I was greeting friends on Twitter this morning, when a ‘tweet’ came through from another WAHM (work at home mom) about a post she’d made on her blog, Relaxed Homeschooling. She has all kinds of great information on her site for homeschoolers and for all of us parents, really! I like the way she has her book recommendations split up into age groups and I really appreciate all the resources that she provides.

And I’m so very glad I saw the blog post she tweeted, Virtual Fieldtrips! She’s telling us about a really great site! And it’s called, surprisingly enough, Virtual Field Trips. This site is so totally cool, you guys! You have to go check it out! And I’ve only gone on one ‘field trip’ so far, and I’m already this excited!
Read the rest of this entry »

Sammie and I were so excited to watch the newest release from Disney of one of our favorite movies - 101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)! We both just really love this movie! And with this edition, we get to not only enjoy one of our favorite movies, but, we get to learn all kinds of background and history of the movie in all its renditions! I love learning all that goes into movies and learning all that stuff from the 60’s gives me such nostalgic feelings! I wasn’t born until 1970, but, so many of the shows and movies we watched in the 70’s were made in the 50’s and 60’s. So it takes me right back to my childhood. It is so fascinating to me, though, to see what all goes into making a movie. And it is all that much more fascinating with animated films, because, of the unbelievable amount of work that goes into it, as well as the creative work-arounds that are come up with, such as how they animated the cars in the film, giving even them distinct personalities!

Read the rest of this entry »

What bonus, you ask? The bonus still-shot I took for you guys when I read the Paddington book! Hahaha! You see, my ‘mess’ was so funny, that I thought a good still-shot was definitely called for! You can even see the glop of soap stuck to the top rim of my glasses! Making messes is just fun - seriously, ask your kids!! They’ll tell you all about it! And so will this big, overgrown kid!

And now, here’s Mrs. Lisa’s mess:
Read the rest of this entry »

Oh boy, are you guys in for a treat today! Here’s what happened - my camera battery went dead and so I wasn’t able to read you a book today, myself. And I knew I had seen some good book-readers on YouTube before so, I went looking to see what I could find for you! And man, oh man! Did I find something good!

The book that will be read is one of the Little Critters™ books called Just a Secret by Mercer Mayer. My kids and I used to love Mercer Mayer books - we read them all the time! Well, guess who is reading that book for you today …..none other than …dun dun dun … *drumroll please*
Read the rest of this entry »

No, it’s lots of board games! I found the coolest book for Sammie on sale at the grocery store the other day! It’s called “Your World: 5 Games About You and Your World” - it is so much fun! It is a ‘board book’, but, it is really five board games - all in one! I love it! And Sammie does, too! We’ve been having tons of fun playing all the games - and she even took it to her Aunt Donna’s for a sleepover and they had fun playing it together!

Normally I would show you a picture, by way of an Amazon link, or at least a picture that I’ve taken - or a picture from some other website. I can’t seem to find the book online anywhere, though! (My camera batteries are dead…)

I did find the publisher’s website, though - and I absolutely adore their products and their very interactive site! The name of the company is Innovative Kids and they have sections on their site for kids, for grownups, and for teachers and librarians. They also have links to other helpful literacy/education resources, and they, of course, have their store pages.

I imagine the book I found is no longer in print, and that is why I found it so deeply discounted, as I can’t even find it on their site. I am glad, however, to have found this company! I will definitely keep them in mind when shopping for books and information!

If I remember when I get my camera batteries, I’ll take a picture of this book, it’s just so cool. It has a self-contained little compartment with the game pieces in it. And attached to that is the spinner. So the whole thing is perfectly portable - so you can easily take it on the go with you - to Grandma’s house or wherever! I just love it!

The funny thing was, though, that the games are sort of small, as far as board games go. And so I thought they would be fun, but, short, little games that didn’t take ages and ages to play. Boy - was I ever wrong! On one of the games, I got stuck in a loop of sorts, and the darned game was taking forever. Sammie was laughing her head off every time I landed on the space that was sending me back through the loop! Now when she asks to play her new game book, I cringe, “Not that one that tortures me!” And she busts up laughing! Ha!

My friend, Loretta, pointed me in the direction of a very cool blog, Today’s Gizmos, Gadgets, and Tech, on which the blogger posted about some of the coolest bookshelves I’ve ever seen! If you live in a smaller house or apartment, but, you love to hold onto your oodles and oodles of books, this would be the perfect solution for you! And what a cool specialty for a builder, too! I bet my husband, Mark, could specialize in making these and make a pretty penny!

The bookcase is, quite literally, IN the staircase! Wow! I wonder, though, if that would make the stairs pretty steep…

Enough of my carrying on, go check out the post: Bookcase in the Stairs - and have a look around, the author has blogged about some pretty interesting stuff over there - like an electric skateboard, and even cooler - a hands free umbrella that wont’ flip inside out! That would be so awesome!

Ok, you guys - you know what time it is! It’s time for Mrs. Lisa to read another book to your sweet little bookworms! And this week I pulled a book out of my super-special-uber-precious-mommy-stash to share with your little ones. I think they’re gonna have a great time laughing at with me this time! If there’s one thing I’m good at - it’s the goofiness! So let’s just get on with it, shall we?

It’s time for our second installment of Bookworm Storytime! This is fun - I’m having fun making these videos! I hope your kids enjoy watching them. Let me try to explain why this is so cool for me. When you order a My Very Own Mail package from me for your child, I do my very best to talk ‘to them’ in my letters. And I very much enjoy that, but, it’s not the same as if they were with me. And sometimes I find myself trying to explain something or convey something in the letters that would just work better in person. Do you know what I mean?

So in making these videos, the surprising thing for me has been that I am loving getting to really talk to your kids! It is so cool! I knew I wanted to do this on the blog for a while, and I knew it would be neat for you and your kids and maybe even for me, but, I just didn’t realize that it would satisfy the urge I have to really communicate with ‘my bookworms’! So that rocks! And I think I’ll be doing it for a while, whether it goes over big or not, simply to fulfill that need that I have!

This week’s book is called What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz and my reading of it is dedicated to a special six year old girl - JK’s daughter!

The HERO Youth Ambassador Program is a great program that teaches young people unbelievably valuable life lessons that will stay with them forever and may possibly have a big impact on the direction their lives take! And the program is now looking for twenty students from the USA and Canada, ages 16-19, to be selected as 2008 HERO Youth Ambassadors. Young people have until March 1st to apply for the program.

The kids who are accepted will travel to Africa to provide support to children living in AIDS/HIV-affected areas. They will work in the schools, building kitchens, painting murals, and teaching the children. They will also do things like build fences and take over necessary things that might be difficult for the children to get over there - even such simple things as pencils.

You can read more about the program here: Rockin’ Teen Ambassadors! These kids are really awesome, and I am very impressed with all of them. And they are great for giving up their summers for the program, and for the African children. I also think, however, that one of the teens said it perfectly when she said that they would not only be giving, but, also receiving! So true, so true. These teens will come back changed, for sure!

And if you don’t know any teens that would interested in applying, there are many more ways to get involved and be a HERO at home!

The part that really got me excited about the program was watching the HERO Ambassador Webisodes on Youtube - it was really neat to get to know the kids and actually see the work they were involved in. And you get to see what the journey was like getting there. I found it very interesting, and I’m glad that they documented it - there’s no better way to get kids pumped about joining than letting them see what is involved.

A lot of these kids are about to start college. Can you imagine a better way to start your college years? So many kids go nutters once they leave high school/go to college - I’m pretty sure these kids come back and have their feet firmly planted on the ground - what do you think?