It’s getting to be that time again – time to send our sweet and sometimes monstrous children back to school! There are so many things to think about when considering the coming year. Is this child going to make some friends this year? Is that child going to be conscious of his studies? How are we going to get them to band practice if we only have one car? How on earth are we going to get them back on a good sleep schedule so they can get up early enough to meet the bus? Will they be troubled by bullies?

With each new school year, comes a whole new slew of concerns for all of us weary parents. I will start discussing some of these in the coming days. We definitely have a lot to talk about! For now, let’s all get some good rest!

GO READ A BOOK!

Years ago, when we were thinking about moving, I was looking up schools in the area we were thinking about moving into. I found this great site called GreatSchools.net. I have been using their site ever since and I just love it! And the cool thing is, you don’t have to be moving to partake of what they offer. And one of the things that is so helpful that they offer is free newsletters. The newsletters come in ages and stages, so if you have, say, a third grader – you can sign up for the third grade newsletter. It’s really cool.

They have a Parent Advisor newsletter, grades K-5th newsletters, middle school and high school newsletters, a Best of Great Schools Community newsletter, and you can also get school stats newsletters pertaining to your particular school! How cool is that?

There are also great articles all over the site, as well as a very informative blog by the founder and president of Great Schools, Bill Jackson. You can get to the blog here: GreatSchools: Bill’s Blog, or you can find it in my blogroll in the left sidebar.

GO READ A BOOK!

My husband and I get such a kick out of looking at local real estate here in our new, small town. There are a few houses comparable in price to those in Dallas, almost, but, for the most part – everything out here feels like a total steal to us! We found a house the other day that was so amazing, and we had to go drive out and look at it. It was a Spanish style home and it was two stories, with a basement. So to me, that is a three-story house! It had a detached, two-car garage. It was two doors down from a lovely church. We could walk to church – how cool is that? (And motivating….) It was in a huge circle, with a bunch of other similar houses, with a beautiful, mowed field in the middle, complete with a gazebo. The house was for rent and it was only $1200 a month! Whoa! A house like that, with a neighborhood set-up like that – I don’t even want to guess what it would cost in Dallas! We were so tempted! We don’t want the kids to have to switch schools right now, though. And we do love the area we are in right now. It sure is fun to look, though.

GO READ A BOOK!

I just love having my own business and working from home. I love getting out of bed, getting my breakfast, and heading to my computer – to ‘work’. What a long commute, eh? There is so much crud that I get to avoid on a daily basis – stuff that happens in the most peaceful and mundane of offices. You know what I mean, stuff like the office politics that goes on. So many times, I’ve started a new job and thought, ‘Oh, this place is cool, they don’t do that ridiculous stuff’. But sooner or later, the truth comes out….and it’s just like every other office. Another hard part of office life is gathering around conference tables, worrying that you’re going to be put on the spot, or knowing that you are going to be, and worrying that your material is not quite ready. Office life sounds like one stress after another! I did actually just have a telephone conference call, and I was a bit nervous, being at home – the kids, the dog, the doorbell… But you know what? At the very beginning of the session, the leader told us all not to worry if the kids make a little noise in the background, ‘we are, after all, all mothers’, she said. She just taught us how to mute our end of the conference call if the kids get out of hand, like if they start throwing a fit, or if the baby won’t stop crying, or whatever. Can you imagine an office boardroom conference starting like that?

GO READ A BOOK!

I’m really such a weirdo, because, I’m full of contradictions. I guess I’m supposed to be that way because I’m a Gemini. I don’t know. Take this one, for instance. I love water. I love it – I love swimming, I love bathing – I just love water. When I was a toddler, the neighbor would call up my mother and ask her what time I was taking my bath so that she could come and watch! Seriously! I just have always loved the water that much! However, here’s the contradiction – big open water scares me to death. And, of course, that has changed as I’ve grown. Like when I was a little kid, big open water meant the deep end of a big pool. Now the deep end is no big deal. The wide, open waters of the ocean, though – that’s another story entirely. I’m terrified, completely terrified, of the ocean. And seeing how my motion sickness is so bad, I’ll probably never have to face that fear. Seriously, what if you head out to that big, wide ocean and your vessel sinks?! Agghhh! It would be good, though, to have some wise, authority figure to assure the public about vessel sinking, wouldn’t it?

GO READ A BOOK!

I have been a webmaster, or webmistress, if you will, for a number of years now. I started my personalized letters for children website, My Very Own Mail, back in 2003. Online advertising and traffic generation can be overwhelming responsibilities for webmasters, but, with all of these new consumer-generated advertising networks popping up, things are getting just a bit easier. See, I can purchase some advertising through one of these networks, and then some nice people, who are hopefully awesome bloggers, will get paid to blog about my website. And then I should gain some more traffic and maybe even a few sales from having my name out there more. And even if I don’t make sales from it right away, it’s still good, because, I’m building a name for myself on the web, and gaining some backlinks to my site.

