Food Fun Family

Get Ready for College with Seventeen: College Goals

Lolli — Fri, 18 May 2018 04:01:35 +0000

Bluestreak Books sent me a copy of Seventeen: College Goals AND is providing a prize pack for one of my lucky readers! Affiliate links are used within this post.

I thought potty training was hard. The toddler struggles have NOTHING on dealing with growing teens. Teaching them how to drive, surviving SATs, preparing them for high school graduation, helping them with college applications, and finding their first apartment away from home.

Two down (almost).

Three to go.

My second daughter graduated from high school last year and has been attending community college locally while she worked as a nanny. She’s currently apartment hunting out west as she prepares to move out and continue her education (and her social life) in a different state.

My oldest son is 17 and finishing up his junior year of high school, which means that things are going to get REALLY busy around our house. Again.

When Seventeen: College Goals came in the mail, my 18-year-old immediately said, “where was this a year ago? I could have used this then!” However, as she flipped through the pages, she found so much helpful information. We both agreed that this would be the perfect book to give to a girl starting her junior year of high school. There are so many things that my kids weren’t thinking about that early in their high school careers, but I can attest that things like SATs and college applications sneak up on you FAST. It never hurts to start thinking and planning early.

About the Book

The only thing standing between you and that college life is figuring out where you might want to go, completing your applications, writing a killer essay, scoring solid test scores, shining in your activities, getting glowing recommendations, and . . . okay, that’s a lot. But even though being accepted into college can seem big and overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be.

That’s where Seventeen: College Goals comes in. This stress-free guide—part-planner, part-journal—will help walk you through the step-by-step process of applying to colleges. There are pages filled with practical cheat sheets, handy life hacks, thoughtful tips, fun quizzes, inspiring quotes from your favorite celebs and leaders, and prompts that will push you to self-reflect. (After all, that’s what college essays are all about!) This way, you can freak out less about if you’ll get in, and actually start thinking about which school’s offer you’re going to accept.

Seventeen: College Goals – An Insider’s Guide to Finding and Getting Into A School You’ll Love

By the Editors of Seventeen Magazine

In Stores April 10, 2018

Published by Bluestreak Books, an imprint of Weldon Owen

Do you have a son or daughter heading to college in the next few years? Then this is the book for you! And good news – one of my readers is going to WIN a copy (plus a fun little Visa gift card too!).

“REWARD THE WORK” Giveaway

Getting ready for college is a lot of work! One Food Fun Family (1) winner will receive:

Copy of Seventeen: College Goals
plus a $50 Visa gift card

Giveaway open to US addresses only. Prizing and samples provided by Bluestreak Books. Giveaway ends June 1, 2018 at 11:59pm ET, after which a winner will be chosen at random and notified via email. Good luck!

Entry -Form

Follow Bluestreak Books on Twitter | Instagram

Follow Weldon Owen on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Learn more about the book at WeldonOwen.com

Buy the book on Amazon

Creation Crate Technology-Based Subscription Box

Lolli — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 22:04:30 +0000

I received a 3-month subscription to Creation Crate for my 12-year-old son to try out. He fell in love! All thoughts and opinions are our own.

My youngest son is what you’d call a Maker Kid. He was always more interested in taking apart the old VCR to see how it worked than he was interested in typical toys. Instead of coloring, he would create complex, working tools and games with paper. He started learning computer programing (and doing it for fun) while he was still in elementary school.

So when I was introduced to Creation Crate at the beginning of this Fall, I knew that it was the perfect product for him.

What is Creation Crate?

Creation Crate is a educational technology-based subscription box for kids 12 and up. The teacher-designed curriculum uses raw electronic components to give kids hands-on programming experience. Each monthly project builds on the concepts taught in the previous month’s box, and each project increases in difficulty, so that by the end of the 12- or 24-month curriculum, students are “fluent in the language of technology.”

After completing a year’s worth of projects, participants will have more hands on programming experience than 99% of current college level computer science students.

