Our second day in London was by far my favorite! It was still in the middle of a sweaty heat wave and all, but it didn’t matter. Touring the ancient Tower of London was literally a dream come true for me.

I booked these tickets over a month in advance to make sure we wouldn’t miss out. We had 11-1130 timed entry tickets for our family. You can go here to book tickets.

What made the Tower of London such a must see for me? So many reasons!!

#1. It is the oldest castle inside the city of London.

Windsor Castle is older, but it is outside of the city. This one is smack dab in the middle.

#2. The Tower of London has a past filled with tragic stories. Few ghost tours anywhere could boast more tales of historic significance than this place.

The history is why I picked this particular castle to tour. It is one of the many fortresses constructed by William the Conqueror’s Norman invasion. This castle never fell into complete neglect. This place has always been nationally important to England. It is one of the Great Britain’s most famous symbols of power.

The Princes in the Tower is the story foremost in my mind when I think of the Tower. It is such an unfair, sad story. Basically, the heir to the throne and his brother were locked in the Bloody Tower of the Tower of London way back in 1483, by their uncle, Richard, the Duke of Gloucester. He was supposed to be taking care of the boys. Instead, he locked them up for “their protection.” Then he took the throne for himself, becoming King Richard III.

King Richard only ruled for two years before he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth by King Henry VII’s forces. Richard was the last Plantagenet king.

#3. Queen Elizabeth I was even held prisoner in the Tower, when her older sister, Mary, was Queen of England.

Actually, many monarchs have lived, had their coronation, or been imprisoned in the Tower of London.

#4. The Crown Jewels are kept and displayed here.

Photographs are not allowed in there, or you know I would be happy to share those. We did go in there. The line was not bad at all. We saw tiaras and crowns, scepters, and robes. It was definitely worth touring!

#5. The Tower was a military base during both World Wars.

This castle is SO RICH in history!!

We took the train from our hotel to the castle. As soon as we walked up from the railway, we could see the Tower of London. It was much larger than I expected. It is located on the River Thames, and it is surrounded by a vibrant area chock full of food trucks and ferries coming and going.

I told Alan, “If we ever come to London again, let’s stay here, in this area. I love the atmosphere.”

The old cobblestone road is still in place, but these newer tiles also supply a more comfortable place to walk. Cobblestone is no best friend to plantar fasciitis.

We had to walk all the way around to get to the tour entrance. I didn’t mind though, as there was so much to see. In the mornings, my feet were okay. By the end of each day, I could barely walk, especially day two, but that has more to do with our Prime Meridian adventure, which I’ll save for a future post.

JD kept us entertained, walking down these streets doing his best impersonation of a (NPC- non playable character) video game character walk. It is hilarious. We took videos, but I won’t embarrass him by posting them here. Although, he probably wouldn’t care.

Outside those walls, there used to be a moat, but they drained its stagnant waters to combat disease, back in the 1840s.

As it turns out, exploring castles and ancient fortresses, towers, and city walls is the PERFECT vacation for a family of energetic young men.

We visited several places like this, and they did love it. Now, the our Smallest Who of All still managed to complain a good bit. He received several reprimands about griping throughout the day.

I will say though, even our youngest never ran his mouth when we were strolling along a centuries old fortress wall or gazing at displays of knights and swords. Those things were popular with even our hardest to please boys.

In fact, even though this was all my idea, I was the one who got bored first in the White Tower. The White Tower is the central part of the fortress. It is the building inside the walls that you see on your souvenirs.

Why would I get bored in the White Tower?

Well, it was almost the last thing we toured that day, so I was tired. Plus, it was filled to the brim with armor and weaponry. It is basically a medieval knight and armory museum. Obviously, that was more appealing to everyone else in my group. I thought I was never going to get Caleb and Alan out of there.

We actually started out in the courtyard. Overwhelmed with all of the options, we started in the closest part of the walls to where we happened to be standing, which I believe was the Salt Tower and the Wall Walk.

There is so much to tour in the Tower of London, we did not get to all of it!

