May Activity Calendar

Here is just a quick look into some of the fun holidays in May (thanks to about.com!) Click on the calendar to enlarge- sorry the text is small! Enjoy!!

General Conference Easter Eggs

My daughter was extremely excited to watch General Conference this year. I was so proud of her for  desperately wanting to see our prophet and apostles speak. (Or so I thought... she told me later she liked conference because of all the treats. At least she's honest. I always enjoy the yummy treats, too.)

In order to keep Boo's interest in watching all 4 sessions of conference, and since Easter was around the corner, I came up with this idea:

Conference Easter Egg Hunt

Supplies: 15 plastic easter eggs, 15 small prizes or treats ( I would make 1 set for each of your children- so if you have 2 kids use 30 eggs, etc)

1. Print mini pictures (or cut up an old Ensign) of the 12 apostles and first presidency. 
2. Tape pics to plastic eggs.
3. Fill eggs with prizes or treats.
4. Hide eggs. Make sure you hide them in the area that you will be watching conference.... you don't want to kids to leave the room. That sort of defeats the purpose :).  Or you can be lazy like me and instead of hiding the eggs just toss them all in a basket. 
5. When an apostle or member of the first presidency speaks, have your little one search for the egg with his picture. Great way to learn the names of our church leaders.

Extension: Write simple summaries of each of the talks. Place each of the summaries inside the conference plastic egg with the church leader's picture. During family home evening, have each of your children pick an egg. Read and discuss the summary. If possible set goals as a family to apply those teachings.

JumpStart Review

I must admit I love reviewing educational products. Its a great way to supplement my daughters education while familiarizing myself with some incredible resources! I was asked by JumpStart to write a review of their site in exchange for a 6 month membership. 

JumpStart.com is an educational website that offers an interactive learning adventure for your kiddos! The website is designed for 3-12 year old kids and allows them to learn a ton while playing award winning games. 

There are different lands (based on ages of kids). 

Some of the lands include StoryLand (for ages 3-5), AdventureLand (ages 5-8), MarineLand (ages 5-8), FutureLand (ages 9-12), and Poseidon's Hangout (ages 9-12). There are other lands that would work for children of all ages- like  Uncle Milton's Amazing ScienceLand- I think this was designed just for my daughter!

JumpStart provides you with an online avatar called a Jumpee (totally customized by your child) that will learn and explore in their educational adventures. The avatar not only play games but can interact with other jumpees that are online as well. Since my daughter is only 4 we didn't do much interacting. Just playing :)

Two great parent/teacher resources in the JumpStart program are the game guide and the game manual. In the game guide you will learn more about how to use the JumpStart site effectively. There are sections on how to get started with JumpStart, finding the perfect games for your child, and info on membership. In the game manual you will get a more detailed description of installing JumpStart and how to navigate the games. Sadly, as computer savvy as I think I am, I needed this section. I definitely would recommend reading this section prior to starting your JumpStart experience!

Pros.... Educational, love the avatar element that allows kids to personalize  their learning experience, variety of levels and activities so your child is bound to find something they love!

Cons... I found their site to be a little difficult to navigate. Of course I was trying to figure it out BEFORE I saw the game manual... I could have saved myself a lot of searching!  And due to my sensitive stomach, the 3D animated graphics made me dizzy (I can't play lots of video games for this reason). 

With that said, the customer support was helpful and my daughter really loves playing the games. And at the end of the day, thats what counts. 

I would recommend JumpStart to anyone who wants to supplement their child's learning with online games. 

Happy Teaching!

Speekee Review

I am back from a crazy Easter weekend, a book reading binge (the Hunger Games series- couldn't put them down!), and a brief stomach bug. And I bring you a MUCH overdue review of Speekee!

 Ever since my daughter was a baby I have had a desire to teach her Spanish. I started with basic colors and word lists found online. I even printed a couple Dora and Diego worksheets with the hopes of Boo learning Spanish! There was no professional strategy to her Spanish learning, just a bunch of thrown together ideas. Until I was asked to do a review for Speekee (I think this would be an appropriate place to say that they did give me a free two month subscription to their site).

Speekee is a Spanish learning website for kids. They have 10 episodes of "Speekee TV" which is actually filmed in Spain (cool, right?). But it doesn't end there. Speekee offers additional resource activities and an amazing teacher resource/planning guide that makes my educator heart sing!

The teacher resource section is also known as the scheme of work. There are 10 units of comprehensive study that go right along with the episodes. Each unit has an overview where expectations are clearly defined and new vocabulary listed. I recommend using this resource along with the videos to enhance and enrich your child's Spanish learning experience.

Boo watching one of the fun episodes of Speekee TV

Pros.... Educational, several different lessons based on children's interests, good price point, easy to use and navigate the site. Best of all (in my opinion) is the teacher resource guide! A great planning tool to turn the 10 Speekee TV episodes into a comprehensive Spanish learning resource!

Cons... Like all Spanish software there is an element of truly being immersed in the language and having social interaction that is missing. However those opportunities can be given to your child and integrated easily with your Speekee study. Also an iPad app would be cool to learn and watch movies on the go :).

I would definitely recommend this site to anyone interested in teaching their child in Spanish! Heck, even I will be learning it right along with my kiddo!

Happy Teaching!