And the best part? They’ll have fun while learning computer programming! I haven’t found other interactive, educational subscription boxes geared towards kids in middle and high school; Creation Crate definitely fills a void, and is perfect for older kids!

Check out AJ’s first impression of Creation Crate as he opened his very first box:

I let AJ go to town and see what he could figure out on his own, and found that the instructions provided with the kits was sufficient for him to get everything set up. I loved that they weren’t 5 minute projects, but that he really did need to think. He also needed to go back and fix things a few times (which is the best way to learn!).

The other great sign for me was that he was eagerly excited to open the second and third month’s boxes and get started on them right away!

Creation Crate Curriculum

Here’s what you’ll get in your Creation Crate box each month. There are new projects every month, and each projects builds on the last:

Month 1: Mood Lamp
Month 2: Memory Game
Month 3: Distance Detector
Month 4: LED Dice Game
Month 5: Optical Theremin
Month 6: 2-Player Reflex Game

Check out what else you can expect from your Creation Crate subscription here.

Do you have a Maker in your like that would love a Creation Crate subscription for the holidays? AJ and I highly recommend trying Creation Crate – and what better time of year to get started?!

Fight the Summer Slide with Summer Brain Quest Workbooks

Lolli — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:17:25 +0000

Summer Brain Quest prizing and samples, along with blog sponsorship, were provided by Workman Publishing. All thoughts are my own.

We’re in the middle of Spring Break, which for me as a parent is like a sneak peek of what summer break is going to be. It’s SO hard to keep kids from wanting to sit on the couch playing on their devices all day. I know I’m not the only mom who worries about the dreaded Summer Slide. It’s hard enough to keep my kids on task during the school year, but during the summer it’s nearly impossible for them to stay in “learning mode.” I worry each fall when they start a new school year that they will have forgotten everything!

Did you know that most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in math, and many also lose reading achievement, during the summer? That’s kind of scary! Imagine how much further ahead kids would be if they didn’t have to keep re-learning the same things that they learned last year?

The brand new Summer Brain Quest workbooks, available April 18, are perfect for keeping kids learning throughout the summer and prepared for the new school year. The best thing about the Summer Brain Quest books is that they make learning FUN and engaging for kids, and kids actually WANT to pick them up to read through them and fill them out.

There are size Summer Brain Quest books: For kids between K-1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, and 5-6. Each book includes over 150 full-color pages of learning activities, a foldout summer progress map, over 150 stickers and a thorough answer key to check answers.

Each grade level book includes topics in math, English language arts, social studies, and science. The topics align with Common Core standards and, of course, they’re age appropriate. The Summer Brain Quest workbooks are effective new tools for parents, homeschoolers, tutors, and teachers alike. I wish I’d had these books for my kids when they were in elementary school! Luckily (for my friends, at least!) I’ve got friends with kids in elementary school so even though my kids are a little too old for the books, they’ll be well-loved and utilized.

More about Summer Brain Quest:

SUMMER BRAIN QUEST is notable because it offers a one-of-a-kind learning experience that delivers personalized learning for every type of kid. Personalized learning is an educational method where exercises are tailored to each child’s strengths, needs and interests. Our goal was to empower kids to have a voice in what and how they learn, while ensuring they get enough practice of the fundamentals. It achieves this through our interactive format.

SUMMER BRAIN QUEST is structured like a game; each book includes a pull-out map that guides kids on a learning quest. They fill in their route on the map by earning stickers for completing workbook pages as well as pursuing outdoor activities. The map offers a choice of routes, allowing kids to customize their learning path and pursue what excites them most (extra math problems? more hands-on science?), and also encouraging them to jump around within the book to follow their curiosity.

Original artwork by video game artist Edison Yan makes every book feel fresh and fun. These are the most visually appealing books in the market.

Summer Brain Quest workbooks are available for pre-order on Amazon.

WIN a Summer Brain Quest Prize Pack!

