Google Reader is going away & a solution

I am sure that there has been communication and I am sure that I missed it, but I was surprised to read this morning about Google Reader going away - TOMORROW! What?!? I have used Google Reader for several years to get the feeds from my favorite blogs. Each time I open up the computer, I use Google Reader to scan through the most recent articles for the blogs I follow, so that I can quickly catch up with what they have been sharing.

Thankfully, Mama to 5 Blessings, who is on my Google Reader list, shared about Bloglovin' today, as an alternative to Google Reader.

When you sign up for Bloglovin' (before July 1st, when Google Reader is gone), you can use them to import all of the blogs that you follow directly from Google Reader. It froze up on me, but I was able to find the Import from Google Reader in the drop down under the heart icon on their title bar. Sign up was easy and I have pinned Bloglovin' to my toolbar so that I can easily check on my favorite blogs.

You might want to check it out, if you are currently a Google Reader user.

You can even use this quick link to follow A Busy Mom of Two. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Swagbucks Birthday Bash!

If you're not using Swagbucks, you are missing out. It's the easiest way to earn a few extra dollars for some thing you do anyway, and it's completely FREE. How? Just use Swagbucks instead of Google when you search online and earn points that you can redeem for prizes. Use printable coupons? You can earn 10 Swag Bucks for every coupon that you print and redeem at your store.

Those Swag Bucks that you earn with your coupon savings will add up quickly. You can get a $5 Amazon gift card for only 450 Swag Bucks.

You can get a great head start when you sign up for Swagbucks today. To celebrate their 4th birthday, they are offering 110 Free Swag Bucks for new sign ups. Simply sign up and then enter the code BIRTHDAYBASH12 in the box below 'Enter your Swag Code'. You will also still get the standard 30 Swag Bucks for signing up.

I love programs like this and come fall (or just before a vacation), I go through and redeem points for gift cards. Great way to stretch a holiday or vacation budget.

This post contains a referral link.

Managing Shopping Lists

I've always been good about making shopping lists. I even have a magnetic notepad on my refrigerator for adding things to my list as we run out or I notice that we are low. Unfortunately, I'm not always good at taking my list with me. Plus, when I would ask my husband to make a stop because I knew we needed milk or bread, he would ask what else and if I wasn't at home to reference my list, I would inevitably miss one or more items.

A while back, my husband found the perfect solution for us. It is an application called Our Groceries. You can download it to many mobile devices.

You set up all of your mobile devices on one account by using a common e-mail when you set up each mobile device. Once it is loaded, you simply add your items to the list. You can even have multiple lists - Grocery, Target, Lowes, Sam's Club. As you add an item, within a brief window, the item will appear on everyone's list. Making it easy for my husband to see what else to pick up when he stops for milk or allowing him to add something to the list while I am shopping.

They also have an option to load recipes, which I have not yet tried. With recipes, you can with one touch, add all ingredients to your shopping list or only add those that you need.

There is a "library" of items, so frequently, you can start typing an item and then select it from the list, saving you some key strokes. It also keeps those items that you add, so that you can quickly add those common items you buy to your list.

As you shop, click on an item and it is crossed off. It is moved to the bottom of the list and you can select to delete all crossed off items. One drawback is the list is alphabetically sorted. When I make a paper list, I sort it by department. It makes it a little harder to scan your list as you make the way through the store, but as you cross items off, it becomes evident if you missed something and can quickly grab it before you check out. This is an improvement for me. I generally forget a pen and then I'm constantly re-reading my paper list to make sure I got it all. The crossed off item and the deletion will also occur on everyone's list within a brief window of when you mark it on your mobile device.

The app is free to download and use, but you get some occasional ads to support the development - so far, they are very unobtrusive text link style ads at the top of your list. I can live with that for an app that has made my life easier and saved a few extra trips to the store. You can learn more here.

This post shared at Works For Me Wednesday.

