What Words Were Created the Year You Were Born?

I've been learning a lot of new words lately. I have penpals in New Zealand that have been showing some of their words and phrases. I've learned a lot about the differences between the Queen's English and American English from a dear friend in the United Kingdom. But I'm also learning American words and terms that are new, or just new to me. I have found a word that describes my love of learning these words. Ready for it? I am a logophile. Where do I mostly find words to learn about? Well, since I'm also a bibliophile, I find them in books. 

Logophile - A lover of words.

Bibliophile - A person who loves or collects books, especially as examples of fine or unusual printing, binding, or the like. 

I have also come to enjoy getting the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com. I learn words for myself. Or I find words that I think the kids should know and create spelling lists in our homeschool curriculum from them. Here is a new word for the generation of today...

Nomophobia! Can you guess its meaning? I had a pretty good laugh when I first saw it. After all, it is a running joke in our house these days. 

Nomophobia - Anxiety caused by being without access to a functioning mobile phone. 

I recently learned there was even a thing as finding words and phrases that were created the year you were born! If you are curious about your own year, just go HERE. For example, my year is 1988. Yes, I'm quite old in the eyes of my children and siblings. In that year, I have found some interesting new words that also give insight to what was going on during that time.

Some of these, I wasn't familiar with. Like d4T, heteroglossia, himbo, and mommy track. Others, I grew up hearing regularly or even used myself. Like swole, pimped-out, defrag, unibrow - these were things that were pretty common as I was growing up. One of my favorites was gangsta. We used to make jokes with this one all the time. 

We didn't use it correctly, of course, but then who ever does?? Mommy-track is about moms who chose to work and raise kids. They resigned themselves to making money, probably to make ends meet, but knew they probably wouldn't grow in their careers because of the kid side to life. I've witnessed that firsthand. A job I applied for was very interested in me until they found out I had kids. They told me flat-out that having kids made me a liability. I would most likely miss work they thought. Who knew that began in 1988? 

And e-book?! I'm not a fan of those. But I didn't realize they started that early. Just took them a while to gain popularity I suppose. I still prefer holding a book in my hands, flipping each page, and indulging my imagination with pictureless descriptions. Even the smell of a book can be alluring. I will happily spend time wandering through book stores - used ones, not so much new ones.  

The first place I heard the term killer app was in a song. Took me this long to realize just what it really meant!

And in case you missed it, Al Yankovic's favorite MC is M.C. Escher. My dad's favorite too. This guy was amazing with his art. Mathematically and artistically inclined. But that is just a side note. 

So humor me here. What word(s) came out the year you were born that you had no idea of? What word have you learned recently? Or what is your favorite word? I'd love to know. Who knows if I might learn a new one from you. Leave me a comment below!

2 Games From Skillmatics That Our Family Loves *Discount Included*

My husband is sick and has a project deadline to complete. So we are spending more time at home, which leads to crazier kids. My husband says we have a case of cabin fever lately. This means that puzzles and board games are seeing more play time than usual. Perfect timing since I was sent a great couple of games to try out with my younger one. She doesn't often get new games that are geared towards her own age. Even better was that her 9 year old sister had no problem playing them with her! Let's check them out together. 

*Disclaimer: I was sent these two games for free in exchange for holding a party and sharing my review. I was not otherwise paid or endorsed. All opinions are strictly my own.*

 Learning made fun

Skillmatics is all about games that provide fun learning! They are a leading global education brand that is led by a team of educators as well as game and product designers who are dedicated to creating innovative and holistic ways for children to learn through play. They are deeply committed to their mission of developing educational products that bring joy to children and help them reach their full potential.

For this review opportunity, I was sent Guess in 10 as well as Found It! the Indoor version. You can get these and other products of theirs from Amazon HERE.

Found It! is great for days when you are stuck inside as we have been. My husband has been sick with the flu, so we haven't been going to the park, playing tennis or swimming. Before that, and will be after that, he has a class project due that he has to finish. Which also translates to being stuck at home. I've made scavenger hunts before. But they were simply to find items. This version, which is geared towards learning for younger minds, includes more than just finding something. It asks critical thinking questions. I love having it be more in depth. My boys are 11 and 13, both of them wanted to play with their sisters on this one.