One lucky winner will receive a Summer Brain Quest prize pack with everything listed below! Just enter on the giveaway widget! Giveaway ends 4/25/2017, after which a winner will be selected at random and notified via email. Prizing and samples provided by Workman Publishing. Giveaway open to US addresses only.

One (1) winner receives:

Complete set of 6 Summer Brain Quest workbooks (grades K-6)
Branded colored pencils
Branded Frisbee
Branded swim goggles
Branded drawstring backpack

Entry -Form

Connect with Workman Publishing

Learn More at the Official Site
Visit the Workman Blog
Follow @WorkmanPub on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest
Like @WorkmanPublishing on Facebook
#BrainQuest

Tween & Teen Mobile Device Addiction #TOPsBalance

Lolli — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:59:55 +0000

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of TOPs Balance for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

My oldest daughter didn’t get her own cell phone until she was 16 and had a summer job. We were the strict parents, holding out on getting our kids a cell phone or a tablet until WE needed them to have a device to communicate with US.

We knew that once we put a cell phone in the hands of our teens or tweens, we were opening our family up a ton of issues like too much screen time, inappropriate use, isolation and distraction from family time….the list goes on and on.

The Problem:

The older our kids have gotten and the more devices we now have in the house, the harder it’s been to keep control of everyone’s screen time. Just last week, at the beginning of our family’s summer break from school, we sat down with the kids and made a summer device time schedule. Each kid gets a specific block of time during the day and at night to get on a device.

I’m sure my kids are not the only ones that would sit around all summer long watching YouTube videos or playing games ALL DAY, every day if there were no rules set. And guess what? It’s OK to set rules and limitations for device use!

Those of you who are parents of teens or tweens will probably relate with me here: 16 hours is a LONG time to keep older kids occupied. We try to keep the kids active – and things like swim team certainly help – but since I still have to work during the summer, I can’t be carting them from one activity to the other all season long. Not to mention the fact that teen activities tend to be pricey!

It really IS a problem!

According to this CNN Story, “Half of teens think they’re addicted to their smartphones.” A new poll (conducted for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology) confirms just how much teens depend on their phones. The poll involved 1,240 interviews with parents and their children, ages 12 to 18. 59% of the parents interviewed said their teens were addicted. Fifty percent of teens feel they suffer from cell phone addiction.

According to NBC News, teens spend nine hours a day in front of screens and children ages 8-12 spend six hours. How do your kids stack up?

The Solution

This past week, as we discussed how we could make screen time a more positive thing at home (ie, something that’s fun and positive instead of something that’s draining and addicting), we introduced the kids to TOPs Balance.

TOPs Balance is an app, available for iOS and Android that balances mobile device overuse with bursts of knowledge delivered throughout the day, every time a user seeks to unlock their device. They’ve got a database of over 50,000 knowledge bursts and kids must engage with the knowledge burst to get access to the device.

I installed the TOPs Balance app on my iPad, because that is the device that the kids use most often. I created profiles for my 3 youngest kids (going in to 6th grade, 8th grade, and 10th grade). My FAVORITE thing as a mom about TOPs Balance is that I can see how much each child has interacted with the TOPs knowledge bursts and how much time they’ve spent on the device all day. When my kids pick up my iPad to play, they swipe to open with the TOPs Balance prompt and choose their user profile. Easy peasy!

Here is how TOPs Balance works:

The new TOPs unlock method has effectively reimagined a mobile device as a powerful and effortless knowledge delivery system. Whenever the user reaches for a device, TOPs delivers a “Knowledge Burst” — a 10-second infusion of grade-specific educational content — prior to launching the users’ home screen.

“Knowledge bursts” include moments in history to vocabulary and science, all combined with dramatic imagery and drawn from partnerships with content leaders such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam Webster and Getty Images. The iOS version of TOPs also features an “audio read” function.

Parents and users first customize the intensity of learning by selecting either optional or mandatory delivery of Knowledge Bursts. Then, users are prompted with Knowledge Bursts at every device unlock, thereby balancing their mobile device overuse.