CSN Stores - Gift Card Giveaway

Started in 2002, by two guys with one online store, CSN has grown to become the #3 online retailer for home and office goods. Offering excellent customer service and one of the largest product selections on the web, they have now grown to over 200 stores offering a wide variety of products. Their product categories cover everything from cookware, ultra modern furniture, bunk bed-office combinations and fitness equipment to gaming chairs, grills, greenhouses and much more. If it's a piece of furniture or an appliance that you need for your home or office, you should check for it at CSN (www.csnstores.com) first, as there's a good chance they carry it and at a competitive price.

When I was contacted by CSN about doing a review and giveaway, I was overwhelmed with the selection. I wasn't sure what I would want to review and giveaway. Whether you're looking for a dining table , dinnerware, decorations, lighting, cribs, rugs, whatever, CSN has got you covered. A few other categories include kids + baby, pets, outdoor, health + fitness, furniture, home decor, and more. And, to make it even better, many of their items come with free shipping, which is clearly noted on the search pages and the item listing (even big things like a dining table has free shipping). Those that do not, have a simple shipping rate, based on the total amount of your purchase.

The last thing that I found at CSN stores was a Razor 3-wheel scooter for my daughter, so my first thought was to find something for the kids to play with outside (she loves it by the way). I saw riding toys and backyard games like croquette and mini-golf. Then, I thought, what about some new rugs for the foyer. I clicked into the store that offers bar stools, there were over 1900 choices for counter height bar stools. They have so many choices and so many types of items, I just couldn't decide.

Then, as I continued to explore, I came across their Health and Fitness store. As you may recall, I recently started doing Yoga as part of P90X. I don't have any gear for Yoga, and when I do some of the poses, like Downward Dog, I find myself sliding and slipping - which means I don't have good form and am constantly readjusting. I did some looking through the store and I found a Yoga Mat, a Yoga Mat bag (to carry/store my Yoga Mat) and a Yoga Block (to help me with some of those poses like Twisting Right Angle Pose). I decided that I should get something for me, so this is what I chose. I can't wait for it to arrive.

I decided in the end that for the giveaway, a gift card would be the best route - that way the winner could use it towards something that they want. This could be the Yoga Gear that I selected or something else that you want.

What would you do with a $35 CSN Store Gift Card? Would you put it towards a chair for your family room? A dining table for your kitchen? A rug for your foyer? An umbrella for your deck?

Giveaway!
What would you do with a $35 CSN Gift Card?
To Enter:
Visit CSN Stores and tell me what you would use your gift card towards.

Additional Entries (leave a comment for each additional entry)

Follow A Busy Mom of Two on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. This can be once daily, please be sure to leave a link to the tweet in your comment.

Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment with a link to your post.

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Share this giveaway with your friends on Facebook. Leave a comment letting me know you did.

Giveaway will remain open until August 30th at 6pm and is open to residents of US and Canada only. Winner will be selected using Random.org random number generator. The winner will be contacted by e-mail (Please make sure that your email address is either in your comment or clearly visible on your profile or blog) and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner may be selected.


No compensation was received for this post. I am receiving the Yoga gear that I selected and the opportunity to giveaway a $35 gift card to CSN stores, courtesy of CSN Stores as a CSN Preferred Blogger.

YooHoo and Friends

See those big sappy eyes.

If you were here, you could give them a little squeeze and hear their fun playful noises. You could hold them and see how soft they are.

My kids have taken to these cuddly little characters.

What are they? They are YooHoo & Friends from Aurora World.

Aurora’s YooHoo & Friends are the company’s number one selling plush animal. With big eyes and long fluffy tails, the lovable plush YooHoo & Friends are based upon real animals from around the world, some of which are endangered. Current selection include the Sugar Glider, Panda, Penguin and Lesser Panda and many more. In fact, there are more than 50 styles in the line with more to come, as Aurora plans to introduce many new YooHoo & Friends throughout this year. The Beaver, Yellow Tiger, Jaban Rhinoceros and Japanese Macque (both in five and eight inches) will kick off the 2010 introductions.