GO READ A BOOK!

We only have a few weeks left of summer freedom for our kids, so let’s help them enjoy it and avoid those, “Mom! I’m bored!” complaints.

No kid can resist a trip to the zoo. Spending a day there is not only fun, but can also be educational. An alternative to the zoo may be petting farms in your area. Kids have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the animals, as well as, feed and pet them.

A trip to the Museum of Natural History is another day well spent. Kids love dinosaurs, and you can spend a wonderful afternoon browsing all of the ancient exhibits. My husband and I took our kids a few weeks ago, and we had a blast!

How about building a birdhouse for the backyard? Your kids can design it, paint it, and even put their initials on it. It’s a wonderful way to get them involved in nature, and the environment. Daddy Bookworm is outside right now with our daughter making one! I can’t wait to see it when it’s done!

Finding a drive-in movie would be great fun for the whole family! I know we have one near us, but, we haven’t gone to it yet. I’m gonna have to look that up now, for sure!

A camping trip would be a perfect closing to the summer. This is a great time for the entire family to get away from it all, and bond. Not only is it relaxing for you, but also the kids will be able to swim and fish; and the family can sit around the campfire at night toasting marshmallows, and telling ghost stories.

Reading and writing can also break the boredom. Visit your local library, and have your kids choose books to read. They can also start a journal entitled, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” They can include pictures, or just simply write all about the fun things they did, or experiences they had over the summer.

While these are some of the ways to avoid boredom while school’s out for the summer, certainly there are many more ideas that the entire family can come up with to keep summer fun, exciting, and memorable. Keep in mind, the next time your kid says he or she is bored, to provide options – then leave it to them to come up with solutions.

GO READ A BOOK!

Do you know who the King Bookworm is? That’s Mrs. Lisa’s daddy! He is a book-eating machine! My mom loves books, too, but, my dad is a book monster! And he is totally the bomb, because, he is giving me his old laptop computer! I am so excited, because, I have been wanting one for a really long time! We were talking about hooking the new laptop up to the internet and he was telling me about some kind of router I would need – I wonder if he meant a Linksys router? I don’t really know, but, he is coming here to see us and I’m sure he will get me all hooked up! And you know what’s so funny? Yesterday I got a Dell catalog in the mail and saw those colored laptops for the first time. (The kids already knew all about them from TV commercials!) And I almost got disappointed that I was getting my dad’s hand-me-down instead of a pretty pink laptop! But that’s totally only almost, because, I couldn’t afford to buy one of those new Dell’s right now, anyway! It was just funny to me that I actually felt a little bit of disappointment over it. I mean, really – who would’ve thought they would ever have pink computers?!

GO READ A BOOK!

It is actually almost time for school to start back up. The summer is so much shorter than it used to be. Thank goodness the kids get a fall break, at least! But we will need to go shopping for school clothes and we better do it pretty soon! My daughter was listing to me last night all of the things that she needs and my head was starting to spin! Her backpack is broken, so she needs a new backpack, and she needs her school supplies, and she needs new clothes, and she needs new shoes. And then, of course, we get to multiply that by three. I always wanted a bunch of kids, and I guess this is one time of year that I can be grateful I didn’t get my wish! And with the boys being in high school, they are starting to notice that clothes and shoes from the discount stores aren’t really all that cool. I can see that some compromises will have to be made, because, while we may not buy them Air Jordan shoes, we might see what the local sports store has that is a little better from the giant discount stores. They can save up some of their own money from chores and birthdays and stuff to get some of the more expensive shoes, if they really want them. Personally, I would rather buy some mid-price shoes, and use the money I saved to buy books! I just can’t see spending oodles of money on shoes like that. And I usually buy used books, at that!

When we were in Dallas, we were of course spending a lot of my time with my sweet nephew, whom I call Scooter. Well, it seems that in the year we’ve been gone, Scooter has become obsessed with super heroes. That is his new thing – you know how kids get hooked on one thing or another. I can pretty much trace my boys’ lives in connection with their obsessions. It could just be boys, I don’t know. My daughter’s life has not lined up quite so evenly with obsessions like that. Getting back to Scooter, I noticed that now along with his big kid bed, he has big kids bedding. And you know what that bedding’s them is? It’s Spiderman. He may be obsessed with super heroes, but, he is mondo-obsessed with Spiderman! And the funny thing, to me, is that my oldest son still has his Spiderman bedding on his bed. Scooter is four, and my son is almost fourteen. There is something so sweet in that connection to me! But I’m just all gushy like that! Now don’t any of you tell on me that I ratted out my son’s Spiderman bedding, ok?

GO READ A BOOK!