Frugal Family Fun

Disclosure: Please note, I was given the opportunity to promote the upcoming movie, The Star, to my readers by Sony Pictures. All opinions expressed and based on movie previews are my own.

Christmas. It’s just around the corner! While we have all likely heard the story of the first Christmas, this holiday season you can treat your family to a new and unique retelling of the very first Christmas told by a new set of fun-loving eyes. From the makers of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Heaven is for Real, The Star features a hilarious take on the story of Christmas from the perspective of the unlikeliest of characters. The animals of the manger! 

Our story centers on, Bo, an advantageous donkey yearning for a life beyond the stables walls of the village mall. When Bo breaks free of his village, he seeks adventure with Ruth, a lovable sheep who lost her flock, and Dave, a dove with hilarious dreams and aspirations.

Along with three slap-stick humored camels and several amazingly precious, though eccentric stable animals, Bo, and his new friends follow the Star of Bethlehem and on the way become the unlikeliest of heroes in the greatest story ever told – the story of the nativity.

Each year at the holiday’s my family always make a point of reading aloud the story of Christ’s birth, and while I have heard the story interpreted many times over the years the Star’s unique perspective on the classical story is fun and exciting. And who doesn’t love talking animals, am I right? 

Preorder your tickets for The Star Movie! 

After viewing the trailer for The Star and behind the scene footage, I am so excited to go watch The Star movie with my family this coming weekend. Not only does it look like a movie that will be great for the whole family, but it looks sure to be hilarious too! I appreciate movies during the holiday season that teach a story, give great moral lessons, and frankly, don’t bore me to tears in the process! The Star movie is sure to please everyone in the family. Mine included!

The Star movie will be out in theaters Friday, November 17th, so be sure to go online and pre-buy your The Star tickets to help you beat the lines this weekend. In the meantime, the makers of The Star have several awesome printable coloring sheets available on their site here. For churches, click here for movie resources to share with your ministry groups as well!

Be sure to check those out to get you and your kiddos ready for the holiday spirit for the opening night! Now, friends, I have to ask, why are you most excited to see The Star? I’d love to hear about it below!

If you’ve had the opportunity to scout out many STEM-based subscription boxes online you will have noticed one glaring similarity. Most of these subscriptions are geared towards younger children. But what about STEM-focused activities for tweens and teens? The market until recently has been pretty abysmal. Which was why I was excited to be asked to review a subscriptions box from Creation Crate, a STEM-based service geared towards kids aged 12 and up! 

What’s the service all about:

Creation Crate is geared towards bringing experiential learning to tech-education methods for students and educators alike, in a learning curriculum geared towards helping students learn the basics of engineering, robotics, and computer programing strategies. 

Creation Crate includes monthly boxed crates that contain both the hardware of electronics and the programming for each specific project. Like with many other services, because of the programming required, you will also need a computer or laptop to download and use the Arduino software, the software that runs each programming grid. Projects are sent on a relatively simple start and as time goes on students will receive harder boxes as their subscriptions continue. 

Each box included an instruction pamphlet to help guide you through the initial hardware setup, programming instruction, common errors suggestions, and exercises to utilize your finished programming project. You’re also given the URL to their online project support page, extra parts for your kit (something nonpresent in a lot of other kits), and diagrams and instructions for downloading the software for each kit. 

The Creation Crate that we received was the Mood Lamp project-in-a-box. A fun choice for both my family and my husband’s middle school classes. As a family, we took turns assembling the kit and my husband programmed the kit for us. 

It was my husband’s first time using the Arduino system but after two hours of trial and error, an hour of re-study of the setup diagrams, a quick rewiring of two cables, and we were back in business!

The finished lamp, with it’s with ever-changing red, blue, and green LEDs was fun to watch. It was neat to see the colors gradually and independently change brightness which gave us the perfect opportunity to discuss the process by which we used specific attachments to the circuit board to the battery caused this homespun light show to commence! 

Our Experience:

Though the kits say that no experience is required, we did not find this to be the case. My husband’s knowledge as a STEM, Robotics, ICT I & ICT II, and Project Lead the Way Educator, his previous knowledge for conceptualizing this build, is what eventually saved this project for us as a family. As well, the instruction pamphlet that comes with the box is pretty small, as are the diagrams, and in my opinion, neither delves deep enough into the detail needed to help beginners know how breadboards are designed using the Arduino system. Another nice touch would be telling users to program their kits before building. 

It’s also worth noting that my initial shipper box did come somewhat stained and partially opened. Though this is not a reflection of the Creation crate service, packaging still plays into the initial impression of a service and it is worth noting in this review. 

The Creation Crate subscription box is a wonderful gift or project for an older child or student wanting to learn more about electrical engineering and electronics. More sophisticated than something like Snap Circuits and Vex kits, learning with these kits will help lay a foundation for future study. If you have a budding Arduino or electronics master in your house, try Creation Crate to encourage your kids’ interests. If your kiddo is a beginner, come back to this service once they have a new other vex kits under their belt first! 

