Homeschooling | 3 Boys And A Dog

Review: Mollymocassins.com

May 12, 2012 By Tamera Leave a Comment

I love reading websites, so checking out one was okay with me!

About Mollymocassins.com (from their website)

Our purpose is really very simple: to encourage and inspire young children to discover the wonder and amusement of the “every day.” By combining new technologies with old-fashioned wisdom, we hope to capture their imagination and build their curiosity, enabling them to notice and connect with the world surrounding them through “adventure”stories, activities and games. Our lead adventurer is Molly Moccasins, whose positive attitude and clever curiosity takes her on many adventures, sometimes right in her own backyard, and never too far from her everyday reality.

Adding story-related activities and games enhances enthusiasm not only to learn while children play, but also to exercise their innate sense of wonderment. The versatility of mollymoccasins.com allows young adventurers to easily navigate between and within any of the stories, games or activities, while the experience of the site encourages them to create their own stories and games in their everyday lives.

mollymoccasins.com is a unique digital book series and online experience where young children can explore, with or without adult guidance, and learn that every day brings the possibility of a new adventure.

My Thoughts

I like that the stories are a series, and that they play on their own, no having to push the next page button. The words highlight on the bottom, so if they are a fast reader, they can follow along. You can choose to turn off the sound or the highlighted words. It has some nice extras, such as printables, picture puzzles (that you can adjust the level on), connect the numbers, splash coloring, story painting and activity pages. You can buy each book for 99 cents! Then you can download them as apps, ebooks and audio books! Pretty cool! They aren’t really short stories either! You can give story gifts to someone else and every book bought gets a book donated to a child in need. Fantastic!

Sign up!

You can buy one story at a time for 99 cents each (with all of its games) or you can go ALL ACCESS for $29.99 here.

pf button big Review: Mollymocassins.com

Filed Under: Homeschooling, Just for Kids, Parenting and Family, Review and Giveaways, Reviews, Teachable Moments Tagged With: apps, Connect the dots, dress up, ebooks, giving, Matching, Molly Mocassins, music, Online Books, online games

Countdown to Summer Tips: A Little Water (Fun) Never Hurt Anyone! #C2S12

May 10, 2012 By Kelli 3 Comments

In South Alabama, the actual “first day of summer” may be over a month away (June 20th), but it is hot as Hades out there! Seriously, my mailbox is not THAT far away and I got sunburned just walking out to it and back. So, I have compiled a list of water fun activities to help you keep the kids cool this summer. Enjoy!

Don’t forget the obvious ones: water park, swimming, local beach, water hose, soap and water on the trampoline, snow cones, and the like.

Lauren and Bug at Tutus & Tea Parties teach us how to make Sponge Balls and show us all the fun we can have with them. I am not sure this would be a good idea for my boys… geez, they would be pinging these things at each other and I would have black eyes and other bruises to tend to. LOL! However, they do look like super fun! Want to see even more Sponge Ball fun? Be sure to swing by Dukes and Duchesses to see the kids playing sponge ball in the back yard.

Grab the water guns and let the kids get rid of all the scary boogie men in a Monster Shoot Out! Just at What I live for tells us how to do it pretty simply from old cereal boxes! Yes, green too!

Ice Cube Painting? What in the world? Teach Beside Me tells us how to make non-toxic paints that are safe for the kids and great for cooling off in the hot weather. Seriously, painting with ice cubes! How much fun is that?

There you go, some awesome ideas to get the kids outside this summer and still let them learn. Do you have ideas to share? Please link to them in the comments section.

pf button big Countdown to Summer Tips: A Little Water (Fun) Never Hurt Anyone! #C2S12

Filed Under: Homeschooling, Parenting Tagged With: #C2S12, countdown to summer, link round up

GIVEAWAY: Set of 3 Puzzle Books #C2S12

May 8, 2012 By Kelli 106 Comments

I love puzzles, not sure what it is about them but I almost always have puzzles going somewhere. It could be a real puzzle spread out on the kitchen table or the folding card table… or is could be a Sudoku or Logic puzzle going on my Kindle or XYBoard. OR it could be a book of Sudoku, Logic, Fill-It Ins, or Word Find Puzzles! They keep my brain active. LOL!

Seriously, when I am cooking supper I usually work a puzzle or two, when I am sitting at the Park with the boys, when I am out at the Pool, etc. I think that Puzzle Books are great for keeping the kids’ minds active during the summer months, what about you?

When Idiots Guides asked if I was interested in reviewing some of their newest puzzles, there was no way I was turning them down!

One Lucky 3 Boys and a Dog Reader will win their very own set of puzzle books!

The set includes:

REQUIRED COMMENT

BONUS #1: Follow @IdiotsGuides and @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post. YOU MAY TWEET ONCE DAILY

BONUS #2: Like The Complete Idiot’s Guides and 3 Boys and a Dog on FaceBook then share this post by clicking the FaceBook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)
#2. Sign up for my NEW Weekly Newsletter.
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#6 – Vote for me at Picket Fence by clicking the button on my sidebar. Be sure to leave a comment saying you did! YOU MAY VOTE ONCE DAILY!

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on May 22nd

OPEN TO: USA Only

*DISCLAIMER: I was sent items by The Complete Idiot’s Guides to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.*

Filed Under: Giveaways, Homeschooling Tagged With: books, contest, giveaway, idiots guide, puzzle, win

Review: Reading Kingdom website

May 5, 2012 By Tamera Leave a Comment

I was excited to try out a new site that would help my kiddos read better and Reading Kingdom sounded like a great one to try!

