Review: Roy Toy Classic Log Building Set

It’s the time of year when homeschoolers attend conventions and begin to think about the coming school year.  We’ve picked our curriculum for next year (Heart of Dakota’s “Beyond” program for Alex), and much of it centers around early American history. 

In online forums, many moms suggested that a log building set makes the history portion of Beyond really come alive for their children!  I loved this idea, and I began to search online.  As I looked at the prices and the reviews, I was disappointed to see that the most well-known brand is now made in China.  The price is high, and (judging by the reviews) the quality is not as great as it used to be.

No thank you!  Scratch that plan.  I began to look into alternative companies, coming across a company called Roy Toy.  Their products are made in the USA, use safe and non-toxic food grade dyes, and are very fairly priced.

Roy Toy produced its first sets in the 1930s, and they continued to offer quality products until the 1960s.  The owner, Roy Dennison, passed away at that time, and production was discontinued.  His grandson, Bruce Dennison, re-established the business in 1992.  You can read the history of this family owned company to find out more about their dedication to providing safe, fun, classic toys for children.

After visiting the Roy Toy website repeatedly for days, I finally worked up the courage to  email Roy Toy and see if they would be willing to offer me a set in exchange for a review.  I received a quick response from the company, and within a week, we were the excited new owners of a 250 Piece Deluxe Building Set.  This set retails for $49.99.

The set arrived nicely packaged, with the blocks neatly stored inside of a strong canvas bag with a rope tie.   Our three little reviewers were SO excited to see what was inside of the bag. 

Oh, that beautiful scent of pine when you open the bag is amazing!  We explored the contents, and once the kids understood the concept, they were ready to BUILD!  They wanted to build the exact structures shown in the directions, which required assistance from Mom and Dad.    I’m so glad, as this turned into a fun family afternoon!


The Deluxe Building Set includes instructions for building a log cabin, a farm (barn and silo), and a tree house.  These are pictorial instructions on one 8.5x11 paper.   We chose to laminate it for durability. 

These instructions were too challenging for our young kids, and even my husband and I had to look very carefully to make sure we had the correct pieces for each set.  Once we began to recognize the large variety of log options, we were able to build more efficiently.  We were also able to help the 6 and 4 year olds learn to distinguish the different log sizes and different notches, and they were able to hand us the correct pieces as we built.

You may have noticed that we placed our blocks in a clear, plastic tub.  We started with the blocks piled on the floor, but after the blocks had been spread across the floor and stepped on multiple times, we decided it was best to keep them contained yet easy to see. 

Mommy and Jensyn (2) built the log cabin together.  It took me a few tries to get the correct pieces, as I hadn’t yet noticed the different notches in some of the blocks.  After a time, I caught on, and we completed our cabin.  You can see Jensyn adding the green roof pieces below, which was a perfect task for a two year old.

Daddy and the boys built the tree house fort together.  Alex (6) was very excited to build the ladder all by himself, and Max (4) happily built the roof.

This tree house led to so much fun, imaginative play!  The boys built a ‘slide’ using green blocks, and their characters happily climbed the ladder, played in the tree house, and slid back down to the ground.  (This is NOT a staged picture – my boys played with HUGE grins on their faces!)

The next day, Max (4) asked me to help him build the farm and silo.  With my guidance, he was able to do most of the building himself.  He also built some pens for the farm animals, which made him very proud.   You can be sure that our toy farm animals will be visiting this farm!

  

Roy Toy products are made in the U.S.A – Maine, to be precise – of U.S. pine wood.  They are stained with food approved dyes, and their website makes it clear that the dyes contain no major allergens.  The logs are smoothly sanded to protect little fingers.

This set contains enough pieces to build the tree house, cabin, barn, and silo all at the same time!  This means there are plenty of pieces for two or three children to play together – which is important in our home.  With all of the pieces, it’s easy for the kids to use their imagination, make their own structures, and have tons of fun with this set!

