Shopping for Dorm Room Decor

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One of the most daunting tasks of sending your children off to college is getting everything they will need for their dorm room and then getting the room set up.  One thing that can make the whole shopping experience is easier is first choosing a theme and colors for the room.

As the bed is generally the main “focal point” in any room, it’s a good idea to choose your bedding first.  This is your child’s chance to choose something that shows off their personal style, and today’s trends offer a lot of options from girly  animal and flower prints to fun chevron and paisley prints, or more masculine sets like plaids, camouflage, and collegiate bedding.

 

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After you’ve chosen your bedding, it is easy to find other accessories for the room in coordinating colors so that you can really bring the space together in a fun and uniform way.  I would start with storage bins. Most dorms do not have a lot of closet space, so bins are often needed to store clothing, towels, and supplies. And they have cute sets that can go right along the wall.

Your child should  also have a desk and chair.  While I think it’s fine to just get your basic desk and chair set, these now come in some fun and bright colors as well.

I also think a desk lamp is a must have item.  These come in cool colors, and the one pictured here even allows your child to play and charge his/her iPod.

Next add style and flair with some coordinating wall art, a bulletin board, a matching shag rug, and perhaps a beanbag chair or backrest. And also consider coordinating towels,  garbage can, and office supplies.

If it sounds like a lot to buy, consider  shopping for everything conveniently online.  Online retailers often sell full collections so that you can get everything you want in just a few clicks.  But either way you choose to shop, your child will be excited about picking out things for their new room and making their new dorm a true home away from home.

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Back to College Series

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Within the first year that I started blogging, I wrote a series of posts called “Back to College.”  Since this is Back to School month, it seemed like a good time to revisit these.  At the time it had been two years since I had graduated from college, and I just wanted to share some things that I had learned.  As the first person in my immediate family to go to college, I went in not really knowing anything about financial aid, books, and so many other things.  And looking back, I wish I’d had someone to advice me because I definitely would have done things differently.  But I’m hopefully that someone will read these posts and gain some knowledge from my experience.

 The Importance of Planning – This post explains about early planning to finance your college tuition and to prepare yourself (or child) academically for college.

Deciding Where to Go to College – This tells you some basic things to look at when deciding where to go to college, and it tells you about different ways to do your own independent research on schools you’re interested in.

Guide to Fiancial Aid, Part 1 – Basic guide to getting financial aid.

Guide to Financial Aid, Part 2 -Shopping for student loans, Positives & Negatives to getting loans through your school, and My experiences with fiananical aid.

A “Major” Decision – About when & how you should choose your major. What factors should you take into account?

Dorm Room Supply List, Part 1 -School and office supplies, Furniture & other big items

Dorm Room Supply List, Part 2 – Household and every day items, Personal Touch/Decor Items, and personal entertainment items.

Textbook Dollars – Chart for a couple of years ago that explains where your textbook dollars go.

Textbook Q&A – Answers to some basic questions on buying textbooks

Beating the Bookstore – Tips & Strategies to help you saving money on textbooks (and all books for that matter.)

Beating the Bookstore Again – Information on bookstore refunds and buy backs, how to get the most money selling your books.

Campus Book Rentals – This post wasn’t a part of the series but actually a review that I wrote earlier this year.   The site allows you to save money buy renting books, which they mail out to you.  It’s a very cool concept and very convenient!

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Buddig Be a Reader Virtual Book Drive (and a $50 Amazon Giveaway)

As children, we all have our favorite books.  One of my childhood favorites was Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox, and as a teen I instantly loved The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

Unfortunately there are many children living in poverty who don’t get a chance to discover great books.  In many areas of these low-income neighborhoods,  there is only 1 book for every 300 children.  Fortunately a new campaign has been launched to help these kids. [Read more…]

Back 2 School Blast Giveaway

I love the Back to School season!  As a kid I loved shopping for new clothes and for school supplies.  And yes, I have to admit, when I walk in the store as an adult and see all the brightly colored backpacks, character notebooks, and newly discounted crayons and binders, I still get a little giddy!