The optional delivery method (low intensity) gives the user a unique prompt or persuasive option for a 10-second Knowledge Burst at every unlock screen.

The mandatory delivery method (high intensity) is a more dedicated balance strategy and requires the completion of a 10-second Knowledge Burst at every unlock prior to gaining access to the home screen.

The app is available in both the App Store and Google Play for $4.99. As an introductory offer, the app will be available for just $2.99

How do you balance your kids screen time and combat technology addiction?

Future City Competition 2016: Waste Not Want Not

Lolli — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 20:00:08 +0000

Have you heard of Future City Competition? I hadn’t heard of it, either…before this month. Now I am fascinated and HOOKED!

This past Tuesday, my two youngest kids and I had the opportunity to head down to Washington DC for the day. School was cancelled because of ice, but the metro was running so we took advantage of the day off to do a little learning of a different sort. Although I was compensated for my time to cover the event, all thoughts and opinions and photos are my own.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning and realized that the kids didn’t have school, I was thrilled about the prospect of having them experience Future City Competition Finals with me. My almost-13-year-old daughter is extremely conscious of environmental concerns. She’s our resident activist. I knew that she would get excited about this year’s Future City challenge – Waste Not, Want Not. And my 10-year-old son might be a little younger than the middle school kids who participated in this year’s competition, but I knew that his interest in all things math, science, and engineering would make this an inspiring day for him.

As we left, both kids were imagining what it would be like to form teams of their own for next year. Fun note: the team that won our region was from are cluster’s magnet school, just around the corner from us!

What is Future City Competition?

Future City asks students to answer the question, “How can we make our world a better place?” This year, Future City challenged students to design and build models of “future cities” with innovative solid waste management systems. The systems had to be safe, environmentally sounds, and energy efficient.

Teams from the United States, Egypt and China started gathering, brainstorming, researching, and working on the Future City challenge back in September, and the groups that gathered in DC this week represented the very best designs from all of the students (over 40,000 this year!) that participated.

These students work together in teams of at least 3 fellow middle school students with educators and mentors to guide them. The students are tasked to think like engineers as they identify problems, brainstorm ideas, design solutions, test and build. Then 3 students present their city’s model and concept to be judged for design, description, model, presentation, and project plan.

Here are just a few of the Future City models that we saw:

Why Future City?

The kids that I saw and heard on Tuesday were smart, engaged, dynamic. They were thinkers. They were builders. They were problem solvers. A few years ago, Concord Evaluation Group conducted an independent evaluation of the Future City program. This is what they found:

84% of students said that Future City helped them see math and science as important to their future.
85% of students said they learned they could create something on their own, without an adult.
90% of students said that Future City helped them appreciate all of the engineering that goes into building and running a city.
65% of students said that they could see themselves as engineers someday.
46% of Future City participants are girls.
95% of educators said that Future City helped improve students’ ability to work in teams.
92% of mentors said that students’ project management skills were improved from participation.

They learn. They actively work together in a group. And they have fun while doing it.

And I love that my own middle school aged kids got to feel their passion and excitement.

Find out more about the Future City Competition HERE. You can find Future City on Facebook and by searching #FutureCity2016 on Twitter

I love that I captured the look of shock on the faces of the students from Alabama when they realized that they had won!

What Does The Perfect School Look Like? #RethinkHighSchool

Lolli — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:46:17 +0000

This post is sponsored by XQ: The Super School Project. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m a mother of five teens and tweens (a college sophomore, a high school junior, a high school freshman, plus 7th and 5th graders), and so it’s no surprise that I think about the education system a lot.

When I was young, I went to an extraordinary elementary school. We had a robust program for gifted and talented kids, and I was stretched more than I thought possible – in a good way. Although we live on the other side of the country now, my kids have also had an exceptional early school experience. Their schooling has been completely different than my own early years, but they have been blessed with an amazing school community and a positive learning environment.

I wish I could say the same for their middle and high school years. They’ve had dozens of exceptional teachers over the years, but I’ve noticed that there is something severely lacking in our secondary education system.

