Wizard101 Review By: Luke

 My first post is on Wizard101. Wizard101 is a fun game that kids explore the spiral and seek out the evil so you can stop it. 

When you first start playing, you are enrolled in a school of magical arts called Ravenwood much like Harry Potter. There are seven schools of magic that you can choose from: Storm, Fire, Ice, Death, Myth, Life, and Balance. They are all the schools of magic. There are 12 worlds for you to explore. Wizard city, Krokotopia, Marleybone. Mooshu, Dragonspyre, Celestia, Avalon, Azteca, Krysalis are all the worlds in the main storyline. Grizzlehiem and Wysteria are optional worlds that you have a choice to explore.

Wizard101 is a good game for kids to play because it lets kids imagination expand. In Wizard101, you can do things that are impossible in real life. For example, you can cast magical spells on monsters in combat. 

InWizard101 can also be an educational game. Inside the game, there are educational quizzes that you need to do to get past some people in game. Outside the game, there are quizzes that you can earn crowns with. Crowns are something that you have to pay for to get exclusive items in the crown shop, but most items are dropped by bosses.

Wizard101 is a great game and I hope that someone who reads this actually plays it.

Pointless Blog By: Natalie

Doesn’t it feel great when your parents threaten to turn off your wifi, just so you’ll write a blog post that will only be viewed by little to no people, if it even gets posted? Not really. But then, when you ask them why it has to be a blog (because anything would be better than it), you’re back to square one when they answer “to get your wifi”. I’m still curious about this, but even if my question is never answered, I couldn’t care less about this stupid, pointless blog. 

Contrary to popular belief, I’m actually really busy during the school year, with soccer 5 days a week and many projects, more than most people know about. The only reason I actually like summer is because it’s a break from school, where we constantly work. Now, my summer’s being bombarded with this pointless blog, and I don’t want to work on my break! What I don’t understand is how they expect us (us being my brother and I) to come up with something interesting to write about, when this whole “operation” only makes me feel disengaged, and bored. I have no drive to do this, them threatening to take away my wifi is only making me angry, and the only reason I’m still writing this blog is to make a point.

School is out!

Every end of school year I experience the same mixed bag of feelings I have been experiencing since I became a mother (and teacher of 17 years).  Initially I feel super excited about starting my work free summer at home with my kids. I look forward to creating memories with my family, embracing laughter together. Those feelings eventually fade, and are overtaken by angst. I begin to stress about how I will ensure my kids will enjoy their summer. Shouldn’t be a problem, really. I reminisce about my childhood summers spending countless hours outdoors, riding bikes, picnicking at the park and running through the sprinkler. And this helps me identify the root of my anxiety. Sad to admit, both of my children spend A LOT of time on personal devices. In fact, I would argue, their free time is overtaken by technology.

So instead of banning the use of technology, I have decided to embrace it. I have made a promise to my children that I will not limit access to WiFi if they contribute to a family blog on a weekly basis. To put in kid language, “No blog entry, no WiFi”.

My 10 year old (almost 11 year old son) techie son is on board, mostly because he is attached to both his tablet and laptop for a big part of his days. I am not sure how he would handle Wifi withdrawal. Together we brainstormed possible topics he could write about, all personally relevant to him. My 12 year old daughter on the hand shared her sentiments in the second post.

My commitment to creating memorable summer experiences with my kids (well really having them fine tune their literacy skills) will be shared in our family blog about everything, hence the title ReidingAllAboutIt. I cannot take credit for the creative title…my whipper snapper tween daughter was all over it!  And so it begins, critical thinking, problem solving and creating all summer long.