This month I will be devoting certain portions of my blogging to the Back to School season!  To start out, I’m participating in an AMAZING group giveaway!  This one features $1000 in prizes, including a computer and gift cards to  some very popular stores! Check it out!

[Read more…]

Great Savings with Campus Book Rentals

Recently my husband started taking college classes again, and as we went about purchasing the textbooks, I was reminded of just how expensive some of the books can be.  I was excited the other day when I learned about Campus Book Rentals.

This site allows you to save money on textbooks by renting them as opposed to buying them. Previously I had heard of renting ebooks, but this is the first site I’ve learned about which actually lets you rent a physical copy of the book you need and then ship it back when your class is over.

[Read more…]

Walmart Box Tops for Education Giveaway

Looking for a way to donate to your child’s school?  The Box Tops for Education program is an easy solution and this year Walmart is making it even easier! From Aug. 3 – Aug. 31, head over to your local Walmart to find 4 Box Tops on participating General Mills products and earn more cash for the participating school of your choice. As your one-stop destination for all your needs this back-to-school season, Walmart is helping you save more and earn more with the Box Tops for Education brands you love.
With over 20 great brands and more than 40 products participating, here are just a few favorites that include 4 Box Tops that you can find at Walmart this August: Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, Pillsbury Toaster Strudel pastries, Trix Yogurt, Hamburger Helper skillet meals, Totino’s Pizza Rolls snacks, Nature Valley Granola Bars and Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups snacks. Be sure to keep an eye out for Box Tops on great products from Kleenex, Ziploc, and Hefty too!

Win It! To help you to purchase General Mills products and earn cash for your schools, Wal-Mart, General Mills, and MyBlogSpark are offering one of you a $25 Wal-Mart giftcard.

Giveaway Closed. Congrats to Adriane (LAMusing).

-Jerri

Disclosure: Information and giftcards are provided by General Mills and Wal-Mart through MyBlogSpark. For hosting this giveaway, I received a $25 Wal-Mart giftcard.

Making Your Own U.S. History Resource Books

My husband and I often talk about the idea of homeschooling our children.  And at the very least, we will definitely be supplementing their education at home.  I know a lot of my readers are home school moms, and I know even more of you who are not homeschool moms like to have learning activities for your kids.

So with 4th of July upon us, I decided to share one of my ideas for part of a U.S. history curriculum.  As a history major myself, I believe the best way to teach our kids about U.S. history and government is to go to the original documents and sources, so we can draw our own conclusions.  However, we may not always have these immediately at our finger tips.  And if you’re on a budget it may be difficult to buy all the books and materials you’d like, so one of my ideas is to create a History Resource Book.
Essentially you’ll just need a 3-ring binder, and you will fill it with the documents and resources that you’d like to have on hand to share with your kids.  Documents to have in your book include copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  I’d also include a list of the presidents, states & capitals, a timeline of events, and basic facts about the government and how it’s structured.  It could also include a copy of the Articles of Confederation and a copy of The Federalist Papers, especially if you’re doing a close study of American colonial history.
To get you started on making your History Resource Book, I’ve looked up these documents for you, as well as some other pages which may be helpful to you.
Historical Timeline  – While I don’t emphasize the memorization of dates, I always find it helpful to have a general timeline for reference purposes and in order to keep track of when events happen in relationship to other events.  Here’s a comprehensive timeline of United States history, from the original landing at Roanoke up to the 2009 inauguration.  This is also a good list for general historical topics of study.
Declaration of Independence – Full text. And resource links.
Articles of Confederation – Full text of our first constitution.
United States Constitution – Full text of the Constitution, including Ammendments, signers, important dates, notes, and sources.
The Federalist Papers – Full text of The Federalist Papers, a series of 85 articles/essays advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution.
Presidents of the United States – I’ve always found it curious that I never had to memorize the Presidents in school.  This site not only has a list of the Presidents and the years of the term(s) in office, but each President has his own page of facts, including their homestate, religion, party, election results, cabinet secretaries, major events, and interesting facts. (I think it would be great to go down the list and teach about one president each week, and these facts would give you a good foundation to start and be a good quick reference for the kids to refer to.)
Government 101 – About.com and wikipedia may not be legitimate sources for your college papers, but I usually find them helpful when I need to look up some basic facts or background on a subject.  This page breaks down the three branches of government for you, and there’s also a section on Federalism and our historic documents.
50States.com List of all the 50 states. You can also look up all the state flags, birds, flowers, and seals. They also have all the state governors, famous people, statistics on the states, state mottos, attraction, and more.  (It could be fun to look up all the information on your homestate and share it with your child. Also, I think kid’s might enjoy looking at all the flags, or even reading the state mottos.)

