Butterfly Day at the McLoughlin Academy of Rock

This morning when Callie got up we hit the books right away. You see, we homeschool in the summer. We pretty much do light school all year so we can take breaks, explore other interests, travel, socialize, play and more. It just works for us.

Anyway, we learned about insects today, which led to coloring pictures of butterflies (just Google "butterly coloring pictures") and fairy butterflies and reading poems about butterflies and learning about the life cycle of the butterfly. We'll inspect our parsley plant daily for caterpillars so many we can make a butterfly jar like we did another time. Eva and Sam color pictures, some have a B on them. Callie is going to color a bookmark with butterflies on it.

I love when learning one thing leads to another. It's like I start the conversation by cracking open a book and they continue it themselves, taking me along for the ride.

Later, since we're heading into social insects like ants and bees, I'll put "Bee Movie" on hold at the library. I also have to remember to put The Secret Garden on hold!

Check out my piece over here with 6 Family Friendly Outdoor Projects, as well, if you're feeling outdoorsy!

Review: Ride Along Dolly Doll Bike Seat

Okay, so this Ride Along Dolly Doll Bike Seat came in the mail so I could review it and stuff.

My girls were super excited, but only one has a "real bike" ... so Callie was chosen to try out the product. So after she put on the included decals and had so much fun doing that, it was time for Mr. Kerrie to assemble the seat.

Mr. Kerrie gives it a thumbs-up in the easy-to-assemble department

Callie would not get off her bike and rode up and down, up and down the sidewalk with her American Girl Doll-knockoff (how well do you think a $100+ doll would fare in my house, people? So we just don't even go there ... we get the $30 Our Generation Dolls from Target, thank you very much). Rather, SANTA does.

My little model loved this so much. The doll needs a ponytail, though, because her hair almost got caught in the spokes. And I noticed that the seat was saggin' a couple of weeks after it was installed. Mr. Kerrie said he fixed it but it sagged again. Just sayin'. If I was not honest you would not love me.

 

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

WebHangman.com ... Play Games Online for Brain Power

I hate to admit this, but I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. When I was a working girl (not that kind of working girl, people), I used to play games on the computer during my downtime. I'd mostly play solitaire and other things that were pre-loaded onto the computer, but that was a long time ago.

These days there are so many options for the person at work on a lunchbreak or for the mom or dad who is a bit bored during the day when kids are in school. Online games are also great for those who can't sleep at night ... play some games, build up your brain power, make your mind sleepy and head to bed!

Remember how Hangman was the go-to game for anytime you were bored as a kid and especially for long car rides? Now you can pay it online, too!

This great site WebHangman.com has all sorts of games! They have different versions of Hangman, as well as word puzzles like crossword puzzles, word searches, word scramble and bouncing letters. There are also retro games on this site like PacMan and Space Invaders. SCORE! I'm back in the early 1980s again!

Here are some Hangman Game Strategies from the website WebHangman.com

"The most common used English letter is 'e' so you better start by using it. The 4 other vowels ('a', 'o', 'i', 'u') are next. The other most commonly used letters are 't', 'n', 's', 'h', 'r', 'd' and 'l'.
Using these letters can give you better odds for guessing the word, but they can also decrease the level of fun while playing and not necessarily will help you win, words that are less common like "rhythm" don't qualify for this strategy."

They also have other brain teaser games ...

"For those of you who want to play more brain teasers and puzzles there are tons of possibilities out there but only a few are also super fun. Try Tetris, Jigsaw puzzles or Sudoku. If you want to play arcade games you should pay a visit to our gaming portal Funzola. It has the most fun games we pick by hand and also a large collection or retro games such as Pacman, Super Mario Bros and Space Invaders. All games are kids friendly of-course."

Next time the kids say they are bored, send t hem to WebHangman.com!

Glo-Stick Fun With Friends (Mom Swap)

Okay, rather than post the whole she-bang again, I'm going to annoyingly send you over here, where I originally wrote about this evening of fun. The pictures would not post over there, though, so you get to see them here! Let's just say I had a lot of fun at a friend's house. Her husband so kindly supervised my kids riding their bikes out in the street, and my oldest son/husband could not make it because they were at a Scout thing, unfortunately. Still, we are planning to do it again in June for Father's Day ... a dad's swap ... we have some naughty ideas, but that's another post.

 

Seriously, though, this is some cheap fun when you have kids, moms and dads all mixed together. Who says you can't have fun with kids around? I mean, that was my whole stinkin' childhood, people ... a bunch of 20-somethings having way too much fun while the kids messed around all over the place dancing to Sultans of Swing and Foreigner songs and the Beatles and anything else that rocked in the 70s.

Here are some pics!

I'm thinking in June we should make it super dark and put glo-sticks in the swimming pool. Or make our own glo-sticks using Mountain Dew. Wait, that's not true.

Kids and Cell Phones

As parents, we want to keep our children safe, and cell phones seem to promise to do just that. But at what age does a child become responsible enough to be able to handle all that might go along with a cell phone, like texting, the Internet, minutes and charges, manners and more? And what guidelines do you need to have in place before handing over that phone?

Some parents are dead set on their pre-teen not having a cell phone. Jennifer McClure, mom of 3, makes the point, “I don’t think a pre-teen needs a cell phone. Until they or their classmates are old enough to drive, they shouldn’t be stranded anywhere, because some adult should be with them. So why would they need a cell phone?” It would seem that few elementary age children are responsible enough to be able to handle a cell phone. To combat some of the bigger problems, you can get a phone without Internet access or texting services, and it can also have set minutes and a tracking device.

Read the rest of this piece here and weigh in!