I found a fun site today via Twitter that I bet your kids will just love! And it may just crack them up, too! It’s called WhoPooped.org and while you are there, you can learn some fun facts about poop. And guess what else? When you’re done learning all the cool poop stuff, you will be a real-life, bonafide Poop Expert! It’s true! Look, here is my certificate:

Haha! How cool is that? Now what kid wouldn’t just love that? I bet they didn’t get any end-of-the-school-year certificates like that!

And then once you have your super groovy Poopcertificate, you can meet the Experts at the Minnesota Zoo. I’ve actually embedded the video right here on my blog for you:

You can visit the Minnesota Zoo Channel on YouTube and see all kinds of cool animal videos!

Have fun earning your Poopcertificate!!

Image by Tie Guy II via Flickr

This is a really super cool activity that will help kids with reading AND science! I would love to do this with my own name - so much fun! Gardening is such a fun activity to do with your kids and it provides so many learning opportunities, but, this is a very unique way that it can help your child with his/her reading skills! I love it!

From the site:

Kindergarteners spend hours and hours reading, writing and exploring the sounds in their own names, and in those of their classmates. Teachers love to use names to help reinforce key skills in early reading instruction… and parents can help!

Seriously, this looks like a lot of fun! Go there now: Activities : Plant Your Name with Seeds!

I found this activity – written by Julie Williams – on Education.com

You have got to see this video - it’s truly amazing! It is an undersea volcano erupting!

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Wasn’t that incredible? Interesting that it happens now, when tons of school kids around the United States are busy preparing their own volcanoes for their Science Fair projects.

Now I know you guys have heard of Steve Spangler and other science guys erupting Coke with Mentos candies. But did you know that a lot of kids are actually making their volcanoes erupt with Coke and Mentos. I just learned that recently. It’s cool, because, mixing Coke and Mentos is so. much. fun. But it’s kind of sad, because, it’s so much fun when our kids partake in the very same activities we did when we were kids!

I actually thought I might get some Coke and Mentos for my kids for some Spring Break fun. Hey - if it would tear them away from video games and the internet for even a little while, it would totally be worth it!

Big ‘ol hat-tip to JustJulie and 408Down for this post!

Image via Wikipedia

I absolutely love this - Steve Spangler and his friend, Harmony Conger, are combining three very cool things for a great activity to do with your kids! It’s a wonderful mix of:

VALENTINES DAY + SCIENCE + CRAFTS = FUN, FUN, FUN!!

And the cool thing is, the kids get to learn some science while they’re being super creative! They learn about acids and bases! I’m telling you - learning about science is fun! Either it’s gotten a LOT better since I was a kid or I just had my head in the sand! Whatever is true, I’m just glad it’s so great these days! My daughter actually says that science is her FAVORITE subject! To me, that’s a SCORE - big time!!

Steve is sharing his fun and learning all over the web, which this internet-crazy mama thinks is GRRRREAT! You can read his blog right here: Steve Spangler Blog and he is even on Twitter!! Click here: Steve on Twitter - and say Hello! to him yourself!

I found the most wonderful blog today, via Twitter!

Welcome to NCS-Tech!

There was so much good stuff on there that I felt like a kid in a candy store! There was a very helpful post about how educators can get Google Earth PRO for FREE - and I’ve already emailed that post to our technology guy in our school district.

I’ll come make this post prettier and the like - I just didn’t want to lose track of this awesome blog!

Every parent wants the best start for their children in this life – whether it’s in what we’re able to give them that we didn’t have, or even the type of education they receive. This is also true for the start we give them when it comes to reading.

Studies have proven that children who learn to read at an earlier age have an easier time in school, and are twice as likely to complete levels of higher education than those who struggle to learn at a later age. Here are some of the best things you can do to help your child become an early reader - giving them a head start on school and in life:


Start Young

There’s no age that is too young to start trying to raise an early reader. As soon as your child arrives you can start introducing them to reading both by reading to them, as well as through the use of brightly colored flash cards which have the letters of the alphabet on them.

It’s even been proven that using one of the many popular phonics learning programs available to teach (verbally) phonics to your infant can help them to better recognize letters and words later on.

Read to Them

Although you’ve probably heard it a thousand times, it’s important that you understand what an impact reading to your child will have on them becoming an early reader. A child who is read to at least once a day is twice as likely to become an early reader than those who are read to less frequently.

It’s also a good idea to teach your child how to follow along with the words by placing your finger under each word as you read it. However, when doing this, it’s important that you take the time to sound out each word as you read; otherwise your child may learn to read by memorization only.

Be Consistent

Another important thing to remember if you want to raise an early reader is to be consistent. Reading to your child once in a while, or sounding out words on an infrequent basis won’t give them the foundation they need to become early readers. You absolutely must maintain a consistent reading schedule with your children if you want them to learn young.

Make It Fun

Above all else, if you want to raise an early reader - make sure your child has fun. A child who is forced to read, or forced to read things they don’t find interesting will rebel against the learning process.

Choose books that are interesting to your child, and even let him or her be a part of the choosing process. Make the reading process fun by showing them how much you enjoy it, and remember not to be too demanding that they learn.

Overall, raising an early reader isn’t nearly as difficult as many people would have you to believe. Keep in mind the fact that reading is supposed to be an enjoyable process, and make it a special time between you and your child and you’ll find that raising your child to be an early reader is easier than you ever thought possible!

