What’s one way you can save a little in your entertainment budget? If you haven’t already, look for DVD’s at the library. I stop by the library 2-3 times a month. Sometimes it’s a really quick trip because I love to put items on hold and have them waiting for me on the hold shelf.

Here are a few DVD’s I’ve checked out lately:
We Bought a Zoo
What to Expect When You’re Expecting
Lars and the Real Girl

For the kids:
Madagascar 3
Lady and the Tramp

Most recently released movies are available, there just may be a short wait list. Or a very long wait list.

We’re currently on the Waiting List for:
Skyfall
Brave
Rise of the Guardians

I check out kid’s movies at the library to see if my kids love them before I think about purchasing them. It’s nice to be able to expose kids to a variety of movies for no cost. Then you can see which ones are their favorites.

When Brave first came out, we got on the waiting list and we were #450. We’re #24 now. Usually the waiting lists are shorter than that, luckily.

You can keep DVD’s for up to two weeks in some library systems. Also, if you want to catch up on a TV series, see if your library has it. Sometimes you can renew TV series’ for three weeks or more.

I try to remember to write the due date for the movies in my calendar.  It helps save a lot on late fees!

Plan your next movie night with a DVD from the library and you’ll have more money to spend on snacks, etc. The only question is, which movie?

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Sometimes I marvel at how my 6 and 3 year old are able to dismantle rooms. Things seem to get artistically spread out evenly around the room. A naked Barbie laying near the vent. A rubber duck out of water. A blue tinker toy stick in the middle of the room. It wasn’t there five minutes ago. How can I harvest some of their energy to actually attempt to keep up with their creations?

Everyone has their own cleaning systems and tolerance levels. Sometimes I tell my kids to clean up a room and they do it (eventually). But, here are a few ideas I use periodically to spice it up a bit:

Take Turns Game
Pick a room and take turns telling each other one thing to pick up or a task. The kids like choosing what you will have to do. Keep going until the room is clean.

Incentive
If they request to watch t.v. or a movie, give them a small job to do before they can watch. Sometimes I say “Okay, but why don’t you _______ while I’m getting the show started.”

Every Room Game
Tell them you want to play a game with them. Here is the game: go to each room in the house and you each pick something up in that room. Quality time and getting a few random things picked up — win/win.

Pay Them
Pay them coins to do extra jobs above and beyond what they are expected to do. Bonus: they learn about counting and managing money. They can save up to buy something.

Joke Around
“Where does your coat go? In the bathroom?”
“Where does this car belong? In the dishwasher?” It gets them smiling at the very least.

As the kids get older, our cleaning routines will evolve. There won’t be as many toys to step around. So, if I can, I’ll enjoy this stage while we’re in it.

~Carrie

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I enjoyed planning Trevor’s 6th Birthday Lego party. So many possibilities with this theme!

The invitations:

I printed out the party info and glued the info on the inside of the card.

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The Party Plan:

1. Guess how many Legos in a jar

2. Eat pizza, fruit, snacks, and drink juice boxes

3. We sit in a circle and count the Legos that were in the jar. Closest guess gets a prize.

4. Lego Hunt in Basement

5. Candles, Sing Happy B-day, Eat Cake and Ice Cream

6. Open Gifts

7. If extra time, Hot Potato or Hokey Pokey
(we didn’t end up playing either of these because the kids spent time playing with random toys and games that were in our toy bins)

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Descriptions of the activities:

Guessing Jar Game:
I filled an empty plastic peanut butter jar with Legos. A few minutes after each child arrived, I showed them individually the jar full of Legos. I asked them to guess how many were inside, wrote down their guess, and told them we’d count them later.

After eating the birthday party meal, I told all of the kids to sit down in a circle on the floor and we’d count the Legos. We put them into piles of tens and leftovers and there ended up being 61.

The closest guess got a Lego car Trevor made as the prize.

Lego Hunt
This Lego Hunt was similar to an Easter egg hunt, except we hid the Legos all over our basement and the Legos weren’t in eggs. We gave each child a baggie with their name on it to put their Legos in. The kids enjoyed searching for all of the Legos. Then, we put their baggie full of Legos in their goodie bag with their other goodies.

Goodie Bags
Bags with Lego stickers, suckers, Lego-shaped candy, and their ziplocs full of Legos.

For my daughter’s 4th birthday in August, she’s said she wants to do a “Lego Friends” theme. Sure!

~Carrie

 

 

 

 

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If your child is wild for Legos like my 6 year-old little guy, maybe you have already heard of these great resources.  But, just in case you haven’t…

The first one is the free Lego Club magazine. We just received our first issue in the mail after we signed up about a month ago. The magazine is interesting because it includes pictures of creations other kids have made, a short Lego story, and more.

I was able to sign up for the free subscription on Lego.com. I typed in “free Lego club magazine” into the Search bar and it sent me to where I could sign up.

Or follow this link:
Free Lego Club Magazine

Also, the free Lego 4+ app is one of the best apps I’ve seen. The player gets to drive Lego vehicles through a scene and unlock different puzzles and options.  It reminded me a little of Super Mario Bros. because they have to jump for gold coins, etc.  Even my 3 year old was able to use it easily.

I hope you enjoy these little gems as much as we have!

~Carrie

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Here’s a little bit about how “My Book Boost” was started.  Back in the summer of 2010, I was a stay-at-home-mom doing some reading tutoring.  Working with beginning readers has always been a favorite part of teaching for me, so it was a perfect way to earn a little extra money and keep in the world of teaching.

When I was tutoring a child who was just starting 1st grade, I found myself sifting through books at the library looking for texts that he could read at a good level, without frustration.  Even when I went to the section labeled “Kindergarten”, some of the books were surprisingly difficult.  I started ranking the difficulty of the books I was using with him, using a leveling system I created.  I thought it’d make easier planning for me as I tutored more children in the future.  It did!

I realized other tutors, parents, family members, and teachers could benefit from the leveled list I was creating.  I worked on it on weekends, after the kids went to bed, and other times.  I did a little bit each day.  I’m thrilled that the list is available and hopefully others will find it as useful as I do! I’m using it now with my son, who is in Kindergarten.  It’s a great companion to what he’s doing at school.  Happy reading!

 

Below is the information for the free sample.

Levels 1-3 are approximately Kindergarten level and levels 4-15 are approximately 1st grade level.

 

Level 1

Hug by Jez Alborough

25 Mammals Every Child Should Know by Jim Arnosky

Picture This… by Alison Jay

 

Level 7

Whose Hat Is It? by Valeri Gorbachev

I Like Stars by Margaret Wise Brown

Time to Sleep Sheep the Sheep by Mo Willems

 

You can also download the free sample here

 

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