The fortress walls are like a whole castle in themselves. It is enormous.

Workers at the Tower, such as the Yeoman Warders do live here.

In fact, the Yeoman Warders offer guided tours around the Tower, included in your admission ticket. When we have little boys in tow, we know we cannot handle a guided tour. We always have to do a self-guided option. I’m sure we learn less, but we enjoy the freedom to goof off and move at our own pace.

Throughout the many towers along the walls, there are displays like the one above.

The photo above is a good miniature of the Tower, though I’m not sure in which time period. It looks like it does not include the Jewel Tower, where the crown jewels are kept. Speaking of which, that was our next stop after walking a good amount of the walls and the outeer towers.

That’s me, excitedly waiting in line to see the Crown Jewels.

We became two groups in there, a faster group, and then Alan and Caleb. The little boys and I waited at the end, and I did notice they did not utter one grunt of complaint about going through the Crown Jewels building. Every single person in the group respected that this was a remarkable thing to see.

The boys were hungry though, and beginning to ask for this and that to eat and drink, so we went to lunch at the cafe inside the Tower grounds.

The cafe had burgers, fish and chips, as well as some gluten free offerings, so there was something for everyone. I had a fluffy little gluten free cake with my lunch, so I think I left happiest of all.

Every day I did keep my eyes out for some gluten free fish ‘n chips. No luck yet on days one or two.

After lunch, it was on to the White Tower.

There must be many cold months in England, because we saw these radiators everywhere. Air conditioning was rare though..

I have noticed they do not admit to loving it. But the thing is, I was the only one who walked through it in two minutes and spent twenty minutes waiting at the other end of the room for the rest of them to finish looking and reading about it all.

Now that I do find interesting. Does that make me morbid?

I thought the sword exhibit was astonishing, for the history to be so well preserved!

This is the oldest surviving artwork of the Tower, dating back to the 1400s.

So if you ever need some metal armor, like a medieval Knight would wear, I know where we can find gobs of it. Haaa!!!

My favorite part of the White Tower’s exhibits was actually this:

In the last room we toured of the White Tower, we found this! It was a room full of interactive exhibits, and I was way too tired to do any of them other than the photo station. I took some photos and waited on the bench for everyone else to finish.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the gift shop! It’s a miracle we made it out of there with only buying that Christmas ornament I’m holding in the photo. They had the best gift shop, full of medieval weapon replicas, royal robes and crowns, etc. We were so entertained. Alan had to drag us out of there.

I knew our time was running short, and we were not going to have time to see all of the things, so I made it my mission to find the Bloody Tower.

That’s where the exhibit was on the Princes in the Tower, which I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

The Bloody Tower starts out with a large display about Sir Walter Raleigh, who was imprisoned here with his family.

The Bloody Tower also contains this still working portcullis, which keeps people in or out of the Tower.

The boys had never heard the story of the Princes in the Tower, and there is a film in the tower that tells the story well. A child’s voice is used to tell the story, while a video to go along with it is projected on the wall. It all has a hauntingly, moving, sad effect on the listener.

Towards the end of our time, we saw a little street theatre going on too, which we enjoyed.

All in all, this was my favorite London outing. I highly recommend taking a tour of this impressive, historic fortress!

For more on our London trip, you can find day one: Buckingham Palace, here.

The post The Best Part of London: Touring The Tower of London appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This winner will receive a copy of each of the three recently published books for their kids.

Congratulations are in order to……….

Linda Jackson!!!

Hurray, Linda!! I hope your children will love these books.

To read more about each of these 3 books, see my full review here.

***Disclaimer: When you purchase through Amazon links on my website, I do collect advertising fees.***

And here is a link to each of these 3 darlin’ newly published books on Amazon:

Your kids will love these.

Lincoln’s Big Adventure is also available free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

EXTRA big thank you to the authors of these three books for supplying our giveaway!

We closed April off on a happy note here at our house too. My oldest son is playing basketball, and they came in second place in this weekend’s tournament. That was exciting.

Plus, Alan took the boys to bring-your-kids-to work day this past week, and that was a hit.

