May, 2012 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives May 2012

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Watermelon Inspired Biology Lesson

Posted on May 26, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear JSL,

There are days when your innocence makes me smile and laugh. This is not a bad thing at all. Thursday afternoon, I had the watermelon on the table for a snack. You came running over full steam ahead. You adore watermelon and flashed your big blue eyes at me. Then the following conversation happened.

JSL: Mommy, can I have watermelon.

Me: Would I ever tell you no? Wait, yes I would….if you had diarrhea.

(Note to self, you brought this upon your snarky self)

JSL: <<Clueless big blue eyes and a smile>>

Me: Wow, I’m impressed. Hmmmm…

As I was giggling, I had to take a photo of you holding the watermelon. After being momentarily distracted with the doorbell ringing, it was time to see if your big brother had a clue in the world. As a teacher, I was perplexed. I remember singing a song as a kid on just this topic. So I wen to your brother.

Me: "NHL do you know what diarrhea is"

NHL: "No – can you please move out of my way"

JSL: "Mommy is diarrhea just for peoples that can read?"

It was at that moment that I walked away. Clearly, stomach bugs have never made an impact on your life (THANK GOODNESS) and I don’t have to worry about you chatting about this topic in school. Now, I just have to hope that you do not start singing that song thanks to me. I guess I should brace myself since you will likely learn a lot of new tricks and words when you head into kindergarten in a few months.

Love,

Mommy

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday jsl kid talk laughs milestone photos

Fun Classroom Themes

Posted on May 25, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

When I was teaching younger kids, one of the items that was fun was to pick a unit plan, theme, or other item to cover with the kids. In first grade, this would involve lesson planning across academic areas and lots of items for center activities. One of my favorites was for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and also the Five Senses. Yes, there are days when I really miss that part of being in the classroom.

As the parent of a child in preschool, it has been fun to see what his teachers pick and choose each week to do with kids that are now 4 and 5 years old. Tuesday morning, we walked into the classroom and the theme was very clear.

The details in the classroom were amazing. There were dinosaurs romping all over the place. They were here:

Yes, there were even more dinosaurs over on the other side of the room. The best part: Laurie Berkner’s We are the Dinosaurs was playing as the kids explored the new dinoland.

When JSL went in the next day, I suggested wearing one of his dinosaur shirts. Little did we know that his shirt would be perfect inspiration for a project they were making. Check out their dino hats.

So my question to you week is inspired by my son’s creative teachers:

What theme in school was your favorite as a child? If you can not recall, how about a favorite your child has done or perhaps one you wish you had done.

It's Me

P.S. If you are in a dinosaur dancing mood, here’s a little Laurie Berkner video.

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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 linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #204

Categories:
Aloha Friday arts and crafts Educational fun interesting jsl me moments photos school

Personalize Father’s Day Cards with Treat – Giveaway

Posted on May 24, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

June is just around the corner and with that thoughts of summer, time with family, and Father’s Day come into my mind. For Father’s Day, the day is all about the special men in our lives. Since the boys were born, the focus has moved to celebrating the day as a family for TechyDad.

In past years, we have gone mini-golfing, to see a movie, and the amusement park. I’m not too sure what TechyDad will want to do. Of course, we also make sure to spend time with Papa. He is such a special part of our lives as well.

I know I will be spending time with the boys before Father’s Day to create some special cards for the men in our lives. We are excited to try out the new partner site from Tiny Prints called Treat. Treat offers personalized greeting cards that are fun to design for Father’s Day. Just looking around I already see something referencing Elvis that will be perfect for Papa, and a bunch that the boys will love to add photos to for TechyDad. Our photos from Disney World will be perfect additions to many of the cards that we can have shipped right to them, Grandpa, and uncles that live a distance from us.

Did you know that you can try Treat Cards for free? You can and perhaps it could be for Father’s Day. Simply use the code FREETREAT at checkout and the card will be sent right to the recipient for the time that you specify. This day and age, we often forget how special it is to receive a card in the mail. Treat Cards now helps us to do this by allowing you to schedule cards up to a year in advance and ship them out in time for a Birthday, Anniversary, or holiday that you are celebrating.

