Fashion With Jess

Affordable fashion and beauty

Loudoun’s New BBQ Spot: Black Hog BBQ

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Happy weekend friends! I hope you all are having the best weekend! Our area is expecting a snow storm tomorrow, so went on a little adventure out of the house today! We went to go try a new local restaurant, Black Hog BBQ, and it was so fun! Everything from the atmosphere, the staff, the location, and the food was amazing.

Black Hog BBQ is a new place to eat in Ashburn, Virginia. I'm going to make a very bold statement and say that it is the best place for BBQ around. They know what they are doing when it comes to BBQ. Their meat is smoked daily so everything tastes so fresh and delicious! The Black Hog near us just opened a few weeks ago, but they actually have four other locations in Maryland if you are local to Maryland!

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We both loved our meals so much...and so did Andrew! I got the Carolina Chopped pork, slaw, and cornbread, with a side of mac and cheese. The pork was perfect- so flavorful. And the mac and cheese!! OH MY GOSH. We are mac fans over here and this one was the best! Tyler got the ribs and they were just as delicious. I already cannot wait to go back again to try the brisket!! I've heard its incredible.

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Here is the link to their menu for the Ashburn location if you are interested in trying!

As for safety, we felt very safe at Black Hog. Everyone had face masks on, tables were closed off for social distancing, and everything was so clean and sanitized. You can also do carryout and curbside pick up if you would like! To all my local friends, be sure to check them out! Let me know what you try! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

XO,
Jess

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Living Room Inspiration

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How is everyone!?! I can't believe today is JULY 3rd! This year is flying by! With spending so much time at home I am wanting to redo every single room in our home. I can't help it! Right now, I would love to switch some things out in our living room to make things more neutral and flow together. I threw together this style board of everything I am eying for our living room!

Currently, we have a large sectional and this rug, which I love. It is soft and bright white so it really brightens up the room. I have been on the hunt for a new coffee table because I know Andrew will be on the move soon. I have been wanting a tufted ottoman, but cannot find any that I love (and they are soo expensive in my opinion!). I found this coffee table from Target and instantly fell in love. It is sleek, simple, and modern. It also is in the shape of an oval! Baby friendly!! I would love to style this coffee table with a pretty Rattan tray, books, and pretty decorative pieces. I love this shape and these beads so much.

Across from our couch and TV area, we have a large sitting area where we usually sit and play with Andrew. I currently have a mirrored table and two parsons chairs there, but don't love the look. I want something to match the whole room more. I found these chairs online at TJ Maxx and fell in LOVE! They are stunning! I thought they would look so great on either side of this cube storage shelf. I love this shelf because it is modern and sleek. I can move it anywhere in the house if I want to change things up later on. It will also be a great place to store some of Andrew's little toys! I thought these baskets would look great on the bottom. I would decorate the top two shelves with books and frames. For the top, I would add large table lamp. Above the shelf you could do a mirror to really make the room feel bigger or have a painting.

What styles are you loving right now for your living room?! Shop any of the links below.

Thank you so much for reading! Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Xo,

Jess

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Custom Invitations with Basic Invite

I am so excited to be sharing with you all some adorable Birthday Invitations with Basic Invite. Basic Invite is a website that offers custom invitations for all different events! They have invitations for birthdays, weddings, showers, graduations, birth announcements, and more. I am drawn to this site because at this point in my life, I love all the small details. Andrew will eventually be having birthday parties and I cannot wait to design the theme and find the cutest invitations for them!

Custom Invitations

The first thing you can do when browsing for invitations is start with
custom invitations. From here, you can pick from over 180 different color selections, preview the final product online, and pick your envelope color. If needed, you can also have addresses printed on the envelopes. This makes everything so easy when you are event planning! Seriously wondering why I did not do that when it came to our wedding invitations.

Party Invitations

When it comes to party invitations, Basic Invite has you covered. They have the best Birthday Party Invitations for all ages of life! They also offer Birthday Party Invitation templates, so you can customize it to make it the way you would like it to be. Right now I am interested in the Birthday Party Invitations for first birthdays since I know Andrew's first birthday will be here before I know it. I cannot get over how precious the designs are!