Let’s look at it this way. The high school system in the US was established 200 years ago. It was a completely different world back then. The needs of families and students back then look nothing like the needs of families and students today. How can we expect a system that was built to support teens in the 1800s to prepare our kids for life after public school in the 21st Century? The original goal of the public school system in the US was to provide free education to all of our children to prepare them to enter the work force when they were old enough. The problem is that the work force today looks nothing like it did back then, and yet the education model has not changed much at all.

Enter XQ: The Super School Project – a national movement to reimagine high school. As parents and students in today’s school system, we see a gap, and the time is NOW to make some changes.

If you could change the school system – for your own current teens or for your little ones who will be heading to high school in the future – what would you change? It’s hard to decide what we really need when we’ve only known one way.

I consider my youngest son. He is brilliant. He is a good student, but school simply isn’t enough. He comes home from school and he builds and he creates messes and he invents and he watches videos to learn everything from how to camp in sub-zero weather to how to start an aquaponics system.

Check out this short Instagram video of what he made this past weekend.

His kind of “smarts” cannot be contained in a textbook or even in a traditional classroom. I cringe to think that our public school system could, one day, stifle his creativity and his love of learning.

What kind of school environment would help him to thrive?

The perfect school that I imagine for my children is a school would allow them to create, get messy, and learn through doing. Instead of desks lined up in a row, facing a chalkboard, classrooms would have round tables to encourage collaboration and discussion. There would be couches lining the walls to encourage a more comfortable, enjoyable approach to learning. Frankly, the perfect classroom would often not be a classroom at all, but learning would take place wherever the opportunity arose.
The perfect school for my kids would bring in people who were passionate about topics and careers and skills so they could share their knowledge and passion with the students. Instead of learning out of a text book, they would learn by doing, from first-hand experience – even if that meant getting their hands dirty every once in a while. The perfect classroom would be filled with mistake-making and it would be perfectly acceptable. Their “tests” would not be about filling in the right bubble on the answer sheet, but about being able to create, recreate, explain, and show.
The perfect school that I envision for my kids would allow them to try many things so that they could decide what they loved and where their talents were. Instead of focusing on one subject per class period, all learning would be interconnected and integrated. Kids would be able to spend more time delving deeper into their areas of interest, moving ahead in those “subjects” at a faster pace, but without totally ignoring other subjects. I think that learning a little bit about a lot of things is valuable, but learning a lot about a few things is even more powerful.
I envision the perfect school to have a more relaxed environment with a greater sense of community, where everyone – teachers and students alike – were focused on building each other up. Lunches would be shared in a more home-like environment, serving foods that were healthy, not quick and easy. The classroom discussions would continue during the lunch hour, as students and teachers lounged around together, eating and sharing ideas and asking questions.

I feel like my kids are hungry for a better learning environment, and that a change in the way they’re being taught would make a world of difference in how well-prepared they are when they leave home.

What does the perfect school look like to you?

Find out more about XQ: The Super School Project.

XQ: The Super School Project is an open call to reimagine and design the next American high school. In towns and cities far and wide, teams will unite and take on this important work of our time: Rethinking and building schools that deeply prepare our students for the rigorous challenges of college, jobs, and life.

Crazy 8s Club Makes Math Fun For Kids

Lolli — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 22:33:20 +0000

This post is a recap of my compensated Ambassadorship for Bedtime Math Crazy 8s Club. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Before I had kids, I was a teacher. As a teacher AND as a mother to young kids, one thing that I felt strongly about was that kids learned best when they were having FUN. As my kids were making their way through their early years of school, I tried to stress the FUN in learning…but inevitably, as they progressed in school and got more homework and had harder tests, they got discouraged. Not all the time, but often enough.

This past year, I had the amazing opportunity to get to know Bedtime Math, and the thing that impressed me more than anything (and there is a lot that I love about Bedtime Math!) was the fact that Bedtime Math is intent on bringing the FUN back to learning math.

