Fun family stuff

I've been meaning to link to these sites that I think are really great for young kids. If you've got a beginner reader in the house and want a fun and easy to follow online activity for him/her, check out Starfall which has gone over well with both my kids. If they struggle with a word, they only need to click on it to hear it sounded out. It makes a great substitute for your usual phonics lesson if you happen to be homeschooling, or if you've got the kids stuck at home on a snow day. If you are clever enough they won't even realize they are learning anything! Be sure to click on the characters in the stories to make them do silly things.

I'm sure there are other sites like this, but this is one of our favorites when we want to learn about animals. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has live web cams of otters, fish and other creatures that live in and around the Bay. Of course they are on Pacific time, so their cams aren't up and running until around 10AM out here. Which of course turns into a good lesson on time zones for the wee ones. Thanks to my mom who first turned us on to this one.

Also, I wanted to mention that I bought this strategy game called Blokus for the family for Christmas. So far we have only all sat down together once to actually play it and Sofia got distracted by the end, but I think this is a great game for families of kids ages 5 and up. And kids as young as Sofia can still make cool patterns with the pieces on the board. It is sometimes a challenge to keep those pieces out of the baby's mouth, however.

Hope you're all staying warm this week...