Educational Toys For Kids

It's the season for running around to different stores, trying to find the coolest gifts for your kids, right? Do you ever really consider the educational value of toys anymore? Or, are we simply running ourselves ragged to get the coolest, most technically advanced items that our children are hounding us for? It makes me wonder if technology is really making my children smarter...or if it's slowing their developmental progress down.

I prefer educational toys for kids for my very own children. You know, items that are specifically manufactured to help children develop and hone their skills and abilities, aimed at specific age groups. And, honestly, although some of those toys require stock investments in battery companies, there are many that won't require batteries at all. Those are definitely the ones that I love!

Imaginative play, inspired by educational toys, is extremely important for the development of our children. The toys, like little people to play with or animal sets, Legos, baking or tea cup sets, dolls...they all inspire this type of play and help our children grow in their pretend world. My children all love to build and create - and I love to see them doing it.

Rest assured, there will be toys that have an educational factor to them under our Christmas tree this year! Times seven. :)

Memories: Signed, Sealed & Delivered

Holly and ivy. . .chestnuts roasting. . . stockings hung with care. . . and cameras keeping record of it all. The holiday season is one of the most cherished times of the year, and people of all ages will be reaching for their cameras to preserve those precious memories of Christmas morning with little ones, or of New Years Eve with friends.

Questions some may be asking at this time are: “What did I do with the pictures I took last year? And the year before?” Or perhaps, “Are the digital files still languishing in a disorganized mess on my hard drive?” In either case, there’s work to do to turn prized photo collections into something more than a block of used storage space. This will free up space on their hard drives for other things—like this year’s pictures. And remember, computers and hard drives can malfunction, and because photos can’t be replaced if they’re lost, they need to be preserved in other locations. And because Grandma in Peoria or Cousin Bob in China would love to see those special moments, too, it’s important to find ways to share them. What good is a picture if no one sees it?

One option is to send photos to loved ones through email. The process is simple; just attach a few photos to an email message and hit “send.” However, most servers can only handle a few photos at a time. So sending a collection of many photos can become cumbersome; they’ll need to be spread out over multiple emails or condensed into smaller files for sending.

Photo sharing websites let people post their photos on the Internet for loved ones to view and download at their convenience. A drawback to this is that publicly posted photos can be viewed by anyone with Internet-access. Complete strangers can even download and use the photos. And usually there is a cost associated with storing more than a minimal number of photos on a site.

DVD’s offer convenience and protection that online options don’t have. They feature large storage capacities, so they can hold many photos on one disc. While the discs themselves are usually not free, they are relatively cheap compared to online storage costs involved with many photo sharing sites. No internet connection is needed to create a DVD full of photos, and loved ones won’t need an internet connection to view it.

Most newer personal computers have software that makes it easy to burn files to a DVD; just insert a blank disc and follow the prompts to fill it with the files of your choice. An added advantage to sharing photos on DVD is that the process results in safe copies of photos in other locations. If someone’s master copy is lost or compromised for some reason, they can rest assured that their photos still exist in a safe place, on DVDs at Aunt Rose’s house and Aunt Millie’s house. It’s simple and safe to create a photo DVD of holiday memories or other precious times, tuck it into an envelope, and give it to someone special.

Sklyar Tate, a mother of two, loves creating home movies of her little girls at play. Disc duplicating is important to her, so that she can share them with her family. CD replication has become the best protection for all her family memories.

Giving that Costs You NOTHING This Year

Give to a Member of Our Beloved Military

Bloggers, don't forget that you have the opportunity to write a blog post and two GourmetGiftBaskets will be sent to military personnel this holiday season, courtesy of you, at no cost to you whatsoever. Just check out my original blog post about it here.  But, hurry up, though! You gotta have this done by the 14th so that I can pass on the info to the rep and the baskets will have time to make it where they need to go!


Give to Someone You Love

If you "like" Kleenex on Facebook, you can participate in their Softness Worth Sharing campaign. Click on their Softness Worth Sharing tab and fill out the form and you will receive a FREE box of Kleenex. It gets better, though. Fill out the next form that pops up and you can send a box to a friend or family member. You can send it to anyone!

Freescore.com Commercial Review

I got a kick out of the adorable FreeScore prison lineup commercial.

Essentially, it talks about how one of the three credit scores can sneak up on you if you don't check with all three credit bureaus. The bad credit score, or "bad guy", can bring your credit rating down, without your knowledge. Additionally, they offer 24/7 credit alerts, find inaccuracies on your reports (and, believe me, I've had some before!), and keep a close eye on identity theft.