And now my nine-year-old is here, and he wants me to get him registered for football, so I will stop here. I wish you all a wonderful May!

And be sure to check out my first successful YouTube video ever. ha! Yes, I’ve made many YouTube videos before to use on my blogs, but this is the first one to ever have over 1,300 views.

It is all about how to keep your clothes organized and decluttered when you have a small closet. My system will also make sure you vary your wardrobe and don’t get stuck wearing the same five shirts over and over again while the others just sit there.

Have a great week, y’all!! Congratulations again to our giveaway winner, Linda!

The post Let’s Start May with a Sprinkle of Joy: Announcing the Giveaway Winner! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We make this trip down south to see our family every single year. Alan had to switch jobs back in June, so this year we pushed the pilgrimage back to August. I kept thinking by August “things” would be better. But alas, August is here, and things still look like a bowl of mush.

Alan had to get special permission to even take leave and travel so far during all this mess. With permission secured, we packed our bags and hit the highway.

We left town in a downpour comparable to what I would imagine was seen in the days of Noah and his ark.

Cars were pulled over on I-95 to both the left and right sides of the road, as the water was almost impossible to even see through. Giant diesel trucks were everywhere. It was rough, but we trudged forth.

Our faithful canine companion was tucked safely on her little chewed-up dog bed in the van floor between the middle seats. She is a champ of a traveler, though she did take some fascination with a random truck driver at a red light in the D.C. area who she barked at a bit. No idea what her problem with him was. He seemed to get the message and inched forward. Ha!

By the time we got through Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the weather cleared up. Hurray!

We only drove five hours the first day and knocked out the remaining eight on day two. This trip went more quickly than past ones, as we did take fewer stops.

Thankfully, at this point in the pandemic, August 7th, we did not have any trouble finding places to take a bathroom break or get food.

Have you ever suffered an electric shock from a car charger?

Our minivan has a charger in the back row, which the boys like to fight over. They use it to charge their modern day Gameboys. We were in the middle of settling a dispute over who had the right to charge their Nintendo in that space, when Daniel suddenly let out a dramatic “Yow!” He was in deep distress, and all attention turned to his giant blue eyes and upset face.

Apparently, there was a small pencil in the charger, and he reached down to grab it out. He touched the lead and the metal all at once, which gave him a solid shock. He was shook up.

Then all the boys, including Dad, started to tell their shock stories.

One was especially hilarious. Our son was sitting in his sixth grade class, ironically enough, listening to a lesson on electric current and graphite. He thought to himself that his pencil tip was like graphite, so he PURPOSEFULLY stuck his pencil in an electrical outlet! My son let out a yelp and was forced to explain himself to both teacher and class. The way he told it was pretty funny.

This was news to me.

I had never heard this story. Plus, I had no idea that so many of us have suffered shocks! Caleb and I are the only ones in our family who have never been shocked. This is also quite ironic, considering Caleb was the toddler who got caught by all three kinds of mouse traps.

We all had a good laugh over the electrical shock stories. I love how we all feel so close during family vacations. Vacations are an essential part of family life. That opportunity for everyone to step away for their ordinary engagements and have fun together for a while is refreshing. This time builds bonds and heals hurts.

One of the boys has Siri on his device set to “Indian accent,” and we got to listen to him ask it silly questions.

Biggest whiner of the trip: The dog.

Rosie was happy and quiet for most of the five hour trip, but any time Alan got out of the van to pump gas or run into a store, the dog whining began in earnest. It was as though she thought he was never returning. Alan is her master, and she is completely devoted to him.

Now that Alan works from home, Rosie spends all day everyday lying in the floor of the room where he works. Some days Alan goes into the office to work, and Rosie will still spend the day lying in the floor of his room, waiting for him to return.

We ended night one at a Hampton Inn and Suites in southern Virginia.

Hampton Inn’s Covid Changes

Most corona changes are mild: wear a mask in the hallways, smaller numbers of people in the elevator, etc. The only change that annoyed me was breakfast and coffee.