About the Reading Kingdom (from their website)

The Reading Kingdom is a fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level.

Most kids can do this online reading program on their own after just a few lessons
It’s fun and children enjoy doing it
It’s created by Dr. Marion Blank, one of the world’s top experts in literacy
It works with any other curriculum a child may be using
It’s the only program to offer customized online reading instruction for each child
And, it’s the only system that teaches all 6 skills needed for reading & writing success!

Our commitment to online reading for kids is based on our patented six skills method for reading success. These skills include sequencing, motor skills, phonics (phonemic awareness), meaning, grammar and reading comprehension. Our online reading for kids program is ideal for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, special education, homeschool, and English as a second language. The Reading Kingdom online reading for kids program is an ideal supplement to existing curricula, as well an excellent independent curriculum. Our online reading for kids program is also a great educational alternative to other entertainment options. In fact, most children refer to the Reading Kingdom as a reading game, since it is so fun to play. We’re proud that our reading programs for kids are thought of as reading games (especially by kids!).In addition to our online reading for kids program, we also offer a number of additional, low-cost materials and books that complement our online reading program. Please visit The Reading Kingdom Store for reading products and discount opportunities for our award-winning online reading program for kids.

My Thoughts

I had my four and a half year old daughter try this out, to see how well it worked for the lower end of the age range. First they test your kiddo to see where they are at (with no help from you whatsoever). My daughter did pretty well with them, they stopped pretty soon after she started getting bored. When she did get a little bored, she was able to pause it until she was ready to start back up (you have 15 minutes to pause). My three-year-old wanted to play too! I was proud of how well my daughter has done. Then they start in on reading lessons that are like games. Pretty cool as a curriculum, but I know my little girl was more interested in getting to the games! I think this will help her out a ton and I’m looking forward to getting my older kiddo on, to see how she does!

Buy it!

You can go here to sign up!

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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Parenting and Family, Review and Giveaways, Reviews, Teachable Moments Tagged With: 4-10 years old, cognition, curriculum, early childhood education, education, First grade, grammar, Homeschool, kindergarten, kingdom, learning, management of dyslexia, marion blank, meaning, Motor skills, online reading, online reading programs, phonemic awareness, phonics, preschool, reading, reading comprehension, Reading game, reading games, reading instruction, Reading Kingdom, reading programs, Reading success, reading writing, Second grade, Sequencing, teach child, Third grade, website

GIVEAWAY: Touchtile Reading System $149.00 value #C2S12

May 1, 2012 By JacquiO

cti flex logo GIVEAWAY: Touchtile Reading System $149.00 value #C2S12

The biggest problem with 9 weeks of Summer is that kids lose some of what they were taught in school. Keeping them reading and learning all Summer helps to defeat that learning loss!

I feel learning is very important part of growing up. I strongly believe teaching my children shouldn’t be just up to the teachers. I think that as parents we should also encourage our children to learn. Seeings how not all parents are teachers and didn’t go to school for education sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. I recently came across a great program to help teach my kids how to read, Touchtile Reading System.

The Touchtile™ Reading System consists of six levels:

Level One – Consonants, vowels, and blending: this level teaches them the letter sounds and how to blend two letter sounds together.

Level Two – CVC pattern: this level teaches them how to blend three letter sounds together with a consonant, vowel, consonant pattern.

Level Three – Blends and digraphs : this level teaches them how to blend four sounds together with an emphasis on blends and digraphs.

Level Four -Long E : this level teaches them how to use the silent e at the end of words.

Level Five -Endings : this level teaches them how to add endings to words.

Level Six -Multi-Syllable Words : this level teaches them how to blend multi-syllabic words.

My son is currently attending Head Start and will be in Kindergarten next year. He is one very excited boy. I have notice several times just through casual conversation that he struggles allot with letter sounds. I know he is still young, but I don’t want it to become a habit that he says certain letters wrong. I am constantly correcting him but getting no where. Only after using this system for a week at 15minutes a day I have notice a huge difference how he says certain letters! Level one is broke up into two parts. Part one is just for working on the letter sounds. Part two is to show them how to blend to sounds together. For example some of the words we will work with are: at, am, an, as, and ax. Like I said we have been at this for a week now and I think in just another week we can move on to part two. My only complaint about this system is I wish I have a came across it sooner!

Connect With Touchtile Reading System

Site

Facebook

Twitter

Purchase Touchtile Reading System

149.00 at Online Store

WIN a Touchtile Reading System Instant Download

REQUIRED COMMENT: Visit Touchtile and tell me something you learned!

BONUS #1: Follow @momof3boys3702 and Touchtile on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post. YOU MAY TWEET ONCE DAILY!

BONUS #2: Like 3 Boys and a Dog and Touchtile on Facebook, then share this post by clicking the Facebook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)

#2. Follow my blog.

#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

#4. Put my button on your blog.

#5. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

#6 – Vote for me at Picket Fence by clicking the button on my sidebar. Be sure to leave a comment saying you did! YOU MAY VOTE ONCE DAILY!

CONTEST ENDS: May 15th

OPEN TO: Worldwide

Disclosure: I receive sample(s) for purpose of testing and review. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”