Want to learn more about the animals on which the characters are based and play with them in an interactive virtual world? You and your children can play with the characters and learn about the animals at YooHoo World. I find it refreshing that the YooHoo & Friends website, geared to children ages 5-12, is FREE! No purchase or activation codes are required to play in the YooHoo World. You do need to create a log on for your child. Your child chooses a pet that they want to raise. They have the opportunity to use their "green" (money) to buy accessories for their room. There are games to play (you can earn more green by doing well on the games). You can interact with your pet by feeding it, praising it and playing with it from the My Page link. You can even make the days progress (and your pet grow) by feeding it, praising it, playing with it and cleaning the room the right number of times.

In addition, for each YooHoo friend, you can find out about the real life animal on which it is based and learn more about that animal, through an interactive map on the YooHoo & Friends page. You can also watch short YooHoo animations.

There are also free wallpapers for your computer that you can download. You can also join the community on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more.

Would you like to get a YooHoo & Friend plush for a child in your life? You can purchase them online at Aurora World, Inc and in retail stores. The 5" plush are just $7 a piece, even for the animals that include sound. Of course, you could also try to win one, as they have offered to allow one A Busy Mom of Two reader to win their own YooHoo & Friend Plush toy assortment.

Giveaway

Primary Entry:
Head over and check out all of the YooHoo & Friends characters. Leave a comment answering the following question: Which friend is your favorite. If you win, who would you share the YooHoo & Friends with?

Additional Entries:

• Share this giveaway with friends - on your blog, on Facebook or by e-mail. Leave me a comment letting me know how you shared.

• Follow @ABusyMomofTwo on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. You may complete this entry once per day.

• Follow A Busy Mom of Two. Subscribe to updates in your feed reader or in e-mail. Leave me a comment letting me know that you signed up, or that you already subscribe.

• Leave a comment with a link to your blog where you have either my button or have a link to A Busy Mom of Two in your blog roll.

• Follow YooHoo & Friends on Twitter. Leave a comment letting me know that you follow and your Twitter ID

Giveaway will remain open until January 12th at 6 pm. One winner will be selected using a random number generator. The winner will be contacted by e-mail (be sure to leave one!) and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected.

I received no compensation for this post. I received 2 5" YooHoo Friends and 1 Keychain to review and share with my family.

Busytown Mysteries

Did you grow up reading Richard Scarry books? I know I did. I can remember checking them out of the library. I remember that there were Busytown toys, too. As with many things from my childhood, Richard Scarry and Busytown is back. Starting this weekend, there is a new series on CBS - Busytown Mysteries. You can find the schedule for your area here. The show airs during Cookie Jar TV.

Busytown Mysteries is the Winner of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association Award (CFTPA) for Best Children’s and Youth Series. The series, which evidently was released in Canada first, already has 52 half hour episodes in season one and season two is in production.

Through One2One Network, I was given the opportunity to get an advanced copy of one of the episodes. Each episode consists of two eleven minute "mini" episodes. My kids and I sat down on Wednesday evening to watch the two mini episodes we received. The characters were just as I remembered from childhood (they even drove the apple car - who doesn't remember that!). The cast is lead by Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm. Together with the other members of the community, they solve the many every day mysteries of Busytown. Once they determine that they have a mystery to solve, they are off singing "Who? What? When? Where? Why?"

Busytown Mysteries engages children with fun storylines and lovable characters, while introducing them to deductive reasoning skills. As they try to figure out, Who? What? When? Where? Why?, they use resources at hand - researching at the library, taking a picture to get a better look, etc. I really liked the way that they systematically worked through the mystery and then once it was solved, they provide a brief recap of how they solved the mystery.