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I love this "Wild One" birthday invitation design so much! I had to plug in a picture of Andrew and change around the colors to see what I liked. The best part was that I could easily change the colors on the invitation to match the picture of Andrew more. The palms were originally greens and I was able to change them to blues. How amazing?! I love when everything matches and flows together nicely and Basic Invite makes that so easy.

My husband, Tyler, will also be having a milestone birthday in a few months- the big THIRTY! Basic invite has so many options for 30th birthday party invitations. I was easily able to go in and browse all "milestone birthday" invitations and plug in our information to see how it would look! I love the look of this one for his birthday.

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After playing around and creating many invitations on the site, I am amazed at how easy Basic Invite is to use. I love the fact that you can pick from endless colors to really customize your invitations, pick envelope colors, and even have samples sent to you to check before ordering and sending out all the invitations. I cannot wait to use them when it comes time for Andrew's First Birthday Party! You can check out their site here and the endless possibilities of invitations for any life event you have! They are also having 15% off the whole site until the end of the month with the code, 15FF51. Leave me a comment below to let me know what type of invitation you are looking for!

XO,

Jess

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Walmart Home Decor Finds That I am Loving!

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Okay you guys...I got sucked into a browsing hole today and now I want everything that I found. Part of me loves that because I feel inspired with new ideas but the other part of me hates it because I do not need any of it! Anyways, I wanted to share with you all these INCREDIBLE home decor finds that I found online with Walmart. They have SO many good home decor items it just takes some sifting through.

 When you are buying items for your home, try to pick a theme or a style for the room that you are working in (or the entire house) and stick to that theme and style while you are shopping. I struggle with this a lot because I love SO many different home decor styles. No matter what style I am loving, I really try to stick to neutrals across the board.

For this collage, everything is very neutral. I focused on blues, creams, grays and whites. I think you could do an entire family room with this.

First, this rug is so gorgeous ( I am actually considering it for our dining room)! I like the white background of it with the blue print. I think it would help brighten up a room.

Next, I love this fun wicker coffee table. The color of this is so beautiful! I like the washed gray look because I figured it could also go well with whites, golds, or silvers. It is also on major sale!!

Then, I would use this tray on the coffee table and style it with some coffee table books, this beautiful vase and pampas grass, and this stunning candle holder. Doesn't this candle holder look like Serena & Lily?! It is only $15!

I am also obsessed with these beautiful tasseled pillows. I think the quality looks great and they will easily go from season to season. This gray ottoman would look great on its own, or would look beautiful with two side by side for extra seating in a family room.

Lastly, I love this white washed wooden ladder to display throw blankets on. This throw blanket looks cozy and would also go beautifully on this ladder. I currently have a ladder like this in our living room and I absolutely love the look of it. I place either a large wicker basket in front of it or an ottoman.

With being home constantly, I want to redo every single room in our house. For now, I will just make these collages and visualize the rooms in my head! Haha! I wish I could buy all of these items! Yay for Walmart finds! What are you re-doing in your house?!

Xo,

Jess

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Andrew’s Nursery

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My Favorite Room in the House

Andrew's room is easily the best room in our home. It just feels calm, inviting, and clean (although it is often messy- haha)! When we were designing this room it was a bit tricky because the space is small. Although it is small, it has tall ceilings that make it feel bigger when you are in it, which I love! Since the room is small I wanted to do white furniture and light blue and gray accents to keep the room feeling bright! To me the brightness makes it feel bigger!

Everything we have in this room I absolutely love and would recommend to anyone. We spend so much time in here and it makes me feel so happy to have a room that is special for Andrew. One of my absolute favorite parts of the room (Tyler's too) would be this chair and ottoman. I find myself coming in this room a lot to feed him because the chair and ottoman are so comfy! Tyler loves them because it is the best place to sit and read him a book. We keep a big basket of books right next to the chair for easy access. The chair glides back and forth and the color matches perfectly with the room.

