

THIS IS A GREAT MATHS GAME for teaching quick addition up to 12, number recognition, number ascending/descending order, chance, and general addition.