USA Flag – This site teaches about the history of the flag and also rules of etiquette regarding the flag.  And there’s also lyrics to some patriotic songs and some links to other resources.

Other Sources:
USA.gov Government Made Easy All the basic information on the current agencies of government and our current offcials, including biographical and contact information. There’s a list of all the current Executive Departments/Cabinets (definitely worth learning!).  And there’s even an A-Z index of all the U.S. Departments and Agencies with links to all their websites (probably not worth printing because there are so many—but definitely a must see, just to give you an idea of how big the government really is).
I recommend the following two books as secondary sources: One is a history of the United States, and the other is about the Founders and the 28 Principles of Freedom, upon which the country was founded.

-Jerri

Links To Kid’s 4th of July Activities

If you’re looking for some fun activities and learning exercises to help teach your kid’s about the 4th of July and/or the history of the United States, this post is for you.  This short list of links will provide you with all the worksheets, printables, project ideas, and learning activities you need for your kids of all ages.

Also, check back in a couple of days, because I’ll be posting some links to resources for older kids and more advanced studies!

Conversation Jar at Just Sew Sassy – One of our blog friends and Friday Favorites participants, Staci, linked up this great post last week.  It gives you a tutorial on how to make a conversation jar, to teach your kids about our history and patriotic holidays.

Apples for the teacher has a lot of coloring sheets, worksheets, printables, craft projects, a reading list of kid’s books, and other great stuff for 4th of July.

Kaboose also has some 4th of July printables for you.

Family Fun has a ton of 4th of July crafts, recipes, and printables.

Activity Village has compiled together a lot of information, quizzes, activity sheets, crafts, etc.

Primary Games had a few color sheets that I thought were cute.

Brighthub has a user article that gives some ideas for lesson plans for preschool children.

Twiggle Magazine has some 4th of July recipes and snacks to make with the kids.

-Jerri

4th of July Flag Treats

I just love new spins on old favorites!  I found these 4th of July Flag Treats on Class Brain.  Wouldn’t these be great to serve to the kids this weekend?  The Class Brain site also has other activities, worksheets, etc for the 4th.
Here’s a list of what you’ll need and the instructions to to make the treats.
What you’ll need:

Crispy rice treats
Airheads® Cherry bars
Airheads® White Mystery bars
Airheads® Blue Raspberry bars
Small kitchen knife or scissors
Small star-shaped cookie cutter (optional)

Directions:
Cut crispy rice treats into rectangles. Cut part of an Airheads® Blue Raspberry bar to make the upper blue corner of the flag. Cut alternating strips of Airheads® Cherry and White Mystery to make the flag’s stripes. Arrange pieces on crispy rice treat. Trim to fit. Using either a star-shaped cookie cutter, or by hand, cut out a star shape from an Airheads® White Mystery bar. Place star on the blue square. And you’re done!

-Jerri
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Tidy Mom

Learning Link Technologies – Brain Training Ecourse, Review & Giveaway

Just in time for Back to School, I have a life-changing review and giveaway to share with you. You may remember the Break Pal giveaway that I hosted back in April. Well, Phil Weaver of Break Pal, contacted me a few weeks ago about hosting another great giveaway for him. This time it is for an ecourse designed to help kids and parents overcome learning disabilities.

