Watch movies safely with your whole family

I found a great Dvd player that filters out questionable words and scenes from Dvd's. I ordered it last month and we've been watching movies on it for about 3 weeks. I'm so surprised at how well it works. Rather than bleep out unwanted words, it mutes them. You don't notice it too much unless there is music playing in the background. Then it is more noticeable. To filter unwanted scenes, the machine automatically cuts to the next scene. So far we haven't missed anything in these cut scenes. We've watched movies that we wouldn't dare let the kids see just to see how well it works. I hate movies that use foul language and I've found it bothers me more and more. Even in those movies the children won't watch, it filters them all out. I'm enjoying date night movies more since I don't have to hear all those words.

How does it work? It comes with a USB stick. You load filters onto the USB from their internet site. Take the USB stick to the Dvd player and it loads the filters. I'm on dial-up and it doesn't take too long to do it.

We watched Home Alone last weekend. The children LOVED this movie!! We were glad to watch without the language. Now, I do wish they had filtered a few words that we just don't like such as how the boy's family talked so badly to him. But of course a lot of the background to the movie would be lost without it. That's just me though.

Anyway, I give the Clear Play 2 thumbs up!! I have a link at the left if you'd like to try it. I think it's well worth the price. It's comparable to purchasing a new Dvd player at the store. I bought the 3 year membership so I wouldn't miss any filters. Happy movie night!!

Chores

Chores are an important training tool to help teach children responsibility, initiative, and respect for one's property. It helps me to remember that we are training future employees, husbands, wives, and parents. I don't want to see them turn out to be lazy citizens. Not only that, but I can use some help around here!!

I did a lot of research to see how other moms organize their chores. I bought a couple of children's chore charts. I spent many hours on FlyLady.com and over a year using her program. I'm sorry to say that I lost the link that helped me make the system that I have now. I combined that link with a FlyLady approach and this is what I came up with.

I have a magnetic hook that hangs on the refrigerator. There are 5 index cards hanging on this hook. Each index card one of the daily chore cards (above) taped to it with large packing tape. This way it is a little water resistant. Each week the children get a different color. They are in charge of doing their color chore each day. By changing colors each week, they don't get tired of doing the same chore over and over.

I found that my children enjoy their chores more when I'm in the same room they are. So, I made my own set of chore cards.

I divided my chores into what needs to be done weekly on the top of the card. The bottom has 4 weeks listed and one extra chore per week. This gets the spring cleaning done each month with little extra work involved!! I made an extra set of cards for me that have a different room on each card. I divided those cards into 6 months and wrote on the top of the card a month and the month that is 6 months from it. For example. Kitchen is February/August. Now, those projects are to be worked on during those months. If something doesn't get done, I know that in 6 months I can try again.

Some weeks when the days slip by and the work doesn't get done, we'll each take 1 room on Monday and spend 1-2 hours to do all that room's chores. The kids really like this for a change because the rest of the week is just keep it clean. I don't like to do this too often but it's really nice to have a completely clean house once in a while.

To make these cards, I took a sheet of paper into each room. I divided the sheet into 3 sections. Section 1: weekly chores. Section 2: monthly or bi-yearly chores. Section 3: Projects I'd like to have done in that room. Armed with a list for each room, I sat down at the computer and made a set of cards for each day of the week (one for Mom and one for the kids). I then made a second set of cards for projects by the month. covered these cards with packing tape for protection and hung them on a magnetic hook.

That's all there is to it.

Homeschool Field Trip and Vacations

I found a great group that plans homeschool field trips and vacations for much cheaper than we can do on our own. The Carolina Homeschoolers have great deals on lots of trips. I've joined them for our trip to Disney. They made a deal with Disney to get 5 day Hopper tickets and all the water parks for $175. each. That's over half price of their regular hopper tickets.

I wasn't planning on getting hopper tickets but I couldn't pass that deal up. I booked our hotel last year and paid for it when I had the money. I wish now that I had waited. If I had booked with this group I could've stayed in a Disney resort and had the meal plan included for free. Ugh! If only I had known earlier. But we're still getting a great deal.

You can check out their future trips at: http://www.carolinahomeschooler.com/index.htm. I'm excited about their Alaska trip for 2010. I'm hopeful!!

My baby's not a baby anymore

It's official. I no longer have any children under 5. My baby turned 6 yesterday. I can't believe how fast it's going. I know! It'll only go faster! Wow! We made a castle cake for a Narnia Birthday. I usually go all out for birthdays, but this year we decided to have not big birthday parties. We're saving for Disney!!