See my review of the first Bedtime Math book…

About Bedtime Math

Bedtime Math was created by Laura Bilodeau Overdeck, after she started giving lighthearted math problems to her first daughter, and then her second and third children once they were old enough. In fact, the younger kids insisted on having their own math problems at bedtime because they could see how much fun the older kids were having with them.

Laura’s kids’ daily FUN math – a new version of the bedtime story – eventually gained a lot of attention and followers, proving that other people were also hungry for kid-friendly math.

Bedtime Math’s mission is simple: to help kids love math the way they love playtime or dessert. Laura Bilodeau Overdeck now has THREE Bedtime Math books, full of creative and fun math story problems that kids actually look forward to doing each night. My 9-year-old son can’t get enough of his Bedtime Math books. We have the first two, and the newest book, Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out, just came out in March 2015!

Did you know that Bedtime Math is a nonprofit organization and that they use all of the profits from the sales of the Bedtime Math books to fund programs to bring fun math to even more kids? That’s where Crazy 8s comes in.

What is Crazy 8s Club?

Crazy 8s is an over-the-top after-school club designed to get kids fired up about math. Every week they get to build stuff, run and jump, make music, make a mess…and make friendships at the same time. Their goal is for math to become the cool thing to do after school.

Here’s how Crazy 8s works: As part of their nonprofit mission, Bedtime Math has created a free kit of materials and instructions that brings math to life, and they’ve made it easy for adults interested in starting a club to get involved. Each kit is designed for 10-20 kids with items that kids use during the weekly club meetings for hands-on math fun, along with many fun things that the kids get to take home in the end to continue the math exploration at home.

Crazy 8s Clubs are available for three age levels: grades 3-5, grades K-2 and Pre-K, all of which feature the same lively hands-on themes tailored to fit the specific age groups. Clubs can take place at schools, libraries and other after-school community programs, and pretty much anyone can volunteer to start a club – parents, PTAs, librarians, etc.

I hosted a Pre-K Crazy 8s Club that met at a local library. We just reserved one of the rooms in the children’s section once a week…except for when we needed a little bit of outside space for our Toilet Paper Olympics. Then we just met at a local park.

I loved that Bedtime Math provided me with all of the resources I needed – from the measuring tapes for the kids (they were so excited to keep their own measuring tape when the club was over!) to the detailed lesson plans. I just had to provide a few basic supplies like toilet paper.

Our club did fun learning activities like Bouncy Dice Explosion, Toilet Paper Olympics, Glow-in-the-dark Geometry and more. All of the club picture collages in this post are from my club so you can see how hands-on and exciting the activities were!

This is the Bedtime Math Crazy 8s kit that I got before starting my club

The kids loved the club, and my older kids were jealous of the younger kids that got to participate! They were often my pre-club testers so I was prepared before I went to teach! I was often unprepared, though, for how much the preschool kids could do and understand. They were particularly fond of measuring things, and they almost always carried their activity one step further, which I thought was awesome.

And don’t worry if you don’t feel like math is your specialty. Everything is laid out that you can follow the step-by-step instructions and explanations. Yes, I found myself learning things along with the kids!

Want more information about Crazy 8s or Bedtime Math? I highly recommend that you sign up for their daily email on their website so that you’ve got a daily math problem in your inbox before bedtime each night. We love it!

Connect with Bedtime Math and Crazy 8s:

Bedtime Math website and their daily math problem
Bedtime Math Twitter: @BedtimeMath
Bedtime Math on Pinterest
Bedtime Math on Facebook

Bedtime Math’s Crazy 8s Club

Lolli — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:18:10 +0000

I am a compensated Ambassador for the Bedtime Math Crazy 8s Club. All opinions expressed here are my own.

You may have noticed all of the fun math activities for kids I’ve been showing off lately on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I’ve been so busy having FUN being a Crazy 8s Ambassador that I haven’t had a chance to tell you all about it. Luckily, it’s never too late to share something amazing like Crazy 8s!

