Football Frenzy Download N Go Giveaway

Today, Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett released Football Frenzy, their latest Download N Go unit study and it is on sale for just $4 until August 20!  This is a great deal!  I have the opportunity to give one away here this week.  The giveaway will only run until Friday so you can still take advantage of this deal even if you are not the winner.

 Football Frenzy looks to be another fun study for football lovers.  All of the Download N Go unit studies are for grades K-4 but are easily adaptable for slightly older and younger children.  We thoroughly enjoyed all of the units we did last year and many are reviewed here on my blog.

In Football Frenzy, you will find 5 days of lessons:

Day 1: What Is Football?
Day 2: Where Did Football Begin?
Day 3: People and Places of Football
Day 4: Science Secrets of Football
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Football


Click here to see sample pages.

I am very excited about another new product from Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.  They recently released a Download N Go Teacher's Guide.  I would have loved to have this last year (and will probably get a copy as I plan to use some of the units we have but didn't get to later this year.)  It is currently on sale for just $5 with coupon code DNGFan. You can read a nice review of this guide on Ben & Me. Check out all of the other specials currently running here.

Now for the giveaway.  These are the RULES...please read carefully.  You MUST leave a way for me to contact you.  All entries without this information will be disqualified.  You MUST leave a separate comment for each entry. I will use a random generator to choose the winner.


1. 1 entry (mandatory) leave me a comment telling me if you've tried Download N Go unit studies or anything else by Amanda Bennett or if you would like to try one.


Additional entries:


1 entry- follow my blog publicly (if you already do that counts too)
1 entry- tweet this
1 entry-share this on facebook

The winner is Noteable Scraps.  Thank you all for entering!

Amanda Bennett $5 Frenzy

Over the years we have used many of Amanda Bennett's unit studies.  Last year several of the children used Download N Go and Amanda Bennett Unit Study Adventures as their main curriculum.  I highly recommend these studies and have many reviews of Download N Go units on this blog.

They are currently having a $5 Frenzy Sale.  Don't miss out on this!  It ends Sunday, July 31, 2011.

Don't forget to download your FREE August Summer of Fun calendar while you are there.

And finally, today is the last day to enter to win a $100 CBD gift card!

Winter Wonders

 Over the past week and a half we have been using Download N Go's Winter Wonders unit study.  We really enjoyed the Download N Go Autumn Treasures study so I was really looking forward to this one.  This unit is so jam packed that we could easily spend an entire month studying the topics included.  I think we will do this one again next year and spend more time with it.  Several of the books on the suggested book list included are also Five in a Row titles and I think it would be great fun to "row" a few books while working through Winter Wonders.

Each Download N Go unit study has 5 days of lessons.  In Winter Wonders you get:

Day 1: What is Winter?
Day 2: Science Secrets of Winter
Day 3: People and Places of Winter
Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Winter

sample pages

This is a picture of our "winter" books.  Some are from the library and others we own.  I love the book list in each DNG unit study.  It sure makes life easy when I can just go to the online card catalog and order books that I know will be pertinent to the study as well as safe!

For quite a few years now we have not had a TV.  (We did have a tiny one for the past few months that the kids used to watch old VHS tapes) but, not a TV big enough for the family to watch.  The week after Christmas we got a 40" TV and despite my original reservations I am so happy we got it because I can use it for our Download N Go studies.  We bought an HDMI cable so we can hook the laptop directly to the TV and everyone can easily see all of the great videos and links included in the studies.

TV and laptop side by side...with a Download N Go video playing on the screen

I always like to share a few pictures of our week and let the pictures speak for what we did.

Emma in front of the tree we are following this year.

Emma, Connor and Ryan

Emma on the one day we went on a nature walk.

Emma with her glittery paper snowflake card she made.

nature walk after snowfall (this is the frog pond I've shared pictures of in other studies)

Even the trees smile when it snows.  (At least in my yard they do.)

We made a snowman cake.  We found the directions for making this cake in the Pampered Chef Festive Holiday Desserts Recipe Collection.

Emma adding arms to our snowman cake

Emma with the finished snowman cake.

We also made some bird feeders. (We had a big snowstorm over the last 24 hours and these will be going out on the trees in the morning.  Our other feeders were very busy today!)

Katie helping Emma

Emma spreading peanut butter (actually it was almond butter)
 on a pine cone

Emma holding up the rice cake/almond butter/bird seed hanger

our pine cone and rice cake bird feeders

Inside of Emma's lapbook folder

The inside back cover of the lapbook folder.

This was a really great study that I would highly recommend.  We learned about all things winter...so much to learn about and so much fun!  There are a lot of things we did not get to that we might still do as we have time or save for next year.  Thank you Amanda Bennett for another great unit study!


Visit these blogs for more reviews of Winter Wonders.

Expedition China

This week we did Download N Go's Expedition China.  This was really a crazy week...an unexpected morning of helping my grandmother with Alzheimer's, doctor appointments, several days of rain....just not a great week but we were still able to complete all of the lessons.  Honestly, I tried to do too much!  I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I have a problem with perfectionism AND I hate to waste stuff.  I purchased this unit in the summer after having only completed one Download N Go unit.  I printed EVERY page and because I did this I felt that we had to DO every page.  I would not recommend doing this.  There is so much in this unit, it's really too much to try to do in one week.  I think it would have been better if we had chosen a few things to focus on. With all that being said, we still enjoyed China.