The Guess in 10  was the first one we tried out. I played with my 5 year old first. Then my 9 year old wanted to join in with us. We were laughing as we tried to guess each others animal cards. 

I explained both games on my YouTube video. They are pretty easy to follow the directions on. 

Save money on your own games!

Skillmatics has been gracious enough to offer my readers a 15% off discount on their Learning Kits. You can get those HERE. You use the code Try15 at checkout. Don't wait too long though. This discount is only good until January 20, 2022.

Skillmatics Contest!

In addition to allowing me to host this party, they are hosting a contest. One that means winning for both the hosts and their guests. Here is how it works. Two hosts have the chance to win gift cards to Amazon. I need over 100 readers to follow Skillmatics on Instagram! Also, I need them to comment on my Instagram post HERE what game they would want to get from Skillmatics. Now for how my readers can win. By helping me in becoming one of the winning hosts, you are in turn entered to win a bundle of 3 Skillmatics games or a Skillmatics Learning Kit. If you like the sound of that, don't forget to follow my link to Instagram! 

What do you think of these games? Would you want to play or do you know someone who would? Let me know in the comments below. I love hearing from you all! 

Homeschool Bound

My faith in the public school system has fizzled out. Finally. Thus begins my journey into being a serious homeschool mom. The journey is bound to be difficult, and I enter the path with slight trepidation. However, that being said, I have a strong belief that it is the right path to take. My kids mean the world to me. Giving them the best education possible, isn't an empty dream. If all I can leave them is knowledge, then I'm leaving a treasure-loads worth! 

First things first...

I had to remove them from the public school system. My daughters school acquiesced my request immediately. My boys' school... Took several emails and then CC-ing the Superintendent. But it is done! Supposedly... And I am happy to feel so free. Taking that first step can be so draining. Emotionally speaking, I kept wondering if I can truly do this. But knowing the support I have from my husband and the supplies my mom keeps passing along, it just seemed so doable. Physically speaking, I questioned how I would get through the days with the kids around non-stop. I'm not always feeling my best. And try though I may, they know when I'm struggling. They are like their dad... Always reading me better than I'd like! But then there is the thought that if they stay in school, I have to keep getting up before the sun and dragging them to the bus stop. Then dragging myself to pick them up in the afternoon. I think I can handle being home all day every day with them much better than keeping to that schedule! It can be overwhelming at first. But once the rhythm is established, this will be a walk in the park.

What will I teach? 

As required by law mathematics, reading, writing and citizenship are no-brainers. But I won't stop there. History shows our human mistakes so that we can be better in the future. Science brings wonder and reminds us to keep pushing forward. Art breeds creativity. And of course I will be looking forward to our trips to the pool and tennis courts for physical education. I also plan to teach them as much home economics studies as I can think of. My kids won't be like the majority of college-aged kids who don't know how to wash their clothes or make breakfast! My 4 year old folds and puts away her clothes and towels just fine. So I think I'm on track so far. I've created a board on Pinterest that is divided by subject to keep me on track and offer ideas when I get stuck.

What am I doing? 

Normally I laugh and say, "I don't know!" 

I've been reading a lot about homeschooling. I've also thought back to the days when I was a homeschooler (4th grade to college). Not every kid goes ahead at the same pace. So I'm evaluating where my children are and where they need to go. While I like having workbooks that they can progress in on their own, I don't want to sit back and wait for them to have questions. I know at least one of them will gladly pretend to be doing the work while most likely hiding undone pages. I should know, I did the exact same thing. Once. I'm going to be hands on with them. I have a 6th grader, 5th grader, and a 4th grader. Not to mention my 4 year old in Kindergarten! 

Where are my materials coming from?

One thing I have come to find is that a child needs to progress at their own speed. My 4th grader is far ahead in her levels. So I'm going out on a limb and teaching them all together. Refreshers in multiplication, division, fractions and decimals. My 6th grader is the only one who might be able to go into whatever comes after those. Math is my husbands expertise. So he's their teacher in that subject. My mom gave me lots of books that I'm going to pull lessons from to use. I've also printed pages out online to get an idea of where they are. I'm going to have them quizzing each other with flash cards for multiplication and division.