We are very impressed with this product, and it’s quite likely that we will purchase more products from Roy Toy in the future.  Looking through the brochures that we received with our building set, my boys and I found many building sets that look fun!

If I *had* to name some flaws in the product, I wouldn’t be able to make a long list.  Here’s all I can find:

1) I wish the instruction sheet was a little more precise, with step-by-step pictures to simplify the building process for young children.  I don’t think my kids could build the exact structures independently by following the instructions.
 
2) The green roof pieces lay on top nicely, but we always found a bit of a gap at the top of the roof.   If you add an extra roof piece, the top buckles.  It isn’t a big deal to our kids.  I don’t think they even noticed, to be honest, but you will likely have a small opening at the top of your structures.  I just think it’s worth noting for the perfectionists who might come across this review.

Roy Toy offers a wide variety of building toys that are made in the U.S.A.   The sets range in price from $9.95 to $89.00.  Currently, they are offering free shipping on all orders over $25.

Below you’ll see that Roy Toy offers a huge variety of building toys on their website.  Be prepared to drool over these – my kids & I sure did!

Deluxe Sets, stored in a canvas bag



Classic Sets, stored in a traditional canister

Wood-Links sets, stored in a sturdy plastic tub

Earth-Friendly sets with smoothly sanded pieces

Build And Paint sets

If you’re looking for a creative, battery-free, made in the U.S.A toy for your children, I would HIGHLY recommend Roy Toy!  These toys promote thinking skills and imagination, and they are sure to help you build many happy memories with your children!

Many of our toys leave the house after a year or two, but this Roy Toy building set is one of the few toys that I plan to keep for the long haul.  Even after our kids outgrow this set, I will still gladly keep this fun classic set on-hand for visiting friends! 

Disclaimer: I received this free product in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review or compensated in any other way.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Special thanks to Roy Toy for generously sharing the 250 Piece Deluxe Building Set!

Technorati Tags: Roy Toy,wooden log building sets,logs,HOD Beyond,made in the USA

*new* Under The Sea Preschool Pack and GIVEAWAY!

 

Here’s what I’ve been squeezing into the free moments in the past 2 months! 
I just adore these graphics from KPM Doodles!

This pack, available on Teachers Notebook for $2, contains 32 pages (3 intro/instruction pages and 29 activity pages) for children ages 3 – 5.  You’ll find a wide variety of pages for letter recognition, letter sounds, simple math skills, colors, and more!

There’s a GIVEAWAY on my Facebook page through Sunday, April 6, 2014. To enter: 1) SHARE this post on your Facebook page *and* 2) Leave a comment on the Facebook post to let me know you shared it. I will choose 5 winners on Sunday evening, using the comments and a random number generator.

Here are some sample pages from the pack:

Review: Spelling You See

Alex (6) has been reading pretty fluently for quite some time now.  I’ve debated on when to start a spelling program with him, and I have also really questioned what type of spelling program we would utilize.

When I saw that Spelling You See was on the upcoming review list, I was very intrigued.  Math U See is such a popular program that I just *knew* a spelling program from Demme Learning would be worth consideration!  We are pleased to share with you our review of Spelling You See: Listen and Write (Level A).

You likely grew up with a weekly list of spelling words to memorize, print on a Friday test, and then move on to a new group of words the following week.  While this method works for some children, rote memorization and phonics rules are not necessarily the most effective ways to become a good speller.

Dr. Karen Holinga, who developed Spelling You See, spent over a decade researching and tutoring to develop this program.  Spelling You See is designed to use writing and visual memory to teach correct spelling.

Spelling You See is based on skill level rather than grade level.  Five levels of Spelling You See take children from the ‘Preliterate’ stage, in which children are just beginning to understand letters and their sounds, through the ‘Derivational Constancy’ stage, in which students learn about word roots from other languages.