After watching the first half of the show, my son was asking if we could watch more. I explained it was a new show and that after we watched the DVD that we had, I would set up the DVR to record the Busytown Mysteries. In my area, the show airs three times on Saturday morning. I will be interested to see the commercials - what they are for and how many there are. For the most part, we don't watch commercial TV, sticking with Disney, Noggin and PBS, so commercials are still a bit of a confusion to my kids. (I remember when Blue's Baby Brother aired and there were commercials - only like one set, but my son had never seen a commercial and got so upset when it came on in the middle of his show).

In addition to the new series, you and your children can also play in Busytown through their fun, interactive website BusytownMysteries.com, where kids can explore different neighborhoods in Busytown, interact with the Busytown characters and play 14 games and activities designed for preschoolers, including interactive games, a Fan Club and “My First Email,” which lets little ones email their progress to pre-approved friends and family addresses. I checked it out myself, but have not yet had my son explore it. The games and activities were cute and again, the characters were familiar. You get to choose a character to be while in Busytown and a car to drive.

Richard Scarry’s books have sold over 150 million copies and have been translated into 30 languages over the last 40 years. If you grew up reading these books, the new series and the website, in addition to the books, is a great way to bring the characters to life for your kids.

I did not receive any compensation for this post, but did receive an advanced copy of Busytown Mysteries courtesy of One2One and Busytown Mysteries.

Fun Website Find

I'm a big fan of Lost. It is one of the few shows that my husband and I sit down and watch together and on the night it airs most of the time. If you are a fan of Lost, you know that many of the business names and such that are seen on the show appear to be anagrams, planted by the writers.

In reading up on Lost, my husband came upon this fun website that generates anagrams for whatever phrase you would like.

For a great recap, check out Rocks In My Dryer's weekly Lost post. She does a great job with recapping the episode, provides a quote of the night and many of the comments provide links to other recaps/theories. I find that if you read a recap, often times you read about things that you noticed, but didn't pay much attention too. I think it helps me more fully analyze the episode.

Great Website Find - Geography

I've been meaning to post this to share with everyone.

How well do you know US Geography? Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer posted this website that allows you to test your geography skills.

I kind of surprised myself with how well I did. My score was an 88% with an average error of 19 miles in 376 seconds on my first try. I struggled in the plains and didn't realize it was a timed test. My husband took it and scored an 80%, but only used 1/2 the time.

I was inspired to post about this when I saw that on her Saturday linkage, Shannon now has a link to a European Geography challenge.

Fun Website Find - Printable, Colorable Cards

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, you can print off free print and color Valentine's Day cards for your children by heading over to the Fisher Price website.

They have several Valentine's Day cards that you can print off cards for your child to color. There is a design it yourself card that allows them a limited selection of pictures and words to choose for the cover. In addition, there are several other standard cards to choose from.

The cards we printed, fit on a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper that then folds into fours. The pictures are a good size to allow for easy coloring by even younger kids. There is even a "This card was colored for you by ___. " spot on back for your young artist to sign their work.

In addition to Valentine's Day cards, there are Birthday cards, Thank You cards, Get Well cards and Just Because cards available to print.

It does require Adobe Acrobat Reader, but they offer a link to download Adobe if you don't already have it on your computer.

Free Photo Valentine Day Cards

As I was out exploring today, I came across this deal from Stories by Everyone (part of Scrapbooks Etc.) at Common Sense with Money. You can upload a picture and make 6 free Valentine's Day cards. Enter 'valentine' at check out. Even the shipping is free. Offer expires February 1st, so don't delay.

At Stories by Everyone, the Valentine's Day cards are sold in sets of six for $.89 each (the 6 free is a $5.34 value) and there are 10 designs to choose from. The Valentine's Day cards are 3.5 x 4.875 and are flat (front and back printed) In addition to Valentine's Day, they offer Hanukkah, Christmas and Holiday cards, with a total of 40 designs to choose from. The larger cards are more expensive. You do have to create an account to make the card.