The course was developed by Lisa Harp, a learning disability specialist, educational therapist, and founder of the Harp Learning Institute, a leading edge learning center in Northern California.

I had the opportunity to review the course and was very pleased with my findings. Unlike special education programs that are designed to make students feel comfortable and often fail to challenge children, this program is actually designed to retrain the brain.


So what kind of students can benefit from this program? The program is designed to help students with learning disabilities such as ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, autism, and children who are performing below their grade level.

The program is very easy for parents to follow. No special training or educational expertise is required. With this course you get both written and video instruction, and you even get quizzes which will help you determine when your child is ready to move on to the next module in the course.

When you follow the course at an average pace it takes about 12 months to complete. The course includes neuro-sensory brain training exercises that are done once a week and take about 15-20 minutes to complete, and there are also activities that supplement the brain training, which are to be done about 5 days a week for 20-30 minutes.

The exercises and activities are designed to help a child’s mind and body work together. And I think children will find them fun and interesting. The activities are also very easy to administer, and all the materials that you need to get your child started are included with the course.

The course is well organized and very easy to understand and navigate through. On the front page you’ll find your course introduction, a link to the Brain Training Chat Room, and links to forums on learning disorders. Below this you’ll find links to your Month One Brain Training and Month One Activities Instructions and Materials packet.

Next you’ll see links for your first 5 days (which are to be repeated for about a month). When you click on these links, a page will come up that will tell you which activities you need to do with your child on that day, and it will provide you with links to videos for all the day’s activities. (You can also access the videos for all the month one brain training exercises and activities from the front page of the course.)

The course is designed for students at all levels. In the lessons, Lisa points out that students may have a difficult time with activities at first and that it’s a good idea to start slow and then speed up as the child progresses through the program. In the videos Lisa demonstrates all the exercises and activities on a student, and she gives you tips and also points out some things that you can expect from students when they first begin the activities.


My favorite thing about the course is that it includes both videos and written instruction. This will make it very easy for parents to follow along and understand. I also love that the materials packet is included. This will save parents a lot of time and money because they won’t have to create their own activity sheets or go out and buy a lot of extra materials at the store.

This is also a great program because it takes less than an hour to complete each day’s activities, and because the activities are designed to retrain the brain. Rather than spending time doing extra homework and rather than holding students back and limiting their capabilities with a special education curriculum, this program actually focuses on the problems and it works toward reprogramming your child’s brain so that they can learn and reach their full potential.


Phil has offered 3 months of this course to one Simply Sweet Home reader. This is a $240 value!

To win you must leave a comment on this post telling us something you learned from the video I’ve posted here OR visit learning-aids.com and tell us something you learned from the site. Deadline for entries: Sept 10 at 6PM Central.

**And please, if you don’t need this prize, help me pass the word along. There are a lot of people out there who could really use this!**

Additional Entries:
Because this is such a potentially life-changing program, I’m allowing for a lot of extra entries (even more than usual). Just leave comments for each additional entry, and please leave a user name/link or something so that I can verify. Thanks!

-1 entry for following me publicly on blogger.

-1 entry for joining my feedblitz mailing list, or 2 entries if you are already a member prior to this giveaway.

-1 entry for subscribing in a reader.

-1 entry for following or subscribing to my new business blog.

-1 entry for following me on twitter.

-1 entry for tweeting about this giveaway.

-1 entry for becoming a fan of Simply Sweet Home on facebook.

-2 entries for writing about this giveaway on your blog and linking back to Simply Sweet Home.

-1 entry for subscribing to Lisa’s video series

-1 entry for joining Lisa’s Facebook Group

-1 entry for following Lisa on Twitter

-1 entry for becoming a registered user at learning-aids.com (there are benefits to this such as being able to ask Lisa a direct question which will be answered on her site.)

1 entry for commenting on one of Lisa’s blog entries

(That’s up to 15 extra entries! )

Other Rules:
-Don’t forget, if you don’t have a blog or a profile with a visible email address, please include your email address in your comment so that I can contact you if you win. (Can’t stress this enough!)

-Jerri




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