Some items are from Home Goods and Hobby Lobby (baskets and "Now I lay me" wall decor) so I cannot link them. The mobile above the crib is from Restoration Hardware and was super easy to hang! I will link everything I can below.

furniture

Baby items we love

toys

Anything that I did not link is something that I bought in store and couldn't link. Leave me a comment with any questions!

XO,

Jess

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My Blog is One Year Old!

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TOP/SHORTS/BRACELET/RING/EARRINGS

What I have Learned So Far...

I can hardly believe my blog has been public for one year! I remember being so nervous last year when I shared out that I had started a blog and that it was live with its first posts. So much has changed since then and I have learned so much.

I started off this journey with my blog knowing absolutely nothing about WordPress and constantly calling my dad for help. My dad would send me videos he found on how to use wordpress and helped me so much from the beginning! Finally, I got the hang of things and it became easier. If you are nervous about starting a blog, but feel passionate about it, I highly suggest just taking that leap of faith and trying it out!

In honor of my blog being one year old today I want to share some things I have learned along the way! Hopefully this can be helpful to you in starting your own blog!

1. Ask for Advice

Last spring and summer I started going to blogger meetups in my area (DC Bloggers) to listen to bloggers give advice and share out things they have learned. It was SO helpful! I went with one of my friends and we learned a lot about different apps, how to be consistent, and how to share out things. I think many areas have Blogger Unions so depending on where you are, see if they have these and try to go to one of their meet ups. Also, make friends with others who are also starting out a blog. Ask them questions and help others when you can!

2. Be consistent

Right after sharing out my blog, I became pregnant and the first trimester exhaustion hit me, so the last thing I could do was work on my blog. I felt embarrassed and discouraged because I couldn't post much, but I knew my body needed a break. I didn't post much for long periods of time on my blog, but I started to set goals for myself and by setting goals I became better at achieving them! Now I am able to produce 2-3 blog posts a week and I really really enjoy it. I feel more comfortable and at ease when producing the posts. It's like an incentive for me. I finish the work I need to do for school, with Andrew, and around the house, then I can make a post.

3. Look for easy to use templates

I wish I had known this from the very beginning. I actually JUST discovered this and it has made everything SO much easier. You can go to Etsy and search for Blog templates. There are so many amazing ones! If you don't feel comfortable installing it on your page, many stores will install it for you at a price. I found my current template on Etsy and installed it myself. The girl I bought it from was so helpful and her instructions on install were very easy! I used to hate the layout of my blog before I found her template. It's incredible.

4. talk about your blog on social media

One way I have found to increase traffic on my blog is to talk about it on instagram. I use instagram all the time so for me it is the best resource to share out my blog! I share it on my stories and in posts as well. It might even be helpful to do quick screen recordings to share how to navigate your blog.

5. don't get discouraged

This is one of the most important things I have learned that I still have to remind myself. Nothing that is good or worth it is going to come easy. As with anything you do, you have to try and work hard. Some days I felt like there was no purpose in it, but then my husband would remind me that this is what I love. And he is right! I love to share clothes, makeup, and anything that works for us. I love to talk to others about those things! It's one of my passions and as long as I feel that way, the blog serves a purpose for me and for anyone else who is interested in reading!

I still have so much to learn when it comes to having a blog and sharing things but I feel so excited for that and for what's to come! Thank you so much for reading and following along. It means so much to me!

Xo,

Jess

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Mommy & Me: Matching Your Baby!

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Okay I am not embarrassed to admit that when I dress Andrew I think to myself, 'What do I have that can match him?' haha! It makes me so happy. Why?! Who knows. Today I am going to share a few outfits for both you and baby to match! I will share both girls and boys items! The boy items I will be sharing are mostly items that Andrew has. If you are like me, you may have some of the items for yourself already in the closet.

