DATE ARCHIVES : June 2016

Review & Giveaway: KidloLand App

Review & Giveaway: KidloLand App

As a parent, we’re constantly looking for innovative ways to teach our children. Whether you love it or hate it, we all know technology plays a huge role in the way our children learn. Our kids are much more tech-savvy at three-years-old than we ever were!

With that said, the market is flooded with apps and games aimed at teaching our children. Some teach colors, others teach numbers; still others aim to do both while entertaining our kids at the same time. Trying to find an app that does everything isn’t always easy.

That’s where KidloLand comes in. KidloLand is an app that has it all. It not only has well-known kiddie songs and nursery rhymes, but also neat games to teach numbers, shapes, and even the months and days. It’s geared towards kids ages 0 to 5. I recently had my 4 year-old experiment with the app. She enjoyed the games focused on numbers, colors, and shapes. As a parent, I found the KidloLand app to serve as a fun reinforcement to some of the lessons she has already learned in pre-school. The numbers activity helps kids with numbers from 1 to 100, so it is great for all kinds of stages in your child’s life.

The months of the year and days of the week is also a wonderful addition, especially for the pre-Kindergarten set. One of the great things about the KidloLand App is that you can feel at ease that your child is using technology to help learn, not waste time. I wish I had it at my fingertips when my kids were younger!
If you want to see how the KidloLand App can help your kids on their learning adventure, here’s your chance! KidloLand is offering FIVE people a FREE three-month subscription for you and your child to try out.

Click below to enter the giveaway!

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You can download it at the Google Play Store or for your IOS devices.

*This is a sponsored post. I was provided with the product to complete this review. The views stated here are my own.

My Kids Will Be Doing School Work Over the Summer and I’m Not Sorry

Start the name calling and pouty faces. I’m putting the school work in summer.

Yes, I know it’s going to be 80 plus degrees out and there are sand castles to be built and bikes to ride.

My girls will get to do all that and then some. But, they’re also going to be reading and brushing up on their skills. I’ve been browsing the internet and reading some debates about whether kids should be doing “homework” over the summer. For every yay there’s a nay.

See, I don’t really consider my little plan “homework”. It’s more like “Let’s stay smart so we don’t fall back in September.” I don’t think that makes me a mean mom. I think that makes me a mom who cares about her children’s success and is taking a hands on approach to help them get ahead. Why let them fall victim to the so-called “summer slide” and waste all the progress made over the school year? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t understand why so many parents are still anti-school work over the summer.

What kind of horrid school work am I going to subject my children to this summer? For my soon-to-be Kindergartener, we’ll be practicing writing her letters and numbers as well as her name. Her new school actually sent home a packet of practice sheets to help with the process. While some parents scoffed at it during orientation, I wanted to give the packet a big old bear hug! At least now I don’t have to go looking for sheets to help her. We’ll also be practicing counting and shapes.

For my soon-to-be second grader, we’ll be reading books to keep her skills up to par. We’ll also start working on more reading comprehension so she knows what she’s actually reading. I’m also going to have her brush up on her math so she doesn’t forget the skills and tricks she’s learned over the year.

Before you think I’ll be chaining my kids to the kitchen table for hours on end over the summer, think again. We’ll do these little exercises ten to fifteen minutes a day or every other day. Reading will be done for at least another ten minutes a day. On average, my kids will spend 20 minutes a day doing dreaded school work. I’m going to try to bang it out in the morning so the rest of the day is free. That leaves 23 hours and forty minutes a day to do whatever else they want. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, do you?

Here’s the alternative. I can have them not do any kind of school work all summer. They can go back to school in September and not remember anything they learned. They’ll waste time re-learning things they knew so well. They may even run the risk of falling behind if everyone else is on the express train and they’re stuck making all the local stops. All for what? All in the name of summer fun?

There needs to be a balance. The earlier we teach our kids this coping skill, the better. They need to learn just as there’s time to play over the summer, there’s also time to learn. It’s just like fitting in play time during the school year. It all gets done.

No child ever suffered from reading or practicing some letters over the summer. So, yes, my kids will be doing school work over the summer and I’m not sorry.

 

Get Saving with Groupon Coupons

Get Saving with Groupon Coupons

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

I love coupons. Anyone who knows me knows this to be true. Whether I’m clipping them, getting them scanned on my phone, or using them online I never met a coupon I didn’t like. That’s why Groupon Coupons  is such a great resource for money saving mommas like myself.

