Wonderful Website- Word World

Before I get into the website, I just want to say my son and I love this show!  We discovered it on PBS and were quickly hooked.  We loved the show so much that we went ahead and invested in a few DVDs.  (If you’ve never seen the show and would like to learn more then you can visit here.) With that being said, I have no idea how I’ve never been to their website.  My son and I have been missing out!

The Website

This website has a lot of great features for FREE.  They don’t have a ton of things, but what they do have is worth the visit.  Two of my favorites:

Duck’s Alphabet- This activity will teach letters and sounds.  It takes your child through one letter at a time.  Each letter has several activities your child will do to teach letter recognition and sound correspondence. Plus, if you create a user name and password you will be able to track which letters your child has completed.

eBooks- Love these books!  You child has the choice of 5 books.  Each book has audio reading and highlighting. LOVE! Plus, you child can go back over the text and click on words individually for them to be repeated.   The books also have other interactive tasks throughout!  Oh, and don’t miss the Caregiver’s Guide at the beginning of each book.  It will give you some things you can do to help work on comprehension.

You child can also play an interactive flash game at PBS Kids.

Make sure you go check out this Wonderful Website!

 

A Mommy Talks Review:  I was not asked to write a review for this website.  I just loved it and wanted to share it.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Blogger Finally Offering More Options

Have you been to http://draft.blogger.com?  For those of you who would like to give your blog a facelift without messing with your html then you need to check it out.  It gives you a lot more options for designing your blog.  Here are just a few of the new design elements you can mess with under their Template Designer section:

• Layout- Choose your body and footer layout! Adjust the widths of your entire blog, your side bars or both.
• Templates- They offer new templates that you can customize.  I like Picture Window.
• Backgrounds- A variety of background images to chose from for your template of choice.  Plus the offer suggested color themes based on the image selected.
• Advanced- And yes, for those of you who still like to add your personal touch, you have that option as well.

So, go check it out if you want to give your blog a facelift.  Of course, that is if you plan on staying with blogger, especially after recent events.

Wonderful Website- PaperBack Swap

Jolanthe at No Ordinary Moments recently  introduced me to another wonderful website this week. PaperBack Swap has been around since 2005, but I had never heard about it!  You would think a book lover like myself would have known about this website a long time ago. It  is a book club that is definitely worth checking out because you can get free books by swapping out the books that you’ve already read. Basically…

• you list books on their site that you are willing to swap. 
• Then you’re responsible for mailing out any of your books that are chosen by other members. 
• Finally, you’ll get a credit that you can use to order one of the books listed on their site.  The book you receive is yours to keep or swap another day! 

Isn’t that a fabulous idea!  You can imagine my excitement when I finally learned about it.    When you join they give you a couple of credits to get you started…now all I need to do is determine what books I want to swap!  I am curious to know if any of you have used this site before and your thoughts…please share.

A BIG Thanks to Jolanthe for sharing this wonderful website with me!

Wonderful Website- My Job Chart

You have got to see this website.  MyJobChart.com is a new online tool for teaching children to work through online chore charts, while providing positive reinforcement.   It is pretty awesome.  It would work great for homeschooling as well.  Here are some of the things I liked about it:

• It's FREE!!
• Assign jobs to each child separately and when jobs should be completed
• Assign point values to jobs to use towards rewards (you determine reward value as well)
• You can leave notes of encouragement for each child
• Child can log into their own account to see jobs and check off when completed (you set it up) OR you can print their weekly job chart
• Child gets to choose how they want to spend their points based on established rewards
• You receive an email that shows the jobs completed and points earned

There are just so many great things about this website.  My son is still a little young to do it on his own, but I thought some of you might find it useful.  

Let me know what you think about it, if you check it out.

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FYI: I was NOT asked by My Job Chart to write this post nor do I receive any benefit from them.  I just wanted to share this great resource with you to make your life a little more easy.

Check Out Groupon

I was recently introduced to Groupon by a friend.  It is a great site that offers a deal a day, to make it easier for people to enjoy the great things in their community.  Check out the video below to learn more about it.

Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.

Doesn’t it sound wonderful.  I purchased my first groupon  yesterday to a local restaurant.  The nice thing about Groupon  is you can save money on more than just restaurants. For example, today in my city I can purchase an hour Swedish massage at 50% off the regular price! Wouldn't that make a great mother's day gift.  (Hint, hint honey!)

Are you already familiar with this website? What have you purchased, if anything and would you also recommend them?

Join & Collaborate

I recently became a member of we teach, a wonderful ning site.   It was designed for anyone and everyone who teaches- no matter the classroom.  Its goal is to share the tools and resources we need so that we can all learn, share, and grow as parents—and teachers—for our children. 


This place is full of resources and offers a variety of ways to collaborate with others teachers and parents. So, don’t waste anytime…if you haven’t check it out then go now and see for yourself.  (Just click the image above.)  If you do join or are already a member I would love to connect with you, so add me as a friend.  I look forward to sharing ideas and learning from you.

Facebook | A Mommy Talks

Well, I went ahead and created a Facebook fan page for my blog. Do any of you have fan pages on Facebook? How do you use them?  I am hoping it helps me connect with my readers more.  I don't know.  We will see.  Check it out if you have time and let me know what you think about fan pages.

A Mommy Talks Fan Page

Wonderful Website- For Coordinating Meals

I don't know about you, but I am surrounded by pregnant women right now.  I have at least 10 friends that are expecting this year. (Seriously, I am not lying! I could even add 5 more.) Whenever babies are born it is common for friends and family to help out by providing dinners.  Of course, the new parents don't usually coordinate this task...they have a baby to see to, so the duty usually falls to a close friend or family member.  This task can sometimes be taunting, but Jolanthe from No Ordinary Moments recently shared a gem of all gems.  Take Them a Meal is a website that can help you organized and plan out meals.  I was so excited to learn about this fabulous resource because I am coordinating meals for two different expecting mommas and my life just got a lot easier!  So a big thanks to Jolanthe for sharing and an even BIGGER THANKS to the creators of Take Them a Meal for making my life so much simpler.

Check out other Try & Tells at Mom Tried It.