The first look is all blue and white items. I am obsessed with blue and white for spring so it is no surprise that I bought Andrew these adorable blue and white pull on pants! He is wearing size 4-6 months and I have to say how AMAZING they are! They roll at the side and fit him perfectly now, but I can also undo the button to make them longer as he grows! The waist is also pretty big and I was able to tie it tighter with the string. They are so stinking cute I could barely handle it. For me, I wore a frilly blue and white skirt (that is a great length) and a white off the shoulder top. You can shop both of our items through the links below.

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This next look is a springy casual look. I know we all are not going anywhere right now, but I have found it fun to put on real clothes for a little throughout the day  (I'm also obsessed with clothes) or to set the table and have an at home date night. For Andrew he has a tan and white striped shirt (too big for him because I bought for him to grow into) and these adorable tan little shorts! These shorts are just incredible because he will grow into them and they come in a pack of THREE! Yes please! For these pictures, I dressed Andrew in an all white set with a onesie underneath. This set was a gift and he looks like a little teacher in it! It is so so cute! I think it's a very gender neutral outfit. My outfit doesn't exactly match him, but it has similar colors so we can call that a match in my book! I love this blouse so much. It is so beautiful with the billowy sleeves and the print. The buttons down the front are so flattering. It looks great with high-waisted jeans but will also be perfect with shorts in the summer. I also found such adorable outfits for little girls to go with my outfit. You can shop all the items right below.

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So this is a look that you see us in almost every single day. I certainly wear this set once a week! I will link some of my favorite tie-dye options below. As for Andrew, his classic daily outfit is a onesie and sweet little joggers or leggings! Here he is wearing the adorable set from the photo above as well.

I hope you enjoyed this post! This was so fun for me to do so I will probably do more in the future as Andrew grows. Thank you for reading!

XO,

Jess 🙂

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Affordable Loungewear

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Currently loving all the loungewear out there right now but only into the pieces that are affordable! I have been searching for the best loungewear that will last, look stylish, and wont' break the bank. Luckily I found many good options!

First up are these gorgeous tan joggers and short sleeved sweatshirt! The quality is amazing and each item is only $13. I will wear these pieces again and again!

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Next up are some very neutral pieces you can wear many different ways. Yay! Love to have pieces that are versatile in my closet. I love the look of these sweatshorts and think they would be so cute with either the henley bodysuit or the cami with a linen button down top. Add a layered necklace to dress it up.

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This is  another neutral look featuring the same joggers from earlier. These joggers would pair perfect with a white t-shirt, sneakers, and chunky layered necklace. Ready for the day or a nice long walk!

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This last look is more edgy but so fun and on trend. The colorful biker shorts would look so good with a white t-shirt and a layered necklace. With this outfit you're ready for a busy day of playing with kids, walking, and looking stylish the whole time.

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10 Things to Do at Home for Easter

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Happy Wednesday friends! Is everyone having a good week? I hope wherever you are that the sun has been out and shining down on you. We are on our "spring break" so this week has been SO nice to take it easy, tackle tasks around the house, and get some content together!

Easter is this Sunday and I know Easter might look a little different for everyone this year. I have been so so excited for Easter this year because we have Andrew with us. We are going to try our best to make this Easter special even if we can't go anywhere. Growing up I will never forget everything my Mom did to make Easter so special and I cannot wait to begin some traditions and make it special for Andrew as well. Here are 10 fun and simple things you can do at home with your family this Easter!

1. Easter Brunch

I love the idea of a brunch on Easter morning. If you have kids, you can wake up, make a yummy breakfast, and allow the kids to open up their Easter baskets! Brunch doesn't have to be fancy it can consist of easy items you have in your kitchen! I'm thinking pancakes, fruit, eggs, bacon, and juice. YUM!

2. Watch Service Online

One thing that will be particularly hard for me this Easter is not being able to go to our Church for Easter. However, I am grateful to our church and many all around the Country for working hard to record their services and stream them online for us at home! Gather the family together, get comfy on the couch or bed and watch Easter service. Put the phones away and worship and pray together. Talk with your family about the meaning of Easter. If you need a service to watch here is a link to our Church, Purcellville Baptist.

