April 16, 2013

What are some online learning sites that my preschooler can go to and actually learn something?

Little Bear really likes to play on the computer. I’m a bit of stickler when it comes to computer playing, so I really only let him play on the computer if he is learning something. There are so many online educational websites out there today and honestly, a lot of them are pretty lame. Over time I have found some great ones and today I am going to share with you what I think are the top 5 online learning websites for preschoolers. They are in order and the best ones are last, so be sure to go all the way to the bottom for the best online learning websites. Let me know if you have any other website that your preschooler loves. I’d love to find some more.

Mighty Book

What is it?

Mighty Book is a fun website that consists mostly of online Read-Aloud books. It also has story songs, sing along songs, games, lesson plans, and more.

How much is it?

A lot of this website is available for free. There are more books, songs, etc. if you pay an annual fee. A household membership is $24.95 per year. There are also options for a single classroom, a single daycare, etc. up to a large school district with more than 10 schools.

Do I recommend it and why?

This is a pretty fun websites for preschoolers. My kids especially love the story songs and sing along songs. The games are also pretty fun, but there aren’t a lot of free games. The site is fairly easy to navigate for my preschooler, but he has a hard time finding new things. I have to remind him to check out the words on the left side at the bottom of the screen. Overall, I do recommend this website and the free options are pretty good. You do get more if you pay for the website and log in, but if you are looking for something free, this website is a good option.

Reading is Fundamental: Leading to Reading

What is it?

Reading is Fundamental has a mission to motivate young children to read and to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. The Leading to Reading website is a place for kids to have fun playing games, reading books, and do online coloring.

How much is it?

This website is completely free as far as I can tell.

Do I recommend it and why?

This website is extremely easy to navigate. There is a babies and toddlers section as well as a preschoolers section. It says any words that you hover over so that your preschooler can figure out what to click on without actually having to click on it. There are about 12 online books available for your child to watch. They usually make the books fun with music. They also have some singing books which are really fun. The games on the website are not the greatest in the world, but Little Bear enjoys them. Overall this is a great online learning site and it is completely free.

Literacy Center

What is it?

Literacy Center has free, professionally designed education material for preschool-aged children. It is an educational website with fun games and activities for letters, shapes, writing, words, numbers, and colors.

How much is it?

This online learning site is completely free.

Do I recommend it and why?

I definitely recommend this website. It is very easy to navigate and has lots of fun activities that are great for my preschooler. Some of the spelling games are just a little too hard for my Little Bear, but he still has a great time playing around on this website. In fact, he has learned how to spell a few color words just through trial and error. I think this website is great.

Starfall (#1 free educational website)

What is it?

Starfall is a free educational site that teaches children to read with phonics. There is a systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice and it is perfect for preschool and Kindergarten.

How much is it?

Much of the website is completely free. It costs $70 for one year to access full content on the website. You can also pay for 3 months at a time which is $18.

Do I recommend it and why?

This is absolutely my favorite online learning website by far. It is very easy to navigate. It has great activities that actually help with reading and learning. It is compelling and fun to play. Little Bear loves playing the Kindergarten math activities even though they are well above his math level. Even though he doesn’t completely understand the activities, he still loves playing them. Plus, the more he plays them, the more he understands them. If your preschooler loves this website as much as mine, I recommend paying for a year membership. However, even if you only use the content that is free, your preschooler is sure to have a blast and learn some things.

ABC Mouse (#1 paid educational website)

What is it?

ABC Mouse is an online learning academy with a full curriculum that is appropriate for ages 3-6. It is perfect for parents that want their children to learn without having to pay for a preschool. There is a step-by-step learning path with 6 levels and all activities are progressive.

How much is it?

ABC Mouse costs $7.95 a month or $79 for a year. There is no free content.

Do I recommend it and why?