For breakfast, you had to put in an order of what you would like from a menu, by midnight the night before. We only arrived at the hotel at eleven-something, so I felt rushed on that with very little brain power, but we got it done. Plus, you had to sign up for a breakfast pick-up time. I did not like that level of committing to a wake up time after a late night, but it didn’t bother Alan. He always gets up early.

Once you go down to breakfast pick-up, you had to wait in a very long line, which always feels counterproductive to me in the age of rona.

Coffee is no longer self-serve, which makes sense. You had to got to the front desk and tell the clerk how to fix your coffee. I tried to just make coffee in my room, but it was a different system than I am used to. I did not have the patience for learning new things, so downstairs I went for the desk-clerk-served coffee.

The good news is the coffee was delicious, and there was no line for that.

How was there no line for coffee? Everyone else had the energy and functioning to figure out that tiny alien coffee maker in our rooms?

We were back on the road by 9:45 on day two. With four children, that feels like an accomplishment. Yes, I am serious. Some people, (I mean me), have trouble getting up before 7:30 these days…

More on our Bama vacation on our next post!

If you are considering taking a road trip in the age of rona, and have not decided yet, I say GO! Yes, COVID is everywhere, but you can take precautions in one state about as well as another.

Happy summer!

The post Successful Annual Road Trip to See Family During the Rona appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

June is always a dizzyingly busy month. We have two family birthdays, Father’s Day, and the end of school. For 2019, 2018, 2016, and 2014, we were also in the middle of a big move. So you can imagine, that the children are all completely bewildered at spending June stuck in our own house. Not just stuck in the house, but in the SAME house as last year! What???

Haaaa! The military life has been quite chaotic for us the past few years. I am so thankful to have a summer off from moving.

But I am about done with hanging out in my kitchen with no end in sight. Watching the boys play video games was only fun for about a week, and I have already finished binge watching all my Netflix shows.

So we have found ourselves in need of ADVENTURES!

Well, I have anyway. Alan must be too because he is the one who booked Ocean City for July 4th!

However, we want to do this responsibly. Catching the rona is not our idea of a good time, and we do respect the pandemic. We have our masks. We wear those indoors, and for the most part, we just stick to the outdoors and keep our distance from others. It’s working so far. Maryland coronavirus numbers are down, and that is a good feeling. We aren’t throwing caution to the wind, though, friends. Don’t worry.

Havre de Grace is located in our side of Maryland, and ever since we moved in, I have heard of the boardwalk there. It turned out to be even more pleasant than I expected. We ate outside at a very casual restaurant called the Promenade Grille. Then we took a nice stroll on the boardwalk, stopping to see the wildlife, read the information signs, and take photos as directed by Mom. This mom likes to take a ton of pictures.

Daniel was assigned an entire nine week’s worth of reading a history book about our county.

The book is called Sailing Through Time with the Roberts. Most of that history happened to center around Havre de Grace. It was a long book, and it was read during “distance learning,” so I got to read it right along with Daniel. Each week, we would take turns. He would read a page, I would read a page, all the way through the twenty-plus pages of each chapter. It was the longest, most in depth local history book I have ever read. However, the author kept it somewhat interesting, as it was told through the eyes of a time traveling brother and sister. Their time travel instrument was a model skipjack, perfect for the Chesapeake Bay area.

Since Daniel and I read that historical book, our Havre de Grace boardwalk tour made a lot of sense to us. Several times I said, “Look, Daniel! Like in the book!”

“John O’Neil! Like in the book! Remember, he fought the British single-handedly!?

-hehehe- Daniel spent most of the walk saying, “Yeah. Yes, I remember.”

The boys have only left the house to go to a state park and this board walk excursion since March 13th. I have noticed that in the South many sports have started back up, but that isn’t really the case here. We are still almost always at home. They get to see neighbors, and that’s it.

I definitely felt like the youngest fella had completely forgotten how to behave in public. He has always been spirited and uninhibited, but he was a handful at dinner….a loud handful… I think we need to take him out more often to remind him how to behave. We still had fun though.