Reading is easy! That is my comfort zone. All my children follow suit in that. Our library recognizes us now, I'm proud to admit. We have a great deal of fun going there. My only sadness is that they limit me to placing 25 items on hold at once. And I can only get 50 items at a time. Which means we are there almost every week. Okay, every week. I've nearly met my Goodreads reading challenge goal for the year already. Which reminds me... I need to up it to 150 books... Anyhow. I'm teaching them the proper differences between the types of books they are reading. And to mix non-fiction in between the fiction. (Something my mom taught me.) Keep hold of enough of reality so that you don't always live in fantasy. They are currently reading about robots and our special forces teams for their non-fiction.

Writing is going to be fun! When I was homeschooled, I had penpals around the world. I also kept journals. LOTS of journals. I've since burned some of those. Most of those. But there are couple I still have. My children won't be forced to keep a journal. They keep to something else. They have Bible study journals. They read the Bible on their own and write questions to ask their dad later. He does Bible studies with them every afternoon, Mondays being question days. Even their Sunday school teachers have been in wonder that my kids know more about the passages being studied than other kids there. My kids can even tell you the historical references of people not in the Bible that affected the events mentioned in the Bible! That makes me very proud. On top of this, though, I plan to try and get them penpals. I want them to practice writing letters while also learning about others around the world. I don't want idle writings. But true penmanship and connections. I would even like them to write family more as well. Since the pandemic, we haven't had many in-person interactions with family. 

History is a subject that my husband and I both are huge fans of. My kids have learned well how much I enjoy it. I make them write reports every summer on a different subject. We discuss World War 2 a lot around here. This summer, they learned the proper layout of a book report while studying pirates. Wanna know how I know they actually learned something from this study? My 11 year old son had to see the dentist. As he sat there, the hygienist asked him what he had done over the summer so far. He told her he learned about pirates. "How fun!" she says. "Yep, I even know all about the process of keelhauling!" He tells her. She looks at me confusedly and back to him, "What is keelhauling?" He goes into precise, and slightly gory, detail about it. She looks back at me and said, "Nothing like Pirates of the Caribbean, huh?" HAHAHAHAHA You wanna talk about being proud of my son?! I told her, "Nope, that is real history that he learned." We did binge through the entire series of Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We are also still reading Treasure Island. We watched two versions of movies made from that book as well. And my mom made it even more fun by sending a game called Pirate Words that had us laughing our butts off trying to make words, beat each other to the treasure and not get eaten by sharks - all at the same time! I took it a step further and had each of them design their own pirate "colors" or flag. Anyone who has studied pirate history will know that pirates didn't all fly the same Jolly Roger flag. They created their own to fly, to show who was captain of the ship. It was cool to see their different ideas and to read their reports. They all see piracy so differently. 

I have science projects and kits lined up already. My mom has sent most of them. From robotics to wind machines, to solar power and circuitry. Not to mention my husband has loads of his own ideas for fun science studies. We have books to study the Epic Failures of Engineering. I can't wait for that one! 

For physical education, we go to the pool and are learning swimming. Or at least I have been trying to teach them. We also take them to play tennis. We bought racquets for us all. My kids love this! We are actually getting better. We no longer take up two courts with our stray balls all the time! I did fall this last time. Scraped up my right side really well. But through it all, we are having fun and staying fit. 

                                                    This one came from the Czech Republic

Geography is a fun subject. I don't believe it is only for learning where places are on the globe. I also believe in learning about other cultures and culinary experiences. I am a member of Postcrossing. I swap postcards with others around the world. When I get one from another country, I look up recipes from there and make a dinner that is completely different than things we have here. Then I read to the kids a little about that country. We talk about where it is. Soon I will be hanging a world map that my mom gave me. I'm creating what I call the Learning Wall. Our place is small, but I'm making it work. 

What suggestions might you have? Any of you homeschool?? I'd love to hear about it!

4 Fun Ways to Pass the Time

 I've started cleaning out old files. You ever do that? Have those moments of thinking you would clean out old papers? I found magazine articles from 2013. I had saved them because they had great ideas to help get through those doldrums of life. To spark ideas on what to do in our down time. I came across some marvelous ones that I wish I had found sooner. However, there are plenty of chances for us parents to use them with things not being fully opened in most places. Especially if the second wave of pandemic hits and everyone is put under lock-down again. 

