Chess House Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

We recently received a beginners chess set to review from Chess House.  The Starter Chess Learning Kit came with a neat carrying bag, chess mat, chess pieces, and a dvd explaining how to play the game.

Seeing as how both my husband and I enjoy playing chess I thought this would be a great learning kit for our kids.  With 6 kids that I deem old enough to play chess it would mean that they could play each other or we could play as a family.  I love the idea of family game nights and with the kids still learning it's an easy boys against girls type game to play as the 6 oldest are 3 boys and 3 girls!  Of course then the two younger girls can think they are helping play too which makes it fun for them as well.

The Starter Chess Kit that we received is available to purchase for $39.95 currently which is $10 off their standard retail price.  You can choose either a green or black bag. We received the green one in our kit.  The great thing about the kit is that it can be used by any age group.  The main focus range is ages 6-12, but it can be used for younger or older. I know an adult that would benefit from this(sorry friend, but you stink at chess).  Maybe I should have my kiddos teach her how to play chess!

As most of you know, we reenact the Civil War and chess is a period game to play.  I would love to someday get one of their awesome looking wooden chess sets to let the kids play on while we're away.  This past weekend when we spent a day at a reenactment daddy was at they had a lot of fun playing with another reenactors wooden chess set.  But wooden isn't the only novelty set that Chess House has, they also have life size chess sets which would be great for using at a kids birthday party or in a homeschool group.

Did I mention the intricacy of some of the sets they have?  As I browse their site I am amazed at the detail some of these artists can do.  Wow, just wow.  Our pieces are plastic.  A high quality plastic that is less apt to break(important when working with kids) and they are also easy to replace.  The chess board rolls up to fit in the case and is made in the USA.

Now lets talk a bit about the DVD.  I did sit and watch it with my kiddos.  We had to watch it in small sections as my oldest is only 8 and none of them have super long attention spans if you want them to actually retain what they are watching.  The DVD by itself is $20, which goes to show you what a great deal the Starter Kit really is.

The beginning level dvd we received is the Pawn Level(how cute they name their levels after pieces).  You can purchase a workbook separately to use with the dvd as well.  It does come with a booklet that shows practice positions and exercises to help them learn.  It is in total 49 minutes long.  We ended up watching about 10 minutes at a time the first times we went through it.  The next week we broke it down even more and only watched 5 minutes at a time to help us focus more.  My favorite was how it detailed each piece, what they were, what they could do, etc.  It was great.  Just right for little learners to understand and remember.  For my kids repetition is key which is why we watched the dvd several times to help them "get" it.

If you'd like to read more about what other people thought of the Starter Kit make sure to go to the main Crew Review page and check them all out.  With all of us having different aged children as well as different levels and methods of learning and teaching I'm sure they'll all prove unique and different.  You're bound to find one that fits our style.

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Family Hope Center DVD Understanding Child Brain Development Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

I recently reviewed a dvd from Family Hope Center entitled Understanding Child Brain Development as part of the TOS Crew.  This DVD is primarily focused towards children with developmental delays and special needs.

The DVD is created by the Newells(Matthew and Carol) who are internationally renowned speakers and child brain developmentalists.  The video is about 2 hours long, but luckily it has this broken up into chapters for easier viewing.  It's a lot to digest watching all at once so the menu of chapters is wonderful!

The DVD can be purchased for $19.00 by either ordering it from Institute for Excellence in Writing or by calling the following number of 610-397-1737.

About The Family Hope Center from The Team at The Family Hope Cent on Vimeo.


The belief and purpose of Understanding Child Brain Development is to help children(and thus their parents) with special needs to overcome and possibly correct their brain dysfunctions and disabilities.  The Newells have used this process with their own daughter and now are sharing it with everyone in hopes of bringing hope and healing to all.  Both of the Newells have been certified in craniosacral and myofascial release therapy.  For 30 years they have been working on their program and individualizing it for children who are in need of special help.

One of their main principles is that in order to treat the child we must first treat the part of the brain that the behavior or problem is originating from.  In essence, treating the body from the inside out which is what holistic healthy professionals have been saying for quite some time and was a premise of treatment in the beginning of our time.  They do not believe in using medications to treat what our society believes to be diseases but rather to go back and repair the body and the brain of the child by allowing them to go back to a point in time where it might have originated.  This may require them to go back to creeping/crawling or such.

They make many point throughout the dvd, too many for me to talk on each an every one, but some that stood out to me were that you shouldn't use microwaves(we don't), you should limit television, computer, video games,etc(which is something we do), and that you should make sure your child eats a balanced healthy diet as well as drinks lots of water.  These are all things that I agree wholeheartedly with, not just for a child with special needs, but for any child!  In our household these are things that we hold strictly to for all of our children.  Not necessarily because they have special needs, but because it does make them a healthier and most generally a more well rounded individual.