For more information on Treat, you can follow them via Social media on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. Now for some other fun thanks to Treat Cards.

Treat Cards would like to offer a giveaway to one of my readers for 10 free tokens to use for your own personalized card purchases. Think about how easy it will be to design them at home, have them sent, and the happiness you will provide to the person on the receiving end of the card.

Rules for Giveaway:

MAIN RULE – Leave a comment letting me know what type of Father’s Day Card you prefer to send. Do you like silly, sentimental, or some sort of combination and why?

The following Bonus Entries may also be done. Please be sure to leave separate comments for each that you complete below to make sure you get the right number of entries.

1 Bonus Entry – If you win who will you be sending cards to with your tokens?
1 Bonus Entry – Tweet the following about the giveaway: Enter to #win 10 tokens from @TreatCards & @TheAngelForever so you can get creative when sending cards http://bit.ly/KNAicg. #giveaway. (May be done once a day – leave link to Tweet in comment below for new entry)
1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the months of May/June. Leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done twice per day.

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. The giveaway begins May 24, 2012 and ends June 3 , 2012 at 10:59 EST. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but you 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 US residents only – Treat Cards does not ship outside of the US at this time.

Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a Global Influence campaign. I will be receiving tokens to order cards to send to my family and friends in return for writing this post. As a customer of Tiny Prints, I look forward to trying out Treat soon.

Global Influence Network

Categories:
family giveaway looking back photos shopping TechyDad Web business

Giraffe Watching at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Posted on May 23, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It's Me

Categories:
animals Disney fun travel vacation Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tales – Another Library Card

Posted on May 22, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I love books. Perhaps it is the teacher in me, but it is the truth. We own a lot of books. The boys have a bookshelf that is bursting at the seems, we have one that is packed, and I have boxes of books that were bought for my classroom. I enjoy keeping up on multiple genres of literature. Unfortunately, the reality is I can not afford to buy every single book that we want to read in our house. It isn’t just about money though, it is also lack of space to keep the collection of books growing. These days I am much more selective.

As a home owner, I take full advantage of our local library. The boys and I went to a lot of events last summer, we take DVDs out, books are borrowed, and most recently I get audio and Kindle books. A while back, I wrote about looking to see if your library has eBook lending. Our library has a nice selection, but I was getting frustrated with lack of availability and strange search ability.

A friend of mine mentioned that she uses The New York Public Library to take out audio and Kindle books. I was intrigued and finally went to search how to get my own card (thank you J). If you are a resident of New York State, you can sign up to get your own card. Last Tuesday, I went to their website and filled out the simple online form. Yesterday, this arrived in the mail:

Once I opened the envelope, took a photo, and thanked my friend – I went right to the eBook loan page. On this page, you can borrow eBooks, Audio Books, Music, and Video. What I liked was the search seemed to work better than my local library’s page. Of course, since the NYPL is larger, they had tons more copies of many of the books that I was interested in. A book that I had been waiting for for quite some time had 3 copies available and 25 in the system for Kindle. I am in heaven!

So now I have a new book to read on the go with my Kindle App or Kimberly Kindle – and can sit back at home to read my latest traditional book:

What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your book posts in the comments below. Include something you read on your own, with a child, or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Update: Please be sure to read over the Terms and Conditions for the NYPL Card. The card that you apply for online will only be temporary. The one that I just received is only good until September. You must validate your card to have it extended for the typical three years. For those outside of the NYC area the instructions are simple (copied from their website):

Cardholders from areas of NY State outside of the Metro NY area as defined above may e-mail scans or copies of the required forms of identification listed to circ@nypl.org. Alternatively, this information may be faxed to (212) 621-0278.

New library card applicants from these areas who applied for their card online and elected to receive it in the mail must first e-mail the above-mentioned form(s) of identification after receiving their card to validate it before full cardholder privileges can be extended. Both the library card number and required identification must be included with any renewal/validation request. Incomplete and/or unreadable information will not be accepted and will delay the continued use of your card.