National Geographic Kids – Weird But True (Review/Giveaway)
By TheAngelForever | March 10, 2010
Have I mentioned lately how we love books? Seriously, we are constantly getting new books,going to the library and reading something with the boys. NHL is in first grade and likes to read books with history, science or things to learn. Yes, our first grader is slowly warping very nicely into a mini-Geek!
When we were asked by Family Review Network to review the new National Geographic Kids: Weird But True! 300 Outrageous Facts book, we jumped at the opportunity. As a teacher, I had many National Geographic Kids books in my classroom, so I knew it would have amazing photos to share with my boys.
About the book (from their website):
At last, all those weird but true facts that readers of National Geographic Kids love so much are collected into a fun-filled book that you’ll come back to again and again!
Weird But True is based on the hugely popular magazine page of quirky, fun facts that many readers of National Geographic Kids magazine turn to first. Why? Well did you know that…
- Peanut butter can be converted into a diamond?
- The world’s oldest pet goldfish lived to be 43 years old?
- The world’s longest soap bubble was as long as four school buses?
- On Neptune, the wind blows up to 1,243 miles an hour?
- An elephant’s tooth can weigh as much as a bowling ball?
All of the facts in this handy book will amaze friends and family: Animals Superpowers, Chills and Thrills, Eat or Be Eaten, Mini and Mega, Wild and Crazy, and much, much more. Adjacent pages for such facts present a one-paragraph explanation of how that fact is possible or why it is so.
Purchase your copy for $6.95.
What we thought:
Both of the boys are fascinated with the photos within Weird But True. Yes, even my 2 year old will sit with the book for an extended time looking at all of the photos. JSL will chat away and call out all of the items that he recognizes. NHL, in first grade, will read the facts to me and then talk with me about what it says. Our conversations actually made me think about ways to use this book in the classroom. (I am always a teacher, even when on hiatus.) I could see the fun facts in this book being used as a prompt for classroom discussion and/or a writing exercise. In addition to this, the facts could easily create interest in a subject for kids to do more research on. Anything that excites children to learn gets a thumbs up from me.
Giveaway:
Thanks to National Geographic Kids, one lucky reader will win a copy of National Geographic Kids: Weird But True! 300 Outrageous Facts for your family.
Rules for Giveaway:
- MAIN RULE – Answer the following questions: What is one weird fact about you that you are willing to share with others?
- 1 Bonus Entry – Who will this book be for if you win and why would they love to have it?
- 1 Bonus Entry – Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Be sure to include @TheAngelForever and National Geographic Kids Giveaway in the Tweet. Please leave a direct link to your Tweet in a separate comment for each daily entry. Example Tweet (feel free to use): Chance to win National Geographic Kids – Weird But True book from @TheAngelForever http://bit.ly/9YBplK
- 1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
- 1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the month of January/February/March. Be sure to leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done only twice per person.
- 3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and leave a link with the location. Be sure to give yourself 3 comments for credit.
- 5 Bonus Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog about the giveaway. Be sure to leave 5 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries
To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today March 10th and ends at 10:59 EST on March 24, 2010. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.
Disclosure: This post was written for Family Review Network as part of a program for National Geographic, who supplied the book for review and giveaway. No other compensations was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own feelings about the product.
Topics: Educational, Product review, books, giveaway | No Comments »
Lucky Leprechaun trap project
By TheAngelForever | March 10, 2010
Topics: Wordless Wednesday, holidays, nhl, school | 6 Comments »
Houston. . . we had a BIG bloggy problem
By TheAngelForever | March 9, 2010
Welcome back to TheAngelForever.com If you tried to stop by here over the last 31 hours, you probably noticed there was a problem going on. When TechyDad and I woke up yesterday, I went to check something on my blog. Much to my horror, my website was down. I went to TechyDad’s blog and nada there either. We were getting 500 Error messages about the server.
As time went by, we contacted Arvixe, the company that is our webhost. No real answers, lack of time schedule on the fix and on and on throughout the day. By noon, they finally admitted it was a hardware fail and were trying to fix things on the server. Then we noticed that data was not there. Thank goodness, TechyDad backs up our information nightly. The worst case scenario would have been me losing my Betty Crocker post (could redo if needed).
I had people that were questioning what was going on, so TechyDad set up something on the URLs of our blogs to let people know we were aware of the problem. We updated and put up a clock. This is what was here if you looked recently (click to enlarge):
Thankfully, we are up and running again and looking for a new host. We understand that things happen, but there is no excuse with not telling paying customers what is going on and updating things regularly – especially when we are talking over 24 hours of down time.
With a day lost, I will be trying to play even more catch up, so please bear with me as I settle back in. If you have any suggestions on web hosting companies please let us know. TechyDad is in charge of that and knows what he needs for our websites and his work.