Make sure to check out the Main Crew Blog Post to see what other crew members thought of the dvd.

In my personal opinion, this is a dvd worth watching.  You may not agree with each and every point that they make, but everyone is sure to get something from it.  You do not have to have children with special needs to watch the video or to learn something.  The secret is to watch it with an open mind, digest it, and then go back and review sections.  As a nurse, I do have to say that I have seen instances where a child will benefit from this type of "treatment" and instances where they don't. I have seen children who really and truly need medicine as well.  To me it should be a case by case basis and each child is unique.

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Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder Review -TOS Crew #hsreviews

Recently through the TOS Crew we were given the opportunity to review one of two dvd's from Legacy Documentaries. The one that we chose was The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The other choice was Almanzo Wilder:  Life Before Laura.  The DVD is available for $24.95. 

Legacy Documentaries is operated by Dean Butler.  Butler held the role of Almanzo Wilder in the Little House on the Prairie television series. It seems that he never forgot those years as he has done over 8 hours of work to complement the series as well as these two original films, and a tribute to Michael Landon entitled Pa's Fiddle.

The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder tells the untold story of her real life.  In it you see pictures of her as well as her family.  You learn the truth of where she lived, what she was like, and more about the real Laura.  In this documentary you learn more than just what she was willing to tell us in her fictionalized account of her life through her books.  You learn more than most who have only seen the televised version of her books which is even further from her "real life".

We chose to review the Legacy dvd due in part to the fact that I had always been a fan of the Little House books and watched the television series.  But also because as  a child my parents made sure that we also visited all of the homes of Laura.  We went to all her childhood homes, and we also went to her adult homes.  This is something that I still remember and hope to do with my children.  We have started reading the Little House series for school(have read the first two books last year) and I thought this would really help them to learn more about the author of those books.  Help them to see that she was a real person and she did live close to us and have a life like them. 

I hope to take my children to all of the homes of Laura at some point like I was able to do, but that is not feasible for us right now.  This gives them at least a small glimpse of the various places that she lived as well as a look at the "life behind the books" so to speak.

The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder documentary is one hour long and in my opinion suitable for all ages.  There is nothing in it to make it rated to where little children cannot watch it.  My whole family enjoyed it from age 2 to age well we won't say how old the adults are!  Now in truth the two and three year old probably didn't understand and won't remember a lot from the movie, but I personally don't see a reason they can't enjoy it as a family movie. 

My plans for this movie are to include it in a unit study for the book series.  We will be doing a study on each book individually and then a complete review type study.  We will use parts of this for each book and the entire movie with the review study.

You can read more reviews of this dvd as well as the Life Before Laura dvd at the main Crew blog page.  So, make sure to go over there and check out what everyone else has to say! 

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Brainfood Learning Insects DVD Review -TOS #hsreviews

My kids are in love with birds and insects lately.  They ask me all kinds of questions and several of them I haven't known the answer to.  So as I was looking up information on the ones they had questions on I saw that as a member of The Crew I would get a choice to review one of three dvd's from BrainFood Learning!

The three dvd's that we had to choose from were on insects(yes please), birds(again a yes for my kids), and mammals(haven't really gotten into them but a good option!).  We finally decided on a first choice of Insects followed up with Birds as a close second.

 

The Fascinating World of Insects turned about to be even better than we expected!  It discusses grasshoppers, ladybugs, rhino beetles, fireflies, mosquitoes, honey bees, water striders, ants, praying mantis, dragonflies, and butterflies.  This video is appropriate for all ages and costs $14.99.   At the end of the movie you also have a review section that asks questions for the kids to answer.  These are multiple choice.  It does give the answer after a pause to let the child select their own.  The entire length of the movie is 43 minutes.

I think this movie was great for our little home school but would also be a great resource for a public or private school as well.  It gives great information about the insects in discussion and the kids actually learn from it.  My kids were able to get almost every question correct on the quizzes after watching it the first time!

We watched the entire movie the first time we watched it and then broke it down to do mini unit studies with each insect.  In addition to the movie we used the new curriculum that went along with it that you can find on the Brainfood Learning website.  The curriculum was not available when we started our studies so we instead answered the questions on that insect for the review as well as some that I, as the teacher, made up.  Next, I had them draw a picture of the habitat for the insect, a picture of the insect, and then we labeled both pictures with words that we learned from our clip.  We talked about whether this insect is in our area of the country or not and where it might live if we wanted to go looking for it.  Lastly, we DID go looking for them!

We had a lot of fun using this little DVD/curriculum for our school and definitely recommend it to others.  My kids now want to get the one on Birds so they can learn more about birds.  I love that my kids love to learn and am so pleased to find things that make learning fun for them and make them want to continue learning.  This dvd is one of those things.

But don't just take my word for it.  Check out the rest of the Crew Reviews on the Main Crew Page and see what they thought of these three dvd's too.

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