These would make cute Valentine's to give to the family.

Coupon Website

The "Mad Clipper", a writer for the Business section of the Akron Beacon Journal, has been doing a series lately on saving money and using the various programs like register rewards and ECBs to get the most for your money. In a recent Saturday paper, she provided a list of websites that she uses to find coupons. Most of them, I had heard of before, but one site that she included that I had not heard of was www.couponcabin.com. I have explored the site and thus far am pleased with the mix of on-line and print coupons that it provides access to.

I most recently used it to find a coupon code for JCPenney to purchase some bedding for our daughter. I had store coupons that had a code for use online that could have saved me $15 on $75 (20%), but since my order was higher than $75, my percentage saved would have been lower using the $15 off coupon. By searching Coupon Cabin, I was able to find a coupon code to save 20% on the total order.

In addition to on-line coupons for the web, they also have links for ooupons that can be printed for use in store at many stores. Not only do they have store coupons, but they also have links to avaialable printable coupons for grcoeries.

Next time you are in need of a coupon or coupon code, check them out.

Free Shipping Day - December 18th

I recently learned that December 18th is Free Shipping Day. There are a number of participating merchants for Free Shipping Day. And the best part, shipments are guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas. It appears that this is the First Annual Free Shipping Day.

For a list of participating merchants and more information, check out Free Shipping Day.

Fun Website Find

Every week in the newspaper, there is a little blurb about new stuff to check out in the Home section. I have found some really interesting stuff in the little blurb. This week was no exception. They featured a site called Spoonflower.

Spoonflower is an online business that allows you to upload a design to be printed on cotton fabric. Yardage of the custom fabric is $18. It sounds though, like you can also get swatches and fat quarters as well for a lesser cost.

The design you upload needs to be no larger than 25MB and at a resolution of 150 dpi ("The print size of your image in pixel dimensions will be 150x the number of inches.") They will tile your design to fill the fabric, unless of course your design is larger than the piece you order, in which case they indicate they will crop from the lower left corner.

I think this has some really great opportunities.

You can use a drawing by your budding Picasso or a photograph that you took or just something that you created in Photoshop or other graphic software. Your design private unless you decide to make it public.

I'd like to suggest that I might use them for a quilt, but I started a quilt nearly 15 years ago and I still haven't finished it. Perhaps I was too ambitious planning to hand piece and quilt a queen size quilt for my first project, but that is a whole other story. Perhaps though, with custom fabric, I might feel that I could stick with simple squares and machine piece it.

I think it might be a fun way to make some custom pillow cases or covers. You could use the fabric in your favorite pattern to make some custom clothing - shorts, skirts, shirts. A crafty person could use the fabric to make some simple curtains for their house.

The company is located in North Carolina. They launched their Beta site in May of 2008, so they are a relatively new online entity, but boast over 10,000 crafters signed up to use the site already.

What design would you use for custom fabric? What would you do with the fabric?

Fun Website Find

Everywhere we go, there seem to be stickers for the kids: at the dentist, at the doctor, at the library, etc. Based on the paper backing, the source for a lot of these stickers is Smile Makers. For some reason, one of the kids left the back of the sticker sitting on the counter and I noticed the website was included, so I of course went to check it out and see what they offered.

Did you know that Smile Makers is a division of Staples? I didn't. They have been in business for over 30 years. Their mission, according to their website is "to be the absolute best supplier of stickers, toys, novelties, pencils and practice promotion items". Their customers, as you might expect from their tabs, are primarily in the healthcare, financial, religious and education areas.

They seem to have a category and item to meet everyone's need. Teacher, Medical, Dental, Financial, Church, Restaurant, Eye Care and More Fun Stuff are the tabs that run across the top. Along the side, are the categories of items they sell. Stickers, Toys, Super Balls, Jewelry, Pencils, Seasonal, Treasure Chests, Posters, Crafts, Birthday, Candy and Gum. They even include Best Sellers, New Items and Web Specials.