Panda bears are so cute!

Emma was the only one that really completed the work in this unit.  Some of the kids watched the videos and did some coloring but Emma went through all of it.  (I did make her do too much.  I'll try not to do that anymore...LOL)

The week before we started Expedition China, I started reading, These are My People by Mildred Howard.  It is a biography of Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China.  We are enjoying reading it and I hope to finish it in the next few days.  I also got a stack of books from the library list but we haven't really read any.  I think I will read some before we return them to the library though.

I originally planned to cook some kind of Chinese food but we ended up going to a local Chinese restaurant with a few of the kids tonight.  It was fun and we got to try chopsticks.  They also have a fish tank with goldfish (one of the animals we studied this week) and it had a pagoda in it.

Emma trying to use chopsticks. (I'm not sure what Connor is doing.  LOL)

checking out the goldfish in the tank

So, my recommendation for this unit would be to buy it but, do one of two things:

1) Complete it in a week but pick and choose what you want to cover.

OR

2) Do all the lessons but take a much longer time to do it.

There is PLENTY here to fill several weeks especially if you add library books.  I am finding that I like to spend a week on a Download N Go unit (or 6 days if we add a field trip).  I just need to learn to scale back when I do this! :)

Rocking Robots

Our most recent Download N Go unit is Rocking Robots.  We spent an enjoyable week learning about robots from the first toy robot to how robots are used today and how they might be used in the future. As with all of the Download N Go unit studies there are 5 days of lessons.  We spent 5 days working on the unit and then on the 6th day we took a field trip and made a special robot treat!

In Rocking Robots you will find:

Day 1: What Is a Robot? 
Day 2: The History of Robots
Day 3: People and Places of Robots
Day 4: Science Secrets of Robots 
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Robots

Although I did get a stack of books about robots out of the library.  We didn't really use them or need them.  (My husband and older son did enjoy reading some of them.)  I really didn't have much interest in robots and the kids weren't that thrilled with it either but any time I've been hesitant about a Download N Go unit we end up having a good time so we went for it.  I think we all learned a lot and it was fun to watch the robot videos.

I didn't take any pictures while we were working on the unit but we visited the Mystic Aquarium where they have a large exhibit that features underwater robots and videos with Dr. Robert Ballard.  It was a great way to end our study.  Well that, and the robot cake! (You'll find links to the directions in the study.)

Dr. Ballard (a sign as you walk in to the exhibit)

a life size replica of Jason

I can't remember the name of this ROV (you'll learn what that is)
but the kids can climb down inside.

Inside the ROV. The port holes have "movies" going by so it seems as if you are underwater.

A Titanic exhibit where the floor is a movie screen that is like the sea bottom

I think I'll pass on that ticket even at the original price!

one of the movies

decorating our robot cake

Emma, Ryan and Jenna with our robot

We really enjoyed Rocking Robots and I was amazed at some of the videos and the things robots can do. You can read more reviews on the Download N Go blog tour.


* I received a free copy of Rocking Robots in exchange for my honest review.

Lewis and Clark Preview

I just received a preview copy of Download N Go’s Lewis and Clark unit study.  I am really looking forward to doing this unit.  We have not studied Lewis and Clark in a long time and it will be really fun to do it the Download N Go way!

In each Download N Go unit there are 5 days of lessons.  In Lewis and Clark you’ll find:

Autumn Treasures Part 2

It has only been a few days since I wrote part 1 of Autumn Treasures but we have done so much in that time!  One of the activites we did on Friday that I didn't write about was a watercolor lesson. I purchased some Prang waterpaints at Staples and a couple of Rose Art trays as well.  I didn't want to spend over $5 each on Prang but you can tell the difference between the two when using them so I should make an effort to make sure they each get their own set of Prang watercolors. (though at this stage I'm not sure the younger ones really care.)  They all LOVED painting and keep asking to do it again.

Emma, Jenna, Ellie and Connor learning about watercolors

On Saturday, we visited a local pumpkin farm for their annual fall festival.  There was so much to do as you'll see in the pictures.  Before we left for the farm, I filled the crockpot with apples, sugar and spices and later in the day we had some nice homemade applesauce.  I used this recipe.

preparing the apples for the applesauce

applesauce before cooking...I sliced the apples with a mandoline

Connor, Emma and Ellie sharing a warm blanket on a chilly morning

Just before entering the corn maze

Download N Go Reviews

This is a list of all of my Download N Go Reviews.  I thought it might be easier if they could be found all in one place. I will keep adding to the list as I add more reviews.  They are listed in alphabetical order.

Autumn Treasures 
Davy Crockett (COMING SOON!)
Dolphins
Expedition Africa (preview)
Expedition Australia (COMING SOON!)
Expedition China
Expedition Mexico
Lewis and Clark(preview)
Pizza Party
Rocking Robots
Roller Coasters
Sunny Seashells
Terrific Tigers 
Whales