Interesting stuff

I finally located my camera that has been misplaced! I uploaded an updated photo of our workbox system in last week's post about my workbox adaptations. I wanted to show you the completed system with the schedule charts above it and the clock-in/clock-out pockets on the wall. I also added a clock there so they would have a better awareness of how long it was taking them to move through their boxes. You can see that I color-coded everything blue for Hayden and pink for Haylee.

I came across a really cool website to practice spelling and vocabulary. It's called Spelling City. You can enter your own spelling words there, and it will turn teach them, turn them into online or printable games and puzzles, and even administer an oral spelling test for you and grade it on the spot! It's so awesome. Most sites like this that I've seen before have a limited word bank to choose from, so they generally only work for younger kids. But on this site, it seems you can add any word you have. I input Hayden's 7th grade spelling words from Houghton Mifflin Spelling & Vocabulary, and it recognized and annunciated every one correctly, and even gave them in the context of a sentence! I also like how you aren't stuck with one person's voice. It changes with each word given. There's nothing worse than being stuck with one annoying voice and not being able to change it. On this site, it automatically cycles through a number of different voices.

We're supposed to be off school this week, but we're still dabbling a bit in our workboxes to stay a little ahead of schedule in case something fun comes up! We like going to the free movie festival each week, so having some work done ahead of time ensures that we won't get behind because we're going to the movies!

I'm gonna go out in a few minutes and get our tickets for the Tides game on Friday night. It's our family tradition to go every year to one of the 4th of July celebration games that have fireworks afterwards. It's neat to be sitting so close to the fireworks, since they set them off from a boat just behind Harbor Park.