Many people think Groupon is just a site where you can find amazing deals at local businesses. While there are plenty of deals and specials to cash in on, the growing number of coupons is even more impressive.  What’s even more mind-blowing is that the coupons are for major retailers!

Groupon Coupons offers savings at dozens of different stores and online sites. From Kohl’s to Macy’s , to sites like Travelocity, there are deals to be found and money to be saved. All you have to do is search. From there you’ll see all that Groupon Coupons has available. From online codes to printable coupons, the deals will make you feel like a money saving diva. Trust me, it’s worth the time. One of the best things about Groupon Coupons is that it’s free to use. You don’t have to pay into a service to get access to all the deals. It doesn’t get much better than that!

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to Groupon Coupons to see what kinds of bargains are waiting for you!

 

10 Signs That It’s the End of the School Year

The end of the school year is here. You can hear kids and teachers rejoicing while many parents grunt and go hide in a corner. Besides the obvious calendar telling us what time of year it is, there are ten other things that happen to signal that the end of the school year has indeed arrived.

  1. The Thought of Buying Teacher Gifts Makes You Cringe. You know it’s the right thing to do, but you really don’t want to go shopping for teacher gifts. Although you should put some effort into the process and avoid buying another coffee mug, the temptation is too great. You could always go on Pinterest for some super creative ideas, but who has time for that? Coffee mug it is.
  2. Your Kids’ Homework is Wrong & You Don’t Care. So Billy added instead of subtracted his entire homework. At least he still did math, right? There comes a point in the school year when seven and six equals fourteen and you don’t care.
  3. Clothes Don’t Fit, Oh Well! Your children’s toes are rubbing against the edges of the sneakers you bought…in August. Who told them to keep growing anyway? Those yoga pants are looking more like capris. But, aren’t yoga capris in these days? The next time your child tells you that his shirt is getting too short just tell him to stop raising his hand in class. This way it won’t be so short. Problem solved.
  4. Bedtime & Wakeup is Getting Downright Dreadful. You can’t even convince yourself that it’s bedtime when it’s still light outside at 8 p.m. so how are your kids going to buy into it? Let’s not even talk about waking up for school. The whining is unreal! Maybe if they just went to bed when you told them,  the mornings wouldn’t be so bad. There are days I’d rather watch a Caillou marathon by myself then go through the whole bedtime/wakeup process.
  5. You’re Running Out of School Snacks. Your fruit snack and Goldfish cracker supply is dangerously low. Instead of replenishing you decide to get creative. Kids can bring cans of cream corn and baked beans for snack, right?
  6. You’re Sick of Packing Lunches. If you have to make another ham and cheese sandwich you’re going to throw it against the wall. Forget about thinking of different things to pack your child for lunch. Check back in September. At this point packing lunch means making sure they have enough money to buy whatever is being served in the cafeteria. What if they don’t like the menu? Maybe it’s time to try new things.
  7. You Can’t Find the Handle to Your Fridge Because of All the Artwork. The kids are bringing home all of their art projects. Yeah! You’re finally getting your Valentine, Easter, and “Holiday” card…all at the same time…in June. What could be better? Now, if you could just get into your fridge.
  8. Your Child’s Book Bag has Holes. “Mom, my book bag has a hole in it.” So. There’s no way that it’s going to get fixed. It’s just not happening. Anyway, don’t think of them as holes. They’re easy access pockets for when junior just needs to find a pencil or eraser right away.
  9. You Can’t Remember a Saturday Morning That Didn’t Involve a Coach or Referee. Sure, sports are great for kids. They have fun. You have fun watching them, but there comes a point when you dread Saturday mornings. The morning fights with the shin guards and cleats are no longer bearable. Trying to clone yourself to make it to all of your kids’ games gets exhausting. You want to trade them all in in for an endless cup of coffee and a Lifetime movie…or three.
  10. Your Child is Going on a Field Trip Every Other Day. You remember signing the permission slips, but weren’t these all supposed to be spaced out? Your child is going more places in two weeks than you’ve gone in two months. It’s all in the name of “learning”, I know. Let’s admit it, the real learning stopped after April vacation.

Before you can say sunscreen and shorts, the kids will back in school and we get to run the hamster wheel all over again! Here’s to some time off from glue sticks, flash cards, and school assemblies!