About Bedtime Math

Laura’s kids’ daily FUN math – a new version of the bedtime story – eventually gained a lot of attention and followers, proving that other people were also hungry for kid-friendly math.

Bedtime Math’s mission is simple: to help kids love math the way they love playtime or dessert. Laura Bilodeau Overdeck now has two Bedtime Math books, full of creative and fun math story problems that kids actually look forward to doing each night (and a third book is coming soon). My 9-year-old son can’t get enough of his Bedtime Math books.

What makes Bedtime Math even more amazing is that they are a nonprofit organization and use all of the profits from the sales of the Bedtime Math books to fund programs to bring fun math to even more kids. That’s where Crazy 8s comes in.

What is Crazy 8s Club?

Crazy 8s is an over-the-top after-school club designed to get kids fired up about math. Every week they get to build stuff, run and jump, make music, make a mess…and make friendships at the same time. Their goal is for math to become the cool thing to do after school.

My Bedtime Math Crazy 8s Club kit

Connect with Bedtime Math and Crazy 8s:

Bedtime Math Activity Blog
Bedtime Math Twitter: @BedtimeMath
Bedtime Math on Instagram
Bedtime Math on Pinterest
Bedtime Math on Google+
Bedtime Math on Facebook

Helpful links:

Stay tuned to see just how much fun I’ve been having as a Crazy 8s Coach in an upcoming post!

Provost Academy: The UnVirtual Online School #MyUnVirtualSchool

Lolli — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 19:21:33 +0000

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Provost Academy. All opinions are 100% mine.

This past week, I attended back to school night for 3 of my kids. Before I headed to the middle school, my 6th grade daughter said, “Make sure you meet Mrs. H! She’s my favorite teacher!” That same night, my 10th grade daughter asked if I would check with the other gym teachers to see what Ms. F was up to. Ms. F is a teacher who, even after she moved on to a new school, Necco talks about and visits regularly. These are teachers who are creating relationships that are inspiring students to learn!

We are a family of learners. My kids are wonderful students. But when they tell me that they are eager to head back to school each August, it has so much more to do with seeing their friends again than anything else (and, yes, they are excited to see their favorite teachers again, too!).

We believe relationships matter as much as academics, learning involves doing, and together is a lot better than alone.

What is Provost Academy? Provost Academy is an online public school putting the social into virtual learning. They are a school built of relationships. They’re tossing out the word “virtual” and striving to be The UnVirtual Online School. How is Provost Academy becoming The UnVirtual Online School? They are connecting students with other students who have shared dreams, goals, aspirations, and future plans so that they can support and inspire each other. They are connecting students with professionals in their fields of interest to talk with, learn from, and engage with. They are connecting students to opportunities which allow them to explore their interests by doing and lead them to be prepared for the challenges in life.

Learning can happen anywhere and we want to expand the definition of anywhere.

Facts about Provost Academy:

Provost Academy is accredited, so the diplomas students receive when they graduate are real and recognized by colleges and the military.
Provost Academy is a public school, so there is no cost to enroll.
Provost Academy teachers and staff are dedicated to building one-to-one relationships with their students. They care deeply about the learning process not just the outcome.
Provost Academy knows that each student learns in a unique way, and flexibility is required. They believe that by working together they can create the best learning experience for each student.

Find out why thousands of students in grades 6-12 are enjoying Provost Academy’s UnVirtual Online School in Ohio, and see what students in 9-12 grade are doing in Provost Academy’s schools in South Carolina and Colorado.

My UnVirtual School Idea #MyUnVirtualSchool

Provost Academy is working hard to be The UnVirtual Online School – a school built on relationships. Provost Academy has asked me to share some of my ideas for making online school social. As a blogger who spends a lot of my time behind a computer, I can attest to the value of having peers who I can call on at any time – to be social (everyone loves to take a quick chat break!), to laugh, to collaborate, and to inspire.