So our pandemic-style days out are definitely more solo than usual. Outdoor excursions are my favorite anyway, so this is not a bad deal. However, now that we have begun to get out, we want to do so more and more. Next weekend we are off to Ocean City, but just for one night. I feel like it will be a little harder to keep our distance in a place known for being crowded, and it will be our first hotel stay since the rona. It does make me a touch apprehensive, but we will be careful. I ordered new masks so that we will have enough for this weekend, just in case.

Here is a link to where I order our masks, from my friend Kristina in Tennessee. She does a wonderful job. She puts a nose grip piece on them that helps with fit.

I looked up coronavirus numbers for Maryland today. We are doing so well here. Alabama has three times the number of cases we do here per day, and Maryland has two million more people than Alabama. Florida, of course, is even worse. That is one reason we are sticking to our plan of waiting until August to visit Alabama and Florida. We long to see our family though. Come August we promise to pile up in the car and come visit!! I am just hoping by then the military will be granting leave so that Alan can come with us. We need numbers to go down for that to happen. Stay safe, friends!!

The post Touring Havre de Grace Boardwalk, Pandemic Style appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Do you vow every summer to make sure your kids still read and write over the break?

I know I do. Then I am always thoroughly disappointed when no one wants to do anything of the sort. In fact, as a mom of all boys, I feel like all anyone ever wants to do is stare at screens all day. That is our battle as a generation.

Every year I enter in with delusions of grandeur, but that is okay. Yes, my intentions are good, and I do manage to get some work out of all of them, in spite of their protests.

I get it. This is summer. They don’t have to spend all day on writing, but five or ten minutes could help them stay sharp.

Here is a big lesson I have learned over the past fourteen years: The easier their work looks to them, the more likely they are to pour a little effort into it without melting into a whiny puddle in the floor.

My boys typically turn their noses up at all journal prompt books or even keeping a diary. However, when I simply hand them a simple looking worksheet, they can fly through that fairly quickly.

These journal pages are a little different than the usual writing prompts I have found online because they were tailor made for our house fiction writer. Once or twice during this past school year, of first grade, he cranked out twelve pages of a fiction story, so I would not call him a reluctant writer. Yet here we are in summer, and he is not writing anything at all. I made these journal pages to get his juices flowing again.

Next time I make a pack of these, I will do non-fiction pages for my nine-year-old. In our house we seem to have two who prefer writing non-fiction (which is me too, so I can fully relate to that), and then I have my two who enjoy fiction writing.

My best tip for encouraging summer writing:

Rewards, rewards, rewards! I do not mean big exciting rewards. Just use the one thing that they actually want to do to hold over their heads. ha! At our house, that is video games. You do your journal, brush your teeth, and do your chore, then you can play your games for a while, and I will leave you alone.

You know I have all boys and do not know a thing about raising girls, but I tried to make these pages usable for both boys and girls. Instead of going with a theme, I made them all completely different to keep it interesting. I thought the green one turned out odd, but my son said it looked like the most fun to him, so I kept it.

Good luck! I hope these will help you with that summer slump!

Click here to print all of them.

If you have a verbose writer, the lines will not hold all that they have to say. Encourage them to just flip the paper over and finish on the back. I wish we had that problem here. Instead, I have to say, “Can you write a little more details please?”

Click here to print the pack.

The post 5 Printable Summer Journal Pages to Get Your Kids Writing appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Y’all, I might have overdone it this summer. Hmmm, Israel, Washington, D.C., trips back and forth to my parents’ as well as Alan’s parents’ house, camps, and the beach!!???

Who does that?

It was wonderful, and yet it was also like eating way too much at an all-you-can-eat donut buffet.

I definitely over-packed this summer with fun activities.

Lesson learned. Schedule more down time. Of course, next summer is a moving summer, so all bets are off for that one.

Daniel with his Vacation Bible School goo.

Good-bye, somewhat-dear summer.

You’ve actually over stayed your welcome. It’s time for fall to arrive. You were a well-behaved summer, the most exciting summer I can remember. There was so much rain that the temps stayed out of the 100s. Thank the Lord for that. We will remember you fondly.

