We all know that back to school sales are attracting children, their parents and teachers alike. Plus, if you are fortunate enough to live in a state like Illinois you may even get exempt from sales tax for 10 days in August! This email isn’t about back to school sales though, it is about a company choosing to celebrate the ones behind education in classrooms around the country. Take a look at the details and be sure to pass it along to the teachers in your life….

*Avery DENNISON CELEBRATES TEACHERS With A NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKES***

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*Teacher Appreciation Sweepstakes is One of Several Ways Avery Dennison Office Products Supports U.S. Schools and Their Teachers*

Avery Dennison Office Products Company (“Avery Dennison”), a business unit of Avery Dennison Corporation, is launching a national sweepstakes to reward deserving
teachers nationwide. The sweepstakes, which runs through September 15, 2010, was created to celebrate teachers and all they do for our nations’ children on a daily basis.

Due to budget cuts and the current economic climate, many teachers and students across the country go without even the most basic school supplies. Studies by the non-profit organization, World Vision, show that teachers spend on average at least $500 of their own money each school year on
supplies for their students. This sweepstakes aims to alleviate some of this financial burden, as well as pamper a few lucky teachers.

Avery Dennison will be giving away a grand prize package valued at $1,000 to one teacher through the sweepstakes hosted at: www.avery.com/teachersweeps. Teachers are encouraged to submit as many entries as they would like (up to one a day) between now and September 15, 2010, and also will be eligible to win additional second and third place prizes. Prize packages include an array of Avery-brand school supply products, Spa Finder gift cards and/or Starbucks
gift cards.

“Avery Dennison wants to show our appreciation for all the hard work that teachers do every single day, and what better way to say thank you than awarding prizes that can help organize, pamper and yes, even caffeinate them,” said Jeff Deleon, director of marketing, Education, for Avery Dennison Office Products. “One of our core beliefs is that education is the cornerstone of a strong community, so we support the teachers who nurture students and enable their success.”

Avery Dennison has a long-history of supporting education. This announcement comes on the heels of its parent, Avery Dennison Corporation, launching the *Give Back to Schools* program in late June. Created as a way to give back to the communities that have made the company’s success possible in its 75th anniversary year, *Give Back to Schools* will provide 10 deserving U.S. schools with a truck-load of Avery-brand school supplies, valued at approximately $10,000 each. For Official Rules and to enter to win, students, families and supporters (ages 18 and older) can vote for their local K-8 school now through August 31 at
http://www.AveryDennisonGiveBacktoSchools.com.

In 2009, Avery Dennison joined the Box Tops for Education® program, which helps parents and communities earn much-needed cash for schools. Avery Dennison is the only school and office supply manufacturer participating in the program, and currently offers Box Tops coupons on more than 1,000 school and office supply products, such as Avery® Durable and Heavy Duty binders, Index Maker® dividers, Avery® NoteTabs™, Label Pads, sheet protectors, address and shipping labels, Hi-Liter® highlighters, Marks-A-Lot® dry erase and permanent markers, Avery® glue sticks, name badges, and T-shirt transfers.

The cash earned by schools through Box Tops for Education can be used in many ways, such as helping to rebuild playgrounds, funding under-budgeted programs, or purchasing classroom equipment, library books, computers and other much-needed supplies. For more information on Avery Dennison’s participation in the program, visit www.avery.com/btfe and www.btfe.com.

*Avery Dennison Offers Even More Chances to For Teachers to Win *

In addition to the web-based sweepstakes for teachers and schools, Avery Dennison also is partnering with Box Tops for Education to help teachers earn up to 25 Bonus Box Tops for their participating schools. Now through September 15, teachers can submit a copy of their official school supply list to* General Mills*, listing one of more than 1,000 specially marked Avery brand school and office supply products, for a chance to win 10,000 Bonus Box Tops for their school. Schools are limited to 10 classroom supply list entries. Please visit www.avery.com/btfe and www.btfe.com for rules and regulations, and to view a school supply list example from Avery Dennison.

*About Box Tops for Education*

America’s schools have earned more than $300 million through Box Tops for Education since the program started in 1996. Thousands of schools have used that cash to purchase items such as computers, library books, art supplies and playground equipment. Schools can earn up to $80,000 per year to spend on anything they choose, by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of products, shopping online through the Box Tops Marketplace® and Reading Room, and purchasing items from My Class Essentials™ registries. To learn more about the program visit, www.btfe.com.

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*About Avery Dennison*

Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) helps make brands more inspiring and the world more intelligent. For 75 years the company has been a global leader in pressure-sensitive technology and materials, retail branding and information solutions, and organization and identification products for offices and consumers. A FORTUNE 500 company with sales of $6 billion in 2009, Avery Dennison is based in Pasadena, California and has employees in over 60 countries. A division of Avery Dennison, Avery Dennison Office Products manufactures and markets products under the well-known Avery® brand name and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive labels for laser and ink jet printers, labeling software, binders, sheet protectors, index and tab dividers and other office-, home- and school-related supplies. For more information, visit www.averydennison.com or www.avery.com.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Charter Gives Away Free Laptops To Schools!