3. Family Photos

It is always so special to get dressed up on Easter in fun spring outfits to celebrate. Let's keep doing this! Get your family dressed up, set up self timer on your phone and snap some family pics. Take photos throughout the day to capture new memories. You will be able to look back on this and be so thankful that you did! I already can't wait to put Andrew in his little Easter outfit!

4. Easter Lunch or Dinner

Depending on where you are, it might be hard to come by what you typically cook for Easter lunch or dinner. No worries! You can make any meal into an Easter meal. This year I am not going out to any stores, we have just been doing delivery and weren't able to get everything I would usually make. I remembered that Cracker Barrel does meals for holidays and I ordered one! I am super excited for a yummy Cracker Barrel meal for Easter this year. One of the best parts is that they deliver AND I do not have to cook! It might become a new family tradition around here!!

5. Picnic Dinner

If the weather is nice, how fun would it be to have a family picnic dinner or lunch!?! You don't have to go anywhere, you could do this on your deck, patio, backyard, or front yard! Grab a blanket and throw it down, use paper plates and just enjoy the fresh air. This sounds so fun to me! I think it is going to rain on Easter here, but maybe one day this week we can try for a picnic dinner.

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These next five ideas would be so fun to do with kids. You can also do them if you do not have kids! When Andrew is older I plan on doing these types of activities on Easter because they are similar to what we did growing up! I love keeping traditions alive while also creating your own.

6. Make Easter Cards

Grab any supplies you have around the house; markers, paper, scissors, glue, and crayons. Have each family member make a card for all the members of the family. In the card write or draw what you love about the person. This would be a great thing to share and read aloud as a family. I really think it would help lift spirits if anyone needed that! And how special is it to reflect on what we are grateful for. I love this activity because it doesn't require anything but thought.

7. Easter Egg Hunt

Of course you have to have an Easter Egg Hunt! These are the best! I haven't done one in ages, obviously because I am old! This year though I decided to get plastic eggs, fill them with jelly beans, and hide around the house. I will have Tyler carry Andrew around the house and find them. I am so excited for this! Parents where are your favorite places to hide eggs?! ALSO- if you do not have kids you can totally do a grown up version of this. You can stuff the plastic eggs with other items like cash, or gifts, or I have even seen airplane bottles used for this! haha!

8. Decorate a Cake

There is something special about holidays and baking. Am I right?! I love baking something sweet around the holidays! Decorating a cake could be such a fun and easy activity for the family and then you can enjoy it after! I will never forget growing up the Easter Bunny cake my mom used to make. It was the cutest thing ever and I remember she would work so hard on it! I have found a similar recipe you can use here. You can also just use any type of cake mix you have in the pantry. The main thing is you need to round cake pans. One pan will be for the bunny head and the other pan you will cut in half for the bunny ears.

9. Easter Bunny Popcorn

I am so excited to make this! This is super easy to do and hopefully you might already have all these items in your pantry! You will need popcorn (kettle or regular- up to you!), melting chocolate, and sprinkles. For this you will first pop your popcorn. Then, melt your chocolates. I am going to use white chocolate melts. Pour the popcorn on a piece of wax paper and drizzle melted chocolate on top! Then, add sprinkles to make it fun! So tasty and SO easy! Oooh if you have M&M's or pretzels you could also add to it for extra crunch.

10. Family Movie Time

Grab the popcorn you just made and find a movie for the family to watch. What a special way to end a special and family oriented day. Who else loves movies to end the weekend?!?! If you need a good movie for the family, Onward was just shared on Disney+ and it is so so good. Tear jerker for sure.

I hope you enjoy these ideas! What family traditions do you and your family have for Easter?! I would love to hear.

Leaving all photo details below if you are interested in shopping.

XO,

Jess 🙂

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Staying Home: School Activities to do with your Children

Happy Monday everyone! It's with a heavy heart that I am writing this post because I feel for everyone and what the world is facing during the Coronavirus pandemic. I know many states have the schools closed and I wanted to give some resources for parents out there needing something to do with their children during this time away from school!