When you have a lot of toys...

Create a toy catalogue: Take pictures and print them out. You can put them into a photo album or glue them into a notebook. Let your kids pick which ones they want to keep out for now. The rest go into a stored state. When they are bored (at least 2 weeks later), they may pull out the book and "shop" for "new" toys. New selections have to be kept out for a certain amount of time before they can "shop" again. 

I had heard an idea like this before. Instead of photos in a book, however, you would take half of their toys, put them in some kind of container and put them away where the kids couldn't access them. When they got bored, you swapped toys. Ones in their toy box were put away and the stored ones were brought out. This renews their interest. It is like they forget they even had those toys and makes it seem like they are new all over again! No need to spend money, no need to hear the whining when they can't find something to do. Though, as far as whining goes, my kids know better. I take a toy every time they are "bored". I give it away. And they have to do reading, chores or reports to pass their time. They now see the word 'boredom' as a forbidden word. Like a curse word. 

This also helps keep the clutter down. The downside is, you have to have space to store those extra toys in. You can also use it to determine which toys they have absolutely no interest in anymore. If they don't order that toy in 6 months time - they don't truly want it anymore. 

If you have a big enough yard area...

Create a treasure mine! Get a small pool - think the plastic ones or a small blow up kind. Fill it up halfway with sand. Find little plastic gemstones, shells and pretty rocks (fools gold!) - whatever would bring excitement and fun to the kids, and hide them in the sand. Then fill up the rest of the pool with water. You can get little sieves pretty cheap these days. Let the kiddos "mine" and hunt to their hearts content. 

Satisfying a sweet tooth...

Bring out the ice cream! One of the best ways I have seen to end the summer, is through an ice cream tasting party. Some have gone so far as to even buy 10 gallon-sized varieties of ice cream. You line them up on the table and pass out sheets for the "judging". Have silly things like "Quickest to melt" or "Most intense flavor", etc. Once the judging has ended, you can then make sundaes! 

Another twist is to just have multiple types of ice creams, toppings, and fixings. Create a sundae bar. Everyone designs their ultimate sundae creation. Then let everyone vote to see who they think made the best one.

Make learning fun...

Bring the world to your doorstep! Or even choose a different kind of adventure. Check out Little Passports for all kinds of subscription options that bring fun to learning science, geography, and even history. I would love to get my younger son signed up for the Science Expeditions one. They can learn forensic science and fingerprint analysis in the first go! Every month after, they solve another mystery with science. And if you don't want to get a subscription, they also offer Pack options. 

What other ideas have you seen or tried? I'd love to hear them!

4 Huge Reasons That Lego DUPLO Are a Must Have

Toys are more than just entertainment in our home. We believe that they are a way to create imaginative play. A way to grow and learn. From geology to the circuit building sets, and then to the Lego bricks! All of these things have been welcomed into our home for play that is meaningful.

*Disclaimer: I was sent the All-in-One-Box free of charge, for my honest review and to share with guests at a party that I hosted. I was not otherwise paid or endorsed by Lego DUPLO.*

I played with my Lego bricks, growing up. I loved building and exploring the possibilities. And since then, they have only gotten cooler! There are more complex pieces. Additionally, there are bigger ones now that I can let my babies play with. Lego DUPLO are perfect for my toddler. She can't shove them in her mouth and block airways. What she can do is build her castles to the sky. She can build a train that whistles as it runs the along the track through her city. Her characters are animal and human - and always fun! They have adventures together. Buzz Lightyear is often seen riding his "horse" (which is actually a goat) to save the children in a runaway train! 

Why should you check Lego DUPLO out?

As parents, we want our kids to build their imaginations. It leads to more creative thinking later in life. We live in an age where kids are glued to electronic devices starting at an early age. Studies have shown that this isn't helping them long term. They need toy time. Time to play with their hands, increasing their motor functions. Lego bricks are the perfect way to do just that! There are manuals, but after building the set once, I have found that kids can't resist taking it apart and then building something of their own design. This is great! My kids don't just build an object. They build stories in their minds. 

