Boggle Jr. Games

So I am planning for next week's return to workboxes and serious school time. While I was writing up plans last night I decided to focus on word families a little more in hopes of helping Cameron with reading and inspiring fun learning for Nathan. We are starting out United States unit that will last about 25 weeks (2 states per week).  I finally decide to do the states in Alphabetical order for simplicity and also to work on Alphabetical order with the boys.  Alabama and Alaska will be the first 2 states. I decided we will do word families _at  and _ad during the week as well.  I had planned on making word family cards using Sherwin Williams paint swatch cards I picked up while dreaming on new house colors (they already had a hole punched in them for a block). I traced the word family letters onto 2 of the cards and began playing with the Boggle jr cubes.  After a couple of minutes Nathan joined me and told me it would be easier if we just used the game board that comes with the blocks.  So the Boggle jr. game 'board' is now housing --at and --ad blocks ready for next week's lessons.. ( I picked up Boggle jr. at Goodwill and actually ended up with 2 games so each of the boys will be able to work on the word families at the same time. Might even make a game/ contest out of it)

Other than traditional Boggle jr. rules, have you played games using the cubes or the board? I would love to hear any other uses for these fun blocks and boards.

400th Unit coming soon giveaway

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you probably know we love In the Hands of a Child. I love their project packs in both lapbooking and notebooking, mostly for the fact that I don't have to do the research to teach the unit, everything is there for me already. I also have a Lifetime Super Membership and love getting 2 free units each month. I know I won't use every single unit, but the variety is great and the differing levels make it possible to use some of the older graded items to add to the younger units.

To celebrate the upcoming 400th unit In the Hands of a Child is offering a giveaway to one lucky reader.  One lucky reader will win a bundle pack of their choice from In the Hands of a Child.

Here's what you need to do:

Head over the In the Hands of a Child and sign up for their newsletter (you can also download the current freebies while you are there..)

Come back and comment here that you did that. (1 entry)

Next create a wishlist of your top 5 choices and comment here with the list. (1 entry)

Drawing will be held on January 3rd. All comments must be in by January 2, 2011 .

Advent half way point.

Since I only bought one Advent calendar from Learning Palace I decided to hold it until 12 nights before Christmas so each boy will open a door tonight.  UnvlDad picked the advent calendar out when we went shopping last month and picked the Knights and Dragon one (not Mom's first choice but the boys are excited).

Last night we added another element to our Advent evenings, A Hymn of The Week from Raising Real Men, Melanie has a wonderful daily lesson to go with a Christmas Carol, this week is  "O Come All Ye Faithful", a wonderful song. She has a classical piece of art to go with the lesson as well as all the verses in English and Latin.  After our reading last night I moved us to the piano and played the song for the boys then read the lesson and showed them the picture... They weren't as excited as I had hoped but they are only 5 and 8 so I can only hope this will set a foundation for years to come. During our reading last night  Cameron actually took part in the discussion and added his only little angle to the readings from Isaiah. It opened the door to further discussion that I hope will continue tonight.