This website is very educational and will definitely provide lots of learning for your child. It is very easy to navigate and really fun for kids. If you want a full preschool curriculum (or you just want to supplement the curriculum your child gets at his preschool), then this website is perfect. It does cost money, but you can add up to three children for the same price. I do recommend this website because there is so much learning. If you are looking for something very educational and not necessarily free, this is the website I would recommend this most.

One last thing, this post is not sponsored in any way and I will receive no compensation if you sign up with any of these websites. I just wanted to give you an honest review of some good online learning websites.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

March 29, 2013

How would you review Do-a-dot markers? Are the Do-a-dot brand markers worth buying?

Several months ago I posted a review about Walmart’s Paint Dab Markers, which are like Do-a-dot brand markers, but cheaper. You can read the review if you want, but overall I hated the Paint Dab Markers. I was so frustrated with them after a few months, that I determined I would just buy the real do-a-dot brand markers for Little Bear for Christmas. I did that and we have been using the Do-a-Dot brand markers for 3 months now. Let me start by saying that they were definitely worth the $15 they cost (for a set of 6). We love the do-a-dot brand markers and here are several reasons why.

Do-a-Dot Markers do not dry out. You can leave the tops off while your child uses them and they will not dry out. In fact, I have heard tell that you can leave the tops off for days and they still will not dry out. We have only left the tops off for an hour, so I don’t know for sure if that’s true, but leaving the tops off for one hour will definitely not dry them out.

The colors are vibrant. I love the way all of the colors come out. I don’t love the purple because it looks more pink than purple to me, but other than that, I love the colors. They are bright and consistent. You get the same color every single time.

The size of dot is uniform between colors. Every time you make a dot, it makes the same size of dot no matter what color you use. Of course, if you held the marker down against a piece of paper, you could probably make the dot bigger, but in general, the same size dot comes out every time. Also, there isn’t any weird white space in the middle of the dot. The whole dot gets colored and the size is uniform.

The consistency is also uniform. Our old paint dab markers all had different consistencies. The blue one needed to be pressed really hard to get any paint out, while the green one came out super fast and had to be dotted extremely fast. The do-a-dot brand markers are not like that at all. They all come out the same consistency. The paint isn’t too thick and it dries pretty quickly.

Do-a-dot markers are non-toxic. Granted, you wouldn’t let your child suck on the dot marker, but if a little bit does end up in their mouth, know that they’ll be just fine.

Do-a-dot markers are washable. I’ll be honest, I haven’t tested this out in clothing yet. My kids definitely get some of the paint on their skin when they use these markers and I’ve always been able to get the color out with a diaper wipe. I have a little bit of mess-phobia though, so I’m a little crazy when my kids play with dot markers and I make sure they don’t get any of the paint on their clothes. I have heard from others though that the rainbow do-a-dot markers wash out of clothing well. However, the magenta and/or fuchsia markers from the bright set are apparently NOT all that washable, so be aware of that.

The paint from the do-a-dot markers lasts for years. Obviously I haven’t tested this with our dot markers because we have only had them for 3 months. But, many of the reviews I’ve read have said that the paint in these last for a really long time.

Last of all, these dot markers are fun! My kids love playing with these. It’s a great way for my kids to practice fine motor skills, especially when they take the lids on and off. The only real trouble I have is trying to pry the dot markers out of Smiley Man’s hands when it’s time to put them away. :)

Overall, I definitely recommend buying these markers. This post is not sponsored (although there are affiliate links in it). My opinion of do-a-dot markers is honestly very high. I love them especially after my bad experience with the Paint Dab Markers. They are more expensive, but if you are looking for dot markers, do-a-dot brand is really the only way to go.

Here are the printables you see in these pictures:

• Rainbow Do-a-dot page
• A is for apple page

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

March 22, 2013

What is a fun gift I can get for my boys that is a little bit unique and not a killing action figure?

With the upcoming Easter season everyone is looking for gifts for their kids. If you have boys I’m sure you are well aware that most of their toys seem to be based around violence. It can be hard to find gifts that aren’t violence related that are still “cool”. Well, one of the best ideas I have found are Hexbugs. (Just so you know, I have included affiliate links here but everything I tell you is absolutely my own opinion and I’m writing this post because I really like Hexbugs Nanos!)