With the prospect of purchasing a house in our near future, we will need to order our credit reports soon and analyze them to see if there is anything that is bringing our scores down or things we can do to improve our scores. It's going to be one of those no-fun things, but now that I know about FreeScore, I'm going to have to give them a shot.

I've been through the whole buying-a-house routine before and the realtor was actually kind enough to go over our credit report. She showed us the items to pay off that would increase our credit scores over time, as well as explained to us that creditors will settle for a percentage of the total bill - never pay the total amount on your credit report to past creditors! Offer 50% and then negotiate from there. You would be surprised what creditors will settle for! Once there is an agreement, be sure to get it in writing before paying them any money. If you are planning on repairing your credit, you can actually do some of it on your own, however I definitely recommend getting some advice from people who know how the system and how to do it right.

You can view the FreeScore commercial for yourself.

Do you monitor your credit? How do you do it?

Ten Things I Won’t Miss About the Holidays

There are some things that I will always miss once the holiday season ends, like having my kids home from their alternative boarding school. I can never have enough time with my children, especially since I recently started an online masters degree program, but having them home for the Holidays never fails to put a smile on my face.

However, the Holiday season also comes with a few trials and tribulations that I could certainly do without.  I will never forget how relieved I was last year when the holidays finally ended and our last house guest said their goodbyes. Although the season itself was certainly fun, I felt like I hadn’t had a single minute to rest in months. 

 With that in mind, here are the top ten things that I won’t miss about the holidays this year.

The Hole in My Wallet

Like all mothers, I want to buy my kids exactly what they want for the holidays. However, sometimes their list includes some pretty pricey items. Even though I put aside money throughout the year for gifts, it still often doesn’t quite cut it when December rolls around. 

The Freezing Weather 

Although cranking the heating up to the max creates that essential cozy holiday atmosphere – it doesn’t help my utilities bill! The cold weather at this time of year definitely leads to expensive bills, especially as elderly relatives visiting always feel the cold that bit more. 

The Icy Roads

Living in a cold state, the roads get super icy every holiday season. This is never an enjoyable experience, but can get particularly hazardous when I tack on the added stress of trying to get to the supermarket before the last turkey sells out.

Crazed Shoppers

If you have ever left holiday gift shopping to the last minute, you will know how crazy the experience can be. From the gridlocked lines in the parking lot to the aggressive cart pushers, it is never an enjoyable way to spend our much deserved time off. 

Traffic

During the holidays, picking your out of town guest up from the local airport can be become a time consuming ordeal. The traffic is generally awful, especially as Christmas day draws closer. Combined with the icy roads, it is the perfect way to opt out of the holiday spirit for a couple of hours. 

Complaining Relatives

Don’t get me wrong, I love having relatives over for the holidays – but boy do they sometimes get grumpy. The house is always too hot or too cold, the dog always smells and they never fail to inform me of better ways that I can cook the holiday food for next year. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about!

Unexpected Guests

It can be a pleasant surprise for an unexpected guest to turn up but it can also be a logistical nightmare. One year I had several friends show up unexpectedly and I had to make a hasty dash to the local grocery store for emergency supplies, which was hardly how I wanted to spend my day. 

Holiday Music

We all love holiday tunes, but do I really want to hear “Last Christmas” for the fiftieth time this December? It seems every store and waiting room enforces its patrons to be subjected to the same generic holiday music cheese year in and year out. Somebody put some new original holiday music out already – please!

Forced Cheerfulness

Despite my complaining, the holidays really can be a great time of year! I love spending time with my kids and family, but the expected 24/7 cheerfulness can get a little grating. Expecting to say “Happy Holidays” with a permanent smile on my face to every person I encounter is no easy task – especially when I am stressed out from trying to keep a full household fed and happy.

Playing Hostess

I am proud to say that I make a very good hostess. I cook all the holiday favorites and go out of my way to make sure that everyone is happy. But as anyone else who has played hostess knows – it is a truly exhausting experience! There are little (if any) points in the day when I get to relax on the couch. On the plus side, it is a great way to avoid pilling on the pounds during the holidays, as I am constantly on my feet.

As you can see, the holidays aren’t always a holly jolly good time. In fact, they can easily feel like more hassle than they’re worth. However, despite my ranting, I am also grateful for the holidays as they are one of the few times in the year that I can spend quality time with both my family and my friends. So this Holiday season, make sure to enjoy that time as much as possible and take solace in the fact that they only come round once a year.