I applied to review either Level A or Level B, as Alex falls somewhere in the middle of these two level descriptions.  I’m glad to say that we have been blessed with a review copy of Spelling You See: Listen and Write (Level A)!  Although the beginning of Level A is quite easy for Alex, I’ve actually appreciated the opportunity to start from the beginning.

We received a PDF file of the student book and instructor’s handbook to start our review period right away, and we began immediately after printing the first several weeks of lessons.  When the printed books became available, we also received a physical copy of Listen and Write, along with stickers, a laminated handwriting guide, and an instructor’s handbook.  (Please note: the Spelling You See books are not available in PDF format; reviewers received this format because the printed books were not yet available.)

After browsing through the instructor’s handbook, it was obvious that Spelling You See would be very simple to implement.  I’d been a little nervous about how much time would be required when we started a spelling program, so I was thankful to read that Spelling You See limits you to around ten minutes per day.  Now that I can handle!

The instructor’s handbook has clear instructions for getting started, and the child has only a few lines of work to complete.  It took only a short time to understand how the program works, and then we were ready to go.  Or, at least, *I* was ready to go.

Surprisingly, Alex’s first reaction to this program was complete resistance.  He is normally a very calm, easy-going child.  I’ve never before seen him resist like this during our school time.  After a few days, I was really unsure how we would complete this review if it was turning into a daily battle.  It baffled me, as he was more than capable of doing the small amount of work required in the early lessons of this book.

After pushing through several lessons, I began to realize Alex’s issue was not with the program itself, but with the handwriting style shown in the book.  A few of the letters are made differently than Alex was taught, and this really bothered my little perfectionist.  I encouraged him to write in his typical handwriting, and suddenly the battles ended.  He calmly did each day’s work without issue.  Phew!  Problem solved!

With that said, Spelling You See does have a reason for their handwriting choice.  Each letter is designed to be written in one stroke, without ever lifting the pencil from the page.  The student pack comes with a sturdy, laminated handwriting guide as a reference for your child. 

At the IAHE homeschool convention, I was able to hear Dr. Holinga speak and I was able to ask questions of a representative from the company.  The representative kindly answered my questions, explaining that Spelling You See is not intended to be a handwriting program.  The lettering style was chosen so that children can write each letter easily, making the correct spelling the main focus of the program.  She confirmed that, if handwriting was causing my son a struggle, it was best to allow him to continue writing in his typical writing style.


Spelling You See: Listen and Write (Level A) contains 36 lessons, with 5 pages per unit.  If your child completes one page per day, he can complete the program in one school year.  Each day, students will trace letters, write dictated words, and read aloud the words they have written.  The early weeks include handwriting practice and word boxes for tracing and then copying three three-letter words that you dictate to your student. After the first three units, students move on to writing six three-letter words. 


As students progress through the book, the handwriting practice is gradually eliminated, and students have twelve dictation words each day. The instructor’s guide suggests timing your student beginning in Unit 10, as timing can encourage some children to learn to pace themselves as they work.  This is optional, but I can see how this would be helpful for my Alex.  Whether or not you set a timer is up to you, as the parent, but the guide does encourage you to keep track of time and stop your child after 10 minutes, whether or not the day’s work is completed.  Then simply begin with a new page on the next day.


We’ve come to truly appreciate this time in our school day, and we will continue to use Spelling You See: Listen and Write for the remainder of Alex’s kindergarten year.  (After hearing Dr. Holinga speak at the IAHE homeschool convention, I am very impressed with the future years of the program as well.  It is very likely we will continue to use Spelling You See for future years, as her words really resonated with me!  This is definitely a solid, research-backed program!)


Spelling You See: Listen and Write (Level A) student pack is available for $20, and the Instructor’s Guide is $14.  The student pack contains the student workbook, sticker pack, and handwriting guide.

If you have further questions about Spelling You See, you will definitely appreciate the FAQ section on the Spelling You See website.  It’s full of wonderful information that will help you understand this wonderful new program.

