Bloglovin Switch-a-roo! Follow us!

Soooo---I go away for vacation, promise the hubs no working, and then sit back and relax! Until the hubs is preoccupied with sandy children, boogie board storage dilemmas, and other vacation worries---then it's sneak in some Pinterest time, work on some TpT products time, and of course pop in on my favorite blogs---and what should happen---aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Who the heck decided to change things up on vacation week. I guess I have been under some rock(mind you, at least it's a smooth beachY kind of rock!) and missed the whole "Goggle Reader is gone come July 1st thing!!!"

So apparently we all have to change how we follow our favorite blogs!

Thank goodness for sweet folks who give easy and simple directions to the rest of us who about missed the boat!!

Ms. Jessica over at A Turn to Learn has given EXCELLENT instructions that are both quick and easy! A few simple clicks and you add all your blogs from Google Reader into their new home at Bloglovin!

This way you won't miss ANY posts from your favorite blogs!

You can also continue to follow us by clicking the "Follow us at Bloglovin" button on the top right of this page!

Thanks and here's to no more crazy shenanigans occurring while I'm on vacation! All this sneaky pinning, blogging, and TpTing can wear a girl out! ;)

Surfs UP and Surprise 40th!

Happy Summer Friends (or Happy Summer Soon)! Hope you guys have been CHILLAXING! Wow the summer is just breezing past too fast! I told Cristy I was going to blog about rhyming transitions  since I have been off the grid and been a slack partner!! I bet she wishes she had a more active summer partner who was a good worker :). However, maybe I will blog about that next time, because right now I am in summer mode and just want to share about life :).

So Daytona was awesome! Very relaxing! Check out Jake! He and my nephew Hunter took surf lessons at Pure Life Surf Camp!!!! One time my sister in law and I even took a lesson from one of their Professional Surfer Instructors!! It was super hard, but we did get up surfing a time or two.
But bad news, no picture evidence!!

Let me tell you those DUDES and DUDETTES at Pure Life have supervision going on!!! I was super impressed and being a teacher, it is super hard to impress me when it comes to supervision!!

Anyway listen what happened. Jake and Hunter only did 1/2 day surf camp because they get so tired! One afternoon they still had on their camp shirt (all campers are required to wear) and they were surfing in front of our condo which is about 1/4 of mile from where campers surf. All of the sudden I see a surf instructor running down the beach toward us. I went up to him and asked him what was wrong because he looked frantic!! He said that one of the lifeguards down the beach saw some kids way far away from camp with shirts on and he thought maybe they drifted.  He said I knew your guys were half day campers but wanted to make sure they were not other campers and/or that they were safe! IMPRESSIVE!! Thanks PURE LIFE for keeping our kiddos safe while they have a blast!!

We came home from one beach trip and GUESS WHAT??

Those crazy birthday fairies (Mom, Grandmother, Aunts, Cousin, and Sis in Law) who have been sending 40th birthday cards all year from around the world surprised me with a surprise birthday party!!! My  super Mom did a fabulous job organizing everything and everyone and the other super fabulous birthday fairies did an amazing job helping Mom!!   It was super fun!!

That's me with my Bubbie (grandmother) , Mom, and Brooks

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Let us know what you have been doing lately!! If you are going to Daytona and want info about Pure Life Surf School/Camp message us!!

We hope you enjoy some fun times with your family and friends!! Get rejuvenated for another awesome year to come with your future cool kiddos!!

What NOT to do in a job interview!

Hope you guys are all having a great summer so far!

These kiddos crack me up!  My favorite "Kid Snippet" is still MATH CLASS by far!  But this one is pretty darn funny!  We hope none of you are having to interview for jobs right now, but if so...please don't snag ANY interview tips here! ;)

Enjoy the funny!

Phonics Boggle! It's Game Time Baby!

Been a little slack this first week of summer!  Page is kickin' it at the beach for the month!  One of us has to do some kind of work, right?  So---while the hubs is mowing grass I am sneaking in here to write a post before I forget how to do it! ;)  Summer---it'll do it to ya!

