Sign ups have now closed, and lists have been mailed out. If you feel like you signed up, but didn’t get an email from me last night, there’s always the possibility that your email address got saved incorrectly, or some other mishap.
Please let me know as soon as possible, and thank you guys for the time you put in telling other families about the list and helping me spread the word!
Remember, all cards need to be mailed out on or by February 5th. I did extend that by a day, since the mail should be calmer this time of year than at Christmas.
Tommy is finally beginning to be an independent reader, something that’s been our main goal for awhile now. I know that kids struggle for awhile, then it’s like a switch is flipped in their head and they’re magically fluent readers, so I’m just trying to keep forcing gently encouraging him to put in his reading minutes.
The English language is a big old pain in the butt. There are so many times when phonics fails our beginning readers, heck, you can’t even spell phonics using phonics…
So, any teacher or parent has a set of helpful reminders for their kids about the trickier letter combos. I thought I would share mine with you, and hopefully you could share some of yours!
When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. Ex: Team, meat, snail…
AR blend: What do pirates say? ARRRRRR!
OW blend: This one SOUNDS mean, but I promise, these are soft pinches of LOVE! I say, “What does ‘OW’ say?” then pretend to pinch the kids’ thigh. They say “OW!!!” really loud, giggle, and figure out the word. OU makes this sound, too.
When there’s an E at the end of a word, it bites the vowel and makes it say its name! Ex: in BITE, the e “bites” the i, and it says I!
A story for the letter C: C didn’t get its own sound, and felt bad. So both K and S decided that C could share BOTH of their sounds!
The nice thing is when the kids start to struggle with a word, and they self-prompt the rule. I’ll hear Tommy say “Oh, 2 vowels…” and figure out the word.
Do you have any tips and tricks that you’ve used with your beginning readers? Helpful suggestions for those of us about to go bald trying to wait for the switch to flip?
With last year’s snow, I figured that come the end of January, the kids would be climbing the walls inside the house, so I enrolled them in a class at the YMCA to climb THEIR walls!
Wall Climbing, or Indoor Rock Climbing is becoming more and more popular across America. Gyms, community buildings, and stores (think: REI) are using climbing walls to add to their catalog of exercise options. It’s FUN and can be enjoyed by a wide age range of people. At our Y, children as young as 4 can take the classes and one of our local colleges has a hugely popular climbing wall for their students.
First off, the instructor taught the children about the equipment they would be required to use. Carabiners
They learned how to tie the knots they would need for their rope. We will be practicing the Figure-8 Knot at home this week.
The kids had a great time. Then Tommy was so amped up on adrenaline, he drove me nuts. He’s out like a light now though!
Climbing is a full body work out. You work your hands holding the grips, your forearms pulling yourself up, your legs and abs pushing yourself up to the next grip, and your brain, because finding your path up the wall uses a lot of problem solving. Controlled, indoor climbing is also low impact.
One thing I’ve always found particularly interesting about wall and rock climbing is that girls are extremely competitive against guys in this sport. When a guy and a girl (both novices) are pitted against each other on the climbing wall, the girls tend to do better! The theory is that not only are we flexible, but we look at the challenge in a different way than men do. We don’t just try to muscle our way up, we make up for the difference in strength by working our problem solving skills. I think that’s pretty neat!
Tommy was the 1st one up the wall, then Mia, then the rest of their class. They both had a great time, and I encourage you to look in your community to see if this resource is available to you.
Your kids are probably climbing the walls already anyway, right? 
Last Wednesday, I was using something that’s been hanging out in my draw since July of last year. I was jazzed to get to use this thing finally, because in the store, it looked like the answer to all of my kitchen problems.
The Palm Peeler, by Chef’n. See, I don’t peel potatoes often, I just boil them and mash them up. And carrots? Do people peel carrots? I had no idea! If you grow your own, you just kinda wash them off…
I was really excited by the Palm Peeler, because peeling potatoes makes my hands hurt for days, even with my beloved OXO ergonomic peeler
Chef’n is a fun little company that answers AGE OLD kitchen questions like “How on this green earth will I slice an avocado, with just this silly ol’ knife?!
While you can buy the Palm Peeler for $5 on Amazon and most kitchen outlet stores, you can not reattach a large chunk of skin to your hand for $5. This will cost you a lot more. Especially after your kids announce the tally that you owe the “Swearing jar” when you get yourself back under control.