To read reviews from other crew members, please click on the image below!

Technorati Tags: Spelling You See,Demme Learning,Math-U-See,homeschool spelling,visual memory

 

A Weekend Away…and a comedy of errors!

This past weekend, our family had a little getaway to Indianapolis.  We decided to embrace the whole ‘homeschool family’ thing and spend the weekend at the IAHE homeschool conference.

We had a great weekend, but it was definitely one to remember!  Thanks to mommy’s disorganization, it was a weekend full of ‘interesting’ events!

Keith found an inexpensive hotel room on Hotwire, and we enjoyed two nights at a hotel with the warmest swimming pool ever!  Oh my goodness, it was like swimming in a bathtub!  We all thought it was the BEST pool experience in a long time!  (This was the first time we used Hotwire, and we really enjoyed the discounted price and had a nice stay at our hotel.  I was SO nervous, but it was worth it!  $52 a night with free breakfast and the warmest pool ever?  I’ll take it!)

We’d had a very crazy week leading up to this trip, so my packing efforts were not quite as organized as I would have liked.  We arrived at our hotel around 3 pm, hoping to have plenty of time for swimming, dinner, and a decent bedtime for all.

When I opened our suitcases, I discovered that I’d left the boys swim trunks ON THEIR DRESSER.  AT HOME.  TWO HOURS AWAY.  Sigh.  So off we went to the nearest Walmart, where the boys happily chose matching Mario swim trunks.  They are thrilled with their ‘souvenir’!

This moved back all of our plans, so we had a later swim, a later dinner, and a very late bedtime.  Jensyn could not settle, and she was still awake at almost 11 PM.  We had to be up early the next day.  Little did we know just how early we’d wake.

At around 4 AM, Alex woke up coughing and mildly wheezing.  While it wasn’t an emergency, it was obvious that his inhaler would help.  I went to get it out of the bag, and I discovered IT WASN’T THERE.  We had two epi-pens and an inhaler spacer, but the albuterol wasn’t there!

We looked up the nearest 24 hour pharmacy, wake up the pediatrician on call, and had to argue our way to a prescription.  She would have preferred us to visit the nearest ER, but we weren’t about to go to that extreme when an inhaler would solve the problem.  Finally, she agreed, and Keith headed off in the dark to pick up the inhaler.

Keith returned with the inhaler, and we tried to get the kids back to sleep.  Max and Jensyn slept late, which meant we’d likely miss the beginning of the opening session at the convention, but we didn’t dare bring underslept kids to a conference with no opportunity for a nap!

our wild little sleepers!

After we got everyone ready and fed, we headed to the fairgrounds for the convention.  As we drove, Keith told me that he’d heard a loud thud against the side of the car as he’d driven to CVS earlier that morning.  He’d looked at the car, but couldn’t find anything.  He decided it was probably just a piece of construction debris that had bounced off the car due to wind.

We enjoyed a wonderful day at the convention, and I was able to hear several fabulous speakers.   (If you ever have a chance to hear Heidi St. John speak, do it!  She’s uplifting, encouraging, and funny.  I thoroughly enjoyed her presentations!)  We ate lunch with friends, explored the exhibit hall, made a few purchases, and left early enough to enjoy a nice swim before dinner.

As we loaded into the car at the fairgrounds, Keith glanced down and discovered the cause of the ‘thud’ he had heard earlier that morning – a large screw was embedded in the tire.  SO…off we went on a field trip to the nearest tire shop.  Thankfully, they had time to fix the tire, so our little family took over their waiting room for a time.  They were SO kind to our children, providing them with stickers, coloring pages, and tattoos. 

Take a look at these giant tattoos!

Afterwards, we decided it make more sense to grab dinner while we were out, so we headed to Chick Fil A, where we let the kids enjoy the play area for a while.  How nice it is that they’re old enough to play independently – it gave Keith and me a nice chance to just sit and chat while they worked out their day’s worth of wiggles!