With a cost ranging from $30.00 each month to teaching kits starting at $200.00 for numerous projects, there’s an affordable price point for everyone on your list! So be sure to check this service out as with Creation Crate projects, you’re putting together a real project – not theory, but an actual working lamp! And I think that’s pretty great! 

Friends, I encourage you to check this service out for yourselves and to consider the gift of discovery for your budding engineer at home this holiday season! To find out more about this service, click here, and if you’re interested in our other home engineering projects to take a look at our education page here! Now I have to ask, do you have a favorite engineering or robotics kit at home? I’d love to hear about it below! 

Connect with Creation Crate:

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 Disclosure: This review was based on a provided sample from Thimble. I was not compensated for this review. 
 
 

I’m sure many of you reading this will be surprised to know that despite attending a performing arts governor’s school program, and loving all things language, theatre, and drawing oriented, all of my elective classes centered on science. Particularly that of technology and robotics. For which the knowledge I gained on building simple machines using motors, circuit boards, power supplies, and programming grids made up some of my fondest memories during my high school years. Which is why when asked if my family would like to review an upcoming Thimble electronic building kit, I jumped at the chance!

Thimble kits are designed to teach beginners a basic understanding of building electronics by way of a monthly kit. Each kit is curated and includes instruction manuals, instructions for accessing online software modulation videos, programming guides, and the needed materials for the project at hand. Thimble offers kits of all levels of difficulty including wifi-robots, LED cubes, robotic arms, alarm clocks, weather stations, quadcopters, and much more! Each month is designed to be a new project and a new adventure! 

Thimble also offers four different subscription prices. The longer the subscriber commitment, the cheaper the pricing will be. With robot kits, some of their more pricey kits, ranging from $12.00 to $300.00 in price. And as you may have assumed, the cost generally reflects the quality of the robot. While this cost may seem steep a lot of Vex and Project Lead the Way Kits can cost upwards of $1,200.00 and more per kit. In comparison, Thimble seems economically focused in comparison.

The Kit:

While excited to review Thimble, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into. As Thimble’s homepage is somewhat vague on the specifics for each kit. The homepage does explain the service is recommended for ages 13 and up, is okay for beginners, and every project involves soldering; soldering kits are not included with the service.

However, the homepage does not provide any photos of the current project, or what the current project even is. While I was able to ascertain that information further into their website, this might be a turn off for shoppers looking for a cursory glance of schematics and logistics while subscribing to their service online. 

It wasn’t until my compass kit arrived a week later. Included in the kit were: 

• A power supply
• Circuit Board
• Circuit Pins
• Mounting Square
• Motor Sensor
• USB Cable

Not included (but needed for this build):

• Batteries
• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Wire Strippers
• Needle-Nosed Pliers

Upon opening the kit, I was surprised to see how involved the kit appeared to be. Not in an intimidating sort of way but I definitely didn’t anticipate just how do-it-yourself this project was going to be. I suppose I was expecting to solder a few external pieces onto a circuit board but wasn’t expecting to be soldering several multi-pin components or stripping wire.

Though these aren’t tasks are not unknown to me, they would seemingly be a bit advanced for most 13-year-olds and for those in-class or homeschooling. I believe this kit to be better geared towards high school aged students as this kit was so involved. 

Building the Compass:

Once you’re prepared to build your compass, You’ll need to collect the items not included in your kit. This includes need-nosed pliers, wire strippers, solder, soldering iron, and AA-batteries.

Following this, you will need to go to Thimble’s learning platform and follow the links to video tutorials. The first part of the tutorial provides a detailed list of all the parts included in the kit and a list of suggested tools.

Next, you are given two options for building the compass. You can follow a 25-minute video of the process from start to finish, or you can go through a step-by-step tutorial with accompanying videos and photos. We opted for the step-by-step process.

The first step in the process is to solder several components onto the circuit board. As you can see, there are a lot of pins to solder and not a lot of room for error within the kit itself. Although I have experience soldering, I haven’t had much practice in years. Luckily, my husband was standing by and finished the soldering for our family. As a robotics and project lead the way instructor, this was second nature to him. 

Again, there was a lot of soldering that needed to take place and even for someone as used to soldering as my husband mistakes can still easily be made. Do go into making these kits with the understanding that, at times, mistakes may happen. Thimble also offers replacement parts in their online shop. 

The next couple of steps involved soldering more components. Some of which were thankfully spaced out a bit further making soldering easier.Once all the components are soldered to the circuit board, the next step is to attach wires to the compass motor.

Theoretically, you would need to strip the ends of the wire and solder the ends to a mechanized motor or componentry. However, the wire in this kit is very thin and care to detail should be maintained as to not accidentally cut completely through your provided wiring.

Attention to detail should also be considered when soldering the wire to the motor, as the provided instructions didn’t indicate which color wire should be soldered to a specific contact. The accompanying video doesn’t specify either. While assuming this doesn’t matter, in terms of the finished compass, I felt it should be stated as this is a review kit. 