I know, I should have KNOWN this would happen. I mean, look at the name. Here I thought “Palm Peeler” was in reference to you holding it in your palm, not that it would peel your palm. Now THAT’S truth in advertising.
After a blood-soaked internet search, I found that I am not alone in my wounds. Lots of people love their Palm Peeler, but only for carrots and celery (wtf? You peel celery? Consider my world rocked.), or else they lose chunks of their fingers. After MORE searching, I found out that there’s a proper way to use the Palm Peeler, and that’s in a scrub brush motion. Thanks, Chef’n step 4-on the directions that came with mine “Remove the plastic safety guard” (DON’T DO IT! Leave it on! Forever!) was super helpful, but I would have rather been privvy to the directions for not slicing off a chunk of my hand.
On the bright side? 3M NexCare bandages
Guess what my mom’s getting for Mother’s Day?! 
A slightly used Palm Peeler and a box of NexCare bandages.
Want to see how sweet my husband was during this? I’m using this Facebook page in the divorce.
Post-Edit: I’ve gotten some very funny emails about this post, and wanted to make sure that my tone is clear here, this is a tongue-in-cheek review, and I’m not upset at the company. Yes, it hurt like an SOB, but I once cut my finger very badly because I was holding the knife upside down. If I could review stupidity, I would. Chef’n makes some hella cute products that I would make room in any drawer in the house for, like their rabbit-shaped salt & pepper grinders
Can I have the laptop now?
No. I’m not done yet.
How about now?
No. Still working!
…..k…..howboutnow?
NO! I’ll tell you when I’m done, Mama!
The Mom Bloggers Club is giving away 3 HP Mini 110-1100 by Studio Tord Boontje to bloggers looking to simplify their lives, AND giving 3 people commenting on the Simplify My Life Sweepstakes posts their own HP Minis, too!
This is a contest across multiple blogs, asking the question: “How would an HP Mini simplify YOUR life?”
How would it simplify MY life? We, like idiots, have raised tech savvy kids. The kids have more games than Chuck E Cheese. My daughter’s digital drawing pad 
I lose my laptop. All that’s left for MAMA is my son’s 4-year-old toy laptop. Man, it’s sweet and all, but it’s not MY laptop.
Let’s compare my son’s hand-me-up-to-Mama laptop, and the new HP Mini by Studio Tord Boontje:
(I’ll highlight the winner!)
- Color:
Toy Laptop: Orange, Ooooh Jazzy, Rachel Ray
HP Mini: A custom sleeve designed by Dutch designer, Tord Boontje. Tord is the Director of Product Design in the Royal College of Art in London, who uses HP Imprint 3D technology and shades of silver, white and gray to create the most beautiful layers, look closely in the vines and flowers and you’ll find endangered species hiding!
- Features:
Toy Laptop: Screen = 2″ by 3″ gray-scale 8bit resolution, 1/2 sized keyboard, math AND language games, with singing cartoon cat, who can teach you to tell time!! WOW! It can also keep track of your high scores!!
HP Mini: Screen = 10.1″ mercury-free LED screen, 92% full-sized keyboard, webcam with integrated microphone, HP QuickSync (allowing you to sync your cameras, MP3 players, and PDAs, easily!), and internal speakers that aren’t tinny, and make me put duct table over them! Plus, Windows 7!
- Battery:
Toy Laptop: EIGHT AA-batteries.
HP Mini: 3-cell lithium-ion rechargeable battery and A/C power adapter - Customer Service:
Toy Laptop: Me, banging it against something.
HP Mini: HP’s 24-hour customer service, not to mention Twitter and Facebook contacts! No banging against
desks, required! (Or encouraged, for that matter!!)
Well. I’m pretty sure the winner here is clear. An HP Mini would simplify MY life, by giving me a laptop of my very own to use. A beautiful, HP Imprint 3D-decorated with beautiful flowers and vines and animals (OH THE PENGUINS!!) I would not be left with my 7-year-old son’s toy laptop, that even he has outgrown.
Make sure to leave comments, The Mom Bloggers Club will be selecting 3 winners from the comments made across all of the entered blogs! Winners will be announced January 29th!
Now, if you don’t mind, I have Tommy’s high school on hang-man to beat. 3 letter word that stars with C and ends with T….hmmm….