Thank you again to everyone for understanding the technical difficulties that were beyond our control.
Topics: TechyDad, bad news, customer service, decisions, me moments, stupidity | 3 Comments »
Betty Crocker Fruit-Flavored Snacks Win & Give (Giveaway)
By TheAngelForever | March 7, 2010
Right now, the world economy is in a tough spot. Even during these penny pinching days, people all over are working hard to help others. Thanks to MyBlogSpark, I learned about the new project that Betty Crocker is working on. They have joined efforts with One Lap Top per Child to help provide laptops for children in Africa.
Participating is easy thanks to the Win and Give campaign. With this new program, children can help in an easy and fun way.
More about the program:
With specially marked boxes of kid favorites – including Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers, Fruit by the Foot, and Stickerz & Shapes – your child could win one laptop to keep and Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks will donate another to a child in Africa.
Each day from now through May 30, 2010, one laptop prize will be awarded to a U.S. winner. For every laptop won, one laptop will be donated to an African child through One Laptop per Child, an organization that creates educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. For your chance to win, simply enter the unique online code printed on participating Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snack packages on www.WinOneGiveOne.com.
We were sent two boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snack. The boys enjoy them and they bring back fun memories from my childhood. One of my all time favorite snacks growing up were the strawberry Fruit by the Foot. There is just something fun about them, plus are a low calorie snack.
Giveaway:
Thanks to MyBlogSpark and Betty Crocker, one lucky reader will win two boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks and a $25 donation to One Laptop per Child will be made on your behalf.
Rules for Giveaway:
- MAIN RULE – Answer one of the following questions: What have you done to encourage your children to help others? -or- What is your favorite experience that has been with helping others?
- 1 Bonus Entry – What is your favorite flavor fruit snack?
- 1 Bonus Entry – Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Be sure to include @TheAngelForever and Betty Crocker Win and Give Giveaway in the Tweet. Please leave a direct link to your Tweet in a separate comment for each daily entry. Example Tweet (feel free to use): Win Betty Crocker fruit snacks and have $25 donated in your name to One Laptop Per Child from @TheAngelForever http://bit.ly/bMHKBy
- 1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
- 1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the month of January/February/March. Be sure to leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done only twice per person.
- 3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and leave a link with the location. Be sure to give yourself 3 comments for credit.
- 5 Bonus Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog about the giveaway. Be sure to leave 5 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries
To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today March 7th and ends at 10:59 EST on March 21, 2010. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.
Disclosure: I received two packages of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks with the Win & Give game pieces on them. In addition to this, $25 has been donated in my name to One Laptop per Child. No other compensations was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own feelings about the promotion.
Topics: Blog Tour, Product review, charity, giveaway | 1 Comment »
Diagnosis strep throat
By TheAngelForever | March 6, 2010
Dear JSL,
Yesterday afternoon, I took you back to the doctor. There was no way that we could go into the weekend with a raging fever that was not responding to Motrin and Tylenol. You were seriously making us worry since you have had four febrile seizures less than three years. For over a week, we had not really seen you smile or laugh.
The doctor was also worried about things. He checked you out from head to toe and was stumped. Ears looked good, throat was fine, lungs clear. Your glads were very swollen, so we knew your body was fighting something off. Before he jumped to running a blood test, he opted to culture your throat. Just a few minutes later, the nurse from the other doctor that we saw on Tuesday came in with news. You had strep throat.
Thank goodness we finally had answers about why you were so miserable. It explained why your temperature was getting worse by the day. The best news, we could treat it quickly with antibiotics and make you feel better. The odd thing to everyone, you never complained about your throat bothering you, although not eating make have been a clue.
Today, you were a bundle of energy. You helped to vacuum around the house, played with your brother and there were lots of smiles and Robot JSL Pup-Pup laughs. You also entertained Nana and Papa with your quirky sense of humor.
Those sweet little smiles and laughs made my heart feel so happy and put my mind at ease after a long week filled with worries. I am so glad that you are feeling better and getting back to yourself.
Love,
Mommy
_______________________________________
If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.
Topics: Dear Kid Saturday, doctor, jsl, photos, sick kid | 1 Comment »
Curious George 2 Soundtrack winner
By TheAngelForever | March 6, 2010
Thank you to everyone that entered my Curious George 2 Soundtrack giveaway. I used Random.org to select the winner:
An e-mail has already been sent to Cheryl and she has 48 hours to send me her information or another person will be randomly selected. More giveaways will be coming this week, so be sure to check back. Thank you again to 429 Records and The Family Review Network for making this giveaway possible for my readers.
