Last Day of School

The end of May means the arrival of 110 degree days and the end of another school year.

While the kids are usually excited that summer break has arrived, I can't tell you how excited I am. When my daughter was getting ready to start the 6th grade, we made the decision as a family to let her enroll in a home school program. With larger classrooms and low test scores within our local school district a home school program was a better option. And while I think the program my daughter is enrolled in offers a great program, this was a tough year as a parent. The 7th grade was hard, for both parent and student. Math is a hard subject to teach in a traditional classroom, can you imagine what it's like for a home school program. And of course when your child is enrolled in a home school program, the first source of help with their questions comes right to mom and dad (the learning coaches). So this will be a nice few months of no school and it gives us time to recover from all the stress that math brought into our lives this year.

So until we meet up again in August, thank you math for a very memorable year.

New Banner. Any Thoughts?

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Looking for a Mother's Day gift from the heart. Buy a small pot and your mom'

Looking for a Mother's Day gift from the heart. Buy a small pot and your mom's favorite flower from your local home improvement store. If your child is making it for their mom have them paint the pot. On my example we used the kids hand and feet prints. What a great gift for only about $2.00.

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Tin-Can Desk Organizer

During a week your family most likely would use a few different Tin-Cans, whether you are eating soup or serving corn with your dinner.  This is a great project for the kids that cost very little money.  And it's an item where each room in your house could use one of these handy items.



Step 1: Take and wash a tin can and let dry thoroughly.

Step 2: Cover the Tin-Can in decorative tape, like we did.  Or you can even paint your can with paint you might just have laying around.

Step 3: Purchase cork wall tiles(picture above).  They are very easy to come across most office stores and Walmart carry them.  When we bought ours we paid $6.00 for a pack of 4.  A pack of four allowed us to make 10 of these tin can holders and still have some left over.

Step 4: cut a strip of the cork board to fit around the can.  Then hot glue the cork board onto the can.  The cork board is very flexible and wraps easily around the can.

Step 5: As an added touch, place some pushpins into the cork board so that the recipient can attach notes or pictures to their new Tin-Can Desk Organizer.

This is a great gift for your child to make anyone in the family, a friend or even teacher.

Borders Gift Cards

I have seen Twitter messages and some Facebook posts saying that Borders gift cards expire on April 3, 2011.  I called Borders customer service and after speaking with them she sent me this email response.  They do not expire, since not all stores are closing.  In addition if a store in your area is closing, you can still shop online 24 hours a day or locate another store in your area.

Dear Joe,


Thank you for contacting Borders.

Thank you for sending your inquiry to Borders Customer Care. We would like to apologize for the delayed response. We aim to answer all email inquires in less than 48 hours and we will ensure the necessary steps are taken to improve the timeliness of future responses.

Please be informed that our Borders Rewards programs, including Borders Rewards Plus, remain in effect. Customers can continue to earn and redeem their Rewards in stores and on Borders.com http://www.borders.com/ and they'll also continue receiving coupons. As always, we are honoring gift cards and will not expire on April 4, which can be redeemed in stores and online at Borders.com

I hope this information is helpful. If we can be of further help, please don't hesitate to contact us at our Customer care at 800.770.7811. A Customer care representative will be glad to address any concern.

Sincerely,

Lara

Make Your Own Easter Basket

Easter is right around the corner and here is a fun project for the kids to work on on evening or during the weekend.  I used to make my own Easter baskets out of old cool whip containers.  I would make enough for everyone in my family I would do some chores around the house and take the money I earned to buy grass and candy for my baskets.  Then on Easter I would pass out (or hide) my special gifts to my family.

What you will need:
*Cool Whip (or plastic container), washed and cleaned out.
*Easter basket grass or a free item white paper or green construction paper cut into strips.
*Markers or paint
*Piece of yarn or string

Extra Items*Glue, Glitter and Easter Candy

1.  Of course your kids can decorate the outside of their "basket" with markers or paint.  Picking the pastel colors will make the basket feel more like spring, but remember this is a project for the kids, so let them pick the colors they want to use.  If you are feeling really creative and you have glitter somewhere around the house, pour some glue into a paper cup and let your kids "paint" the basket with glue.  When the basket is covered in glue, sprinkle glitter all over the outside of the basket.

Hint:  Dollar stores have packs of glitter for $1.00.  This is always great to have around the house for special projects.

2.  Allow the basket to dry for 8 hours, but overnight would be best. 

3.  If you are using traditional Easter grass then you don't have to do the next step, however kids might think it's more fun to make their own grass.  Cut into strips some green construction paper or plain while paper.  If they don't like the look of plain white paper, before you cut the paper have them color the paper green with their markers.  The paper grass works better than traditional Easter grass because it is safer for smaller children and pets, and the kids will have a blast making their own grass.

4.  If you want have your children do some chores around the house to earn some money to buy some Easter candy or other fun spring items, like chalk to put in the Easter baskets.  Or they can get really crafty and make little gifts for people in the family. 

Our next post will include some fun crafty gift ideas.

Hoppy Spring!