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Homework Help
From Kindergarten through High School, homework is a recurring theme through the school year, usually met with loud, obnoxious groans from around the world. If you struggle, like I do, with motivating, encouraging and helping your kids to ‘get the job done’ here are some great resources. What can Parents do to Help with Homework?As millions of children return to school, the burden of homework and new schedules can often lead to anxiety and almost certainly new amounts of stress. This is not only true for the children, but for their parents as well. Homework can be frustrating for students and for parents as well. Research shows that parents can play an…
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Summer 2012 Bucket List
Summer Vacation is soon upon us. A time of year I LOVE! The lack of routine is so refreshing but amazingly enough becomes a little old after only a few weeks (and depending on the moment, sometimes only after a few days). So this summer my boys and I have created a ‘Bucket List’. Things we all want to do in the course of our lazy-days of summer. Somethings are things I want to do as a family. Some things are dreams. Others are already being planned. This is our list of plans, ideas and joys for the summer: Ride our Bike to Tasty Freeze Have a backyard game of kickball Catch fireflies…
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Craft Stick Fun
A simple art project. Simple smiles. Simply fun! As my boys are getting older projects at school have grown more and more complex. In the process I have picked up a few art-project supplies kept tucked away for a rainy day. Popsicle sticks were needed for a diorama of Iceland. Pipe cleaners were needed for a science experiment involving borax. Markers are kept out of reach of a toddler. Glue, scissors and paper all quickly rounded up. All this is the the perfect making for a morning of fun. My friend, *L*, 4 years old, checked out a book from the library last week, “Craft Stick Mania”. Today we set ourselves up at…
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We Will Never Forget – 10 Year Anniversary of 9/11/01
Why I will never forget … You can ask me where I was on Sept 11th, 2001 and I am instantly brought back to my apartment. (I worked from home); sitting at my desk; nursing a migraine headache. I can remember calling my husband; IMing my co-worker, Dan; learning that my dad, a colonel in the Air Force, was on high alert with a very long day (month … year…) ahead of him. Tears would stream down my face periodically throughout the day. For me life had changed. But what about my children? They weren’t alive. Ask the generations that are in high school and younger and they really may…
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Final Days of the School Year
My boys are pumped! *E* and *C*’s last day of school is Tuesday and today is their final Friday in 2nd grade and kindergarten.Soon our routine will change. We’ll spend more time outdoors. more time at the library, more time doing ‘summer jobs’. more time staying up later than we should. more time with neighbors and friends, barbecues and sparklers. I love summer vacation just about as much as my boys do! Kindergarten has had an A-Z Countdown since the beginning of May. Each day has been a letter and a theme. For example, ‘H’ was hat day; ‘P’ was pajama day; today we are at ‘X’ and it…
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USAA’s iPad Application – Be informed!
When we are informed we make better decisions.That is what USAA’s iPad application is all about! I have had the privilege of previewing their banking app for the iPad and I have to say I am mighty impressed. It just suits me. It is clean. It is organized. It makes me feel like I am in control. That is important when it comes to finances! I love the look of the Insurance Policy pages. Like a small library of policies. Pick a book. Open it up. Before you lies everything you need to know about your auto insurance policy, or your home-policy, or your life insurance. All at your fingertips,…
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Are we beginning to forget already?
It is amazing to me that I have now given birth to three beautiful sons. Three sons with a wonderful life ahead of them. Three sons who were but a twinkle in my eye on 9.11.2001. You can ask me where I was on Sept 11th, 2001 and I am instantly brought back to my apartment. (I worked from home); sitting at my desk; nursing a migraine headache. I can remember calling my husband; IMing my co-worker, Dan; learning that my dad, a colonel in the Air Force, was on high alert with a very long day (month … year…) ahead of him. Tears would stream down my face periodically…
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Valentine’s Contest: Win a Sony Touch for your Active-Duty Spouse!
**Be sure to enter our contest (details at the end)!! One lucky spouse will win a Sony Reader for her (or his) active-duty spouse! What a wonderful Valentines present that would be!** My husband’s year long deployment to the sandbox taught me all about the wonders of technology. The beauty of communicating via webcam most nights was an amazing blessing! In only his first days of being settled at this base in Iraq I wrote: “We Have Established Communication“. Isn’t it amazing where technology has brought us in the last century, the last decade, even just a few years? I recently had the opportunity to use a Sony Touch, a…
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The Power of Reading
I’ve written a couple of times about the power of a book! When hubs was deployed we got a few books through the “United Through Reading” program sponsored by the USO. Hubs read books to the boys from Iraq, recorded on a DVD, and mailed to us. The boys received a DVD & book to read along with Dad, the opportunity to hear Dad’s voice and find the pleasure in a book. In fact, my boys enjoyed the books so immensely that I ordered a few Scholastic books through their school and included them in ‘care packages’ to Hubs. He could then make his own books-on-DVD to send back to…
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It’s Snowing… Again…
I LOVE the snow any time between November and January. My boys and I can be out there for hours sledding, making snow-angels and -men, and just having a great time. But come February it starts to get really old. Well, it’s March 7 and we got 2 inches of snow this morning on top of what we got yesterday. My husband came home after a long day at work and the first words out of my mouth were: “Take them before I eat them.” (The old adage about spiders eating their young kept rattling around in my mind.) The kids are starting to get cabin fever and I’m starting…
