Electronic Organization for Car Pools and Busy Moms

We were elated to make it through our first soccer season with a crazy amount of practices and games each week (14).  We wouldn’t have been able to do it on our own, but luckily car pools came together after a month for the two club soccer teams my girls joined. Still, there were challenges in setting up a car pool. Luckily a friend turned me on to Jooners, an …

Teaching Kids How To Save Money

It's great that schools are now emphasizing the need to teach financial literacy in the classroom but the issue is training teachers. The problem is that most adults don't understand the basics of financial investing, yet they overestimate their knowledge. Here's a way to test your financial investment acumen from…

New Books to Read This Summer

In reviewing new picture books, I am finding that I can shorthand a review to a friend by just matching it up to a older, well known book.…

Best Books For Beginning Readers at Camp Mom

When Music Lovers went away to sleep away camp last summer, it was just for 5 days. She got off a long wait list as well, so it was sudden and we all had to scramble to get her ready. Hence, there was not need for that sleep away camp requisite Mommy-Loves-You care package. Whew! I got off…

Best Middle School Books for Summer Reading

Please click on any title heading to see the complete post that includes book reviews. You can also click on any book to purchase at Amazon. I compiled all the book listsI have made on for Middle School. I hope this helps you find some great books to keep your middle school child reading happily this summer.…

I am firing up the Caught in the Act ... of Reading! posts for the summer to do my part in getting kids to read. If you send me a photo of your child reading, I'll send you a book.

If I can discern what your child is reading in the picture, or better yet, you tell me, then I'll even try to match up a book that I think your child will enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who sent me…

As a mother of three children, I think the greatest gift one can give their child is the love of reading. It's a gift that keeps on giving. But it's not always easy to get kids to want to read. There are so many other enticing distractions including screens, friends, and the…

I posted on No Tests for Kids at the education group blog, Cooperative Catalyst. Please check out my open response essay on why taking standardized tests is a waste of time for kids and…

I am giving away 3 copies of  A Million Miles to Boston. Please Tweet and Stumble Upon to Win.

Leave comment letting me know you did this. Thanks!…

GIVEAWAY: I am giving awayDUDE: Fun with Dude and Betty AND a pile of Magic Tree House early chapter books.

To WIN: Please Tweet andStumble Upon this post andleave a comment telling me that you did it. The first dozen or so people who do this will win. Basically, everyone wins until my pile is depleted.

There are buttons on the bottom of this post to make this easy to…

I find that learning a foreign language is very similar to dieting. Changing my family's lifestyle was key to successfully incorporating foreign language into my children's hearts and minds. Like dieting, crash diets (a.k.a. immersion) is wonderful in jump-starting foreign language acquisition however, without proper maintainance, it's…