As an example, there is the Church Candy category which includes Bible Verse Fortune Cookies, Sours Scripture Candy, and Religious Bubble Gum Coins, amongst others. There are character pencils and occasion pencils, there are general stickers and character and themed stickers, there is play jewelry and more. They even offer gift bags to give away the treats at a birthday party. One birthday party thing that caught my eye was a princess tiara and jewelry set, perfect for a princess-themed party. They offer bulk crayons and the boxes of 4 that you see at so many restaurants - you can even get a custom box.

You can go to their website to order or request a catalog. In many ways the type of stuff they offer reminds me a little bit of Oriental Trading Company, only maybe not quite as diverse and maybe a bit more bulk oriented, since they are focused on "practice promotion items". I can't really tell how the quality of the toy type items would compare, but have been less than pleased with Oriental Trading Company in the past (although, if you consider what it is and what it costs, I guess the quality of the toy items is probably what I should expect at Oriental Trading Company).

There is no minimum order required, but the shipping is $7.95 for orders up to $39.99 and then increments up from there. As a parent, I think I would be most likely to purchase for a kid's party. I like the tiara and jewelry set, on unit comes with 24 sets for around $18, so perhaps if we have a kid's party for my daughter's birthday one year, this would be something to get. Some of the items they offer would be great for a non-candy item to pass out at Halloween as well. We are already over running with stickers, but if we weren't and wanted some reward type stickers, they would be a great resource for this as well.

Have you ever ordered through Smile Makers?

Fun Website Find

I have to credit my sister-in-law with helping me find this site as she recently invited us to join. The website is Geni.com and according to the site, "Geni is a private place for your family to build your family tree, preserve your history and share your lives".

The site was recognized as a 50 Best Website by Time in 2008 and Best Free Software by PC Magazine in 2008.

We recently started to build our family tree. You do this by adding your family members to your tree and then inviting them to join the site. You can add family members without inviting them, but then you lose the opportunity for them to build their branch of your tree. You can of course also add deceased family members as well.

As you start to build your family tree, you will want to set up your own profile. Within your profile, you can include information not only on when and where you were born or married, but also different things like where you went to school, where you have worked/your occupation, where you live now and the color of your eyes. You can also populate information about your religion and personality stuff like your favorite quote, movie, sports, book and food.

As you add family members, you can start them off by adding some of their personal information including date of marriage, birth and/or death, so that even if they don't join you still have some basic information for them.

You can add a picture of yourself to your profile, which shows up on your tree view. In addition, you can add pictures and videos of your family and from your special events in an album. These are then available for your family to view.

As your family members start to add their spouses and their spouse's family, those family trees will begin to populate. You will see small tree icons indicating that they also have a tree and it will show how many family members are in their offshoot. Click on these tree icons and you move from your tree to their tree.

There are some alternate views besides the tree layout. You can view your "forest," the trees you are connected to through marriage. You can also see where, on a map, everyone is currently or where they were born. You can also view your tree in a list format, where the relation and immediate family information is available on one page.

You can also add family news and have discussions on-line, which they suggest you could use to coordinate things like family reunions.

You can view a family calendar which is populated with birthday and marriage dates so you can remember to send a greeting on special days. They actually go one step further and allow you to set up e-mail reminders for those special events. Never miss a family birthday again.

There are some new features on the site that allow you to merge family trees, so if you happen to have two parts of your family building their trees, you can merge them and allow the family tree to be intact. This will also allow them to flow through the various offshoots.

Once you have your tree in progress, you can also use one click to print your tree. This would be nice for insertion into baby books or for your child to use for a school project on their family tree.

According to the front page, "Geni is private and secure. Only the people in your family tree can see your tree and profile." This is somewhat misleading, as you move from your tree to the trees you are connected to through marriage, you can also see profile information for the people in those trees. It is just people not in your tree that can not view the profile.