Motor functions - Lego DUPLO are perfect for little hands. Easy to handle, easy to take apart and put together. They are designed with little people in mind. They learn motor control of their hands. A skill that needs to be built and refined through life.

No limitations - There are sets for all kinds of imaginations. Super heroes, farms, trains, wild animals - you know the new Frozen movie? Elsa and Anna are back! They are gender neutral. While I don't think all toys should be, I am glad that Lego are. Trains and animals, vehicles or movie characters - no matter who they are favored by - can be enjoyed by both boys and girls.

 Life skill learning- Imagination isn't the only learning they do. My daughter has a train that has the numbers she can count as she puts them on. We practice saying the colors too. Naming the different animals. Now, I know she is only a toddler, but dare I say we are promoting engineering as well? Let's say she wants to build a great tower. She needs to know how to balance the bricks and connect them well so that they won't just fall over. I know, I know. Big concepts for a 3 year old. But we gotta start them off somewhere, yes? And this is the fun way to do just that. 

What else does Lego DUPLO offer? 

How about a party planning hub? You read that right. They will help you plan out your party! From invitations you can print to the napkin holder, and on to the games! You can check it all out here. There is a gift finder that makes figuring out what your kid would like most, even easier.

I even found items at the local Dollar Tree to use for my Lego DUPLO party. Plates and napkins and little party favor boxes. These were added to the plates and favor bags that Lego sent me and it was awesome! 

Party planning and hosting at its finest!  

Lego DUPLO sent me an amazing party pack to get my on my way to hosting a wonderful party. 

My daughter really got into the party spirit as we prepared for her party. They have little masks you can print. She called them her "friends"! They have a couple more in the variety that are so much fun.

We put the stickers that Lego sent in the bags along with other party favors I picked up. Oriental Trading Company has some building brick themed items that are perfect as well!

 

Thanks to my love of Pinterest, I came across the idea to make Lego themed rice crispy treats.

Then they played with the All-in-One Box! The good thing about Lego DUPLO bricks are that older kids can really connect with their younger siblings and friends as they play. They bond, as it were. At least my kids did.

There are all kinds of games on the birthday hub that you can play. The tower building one was my favorite. 
I highly suggest you take a look and see what you can come up with! Then let me know what you liked the best. I'd love to hear from you in the comments below! 

Boosting Learning Power with BitWise Academy!

As a parent, I want my kids to excel in STEM subjects. I want them to do well in school so that they will do well in life. But where do you start in giving them an extra boost? Over the summer months, my son was able to try out BitWise Academy. It was a great start to learning coding.

*Disclaimer: I was given the opportunity to test out their website service in exchange for my honest review. I was not otherwise paid or endorsed. All opinions are my own.*

BitWise Academy was created with the dream of providing an easy-to-use platform for teaching real life coding and art skills that can be used in technological understanding and growth. They teach kids the basic programs that will start them down the road of success. 

As with any program, there are pros and cons.

The interface is simple to follow. You can keep track of the courses and the progress of each one.

If you have any questions at all, you can ask their AI assistant , Beem.

I love that it has a sense of humor with its responses at times. They also have a community that your kid can get support from. They can add friends and check forums for answers that will help them with their lessons. If that isn't what they need, there is an actual support option. Technical and otherwise. I like the various groups there are as well. A chance to chat and make friends while learning. 
There is also the Scratch lesson. Talk about an amazing beginning to coding for kids. 

For parents, there is a great way to track your child's progress. You get the full break down to see where they are excelling and where they need more practice. It is color coded. 

You can see what has been completed and what subject they spend more time on. 

My son is greatly interested in learning how to create games. However, I found that he would become bored after getting halfway through a lesson. Or if there were technical difficulties. 

Which leads us to the flip side...

At first, I couldn't get the class sessions to play. They would sometimes freeze up. Or would replay a lesson he had done already because it didn't recognize he had finished it. This caused him to lose enthusiasm for the program. 

Options for everyone's needs!

There are three types of subscriptions you can get. Which are currently on sale!

I think this works out greatly. Depending on how dedicated your child is, and how quickly they will work through the lessons, you have options for how long you want to sign them up for. 

