Family Briefs

“My blog is carbon neutral” is an initiative, originally started in Germany by the “Make it Green” program, that has the goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. They plant a tree for your blog and thereby neutralize your blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years! Everyone can make a small contribution to the environment. Every tree counts!

I try to recycle. I teach my children to recycle. I try to conserve energy and gas. I don’t really know whether my blog, limited traffic as it has :), has much of a carbon footprint or not, but I really like the idea of someone planting a tree on my behalf!

I always have great intentions to do all these wonderful Easter crafts with my children . . . and then reality hits me like a ton of bricks.  Not sure why this time of year things get crazy - it’s like Spring makes everyone want to schedule everything now before the end of the school year.

There might be hope for me yet this year!  I came across this little gem which offers several EASY options for fun, kid-friendly Easter projects that I already have items on hand for.  And any project that saves me a trip to Wal-Mart is a project worth doing!

So head over to Kids Craft Weekly and subscribe to her newsletter - then you can be crafty all the time!

I hate clearing books off the kids’ shelves, I mean they’re BOOKS!  You don’t throw out things that are GOOD for you, do you?  But the truth is, we simply have too many (’course, we have “too many” of a LOT of things).  Now that the youngest is 3, there are several books we can pass along to the library, other children we know, charitable organizations, or sell at the local consignment store.  It’s still hard to part with them . . . .

. . . but when I stumbled across this, my guilt went away!

From Unclutterer:

“My wife and I recently discovered the website One More Story. It is a great way to supplement your child’s book collection while increasing her reading comprehension and basic computing skills. The site has the equivalent of books on tape with highlighted words. The site also includes illustrations, sound effects, and music with certain stories. A demonstration is available for preview. “

They offer a number of ways to use their online library, and the annual subscription rate is only $44 - I spent more than that at the last school book fair!  And this website won’t clutter my house at all.  Check it out!

MOVE OVER KINDLE

Sylvan Dell’s innovative eBook format promises
to improve reading speeds, comprehension, and language learning skills

MT PLEASANT, SC - Sylvan Dell Publishing goes LIVE this week with its next generation eBook, proving the company represents “so much more than a picture book;” it represents a full-fledged campaign for literacy in America.

From Sylvan Dell publisher and co-founder Lee German: “These are the most technologically advanced eBooks in the world today, featuring Auto-Flip, Auto-Read, and Selectable Language. There is nothing even close to this on the market. Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble eBooks are not even in the same category. I encourage parents and teachers to take a test-drive and see for themselves. Let the children play with these for a few weeks, and you’ll be amazed at their excitement and improved reading performance. For children wanting to learn a foreign language or ESOL families learning English, these are phenomenal tools.”

Below is a link to a trial of all 45 Sylvan Dell eBooks:

http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ebooktrials.php?e=MSBL9J

Code expiration date: 10/31/2009

For guided directions: http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/documents/eBookOperatingInstructions.pdf

“Whether in Auto-Flip or Manual Mode, switch back and forth between English and Spanish text and audio (more language choices on the way) and remain on the same page,” said German. “With the addition of Auto-Flip and Auto-Read features, our Sylvan Dell eBooks are powerful literacy and language learning tools to complement our mission of teaching ‘Science and Math Through Literature.’”

Sylvan Dell is no newcomer to literacy education and no stranger to technological advances. Since the company’s founding in 2004, co-founders Lee and Donna German have been ahead of the picture book publishing curve. Last year, Sylvan Dell awarded free eBook site licenses to over 2600 elementary and Title I/III schools nationwide through their School Resource Grant Program.

What’s next? According to German, “We want moms, dads, and grandparents to be able to record a reading of our books and add that audio to the language selection list. This is especially important for military families with a parent overseas. We are also developing an iPhone, iPod, and iPod touch application so that our eBooks will be available on handhelds and an online data capture system to allow teachers to track student reading and quiz performance.”

Sylvan Dell eBooks are available on the company website, http://SylvanDellPublishing.com, as are an array of free educational resources, which include Teaching Activities and Interactive Math and Reading Comprehension Quizzes. For more information about the eBooks, visit http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ebooks.php. For more about the eBook Resource Grants: http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ResourceGrant.htm.