I am a fourth grade teacher and I teach Reading and Writing (my school switches for subjects). If there is one thing I have learned with teaching it is that students need a schedule and I need solid plans. I have also learned that there are SO MANY resources out there available to all. I hope some of these can be helpful to you and your family!

My first suggestion is create a schedule that you and your family will follow the best you can Monday- Friday. Kids do so well with schedules and this will keep things feeling semi-normal. It will also help the overall feel of the house and help everyone remain positive! Here is a mock schedule that might work for you:

7:30- Wake up, Brush Teeth, Get Dressed, Breakfast

8:00- Morning Meeting: Ask each other questions (Example- What is one thing you are looking forward to today?) This is a great way to set a positive tone for the day and get everyone awake!

8:15- 9:15- Reading:

  • Start first with a Read Aloud. No matter what age, all children loved to be read to. You could pick a chapter book that you have around the house, or you can use picture books. If you aren't able to read to your child because you are working, there are MANY read alouds on youtube you can play!
  • After read aloud, do independent reading. During independent reading let the student decide what it is they want to journal about as they read. If they are reading FICTION they can focus on Setting, Characters and Traits, Problem and Solution, Theme (lesson learned). If they are reading NONFICTION they can focus on main idea and details of a section, and important facts they find and are learning. All your student needs to do this is a book of their choice (that they can read) and some type of paper, journal, pencil, to do their journaling.
  • After independent reading, have the student share what it was they read and what they journaled about.

9:20- 10:20- Free Time: During the school day students get about an hour of specials time (Music, Art, PE). Use this hour for crafts, listening to music, or some type of exercise. If you can't get outside because of weather Gonoodle.com is a GREAT website with many activities to keep kids active. Just create a log in and it is free to use!

10:30- 11:30- Math: For math you can start by figuring out what every student was working on in school. You can create problems on your own for them to solve or have them use a math program online. MANY schools have math online programs that students have their own log ins to use. These are incredible resources and will help significantly.

11:30- 12:30- Lunch and Recess: Eat and then have a recess time! Go outside and play or play an indoor game!

12:30- 1:00- Writing: Have the students pick a special place in the house and do a free write. They can write about whatever they want! It can be private or they can share it with you! Kids LOVE doing this. If they have a hard time getting started you can start by giving them a prompt. (Example: You wake up and hear a THUD under your bed...you look underneath your bed and see a huge bag with gold coins spilling out. What is going on?!) When writing is over give them a time to share them aloud if they want to!

1:00- 1:30- Content: Decide together if you want to do Science or Social Studies. All states work on different things for Social Studies but I will leave a variety of resources to help with these subjects!

1:30- 2:00- Independent Reading: Have students find a quiet place in the house and independent read. This will give mom or dad free time as well to relax!

2:00- 2:30- Technology

This is just an idea! The schedule can start later in the day and end later if you would like and it can fluctuate! My only suggestion is try to keep the times the same each day because it will really help the kids stay in a routine. Eventually they will know the routine and can do this without much help incase you are also working from home.

Go Noodle: https://www.gonoodle.com/

Fun songs, reviews, and exercise videos

Storyline Online: https://www.storylineonline.net/

Picture book read alouds

Reading A-Z: https://www.readinga-z.com/

Can sign up for a free trial and have access to tons of different leveled books and activities to go with them.

ABC Mouse: https://www.abcmouse.com/

Can sign up for a free 30 day trial! Reviews Math, Reading, and Science.

Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Awesome math resource!

Prodigy: https://www.prodigygame.com/

This is my students favorite math site. It is so fun for them! Your child may already have their own log in.

Fun Brain: https://www.funbrain.com/

Math site for families to work on together.

Adventure Academy: https://www.adventureacademy.com/

Reading, Math, and Science resource. You can get your first month for free!

Also, many school districts have subscriptions to math and reading programs that the students have access to. Take advantage of these and use them! They are so great! The county I work for in particular has an app where students login once and are able to access many learning apps within it.

I hope that all of this ends soon and we will all be able to return back to school and work. Stay healthy and safe and enjoy your time with your families.

XO,

Jess or as my students know me, Mrs. Webb 🙂

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