To give you a little background…My parents always try to find a fun family toy or game for us to play with on Christmas morning. A couple years ago they bought Hexbugs. At first it seemed like a silly thing for adults (all of my family is now over 18) to play with, but we loved them! We built a couple different tracks and then had races to see which person’s bug could get to a certain point first.

These “bugs” vibrate which makes them move. They wiggle along a track and look just like a bug. Like I said above, it’s fun to create a race track and have races to see who’s bug gets to the end first. You can also have “wars” with the bugs and see who’s will be knocked over first or fall off the track first. We’ve even tried adding obstacles to the course to see what they do.

A few months ago my husband and I were babysitting my nephews (from his side of the family) at my parents house and we got the Hexbugs out for them to play with. They spent hours playing with them! We had to change up the batteries in most of the bugs before they were through playing with them, but it was well worth it for the amount of time they were entertained.

A few weeks before Christmas my sister-in-law (who’s boys we were babysitting) and I were talking. She mentioned to me she was trying to come up with a gift idea for one of the boys. I told her how much fun he had playing with the Hexbugs when we were babysitting. She thought that was a great idea and got those for him. He and his brother were both very excited for that Christmas gift. As it turns out, another nephew also got them for Christmas this year!

From personal experience I can honestly say that these little bugs, silly as they seem, are a really fun thing for young boys, girls and even adults! From my experience all of the bugs have worked really well. Some are a little speedier than others, and they slow down a little when the batteries are almost dead, but we’ve had a great experience with them. Just be sure to have extra batteries on hand!

You can buy individual bugs as well as a fun set. This particular set comes with a couple bugs and track pieces. It would be a great starter set. You can also buy just the bridges (also curved) and hex pieces. We have the Elevation 3D set which has a lot of options for creating tracks.

So, if you are stumped trying to find the perfect gift for your son, nephew, grandson, or kids, consider getting Hexbugs!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

March 1, 2013

One of those cliche New Year’s resolutions seems to be getting more organized. Although cliche, this is a goal I seriously set for myself. We moved into a new apartment just before Christmas, after almost a year of living with other people and having all of our things in storage. Let me tell you, after months of not having your own things you forget how much you have.

When we were starting to put things away I knew I wanted things to have a system and be clearly organized so I would know where everything was. It took a couple days for us to get things figured out and contained, but it was worth it. I have to say that it would have taken weeks except my wonderful husband took a lot of initiative and did a bulk of the work. While I like to be organized, I tend to just deal with clutter. He made sure we accomplished our plan to be all cleaned up and put together.

One of the ways I organized my drawers and shelves was by cutting down large cardboard rolls into smaller pieces. I found an awesome work table at Costco for about $50 (here is a picture of it). After several cutting projects in the past, I knew this would be a great purchase. Turns out it was! Using our Multi-tool my husband was kind enough to cut down these rolls for me. It was a lot of work but I love how it turned out! It was a great cheap alternative to buying drawer organizers. I also used it to store all of my scarves. It works really well and I can see all of my scarves at the same time (as opposed to being in a pile on a shelf or in a drawer).

I know we don’t usually make a point of advertising products to you, but I really have to tell you how much I love my Craftsman Multi Tool! It is seriously one of the best tools we’ve purchased. It has all kinds of uses around the house. We got a set at Costco that also included a cordless drill (here is a link to the drill) as well. The quality is great and we have used both items around the house quite a bit.

Ok, enough of the tools :). We bought two sets of these metal shelves while in our last apartment and they currently reside in our extra room. While they are super handy, I really wanted to have a solid shelf for my extra dishes (food styling props). I didn’t want to have to buy wood for the shelves so I decided to try using cardboard. After I cut down the cardboard boxes we’d used to move to the correct size I realized they would be perfect! I had some fabric leftover from another project and decided to cover the cardboard with it to make it look nicer. I love how it turned out! Here is a little step by step of what I did:

Cut the cardboard to size

Hot glue the corners and sides

Finish up gluing all the sides

Voila!

