Wordly Wise 3000

Before our homeschool adventure began, I'd purchased a comprehensive 3rd grade curriculum to "try out" homeschooling my daughter over the summer between second and third grade. Turns out, I began using it sooner than I'd originally thought.

I can't really complain about the curriculum I purchased but when it came to the spelling/vocabulary words it provided as a comprehensive list for my child, it was *way* too easy for her. Even half way through second grade, it did nothing to challenge her.

Last night I was reading through another homeschool blog (http://www.fivejs.com/) where she mentioned using Wordly Wise 3000. I went off to check it out and discovered it might be a good fit for my child. I ordered the third grade workbook, key and test booklets on ebay for about $25 including shipping.

You can find out more about this program at http://intervention.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?series=2818M

I guess the parent company who makes this curriculum also makes Explode the Code. I've heard good things about that too - although I haven't investigated that yet. One thing I really like is that on the page I listed above, under downloads, you can find a word list by level of each word used in the program. In addition to that, you can visit http://www.wordlywise3000.com/ where you can go through each lesson with your child and then play games. Both of these options are free! Gotta love that.

Ashlee and I sat through the lesson on line for Book 2 lesson 1 today. It was short enough to hold her attention but long enough to go over 9 or 10 vocabulary words while requiring the child to repeat the word aloud and then answer a yes/no, true/false, a) or b) style question about each word covered. My four year old was also interested in the lesson which I thought was pretty cool.

I think I'm going to make some 3x5 cards with all the words from Book 2 and their definitions and play with that until my Book 3 gets here.

I love finding new quality material out there! I hope you find it useful too - even if you don't end up buying the books.

Cheers!

Bippity Boppity Boutique

While at Disney last month, I'd hoped to take my daughter to the Bippity Boppity Boutique. It never worked out but while at Downtown Disney she became a princess anyway. We stood just outside the boutique and Alessandra sprinkled my girl with fairy dust and said the magic words and she became a princess right before my eyes! It was one of those moments that I'll treasure when I remember the trip. Thank you Alessandra - wherever you are.

Break Free

Don't be afraid to be among the first to break free. Raise your head and stand apart from the crowd.

New look for Lightning Igniting

Did you notice? Did ya, did ya? I put up a new template for this blog. The old one was just too dull. Sorry Blogger!

I've been wanting something better for awhile but it wasn't easy finding a template that wasn't *so* girlie. I found just what I was looking for over at Split Decisionz. Click on the "free stuff" tab and see what she has to offer. Super cute stuff! And she looks a LOT more polished than many of the other blogger templates I found...

http://www.splitdecisionz.com/

Go ahead... snazz up your own blog! You know you want to!

Mother's Day is coming

My parents do a LOT of traveling. Either driving between their two homes, driving between their home and visiting me or vacationing. They have this little travel pillow they keep in the car for naps on the road and at a recent visit, it was somehow left at my house. It wasn't very pretty so I decided to spruce it up with a pillow case just for it.
My mom loves yellow but I was afraid a yellow pillowcase would show dirt too easily. Above is the front and below is the back. You can make this, as I did, from two fat quarters (available at any fabric store but on sale for $.99 each at Joann's this week). If you want the body of the pillowcase to be the same on both sides, use three fat quarters.

I was sprucing up the one they already own, but you can pick up a travel pillow form for about $8 on sale this week at Joann's. For about $10 and about 30 minutes of your time, you have a handmade gift for your mom! Love that!

In fact, I like this project so much, I think it's going to be my new birthday gift for all the little birthday parties my kiddos get invited to. What better way to use all those fun kid fabrics that I see at the store but wouldn't really use to decorate a room with?! And I bet every kid would enjoy having their own travel pillow and every mom would enjoy one less toy to pick up...

If you really want to make it special, attach this poem with your gift.

I'm your special travel pillow
I was made with lots of care,
Each stitch around my pillow case
Was sewn with love and prayer.

You can take me with you when you go
To places near and far
Cruises to exotic lands
Or just road trips in the car.

Cheers!

Downtown Disney - Lego Store

We took a trip to Disney World last week. It was a ton of fun and you can expect to see more about the trip here on this 'ole blog. To start with, I'll share about our Lego experience. (Come on, you knew I was gonna start with Legos...)

Knowing the trip was coming up, we decided to incorporate some of the money that would be spent at Disney World into Christmas gifts. This served two purposes, teaching our children a bit about delayed gratification and also defraying some of the cost of Christmas. Each child was given a golden ticket (shown above) that I made here at home explaining that they could pick out one Lego set at the biggest Lego store in the US while we were at Downtown Disney. This trick worked amazingly well! Each child picked out a set that was about $50 in value. (Ashlee's was a bit more but she has proven that she will care for it better than the boys too.)

Today I'm going to share with you the set that Mason picked out. It is so charming! We've all had a great time playing with it over these last two days. It's Woody's Roundup - a newly released set.

Here you can see the entire set from the front. It includes the Sheriff's office, the jail and a gold mine.

First we have Stinky Pete in handcuffs standing outside the jail next to his wanted poster. By the way, what exactly does Disney have against the name Pete? That's two bad guys named Pete in the Disney collection. Sorry - got a little distracted there...

Here is Jessie standing next to the cactus and snake with another set of handcuffs in case another bad guy wanders into the scene...

I love the horse and the water trough. The details that Lego puts into these sets always amazes me.

Here is the back of the Sheriff's office with a bank safe upstairs.

I love that the safe actually opens and has money in it! Again... those details that Lego is so good at.

Here you can see the back side of the jail. Fairly plain - until.....

Stinky Pete has an accomplice on the outside who turns the wheel and the whole back wall blows off! Some fun action there for my little people to enjoy actually playing with the set!

The Gold Mine actually has a bit of gold in it for your miner to find.

And one of my favorite touches, the little lantern above the mine. How creative are these folks who design these things?! I don't think I could ever come up with this stuff but I love that it can inspire my little Lego designers to think bigger than what the brick actually looks like on it's own.

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it many more times. I {heart} Legos.

Cheers!

Boys

"Boys are active verbs: throw, choke, love, smash, hug, collect, love, dig, kiss, bounce." -Mrs. G via Pioneer Woman's blog.

Yep, that about sums it up. Although my girl is an action verb too... most days.