My New Favorites!

I am sitting here with some welcomed time on my hands! There is not a Broncos game on today (sad face) My girls went straight down for their naps ( happy face) Sunday school must have worn them out! Plus my hubby is out hitting golf balls before his big golf trip this weekend. ( infer your own face here) So it is just me! I wanted to share some of the things school related, mom related and just for fun related that I have fallen in love with lately!


1. Jane.com

I love checking out what Jane has to offer every single day! I have bought so many fun things on this site! My Christmas shopping was done between Jane and Amazon. Everything I gave from Jane received an OMG where did you find this? OMG how did you do this? Its a great site and so SO reasonable!

2. ipsy

I love mail and I love makeup! Fun make up to try in the mail....... what could be better? For $10 you get a very cute make up bag filled with five "deluxe"samples of new products to try. The items are usually full size or a HUGE sample and I am loving it! You really get your moneys worth and you can earn more free items when you share and review. ( Kinda like I am doing now!) You just pay month to month so you are not locked in! Here is my latest glam bag

3. Hope Hummus 

This may seem random but it is too good not to share with you! I like hummus and I am still on my eat healthy new year resolution. It is LOCAL and ORGANIC!!! I am not a person that is all about local and organic but I like when I find stuff that is. Anyways back to the hummus it is life changing good! I feel that I have had a ton of hummus and nothing has ever been this good. I like the Thai Coconut Curry and Sriracha the best but they are all good! I haven't tried the kale and I am not sure that I will! 

4. Neat Cheeks 

 I met these two Colorado moms at a Baby Expo. They came up with a sweet face wipe. It may sound weird but it works. My girls love using them and they are reasonable. You can find them at Walgreens and try them for yourself. I love this product and like to share it with other moms. 

5. Sharpie Paint Pens

I love love love the possibilities for teaching, crafting and writing that the sharpie paint pens have. I love them! I use them to make cute Pinteresty projects and write on my student desks. 

6. IXL

I know that I have mentioned IXL before. I love this program. It is a paid web based program that allows you to track your students individual learning. I have used IXL in my classroom for two school years and I feel that I am getting better and better at how to make it most effective. Last year I just went down the list with the students. They enjoyed it and learned from it.

 Now I really target the strands that I assign to reinforce what we are learning in class. This can be done in class or at home. I  have the students track their learning on chart so they can see that they have mastered all of the skills and have a goal to work toward. I like that it also shows you which strands go with which standards. I make sure to cover those strands in my class.  I also like pulling the reports and seeing who really gets the skill and who still needs practice.  The topics are covered more than one way so students gain a full understanding of a topic. 

IXL has really helped me in my classroom. I think that the students have really benefited from using this program. I think that the immediate feedback, reports and standards make IXL a necessary tool for every classroom. 

They also contacted me for a teacher discussion. I was impressed that they wanted to know how I use this product and how they could make it better.


Okay I could probably go on and on about all of my favorite things but I hope you find at least one of these helpful and it becomes one of your favorites as well. I may just have to do another giveaway another day with some of these in it. Stay tuned for that! But for now make sure you enter my latest giveaway! It ends Thursday.