Check it out today and start building your own family tree.

Fun Website Find

I was forwarded an e-mail today that linked to a website called Information Please. The link was to the section that provides historical Year by Year information. You can see World Events, US Events, Economics, Sports, Entertainment, Science and Death information for a given year. As an example, here is the link for 1980. For the Year by Year information, http://www.infoplease.com/year/xxxx.html is the address, simply substitute the year you want to check out (or go through the link above and just navigate on the site).

Now, I'm not normally one to do much with forwarding e-mails, but I really liked this site. Rather than forward it to just one or two people, I thought, why not share it with others who could benefit from this website. Right now, I'm not researching anything specific that would benefit from the site, but it is just a great collection of interesting historical information, business, current events, and so much more.

Let me start by stating, this website is run by a reputable organization, Pearson Education. They have been around since 1938, first as a Radio Quiz show and then, in 1947, they started an annual almanac, which they continue to publish. The website was started in 1998. According to the website Pearson is "the world’s largest integrated education company. Pearson’s other primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group."

So, like I was saying, what brought me to the site was a link in an e-mail that encouraged me to see what was going on the year I was born (not 1980, that was just an example), but what kept me there exploring was the wealth of other information on the site.

In addition to the year by year information, they have a section called daily almanac, where you can check out this date in history, today's birthday and get a word of the day. I'm a sucker for word of the day. Today's word is lyceum. When you go to the word of the day, they don't just present a boring definition. Instead, it is presented like a quiz. Today they set up a scenario, utilizing the word and then ask which of the following is the most appropriate CD to take. I am proud to say, I got this one right.

There are links to information about the 2008 Presidential campaign and the Summer Olympics, as well as other current events. Under the Campaign 2008 tab, you can learn about where each person stands on the issues, read speeches and learn about the presidential election, amongst other things.

As a parent, the benefit to children could be great. There are so many unconfirmed sources on the Internet that it is nice to know that there is somewhere to go to get information that is factual. When I was growing up, the big thing was to buy a set of encyclopedias, so you wouldn't have to head to the library. Now, there is the great resource of the Internet, but the potential to stumble upon a site that seems to provide great information that is indeed not complete or is incorrect certainly exists. With the background and long standing history of Information Please, you get a better feeling about the completeness and accuracy of the information provided.

In addition to just being a great learning resource for the children, there is a section called Homework Center, which provides resources on various school subjects including geography, math, science and many more. Also for kids, is a link to a sister site called Fact Monster, which contains kid's reference information, quizzes and games. Just clicking through, it seems like a pretty decent selection of information, facts, etc. and the games are entertaining and educational (some are more entertaining than educational, but still good clean fun).

This is a website that I have already bookmarked and plan to use. Did you check it out? What part do you think you are most inclined to utilize? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Fun Website Find

I came across a website today that I think is sort of neat. It is called Teacherly. It is a blog/social network for teachers and educators everywhere. According to the website: "Teacherly is a place where educators gather to get inspired, share lesson plans, and discuss the tools of the trade". I have not joined the website, so I am just exploring the stuff everyone can see.

I am not a teacher by education or career; but I do have children, so on some level that makes me their first teacher. There are some arts and crafts ideas I have come across on the website as well that I might try. This website, amongst other things, allows you to create custom word searches.

My son, who is recently 5, loves to do word searches. I have had some fun today creating some different word searches for him to try.

You can set the difficulty level to Easy, Normal or Hard. This impacts not only the overall size of the puzzle, but also the orientation of the words on the puzzle (i.e. forward, backward, up, down, diaganol). You do have to save the puzzle in order to print it. It appears that you can also play the puzzle on-line, although I had some trouble with that application when I tried.

I think I might have to try doing some wordsearches using sight words and early reading words to help reenforce what he is learning.

Have fun!


My Wordsearch (easy setting)
T W O I M
O O K O O
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busy
mom
two
kids