I’ve talked here at The Bookworm Broadcast about how much I love the book, “Sideways Stories from Wayside School” and how excited I was (cautiously) that it was made into a television cartoon. There definitely was potential there, with all the goofy stories! As a bookworm, though, I have to admit it did make me nervous. As a perfect example of the way I feel about this, my town library once had a sign up that said, “Never judge a book by its movie”. I shared with you that I was pretty pleased with this book-into-TV transition. And I’m hopeful that at least some kids will be intrigued enough with the show to want to read the books! I can hope, right? Hey - I’ve always been that way - if I really, really like a movie/show, I want to read the book!

The basic story of this book is that The Wayside School was accidentally built 30 stories tall, with one classroom per floor, instead of one story tall, with 30 classrooms. The builder’s felt really bad about it and apologized a whole lot! On each floor of the building, in each classroom, is another crazy class - with another wacky tale to tell.

The main character, Todd, goes to school on the 30th floor and at recess time, he has to hurry as fast as he can to get down to the bottom floor, so that he can get one of the cherished playground balls from the janitor. It is first-come-first-serve and it’s hard to make it down all thirty floors quickly!

Todd’s teacher, Mrs. Jewl, not only allows the students to sleep - she encourages it! And when he tries to hand in his homework, he winds up in trouble - he gets detention or has to ride the kindergarten bus home!

The wackiness just goes on and on! So, while I definitely wondered if Wayside - The Cartoon could possibly measure up to the book, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised! They’ve added some things and taken some things out and it is, for sure, a different experience than the book. It is tons of fun, though! And the cool thing is that it is great fun for the whole family to watch! It is one of those cartoons that everyone in your family, no matter their age, will enjoy!

Wayside School: Season One definitely gets this bookworm’s seal of approval!

And just to appeal to my book-lovin’ heart, they actually included a copy of Sideways Stories from Wayside School with the DVD! Now, how cool is that?

Image via Wikipedia My sixth grader came home today with an interesting, and very tricky, sentence exercise that she had worked on in class. And now she is doing another one to try and ‘trick’ her teacher - as her teacher was not at all tricked by the one she did in class. I’m totally not making sense, am I?

Let me explain it. The kids had to write one main idea sentence and then write three supporting detail sentences. Once they had that done, they show someone their detail sentences and the person tries to figure out their main sentence.

My daughter’s teacher figured out hers in just one second! She wants to stump her teacher, though. Here are the ones she wrote in class:

Supporting Detail Sentences

I used to have a white cat.

I once had a box turtle.

I’ve had many birds.

Main Idea Sentence

I’ve had many pets in my life.

We are sitting here wracking our brains trying to think of one that will stump her, but, it is hard! I did come up with one way to stump her that did not impress Sam. If you were to express an opinion in the main idea, and the supporting sentences only contained the facts! I think it’s brilliant! I’m not sure, though, if that means they really are supporting sentences! This is what I came up with:

Supporting Detail Sentences

My mom has seventeen angel figurines.

My dad has a ton of knives.

My brother has lots of Pokemon cards.

Main Idea Sentence

I really don’t like the stuff my family collects.

Wait a minute! Stop the presses! She just threw a whole new monkey wrench into this darn thing! You actually show the person all four sentences! That’s crazy! I thought you just show them your supporting sentences and they have to come up with your main sentence! This is even harder than I thought! And no wonder she didn’t like my idea!

Ok, now I’m really scratching my head! You guys gotta help us out! Let’s all put our heads together and think! Think! Think! Think!

This is one time I’m not gonna yell at you to Go Read A Book - because, I want you thinking!!

Anyone? Anyone?

I found the most perfect end table EVER this morning online! I want one so badly, that it’s just killing me! And the whole thing is my friend, Julie’s, fault! Gosh! She is apparently nesting in honor of our friend, Eve, who’s due to give birth quite soon, because, she is cleaning out her whole entire house! (I sure hope she’s coming to Alabama next!)

Julie is going from room to room in her house, cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of stuff! She even had some child laborers helping her! Crazy, isn’t it? They don’t seem to upset by it, though - they rather look like they’re having fun, I’d say! Well, aside from all the sneezing, that is! I’m getting off the subject, though, aren’t I?

She is rearranging her house in this process and she will be left with this one empty spot next to her dining table that she would like to make into a comfortable reading corner. There’s nothing I like more than comfortable reading corners! I’ve dreamed of one for a long, long time. I almost had one in one of the houses we lived in - and it was going to be in my master bedroom! That was going to be so cool! We never got around to the remodel, though, before we moved out of that house. So Julie posted some pictures of the area she has to work with and asked for advice on what to put there. Upon reading her post, I went looking online for this certain kind of chair that my brother used to have that I thought would be perfect for her spot! I did find the chair ….only trouble is, I also found the most adorable table!! And if I know Julie, she was drooling when she saw it, too! Here, let me just show you….
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I can’t believe it is already time to send my little monsters sweethearts off to school again! Summertime goes so fast nowadays. And really, that’s true - because, they barely get more than two months, the poor little buggers! It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was posting that they were going back to school last year! Crazy how time flies, isn’t it?

Our schools around here started on the 7th, so the kids have had six days of school so far. Back home, though, they don’t even start until August 25th! And I think some of my friends up north say they start even later than that. They stay in school for some of June and we are usually out by then.

My daughter is in sixth grade and the ‘top of the school’! That is such a fun year! And it is also the year that the kids start switching classes to get ready for high school. So she has six or seven different teachers. She really likes all of her teachers so far, but, she absolutely loves her homeroom teacher! I do, too - she is the reading teacher - so you know I like her! She is really nice, though - it’s not just that she’s the reading teacher - she is very spunky!
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