ABC Mouse – Review and Giveaway

 When I found out ABC Mouse was going to let a blogger try out their site I jumped at the chance.

What is ABC Mouse you ask? 

• ABCmouse is an Early Learning Academy with a full online curriculum for preschool through Kindergarten. 

My youngest is in kindergarten and learning to read. I know they do a lot at school, but there’s 27 kids in his kindergarten class and it’s just too many. So, we’ve been trying to supplement at home which is not always easy.

We’ve actually tried another computer program and he hated it, so I wasn’t sure if he would even try ABC Mouse. I have two of their free phone apps on my cell and he plays those, so when I said ABC Mouse he already seemed to have a positive attitude towards it.

Much to my delight he immediately got right into it. I set him up on the learning path and he did 5 activities in one sitting. (If you have a high energy little guy like mine then you will know why that’s a huge deal.) He enjoyed it so much he discussed it with me and played again later that day. Since then he has play every single day. Sometimes he does the learning path that was customized for his age and sometimes he just does free choice. I love listening to him sing a long with the songs.

 
Another great things is the parents section. Here I can watch his progress and adjust his levels if I want. There’s also explanations of the various lessons. They’ve got hundred of lessons.

Win a one year subscription to ABCMouse.com

Here's your chance to win your children a one year subscription to ABC Mouse. You can also check out their Facebook page for more info http://www.facebook.com/ABCmouse 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

This was a sponsored post by thebloggerconnection.com. All opinions shared are my own.

10 Educational Websites

Here is a list of 10 great FREE educational websites. 

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ - for 3rd grade and up where the kids can write mad-libs of a variety of topics.  Shows the kids parts of speech and how to write a tale.

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/games.jsp - This site has four educational games your kids can play.  Spelling, geography, and word finds.

Time Magazine website for kids
News for kids Weekly Reader
National Geographic for kids
Fema for kids

Nasa for kids! 

http://www.wildlifeart.org/learn/ArtToEducation/ is a great site for educating children on wildlife art.

Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes.

BBC has a great educational website on every school subject. 

The Factor Tree - Review

I'm a buzzagent and I got to review a math website for kids called The Factor Tree for free for 30 days.  Overall I think it is a pretty good website, but not something I would pay for.  When you start your kids out on the program they are given a test.  This test determines what level the kids should start out on. 

My fourth grader was able to use it on his own, but my 1st grader had to have a lot of help.  I basically had to sit there with her the entire time she used it.  It did give me the opportunity to teach her how to tell time.  The level she initially tested out own kept giving her time problems.  So, every time a question on time popped up I would explain it and then we would figure it out together. 

My first grader enjoyed the site and asked several times if she could do it.  My fourth grader used the site when I asked, but was not interested in it.  He never wanted to do it on his own. 

8 Great Websites for kids

I thought I would share some of the websites my kids enjoy.

http://www.poptropica.com/ - My kids enjoy making their own funny characters and playing around in this virtual world.

http://www.starfall.com/ - This is good for younger kids who are learning to read.

http://www.janbrett.com/ - Jan Brett is an author and illustrator that my kids learned about in kindergarten. They enjoy looking at her website, which has games and coloring sheets based on her books.

http://www.funbrain.com/ - All kinds of learning games.

http://www.pbskids.org/ - This has lots of games based around their tv shows. I really like the different themes that they have each month. This month my kids have been learning about conservation through the various games.

http://www.nps.gov/goga/forteachers/onlinegames.htm - These games are by the Nation Park service and have unique games for learning about geology and many different species.

http://reading.ecb.org/ - This is a very neat website that bring book to life for the kids through different methods. Such as reading one page at a time and drawing a picture of what you saw in your mind and then putting it with music.

http://www.tickettoread.com/ - This is a fantastic website that has lots of activites to get your kids reading and keep them learning more and more.

Invent Now

I thought this was an interesting website.  If you have a child that is interested in inventing and stuff like that you may want to check it out.  They have several programs including some camps.

teaching my 5 year old to read

My 5 year old is going to start kindergarten in barely a month and she is not reading at the level we want her to. We have been doing the Bob books, but for whatever it is just not sticking. So, today feeling discouraged I began to think about how he tought our older son to read. We did it with Bob books, but we also practiced certain words. After a few internet searched I found a website I like with a list of 100 words that your child should memorize. I just got done writing then all out on flash cards and I am feeling motivated again! Here is a link to the website that I found.
http://www.alpharubicon.com/kids/100words.html

I would love to hear about what you are doing to get your kids ready for reading?

art website

My children have always enjoyed art. My son got lucky in first grade because his teacher's speciality was art. She taught them to draw all kids of things. Recently, while we were at Disney Quest my kids took a learn to draw Goofy class and did great. Since they enjoyed it so much I have now been looking for other stuff that they can learn to draw. During my search I came across this great website. They have crafts and other stuff on there, but the thing we are using is drawing lessons for children. To check it out for yourselves click here.

Free Legos

Did you know that you can get free Legos?  My son loves Legos and the last time we were down in Orlando we made it a point to go to the Lego store at downtown Disney.While we were in there I found about two things they offer both for free!

First, they have a free Lego magazine that your child can get. Lego actually has two magazines one for younger kids and one for older. Both of the Lego magazines are free.

Second, every first Tuesday of the month they offer a free in store mini model build that you keep. For the month of April it was a mini rabbit. I wish we lived closer to a Lego store!

Just go to their website to sign up for the newsletter, play games, or find a store near you!

How to Build a LEGO Snowflake

2 Book websites for kids

In a previous posting I mention how great the Jan Brett website is. Well, here are a few more websites that are great for reading!


Story Online is a website that your kids can go to and listen and watch stories being read out loud. One of the books they can listen to is Polar Express. There are also activities that accompany each story.

Tumble Book Library is also a website that your kids can go to a watch and listen to a book being read. These books can be read in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Russian!