My friend, Brett, is one of those people for me. I know that I can call on Brett any day to ask her opinion on a photo or an idea for a post. We throw ideas around for post titles and chat about the best wording for a post or social media share. I am a better blogger because of her support and inspiration.

Another friend, Safire, has been someone I could turn to for years for everything from personal advice to a much-needed girl’s night out escape. Although Safire is now on the other side of the country, I know that I can always count on her.

My UnVirtual School idea is inspired by these two friends. I think that an online school experience would be enhanced by the ability to chat, collaborate, share, and ask other students via messaging that is available anytime. Sometimes I need to get an idea sorted out in my brain right away (I would hate to have to wait til a lesson was over) and instant messaging between students and teachers would be so helpful for me!

Enter to win!

How do you think that an online school can be social? If you could build your own, perfect UnVirtual online school, what would it look like? All ideas are welcome, whether revolutionary or simple. And by answering, you are entering to win a $100 Gift Card to Barnes & Noble. It’s totally simple, but don’t delay – this contest ends today! Just leave a comment to enter. A winner will be chosen at random and notified via email. Ends end of day 9/12/14. Who knows…your idea might just change the future of a student out there right now.

Bing in the Classroom: #AdFreeSearch for Kids #BingClassroom

Lolli — Fri, 09 May 2014 19:24:25 +0000

Many thanks to Bing for sponsoring today’s post, and inspiring me to share about their #adfreesearch classroom initiative. All thoughts are my own.

When I was in school, there was no internet to look up the answers to any question we had. There were no mobile phones to distract students from learning in class, and texting was a thing only possible in SciFi movies.

When I had a report to write, my mom would drive me to the library and I would check out as many books as possible on the subject and photocopy the encyclopedia entries I couldn’t take home.

Even in college (and this will really age me!) I studied the “old-fashioned” way – with books spread across my kitchen table or the floor in my apartment, with a pencil and a pad of paper in my hand to take notes.

Email was something that you checked once a week in the computer lab on campus because normal people didn’t gave internet connections at home.

These days, everyone is connected to the internet. Even the kids at my elementary school have their own cell phones (often fancier than mine!). When kids want to know the answer to something, they wouldn’t dream of getting in the car and driving to the library to search for a book that had the answer. They log on to the computer and have their answer in seconds.

Even classroom study habits have changed drastically. I love that my kids have access to so much information. I do. The fact that information is so easy to access now has given my kids exposure to things that I never would have dreamed knowing or understanding at their ages, but easy access to information comes at a price, too.

With the benefit of internet access comes the exposure to ads and sites that I would often prefer that my kids not see. When my kids get on the computer, I constantly worry that an inappropriate ad will pop up or that they’ll stumble on a site that is teaching them the wrong things…

That’s why I am so thrilled to be supporting Bing’s Ad Free Search classroom initiative.

Jenna Bush-Hager On Bing’s Ad-Free Search:

About Bing in the Classroom:

When students use Bing in the Classroom, all advertising is removed, plus there are strict filters for adult content and enhanced privacy protection. Bing is the only major search engine to provide search options that are specifically tailored for the classroom.

About Bing Rewards:

Not only does Bing offer an easy way for kids to experience ad free searches, but the popular Bing Rewards program enables people to earn credits towards Surface tablets for a school of their choice.

Anyone can earn credits just by searching the web with Bing – it’s kind of like a frequent flyer program. Credits can be donated to help get free Microsoft Surface tablets for schools. All you have to do is sign up, chose your school, then stay signed in as you search with Bing.

How to sign up for Bing Rewards:

To begin supporting schools with Bing rewards, follow these simple steps:

HERE

2 – Enter your school’s zip code and select the name of your school via the dropdown menu and select “Find”.

3 – Select “Support Your School” and click on “Try it now, FREE!.” You’ll be prompted to create a Microsoft account, or sign in with your Facebook account. All you have to do is stay signed in as you search with Bing to earn credits.

Bing In The Classroom Now Available To All Schools In The US:

Support your school now!