If one has been a user of the internet for some time, you’ve likely discovered some favourite websites.  I do have listed a few of my favourites on my sidebar, but I’m not limited to those ones only.  I know that Overstock.com WOULD be a favourite….if they shipped to Canada.  *sigh*  ANYWAY….

I recently have “discovered” two great sites which I’m sure you’ve all heard about.  I had heard about both sometime ago, but never bothered checking them out.  Kijiji is a great FREE site for posting and perusing classifieds of all kinds.  Freecycle is just that - recycling things you no longer want, but for free.  We just picked up a dresser and a little cabinet for free!  They aren’t amazing pieces of furniture, but we are a family of seven with a total of five clothes closets and three dressers between us.  Can we say desperate?  I’m usually a stickler for solid wood only.  I really have developed quite a lot of animosity for all things that impersonate wood.  So Greg was a bit surprised that I wanted this pressed-wood dresser.  The boys need it, in their closet.  So it doesn’t matter what it looks like.  Needs help on one of the drawers and it will be fine.  I wouldn’t likely have paid money for it, but for free?  It will help solve some of the “floordrobe” problem we have right now.  And eventually we’ll hopefully have not only more dressers and closets, but also bedrooms. 

So, tell me some of your favourites….

For all my homeschooling friends, I need help with a learning to read program.  I have used ACE (School of Tomorrow) with much success with Cole.  It was quick and painless.  Due to Cole’s learning style, I think ANY program would work.  This program will not work for Luke.  We’ve tried a bit.  In fact, while Cole was going through it last year, Luke learned all of the songs that go along with each letter, and could say the corresponding animals, letters and sounds (ie: Ape reads a, A reads a).  But he’s still struggling in the area of receptive language, and so even though he’s able to tell me the letter and sound, most of the rest of the lesson is over his head.  He doesn’t get the stories, can’t answer the questions, and has difficulty identifying, in a word list, the words that contain that day’s letter/sound.  I am a huge supporter of phonics-based reading, so I would prefer something like that, but realize that there definitely needs to be some degree of sight-reading as well.  I have looked into several of the other main-stream curriculum publishers, but I need to actually have something in hand to really know what I’m working with.  And I don’t want to order something from everyone just to figure out what will work.  Luke is definitely a visual learner.  He LOVES workbooks and pages and the like.  He is always asking us about the content of signs, lables on bottles, titles on books, etc.  Ideas anyone?

I hope Saturday is a good day for all.