But I need regular life to become more…well, regular…again. So please take a coat with you as you go because last year winter never showed up for work, so it sort of felt like you never truly left us. We’re hoping that won’t happen this year. I happen to like winter.

Goodbye dear summer, thank you for reminding me how much work referee-ing 4 youngsters all day long is when it’s raining outside every blessed day. I do love reminders, but really it is time for you to go.  You really must be leaving. Australia is waiting for you.

All right, hon, you go get cooled off now. Send us some of that rain this winter in the form of snow.

Shut the door, and lock it. I over planned this summer, and I need it to end now.

School supplies are purchased, Open House was last night, and the big day is so close I can taste it.

We received an email the other day saying that the first two days of school will only be half-days, so no school lunch will be provided. I still have to feed them lunch. But I’m not going to let that kind of negativity drag me down, y’all. I bet if I leave ’em up there until 3 with granola bars in their backpack they will just think I got confused……

Kidding. I’m kidding. I will behave.

In all seriousness, we DID have an incredibly fun summer with no mishaps that I can recall. That in and of itself is enough to make anyone thankful. Plus, we went on about  3 different vacations. Amazing.

Yes, this summer actually was quite Disney like.

Here are a few photos of the highlights:

Still one of my favorite places in the world: Destin

Jesus hugging a soldier statue, at a church in Destin.

Some of you will be proud to know that Joshua always makes sure we go to church while on vacation.

This is the first time we let them stay up late enough to watch the movie at the pool. It’s always 8:30 before the movie starts, so that it will be dark, and in the past we always had babies.

Us in Jerusalem. Wait. Jerusalem? What am I whining about? Best summer ever!!!!

Alan’s cousin married one of the most beautiful brides I’ve ever seen, and their wedding was in this incredible building that used to be a Catholic Church.

We danced!

Nonna and DaddyO took the kids back to the hotel around 9, and Alan and I stayed out dancing until 10 or so!!! There should be more weddings. It was so fun to be dancing. More people need to get married and hire a deejay, and then invite us so we can dance.

They danced too.

Also, we taught the boys the YMCA song/dance on this trip.

my clingy sweetheart John David…This boy defines clingy.

By the way, those are the BEST high heels ever. I’ve had them since 2007. I wore them when I walked down the aisle at Amy’s wedding, 9 months pregnant. These are my official wedding shoes.

Just think, in 2001 this was a family of 4.

Hanging with our friends at the Lincoln Memorial

Caleb has studied this giant Megalodon mouth for YEARS, and we finally got to see it in person. *Dreams coming true*

A beautiful day for touring the National Mall

The Capitol

We gave Caleb his choice of places to go on his birthday in D.C. He chose our old neighborhood pool.

Birthday supper at Dairy Queen.

Caleb’s favorite birthday gift…..a Star Wars space ship to build. Anyone who knows Caleb knows he’s a hard core Lego fan.

Movie time with my boys that day my back didn’t work.

It looked this awesome for an hour….and then the strawberry juices ran, and strawberries started sliding off the cake. I just can’t make pretty food!!

The Ultimate Bubble Bath

Family Game Time

Nonna and Aunt Janet took the boys to see the Noah’s Ark replica.

…..and the Corvette Museum

Meanwhile, Sam’s started selling MY FAVORITE gluten-free bread. All other store-bought versions are disgusting. I love THIS stuff.

a house that Caleb built

Yes, okay, this might have been the best summer ever. While I cherish the memories, I have now regressed to “Oh it’s raining, and it’s the last day of summer….Just watch t.v. all day…Yeah, sure, play 3DS too.”

So it’s definitely time to go back to school. Some of the boys were even wishing school was starting back today! Me too, y’all. Me too.

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The post Good-bye Summer appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Like most moms, I TRY to keep my children from letting all of their knowledge fall out over the summer.

Any “book learnin'” my four boys accomplish over the summer is typically solely because I forced them to do it. Maybe your kids aren’t like mine, I don’t know, but my children never ASK me to do workbook pages and catch up on their reading logs.