We had time to swim, and Alex made a new friend in the pool. We got the kids to bed at a semi-decent time.    Sweet Jensyn fell asleep even before we gave hugs and kisses and had prayers!

Jensyn had a troubled night of sleep (probably due to lack of quality sleep the previous night!), but otherwise we had a good night’s rest.  We enjoyed another breakfast at our hotel before heading off to the second day of the convention.  We somehow managed to be even later than the previous day (!), which means we missed most of the keynote speaker.  (We’ve heard podcasts of Peter Heck before, and we were looking forward this this…but we’ll have to catch it in MP3 version!)

Keith took the kids around the exhibit hall and took them to a kids puppet and balloon art show so that I could concentrate on a seminars.  I enjoyed two more Heidi St. John presentation, and I was also very glad to hear the presentation from Spelling You See creator, Dr. Karen Holinga.  (Jensyn accompanied me to that one while Keith and the boys played.)

Alex exploring a honey bee exhibit

We had decided to leave at lunchtime, so after these presentations, we explored the exhibits, chatted with some friends, and then I went to see just a few more exhibit booths while Keith took the kids to a booth that had candy-filled eggs.  We said goodbye to our friends, and Keith headed one direction with the kiddos while I headed to the opposite side of the exhibit hall.

As I’m browsing, I hear this sweet little voice excitedly calling, “Mama!  Mama!”  I thought it sounded like Jensyn, but with so many kids around, I ignored it.  I figured she was safely with Daddy on the other side of the hall.

As I turned to head down the next aisle, I caught a glimpse of my Jensyn barreling toward me with a giant grin on her face.  A panicked woman was chasing after her, looking all around.  Behind the panicked woman, our friend Dave was also running down the aisle after Jensyn.

The panicked woman was very relieved to see that Jensyn had found her Mama.  Our friend Dave said, “I was just standing in the main aisle talking to Christy, and we saw a blur of little girl run by.  It took a minute to realize it was Jensyn.  Alone!”

Less than a minute later, a panicked Keith flew down the main aisle, pushing a stroller and dragging the boys along with him.  Dave yelled for him, and Keith came over – very thankful to see that Jensyn was just fine.  He’d found the candy egg booth for the kids, but he had to fill out an information card at the booth while simultaneously keeping Max from opening ALL of the candy eggs.  Suddenly, he realized that Jensyn was gone!

It turns out she’d come to show Mama her candy-filled egg, and she found me without ever realizing she’d been ‘lost’.  I guess if you’re going to lose your toddler, a convention hall full of homeschoolers is probably the very safest place to do it!

We left, grabbed a fast food lunch, and headed for home….with all 3 children, a new inhaler, two new pairs of swim trunks, and a freshly-patched tire.  We also had a new spelling curriculum and a drawing book for Alex, K4 pages for Max, and some preschool workbooks for Jensyn.  I think we’re all set for fall!  (Oh, and each of the kids got a fun 6-color ink pen!)

I think we’re all glad that we went to the convention, and we’re glad to have gotten a feel for what it’s all about.  Keith said he’s now ‘been there, done that’, and next year I can just go with a friend and enjoy a weekend away while he holds down the fort at home.  As much as I enjoyed going with the family, I think that sounds like a pretty good deal!  Hopefully I can remember to pack a little more efficiently next time around!

And a nice little P.S…
At our own church the next day, another homeschool family told us that we’d won a door prize at the convention!  We had already left when the prizes were announced, so Rebecca asked if she would be allowed to take the prize to us.  They were giving away the brand new toys that they’d placed in the Toddler Play area during the convention.  Rebecca sent her daughter to pick one, and she just happened to pick the one that my kids absolutely LOVED – a  picnic set!  They have been happily playing with this toy for several days!  Thanks, Rebecca and Jaylyn!