The next step is to program the compass. This was my biggest issue with the entire build. I found the online instructions somewhat vague and I would image confusing for middle school students and younger, such as children in my family, my husband’s students, and robotics team members.

We did manage to get the compass working after an hour of trial and error, though it was not nearly as fun a family project as I had imaged going into the project. 

We were eventually able to utilize the sites LED test for the compass and the magnetometer functions. This was after a 4-hour period of finding the programming software guide unavailable online, which rendered us unable to program our kit. This program was later remedied by Thimble.

We also found the onsite project forum with responses from other users helpful as well. We found that a number of kit owners were having trouble with both the programming and soldering as well. This was somewhat a relief for us throughout the project. 

Final Thoughts:

In terms of Thimble for at-home projects for my family, I would have to pass on Thimble. For my husband’s more advanced students, who would have multiple classes to construct, engineer, and program each kit, this might be a worthwhile investment. While I was really looking forward to building this compass, I was somewhat disappointed with the results. 

Between the lack of poor instructions, video modulations, vague website descriptions, and the nightmarish programming required to make a 1-hour project come to fruition, I’m not sure Thimble would be ideal for our family game nights at home. 

Mind you, if the kits were more affordable, perhaps I’d feel inclined to purchase them for practice kits for my husband. Especially during summer breaks from school. However, starting a price point of $59.00 and a year-long commitment, that’s a great deal of money for kits you may or may not be happy with the results of. 

In the future, I’m thinking Thimble will have perfected their product because of it really an awesome in-home subscription box concept. And who knows, in the future, I may just change my mind. 

Now friends, if you would still like to learn about this service for yourself, you can check out all that Thimble has to offer here. And now, I have to ask, what are you most interested in learning about Thimble and what parts of our build were you a little skeptical to try at home yourself? I’d love to hear about it below!

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Magic. That’s how I like to think about art. From an early age, I’ve always loved drawing, doodling, and practicing my penmanship at home. As does my husband and family! So if you’re family loves art as much as mine, then you understand why I love to provide my family with the newest ways to foster their creativity at home. Especially when it comes to zero-waste learning toys. Which is why I’ve been loving The Magic Sketch Deluxe Set, an electric drawing pad that every parent should have on hand at home!

Boogie Board, the makers of The Magic Sketch, set out to create a portable, sturdy writing tablet device that system that allows kids of all ages to practice writing, penmanship, and creative drawing in an affordable tablet package!

The Magic Sketch features an easy-to-read screen which facilitates the tablets multi-color rainbow writing capabilities.  This awesome unit is also sturdy in makeup, is waterproof, and was designed to withstand being handled by children during play and shoved into backpacks for on-the-go traveling doodling fun! 

The Magic Sketch is designed for kids of all ages.  It is perfect for young kids developing fine motor skills and also great for tweens looking to draw, doodle and express their inner designers. The Magic Sketch would also make an awesome gift for adults who love drawing, such as with adult coloring books! Afterall, who doesn’t love drawing for fun?

The Magic Sketch comes with:

• The Magic Sketch LCD screen
• Protector Guard
• 1 Patterned Roller
• 3 Patterned Stamps
• 20 Learning Stencils
• 20 Game Stencils
• 20 Art Stencils
• Stylus Pen

While the Magic Sketch does come with dozens of fun stencils and accouterments, we keep them neatly stored together in our Magic Sketch shipping box. Easy to use and easy to store for this minimalist mama at home! We’ve all loved Magic Sketch’ liquid crystalized multi-color writing screen. When using the provided writing stylus, my family has been able to draw, work on math equations, and practice robotics and STEM drawings! A tall order from such a small, compact design! 

Another great aspect of the Magic Sketch device is its app which allows users to save your drawings and transfer them to the computer by way of formatted PDF files that can be saved, edited and shared instantly with family, friends, teachers, and co-op members! Making the Magic Sketch a truly zero-waste drawing experience! 

For those on the fence in looking into this unit, just check out the Magic Sketch’s screen. When you write on the board for the first time, you’ll really see the wow factor in this device! The colors really pop and the feel of the tablet and stylus in-hand feels uber close to writing with a pen and paper as you can get! Especially the templates, design rollers and texture stampers!

Then when you start playing with all the templates, stencils, and games you’ll see that the playtime potential for the Magic Sketch can be endless fun! Boogie Board Magic Sketch eWriters are a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way to capture all your family’s creativity needs in a new, modern way!

My family has been over the moon with the Magic Sketch. We all use it regularly and love all the great ways we use this eWriter at home! Friends, I encourage you to check out the Magic sketch for yourself this coming holiday season. You’ll be amazed by this devices crystalized LCD screen as we are!

Now I have to ask, are you already an owner of the Magic Sketch? Or if you’re considering purchasing a unit for your family this coming holiday season, what’s your favorite feature of the Magic Sketch? I’d love to hear about it below! 

Connect with Magic Sketch:

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