During the days we were organizing I also made about 5 trips to the dollar store. They have so many great items to help with organizing! Plus, they come in lots of fun colors! I had a bunch of random containers I had saved over the years so I tried to use those as well before purchasing new things. I’m a little bit addicted to cute containers :).

Needless to say this was a very time consuming project and it involved some creative thinking, but I am so glad we did it! As it turns out cheap home organization is possible! A variety of solutions are possible, you just have to figure out what works best for you. All of these little containers has really helped our house stay so much cleaner and it is much easier to find things.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

February 19, 2013

What is a good, small laminator that I can use for my home, preschool, or homeschool?

I purchased the Scotch Thermal laminator in July 2012 and have had it for 6 months now. I bought it to laminate a bunch of activities from the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Since I bought it I have used it to laminate the whole Letter of the Week curriculum, playdough mats, pattern blocks mats, bookmarks, handwriting pages, chore charts, and more.

Overall, I LOVE this laminator. It has been so nice to be able to laminate things for school and for our home. I honestly don’t know what I did without it. Actually, I do know. I used contact paper and packing tape. I thought contact paper and packing tape worked well and didn’t really think I was missing a laminator, but I can tell you now that I was wrong. I love having a laminator. It is so much cleaner looking and stronger than contact paper and packing tape ever were.

Pros of the Scotch Thermal Laminator

• It only takes about 7 minutes to heat up and then it can be used for hours. I have used it for 3 hours in a row, but not longer than that. It worked well for the full three hours. I do let it heat up for another minute or two after the light turns blue because it isn’t quite ready when the blue light turns on.
• It works perfectly with the laminating sheets that I buy from Sam’s Club ($20 for 200 sheets!)v. The laminating sheets come with a white cover that you are supposed to put over the laminating sheet before putting it into the laminator. I do not use the white cover because the sheet doesn’t seal all the way when I use it. Instead I just put the laminating sheet straight into the laminator. I have not used the scotch thermal pouches, but they probably work wonderfully since they actually go with the laminator. ;)
• It is easy to operate. I found it very easy to put together the first time. Now, I just have to plug the laminator in, unfold the tray for the laminating sheets, and press the button to turn on the laminator. Once it is heated all the way, I put the laminating sheet (filled with whatever I want to laminate) into the laminator.
• The laminator has always sealed the laminating sheets completely. The only time it didn’t was when I used the white cover, but I never use that now and it works great.

Cons of Scotch Thermal Laminator

• The edge of the laminating sheet does occasionally stick on the inside of the laminator on its way out. If I notice it right away, I can grab it and just use my fingernail to straighten the place that it got stuck. If I don’t notice it right away, it gets more and more stuck and the end result is bumpy. I have tried to use an iron to smooth out the bumpiness and I have tried to run it through the laminator again. Neither method worked. Unfortunately, if it gets bumpy, it is stuck like that. Fortunately, I have only had it get stuck a few times.
• This next con is more for the laminating sheets I use, not for the laminator. The laminating sheets do not work well with dry erase markers. It is very difficult to erase the dry erase marker from the laminating sheet. The longer the marker has been on the laminating sheet, the harder it is to erase. Luckily, crayons work well on the laminating sheets. I use a cloth diaper to erase the crayon. Dry erase crayons work even better with the laminating sheets. You can use a cloth or a diaper wipe to erase the dry erase crayons.
• The laminator can only laminate things 8 ½ x 11 or smaller. To buy a bigger laminator costs a lot more than I am willing to spend. Besides that, almost anything I want to laminate is smaller than 8 ½ x 11 anyway, so this doesn’t really bother me.

 

I love my Scotch laminator and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a personal laminator, a small laminator for a home preschool, or a laminator for homeschools. I have laminated close to 1,000 sheets since getting my laminator and it is still going strong. I love this laminator and definitely recommend it.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me