What do you think? Is this something you would want your kids to use? What is your favorite aspect of this program? Leave me a comment below! 

Oh This Generation

At only 29 years old, I have come to find that I now belong in the category of the "older generation". I don't fit in, mentally, with the millenials. I'm not with "it" anymore. Not that I ever really wanted to be. "It" was usually stupid and fleeting in its existence. No, I don't belong among my age group. 

This past Sunday, and I think part of Saturday, I had heard some interesting things about what this generation will never understand. It followed a tweet about things that you remember that others would not. Like what a pager/beeper was. Remember those? Mostly popular among business people and medical workers, but lots of people used them. Before cell phones were in everyone's hands. And cell phones... Well... My first one was the kind that flipped open. You had the single number keypad that had letters assigned to each number. You had to hit each number a certain amount of times to get to the letter you wanted. Texting was a pain in the butt. Or who recalls  what 411 meant? Remember when we said, "Just give me the 411." It was an information service. That is no longer needed with computers the size of our palm. But when we asked each other for the 411, we simply wanted the straight up information. 

Answering machines. Oh wow... that was when we had phones plugged into the wall. It was called a land line.  And if someone called when you weren't home, they could leave a message. You were expected to call them back eventually.

I recently heard a radio personality talking about when her son saw the phone book on the doorstep. He comes in and tells her, "Someone left a library book at the front door." Her confusion was turned to humor when she saw what he was referring to. She actually had to explain what it was. His response, "But your phone already has everything you need in it!" *Shaking my head* That is probably true for newspapers. This generation might say those are for old folks.

How many of you remember what real music was? I can tell you it was nothing like the run-of-the-mill pop stuff we have today. Beyonce can't hold a candle to what I grew up with. Like MC Hammer sang, "You can't touch this!" Songs actually had deeper meanings. You could follow the words. Voices didn't need synthetic additives to build them up. They just naturally sounded good. And in the 90's, synthesizing was the new "cool" thing in music. And you know what? CD's were just starting to come around.

Yes, we actually listened to cassette tapes at first. In our BOOMBOX! I thought CD's were cool though. And I loved getting my first player. iPods were not invented yet. You had this mini CD player that was only about 2 inches bigger than the CD. It didn't clip to anything though. You had to hold it in your hand. But I thought I was so cool. I could take my music with me! Now, everything is digital. And mostly on YouTube or Pandora.

When I was in school, we actually went to the public library for research. I didn't have reliable computer access. The World Wide Web was barely getting started. As a matter of fact, we had dial up! Remember that awful sound? And better let everyone know you will be online so they don't pick up the phone and you lose connection. 

Gaming. Let me tell you what it was like for me. Board games were what we knew most of. Monopoly, Life, Yahtzee. My cousins were lucky. They played Street Fighter. For a while, my brother and I played Duck Hunt. Anyone else remember that? Stupid dog would laugh when you missed that duck. I wanted to shoot him instead! My husband actually had more gaming in his life. Granted, his mother and siblings were, and still are, all gamers. He has an Atari! And a GameCube! Those were not around long enough. Now, though, kids are getting into more interactive game play. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. 3D games and movies. Did you watch everything on VHS like I did? My husband still has his player and some movies. We were so curious about these new things called DVD's. Now, we have BluRay too. Or you can subscribe and "stream" everything from Netflix. Stream. Had I heard that word as a kid, I thought you were talking about a water source. Maybe had trout in it...

Kids these days... And I don't just mean those under 18. I'm thinking of any of them up to 25 at least. They just won't understand what it was like. I'm sure those who are in their late 40's and up look at my age group with the same thoughts. I talked to a friend who actually learned computers back when you had to type the commands into it to get it to do anything. There was no such thing as an Operating System. Now our phones have them! Heck, computers and phones talk to us now.  And we used floppy disks! There was no USB, Flash Drives, External Hard Drives. No, we carried a floppy to transfer files from one place to another. I had gem colored ones!

What about you? What can you say that you remember from your younger years that anyone under 25 would not have the faintest idea about now? And likewise, what is one thing you are so glad we have now that you never had then, but you think is just awesome? Leave me a comment and let us reminisce about the times gone past. About being that "older generation" together.

