Are you a trader?

I'm a trader and proud of it. :o) 
Happy Sunday!

Dolphin Tale- a must see!

If you haven't read or seen Dolphin Tale yet, I highly recommend watching the movie and/or having your children read the book. It's a wonderful true story about hope and it's very kid-friendly. 

Meet Winter, the star of the show

My family and I (along with my best friends' families) recently visited the rehabilitation center in Clearwater, FL where Winter (the dolphin) resides. I was very surprised to see thousands of people there visiting Winter, as just a couple of years ago the center could not attract visitors and was closing its doors until a few children and a special dolphin made a big difference. 

My boys loved meeting the superstar in person

What a beautiful story that teaches tomorrow is always full of possibilities even though it may look hopeless today.

Enjoy!

                            

Turn dinnertime into fun family time!

Did you know that family dinners have decreased by 33% over the past 20 years?

We are all challenged by after-school activities, sports, homework, and church functions. And eating on the run is understandable sometimes, but when we regularly eat dinner apart or sit in front of the television to eat, we are missing valuable family time, learning opportunities, and character building moments. 

Try playing “Highs and Lows” at the dinner table and everyone takes turns telling about their day’s high (their favorite part) and their low (their least favorite part).

Another great idea is to adapt the journal jar to spark great conversations. A jar is filled with simple, kid-friendly questions. CLICK HERE to print off the colorful prompts then cut, fold, and place them in a jar. Have your child pick a topic each night and go around the table discussing it (or even try to guess each other's answers to make it even more exciting). 

This photograph and activity is provided by Organized Christmas.

Have fun spending quality time with your family,

My son caught the blogging bug!

My teenage son never understood my addiction to blogging UNTIL he created his own blog a few weeks ago and now he is hooked. If you or any of your friends and family love movies, cars, and/or guitars, please lead them my son's way by clicking on the blog button above. As of right now, I am his only follower.  Let's show him some support :) 

(Warning: there is music playing on his blog so you may want to turn down your speakers before you hop on over- he is a teenage boy after all)

Thank you for supporting for a recent blogging addict. (Oh no, maybe it is hereditary!)

FUN ways to celebrate the 100th Day of School

TBA authors and readers have collaborated to provide you with plenty of FUN ways to celebrate the 100th day of school. Have fun blog-hopping gathering awesome ideas!

Enjoy!

Honor America's Greatest Teachers

If you think you know the Best Teacher in America, please make sure to nominate them for Worth Ave Group’s “Greatest Teacher” Technology in Education Give-away.  This grant will give away $150,000 in grants and prizes to the teachers and their schools who get the most votes for the "Greatest Teacher in America," including a $25,000 education technology grant for schools, iPads for teachers, and much more.

Voting started December 1, 2011 and runs through March 1st, 2012.  More information can be found on their website

The winning teacher will receive an iPad2 16GB as well as 30 Ipod Touches for their classroom.  Voters can vote daily until March 31st.  There are also random prizes for winners, including iPads and iPods, so make sure to get those votes in often.

Thank you to Worth Ave Group for their work putting this grant together to support technology advancement in education and good luck to all of the participants.  To vote for your favorite teacher, please click here

Disclosure: Worth Ave Group is a sponsor of Teaching with TLC

Ringing in the New Year- Chinese Style!

Here are some kid-friendly recipes that my family has used to celebrate Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year Treats

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate morsels (16 oz.)
1 bag butterscotch morsels (16 oz.)
1 jar or can of salted peanuts
2 large bags of chow mein noodles

(1) Pour all morsels into a microwave-safe bowl and melt.
(2) Add peanuts and noodles into a large bowl. Stir in chocolate until peanuts and noodles are coated.
(3) Drop by teaspoons onto sheets of aluminum foil.
(4) Let them sit a few minutes to harden.

This recipe is enough for approximately 25 children. You can divide the recipe for a family. These are super yummy!

Good Fortune Dragon Tea

7 cups water
2 tsps. lemon flavored instant tea mix
1 can frozen lemonade
4 cups cranberry juice
2 cups apple juice
1 cup orange juice

Heat water and tea. Cool. Add all other ingredients. Chill and serve. Since red is a symbol of luck, this red fruity tea has much good luck for the new year.

My family eats Chinese food with chopsticks for dinner with dragon tea and the Chinese treats and fortune cookies for dessert. I also pass out small red envelopes filled with quarters. My little ones make dragons and Chinese lanterns to decorate, and we play Chinese Checkers together.

This family celebration can lead to many lessons with your children, such as showing younger children where China is located on a map or globe and having older children write a paragraph about the Yin Yang symbol. We make designs with tangrams for math activities. I also like to read my kids the book, The Empty Pot by Demi, which is a beautiful story about always being honest. Here is a cute writing activity called "fortune sticks" from Ana at www.Ingles360.blogspot.com. Click on the image to learn about this fun activity. I can't wait to try it out this year!

 Enjoy sharing different cultures with your children all year long.

Watch out Ace of Cakes...

You have some serious competition.

My kids love the television program Ace of Cakes so when they had the opportunity to take a cake decorating class today, they jumped on it.

 

   And I was quite surprised to see the entire class was boys. :)

Just in case you didn't know, Joanns and Michaels offer arts and crafts classes for children. 

Some tips: Joanns discounts the classes at 50% off once a month and that is how I registered my boys.

I found that items on the supply list were usually cheaper at Wal-Mart if you do not have a coupon to use.

Joanns has a Teacher Rewards Program that offers additional discounts, too.

Gotta go now to taste test our cakes!

Preschool lesson plans for the entire year!

I'm so glad I recently stumbled across www.daybydaysc.org. It has simple lesson plans for preschool teachers and parents for every day of the year. I also think this site would be perfect to share with those preschool parents who ask what they can be doing at home with their children. The lesson plans include songs, videos, e-books, science projects, unit studies, and much more.  Check it out!

Enjoy!

Book Review Site

As a home educator, I am VERY careful about what my children read (even my 18 year old). There are many educators that proclaim that as long as children are reading, it doesn't matter what they are reading. I am not one of those educators. Whatever fills the minds of our students and children will eventually permeate their hearts. I firmly believe that educators and parents should take complete responsibility and guard the hearts of the precious children that have been entrusted to us. 

But it is quite a challenge to actually do this when your children and students are older and they are reading chapter books very quickly. When my kids were younger, I would pre-read any literature that they read independently but then I could hardly keep up with my son when he entered middle and then high school and could read just as fast as I could. I would comb through on-line reading lists but was quite surprised to see A LOT of innapropriate content and offensive language in several books that were "highly recommended." Really??? Forget the highly acclaimed literary merit when the book is tainted.

But my girlfriend has come to save the day (really my nights of pre-reading)! She recently introduced me to a site that I know I will use for many years. Thanks Traci! :)

It is www.thrivingfamily.com run by Focus on the Family. This site provides reviews on popular chapter books. I LOVE IT! Now I can quickly see the positive and negative elements of a book and then form my own opinion on if I would like my older children to read that particular book. That's so cool! I just get super excited about time-savers!

Proverbs 4:23

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. "