You know all those little pre-packaged fruit snacks? They come in all shapes - princess, Dora, smiley faces, and on and on - the manufacturers make these VERY appealing to little people! I don’t buy them, however, citing to my kids that “it’s not on the list so we’re not buying it.”

These little packages simply don’t provide any snack-worthy benefits, and the dentist says they are awful because these little sugary “snacks” stick to kids’ teeth. So, we only enjoy these “fruit snacks” when they are included in a birthday goody bag or the kids go to grandma’s house. I wish there were a REAL fruit snack that the kids enjoyed as much . . .

Ta da! Here enters Doug with Jerky.com. Doug contacted me about trying some of his products and reviewing them, and you know how I’m all about FREEBIES! He sent me some pineapple jerky for us to sample. The kids quickly devoured it, and my husband almost didn’t get to try it. I salvaged a package for him so he could share his thoughts on it too.

With four children, we’re on a pretty tight budget these days and I was disappointed to find that the pineapple jerky wasn’t $1/box like at the grocery store. Of course, it’s much better for you - why is it that it costs so much to eat healthy?? Well, that’s my soap box for another time. Anyhoo, where was I . . . oh yes, my budget. We buy pineapple every week, have a food dehydrator and decided we could duplicate Doug’s creation - I mean, the label says the only two ingredients are pineapple and honey. How hard could it be?

Apparently they have a magical brew there at Jerky.com. Our jerky just didn’t measure up . . . it fell flat. So, guess we’ll splurge every now and then . . . ‘course with Father’s Day coming up, I should have already ordered one of their Beef Jerky Gift Baskets. You have to splurge a little on fabulous fathers, right? I’m really eyeballing this one. Reckon’ they could get it here in time? I’m off to order!

I’ve decided to start sharing something that is a favorite of mine on Fridays - I need a little more structure in my life this late in the week, so maybe this will help us both!

I needed some personalized note cards for our business, and just couldn’t find anything locally that I was willing to use. Then I stumbled across Oopsie Daisy Designs. A few emails and a Paypal transaction later, and I have these personalized business cards that impress our customers!

This is not my first purchase from Oopsie Daisy Designs - I’ve ordered Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever feel like you’re just falling flat on your face and can’t quite get it all together? I didn’t realize I had planned a slow cooker recipe for supper until 4 pm - KERSPLAT! I left the snacks for preschool at home on the dryer and had to go back and get them - KERSPLAT! I took my youngest son to the wrong Tae Kwon Do class - KERSPLAT! And that was just Monday!

So I can completely relate to the Platypus in the book, , by Susan K. Mitchell. This was one of the books I received from Sylvan Dell Publishing to review, and it is certainly as enjoyable as the other book they sent me. The illustrations by Sherry Rogers are so endearing and bring the personalities of each animal to life.

The story begins when an Read the rest of this entry »

Can’t believe another week has gone by! It’s scary to think that by NEXT Monday’s menu plan, we’ll be talking about Thanksgiving!!! The days just seem to go by faster and faster - does anyone know how to slow this train down?

Oh well . . . here’s my plan from last week: Read the rest of this entry »

Being the good southerner that I am, I can’t resist a true southern event! Obviously, as the title implies, the Fall Y’all Giveaway is not an event to miss!

I’ve been doing cross stitch for years and years, and just recently I started making personalized bibs for baby shower gifts. I should have been making pictures of them all along, but I do have a picture of the one I completed most recently. Read the rest of this entry »

I knew I was in trouble when a Google search returned very limited results for a “watermelon theme birthday party.” Don’t you know I typed it in a hundred different ways to try it from a different angle – all to no avail. The suggestions I found seem to be limited to carving a watermelon to serve at a luau and a watermelon seed-spitting contest (which somehow seemed inappropriate for 3-year-olds with that choking hazard and all).

My oldest daughter had given me fair warning – telling me back in mid-May that she wanted to have a watermelon birthday party. Had I known the result of the Google search THEN, I might have panicked a little earlier. I began digging through the creative recesses of my brain for anything and everything pertaining to watermelon. Here’s what I Read the rest of this entry »