When I was a little girl, I LOVED doing workbooks, but that is not my kids. I can’t even fathom that.

Have we read this summer? Yes, tons. Have I recorded half of those books on the required reading logs? Um, no. Like I don’t have enough things to remember to do.

So at the end of the summer, I’ll basically stand there with the boys, wracking my brain, while begging them to think back, to remember what all they read this summer so we can fill out that bless-ed log.

Reading is the perfect start to keeping our minds active all summer long, but there are other skills to focus on in school too, and for that I have been looking for a good phone app that I can put my younger boys on!

After years of hearing of ABCmouse.com, I finally decided to download it and let my younger boys (ages 6 and 4) try it out.

I am happy to tell you it is everything I had hoped for, which means that they cover both letters, numbers, and other topics, and they can even play it unassisted.

You do need to help them at first, so they know where to find all the different things the app or website can do.

Actually, if your child is new to iPad games or is preschool age, I would help them the whole first week that they use it, just so you can guide them to less frustration and point them to the games that they could benefit the most from.

John David is 4, and I sit down and basically just watch him use it, and say things like, “Great job!” as he zips through a map (which is like 6 mini-lesson activities). After that, I turn him loose on it, and he can play with it however he chooses.

It’s a big deal to him that we do it together, and he cuddles in my lap while he works on his activities.

Daniel is 6, and he requires no supervision on the app at all.

My favorite thing about it is the sight word games. I also appreciate that each lesson is age appropriate. Too often, game makers over-estimate the finger dexterity or involvement of the parents.

Daniel’s favorite thing: Getting to play games on my phone

John David’s favorite part: Puzzles!!!

I went through today’s lessons for John David and Daniel and screen-shotted to show you what to expect with this app, a sneak peek if you will.

Actually, I should clarify that ABCmouse.com is not just an app. This entire program can be done on a mobile device or on a computer.

What to Expect

This puzzle sentence was on a K4 lesson. John David had no trouble dragging and dropping the words into place.

This is found on the initial preschool/kindergarten screen. Once you past this puzzle, you get a new one. We focused on puzzles because they were JD’s favorite.

Both of my boys love an app where you can color.

I forget what section this game was under, but Daniel had to choose the starting letter of each picture to spell the word.

There are many books in this app, which they read to your child. As the story is read, they highlight words as they go. This particular one was a lesson on the letter b.

In this sight word game, you get to smash the bugs with the correct sight word. I thought this one was so fun that I could have played it myself. Not even kidding.

An important lesson!

Choosing Your Kids’ Level

I goofed when I signed Daniel up, and I started him on Kindergarten lessons. When he opened it up to a lesson on “Aa”, he got insulted and put it down, so be careful what level you choose! Haha!! He is in 1st grade now, so I switched it to the 1st grade level.

It was very simple to sign in as the parent and switch his level up one, and then he had better lessons.

John David, on the other hand, is not accustomed to playing games on an iPad, so I put him  on K3 so it would be super easy while he learned how to use the app. Once he got used to it, I upped him to K4 lessons.

John David LOVES these games. He’s already amassed hundreds of tickets, which he can use to buy all sorts of little digital things for his ABCmouse avatar and room. He was even excited to earn his avatar a pair of blue pants. “Oooooh! Blue pants. I wike blue pants!”

I know you’re wondering, and I was too! How much does this cost???

The first month is FREE. Afterwards, it’s $7.95/per month. Nice!

me and my little scholars

“Mom, can I pway dat game on your phone?” Batman is quite a fan of ABCmouse!

I wish had discovered this website years ago because I feel like it’s truly going to help the boys to keep ahead this summer!

Now, y’all, if you decide to try it out too, PLEASE click on my links in this post or on my website to take you to the ABCmouse.com website because I do earn a small fee for each referral I send them who signs up.

Let me know if you try it and what you thought! Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments!!

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The post A Parent Review of ABCmouse: Keeping Our Brains Working Through Summer appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.