Topics: giveaway, web fun | 1 Comment »
Fever be gone
By TheAngelForever | March 5, 2010
Last weekend, JSL was not feeling well. We chalked it up to one thing, but perhaps we were wrong. Monday, he was up all night screaming and yelling that his hair hurt. Tuesday morning, he had a fever and we went to the doctor to have his ear checked. After removing a giant wax plug, the doctor was able to see that there was no infection behind it. We were left to head home not knowing what was causing the fever.
As the mother of a two year old child who has had four febrile seizures, the most recent in October, I am beyond nervous. Today (typing this Thursday evening), we have not been able to get JSL’s temperature down below 100 with Motrin (every 6 hours) and Tylenol (every 4 hours) around the clock. This evening, we were really worried when his temperature soared to 101.5 with both medications in his system. Right now, we are unsure if we will be heading to the ER soon. I am typing as I sit here next to my poor little puppy. Here is a photo of the little guy protecting his ears and armpit from temperature taking tactics while he sleeps.
No matter what, I will be calling the doctor tomorrow and insisting on more answers. So my question to you this week:
What helps you the most when you have a fever and do not feel good? Looking for any suggestions to help my poor little guy.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.
Aloha #89
Topics: bad news, jsl, sick kid, vent | 16 Comments »
Disney Every Day and dreaming with songs
By TheAngelForever | March 4, 2010
In my dream world, I would live near Disney World. The reality is that we are a 3 hour airplane ride from Mickey Mouse and friends. Luckily there are people that do live close to Disney World and share the magic and wonder with us daily. As I have mentioned before, I love the blog Disney Every Day by Amanda Tinney
While I was at the Disney Social Media Moms celebration, I had the pleasure to meet up and chat with Amanda. She and her family were sitting at a table right next to ours the night that we ate at Epcot for a meal that was extra special (more coming on that soon). I told Amanda that I love her adventures into Disney World and looked forward to more projects with readers.
Last week Amanda asked for people to help do another Disney song in pictures. This will be her third project, and of course TechyDad and I jumped in again. This time Amanda selected the song "If I Didn’t Have You" from Monsters Inc. The song is quite a bit longer than the previous adventures on Disney Every Day, but people signed up to help Amanda out. Here is the line that I had this time (all photos from the most recent Disney trip):
To see past Disney Song in Pictures please check out the following:
I know that we can not wait to see the finished project this time and are looking forward to hear what the next song will be. Thanks for the fun Amanda!
Topics: Disney, DisneySMMoms, bloggy friends, dreams, fun, photos | No Comments »
My tired little dude
By TheAngelForever | March 3, 2010
Photos while waiting for the doctor and after. Poor little guy is not feeling well - more about that here.
Topics: Wordless Wednesday, doctor, jsl, sick kid | 6 Comments »
Doctor visit and Dr. Seuss B-day celebration
By TheAngelForever | March 2, 2010
About a month ago we were told that NHL had to dress up as his favorite Dr. Seuss character. With everything that went on before/during/after the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration and my nephew being born time was short. Since we were away this weekend not a lot of planning/buying was done. NHL remembered being called Thing 1 and JSL being called Thing 2 by us. He liked the idea and said to come up with something.
Yesterday, JSL and I went to Michaels to pick up some supplies. I bought a white foam sheet to make the Thing 1 circle to go on a white sheet. Then I noticed the t-shirts on sale and the iron on transfers. With my 40% off coupon we could make 5 shirts for a good price (thinking ahead to BlogHer).
When NHL went to bed last night we told him the plan. Sad to say things changed rather quickly. JSL came into bed and fell asleep. Suddenly he bolted up and howled. I am not exaggerating, it was loud and not a good sign. TechyDad had been working on a design for the iron on transfer. After over an hour of screaming I told him to forget it. I would do my backup plan in the morning.
It was a very long night. JSL screamed every 30 minutes. I think the longest stretch of quiet and sleep we had was about an hour. When we asked him what hurt he said his hair. As time went on he said his hair, head and ear. On Saturday he was complaining about his hair hurting and had a low grade temperature. Aunt M looked into his ears and could not get a look at the one thanks to so much wax build up. This morning when we took his temperature and it was 101 (his normal temperature is about 97). Right now he is sleeping peacefully and we go to have things checked at 10:15. Can not fool around with his febrile seizure tendencies.
Meanwhile NHL went to school today and was quite pleased with his Thing 1 costume. I gave him his red turtle neck and went with plan 2 of the logo. Here is the big guy all ready to go:
Do schools near you celebrate Dr. Seuss today?
I know a lot of elementary schools around here do. The teacher in me can not wait to hear what other kids dressed up as, if they bothered since there is a field trip today
Topics: doctor, jsl, nhl, pain, photos, school, sick kid | 6 Comments »
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