Here is a game we play with our kiddos!  They like it!  No---they LOVE it!  As in, begging us to play it...all..the...time!  We play this on Thursdays as part of our phonics time for Daily 5!  Trust me, the littles learn their days of the week quick like so they will know EXACTLY when we should be officially playing!  And---they---do---not---like---it---one---bit---if---we---try---to---skip---it!  It's not that we WANT to skip it, it's just that it takes about 12-15 minutes total to play the game, get scores, and crown the champions!  PEOPLE...this is SERIOUS game time!  BUT...there are just some days that we maybe get a teensy weensy bit behind and we try to skip this to get back on track!  Trust me---DO NOT SKIP THIS---if you ever start it.  Nobody wants an angry mob of 5 year olds coming at them all crazy eyed!!!

So...hopefully we have you interested!  What is this amazing game, you ask (you are asking, right?  If not, just pretend and come along for the ride!)?

It's really a very simple game to play, but they think it's the BOMB DIGGITY!  Shhh!  We are NOT gonna let them know that we totally made this up!  They think we are PROFESSIONALS!

Here's how you play!

First you need to gather up some chart paper or other large writing paper...big enough that a group of 4 or 5 kiddos can gather around it and all still see!

Then we divide the smalls into groups.  We try to divide them evenly depending on phonics prowess! ;)

We pick a team captain for each group.  Again, we make sure that all of the team captains are around the same skill level to make it fair!  No one wants to get stomped!  Team captains change EVERY time we play the game.

Then we spread the groups out all over the room.  We set our timer (We have an AWESOME timer that we show on the Activboard so they can see their time counting down.  Not to mention that it has a VERY LOUD timer that goes off and cracks them up because I still jump---every---single---time!) and off we go!  

Teams work to think of words that work on whatever phonics skill we are focusing on that particular week.  Early in the year it's a single letter.  Later it may be a digraph or two.  These pictures are from late in the year and we were working on blends with l.  They are masters of the game now and can handle it!  

The room is SO STINKIN' quiet while they play!  QUIET!  I mean like pin drop quiet!  I know, I know, you probably don't believe me!  But you see, as the kids are calling out words to their team captain, they must WHISPER or risk another team stealing (BOO! HISS!) their word!  SCORE one for the teacher!

(Remind me again why I ever want to SKIP this game???)

After the time runs out (We vary the time between 6-10 minutes depending on their skill level and which skill we are working on that week.) all the groups come back together and we score the teams.

One captain comes up and we call out their list of words.  If ANY other team has the same word, then we ALL cross it off of the lists.  NO points are earned for these words!  If NO OTHER team has the word, then we circle that word and that team earns one point.  We continue to score each team in this way!

Then we list all of the team scores, write greater/less than sentences on the board, and determine our winner!  The winning team picks out of the treasure box (goodies that cost me pennies but they think are as good as GOLD...candy, stickers, necklaces, plastic bugs...)  All the other kiddos get a "consolation prize"!  Mostly because  the consolation prize is CANDY and I LOVE CANDY!  Usually a couple of M&M's or Skittles or something! 

In the beginning of the year, some of their 'words' look crazy...all phonetically spelled.  But we don't really care because we are focusing on hearing the sounds in words, not spelling.  As the year goes on though, the writing gets much more conventional!  That's nice to see too!

And there you have it...PHONICS BOGGLE! Fun, right!

What kind of fun games do you play with your kiddos?  Either link your blog post about one of them below, or give us a little description in your comments!  We'll all be armed with some NEW games to head back to school!

Theme Days Bundle-Comment to Win!

Whew!  We are LOVIN' our summer break!  Only a few days in, but man are we loving the time with our fams!

OK...so we know that some of you still have a couple of weeks to go---that makes us sad for you (but we'll be the ones crying when you guys are still beach and poolside in August when our boo-tays will be back at school...like August 1st...ahhhhhh!)

So in case you are one of our bloggy buddies who still need some goodies to keep your kiddos focused these last few weeks...here's your chance to WIN our END OF SCHOOL THEME DAYS BUNDLE!  We used all of the packs our last week of school...and I'm telling you...it's all that kept us sane!!!

Please leave us a comment and let us know how you are hanging in there those last few days/weeks!  We'll pick 2 winners to get the BUNDLE for FREE.  We hope it helps you have a FUN, yet meaningful last week with your kiddos!

Happy Summer everyone!