Learning life's lessons....

What a day. Went grocery shopping. It's always a crazy chore. Especially with 3 kids under foot. The boys want to run around the aisles and my daughter wants to follow them so she tries to climb out of the cart. We found a couple great deals and otherwise did our week and half shopping. $190 wasn't bad. It covers 3 meals for each of our 5 members for the next week and half plus snacks and oddities we found along the way. One deal I wanted to share was the Maruchan Yakisoba meals.

I don't think you should buy these to eat often but when you need a cheap lunch and don't have leftovers on hand, they'll do. They are 64¢ each and I had the $1/2 coupon making them 14¢ each. Then you have the Nabisco coupons for 75¢/2.

Pair these up with the buy one box of Ritz crackers, get a box of Itza crackers deal or the buy 2 packs of Nabisco Oreo cookies and get a free carton of HEB Mootopia milk for some extra savings. 

When we got home, I had to put everything up and make lunch. My oldest son ran up to his room saying he was going to play. This was a little unusual, but I had my hands and mind busy on other things so I let it go. When I called him down to eat, however, it was all too clear why he ran up there so fast. His lips and tongue and around his mouth were colored blue. I asked him what he had eaten. While he tried to answer without telling me everything, I ran through a list of possibilities in my mind. His answer was "candy that I put in my pocket". Immediately I knew what he meant, he had taken candy from HEB and stuck it in his pocket. He stole candy. It was just a lollipop. But I wasn't going to just let him get away with thievery. I wanted him to learn that stealing was a crime. A serious crime. So after talking to him and we ate lunch, we went back to HEB. I made him tell the manager what he did as well as asked the manager to tell my son what he does to those he catches stealing from him. We explained where criminals go and what happens to them. I sincerely hope we got through to him. Then I paid the 54¢ and told the cashier to throw it away. He wasn't going to get it back. When I worked security, I had a mom do the same thing to a son who was slightly older than my own. He was a little scared and a lot embarrassed. I'd be pretty shocked if he ever did it again. 

After our trip to HEB came a stop at the Lego store for the monthly mini build!

It's certainly gained popularity as the line was forming before 4pm and stretched all the way back to the Bath and Body Works store when I arrived shortly after 4. People even brought foldable stools to sit on while they waited. If I had planned a little better, I'd have brought the iPads for the kids and a book for me. At 4:40 I was in the middle and it was snaking all the way towards JCPENNY. 

Mall security had to set up ropes to keep the line orderly and prevent line jumpers. It was to build a speedboat that is actually big enough for a mini figure to fit in. Can't wait to see what next months build will be. 

Keva Structures game review from MindWare Toys

I'm a home schooling mom of three. While my two boys are still preschool level, I use every opportunity I can to teach and enrich their knowledge. Children learn more from birth to five years old than they learn their entire life after. They have minds like sponges, soaking up concepts that we as adults might not understand. For my boys' learning, the best way to teach is through hands on activities. They are hyper active and don't like sitting still for long without some kind of stimulating exercises. MindWare sent me the Keva Structures game for a review.

It comes with 200 pine wood planks and a guide book with ideas for building. There is no messy glue, no connector pieces. Just wood and imagination!

I love these. Growing up, my dad had a wood shop. When he had small pieces of wood left over from a project he would let us play with them. In our minds it was more fun than any multi-gadget toys and noise makers. These planks smell like fresh pine. They are smoothly cut so as not to give little fingers splinters. They provide hours of quiet fun.

They actually used Keva planks to construct the worlds tallest Keva Structure in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.. It was 51 feet, 8 inches tall! They used 5,123 planks and took 13 hours to build it.

Even my baby girl wanted to join the fun!

When the fun is all done, the kids get a chance to pick them up and practice their packing skills to fit everything into the box neatly. This game requires concentration and helps to refine motor skills as they design and build amazing structures.

As an added bonus, they also sent a sampler book of their MindWare Brain Teasers.

Extreme Dot-to-Dot anyone??

Highly detailed coloring pages.

And Venn Perplexors to really boggle the mind.

Everything at MindWare is based on learning and exploration. You can check out their website, Facebook or their Twitter to keep up with specials and news.