Does your school need computers but your school doesn’t have enough money to buy them? Well, right know Charter is giving away 50 laptops to two schools! The laptops are Lenovo G555′s with a 15.6″ screen, 160GB drive and 3GB ram (with a Targus bag).

Ordering any Charter service automatically gives you a chance to win and get up to $300 cash back. You can also register online with no purchase necessary.

But the real opportunity is for all of us as parents and others to nominate our local schools and encourage friends and relatives to vote for our schools so they can win the 50 laptops.

Schools need to be nominated by Aug. 12. There is a short nomination process at http://www.charter.com/laptop and only residential customers within the areas that Charter serves are able to nominate a school. I tried, but my zip code was not qualified. It’s still worth the effort to see if you can nominate the school of your choice though. Some schools are in desperate need of computer upgrades, so this is a great opportunity for them especially.

Charter will choose 50 finalists (based on the nomination stories submitted) and announce them on August 16th.

Open voting occurs between Aug. 16 and Sept. 20 and Charter will announce the two winning schools on Sept. 27th.

You can also enter to win a laptop for yourself. (I did!)

Isn’t it cool that huge companies are giving back to communities? I think it is! In the past Charter has offered some great prizes including: a hybrid car, a Camaro, an HDTV-A-Day for an entire month, free laptops, XBox 360′s and more!

So be sure to enter for yourself in the laptop-a-day giveaway and try to nominate your favorite school.

Also consider following or “like” Charter on Facebook.

Fashionable Media Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to me, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. Opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation.

I actually liked this book, The Better Way to Care for Your Baby: A Week-by-Week Illustrated Companion for Parenting and Protecting Your Child Using the Latest and Safest Techniques It was written by Robin Elise Weiss, who is not only a mom of eight, but also a childbirth and postpartum educator, certified doula, and lactation counselor, as well as the pregnancy and childbirth expert for About.com! This isn’t the first book she has written either, she has written nine books total on pregnancy and birth. Her work has also been featured in Newsweek, Working Mother and American Baby. How is that for credentials, if you happen to look for those kinds of things. (wry smile).

Robin gives a pretty unbiased view of bringing up baby, however, she does mention co-sleeping, attachment parenting, baby-wearing, breastfeeding all in a positive light. All of which I liked. She has Hot Mama tips, Affirmation quotes and Mama Moments in her sidebars throughout the book to offer encouragement to moms desiring to get back in shape, on baby’s development and mama’s mothering. The photos of the mothers and babies throughout the book are beautiful.

The rest of the information is up-to-date and current, of course, but for those who are already parents it is a book that will serve as a refresher of things forgotten or as a reference for those perplexing things that come up that you just want to know if it’s normal or not for your baby to do.

This would make a nice baby shower gift for new parents.

The Better Way to Care for Your Baby is available at major retailers and costs $19.99.

This is just a heads up that “National Learn-to-Read Challenge” Launches August 16 and children’s TV personality and celebrated Mom Blogger Miss Lori is going to help get kids excited about reading through educational online games.

Beginning on August 16 and continuing through September 30, 2010, Blake Publishing and Reading Eggs will launch the first-ever “National Learn-to-Read Challenge.” For six weeks, children from the ages of 3 to 7 will be able to sign up for free, at ABCReadingEggs.com (www.abcreadingeggs.com), and participate in this national literacy event for youngsters.

The goal of the Challenge is for parents to register at least 50,000 children and start them on their journey to becoming great readers. Children’s Television personality and celebrated mom blogger Miss Lori is serving as Ambassador of the Reading Eggs “National Learn-to-Read Challenge,” which promotes the importance of reading as a vital educational building block.

“When a child learns to walk they inhabit their environment…when a child learns to read, they inhabit the World,” said Miss Lori. “By
employing the equation ‘enrichment + encouragement = accomplishment, the Reading Eggs program is not only good literacy, it’s also great math.”

According to the National Research Council, children’s reading skills affect how they learn and will ultimately influence their chances for success. Youth who have not developed basic literacy by the time they enter school are 3-4 times more likely to drop out in later years, according to the National Adult Literary Survey, U.S. Department of Education.

“We created Reading Eggs as a unique, fun online world where children learn to read,” said Matthew Sandblom, Managing Director of Blake Publishing. “Reading Eggs supports each child’s learning by offering individual, one-on-one lessons that allow youngsters to progress at their own pace. We’re excited to share the program for free with 3-7 year-olds nationwide during the Challenge.”

The Reading Eggs program, created by a highly experienced team of early childhood educators, writers and program developers, focuses on a core reading curriculum of phonics and sight words, using skills and strategies essential for sustained reading success. It supports what children learn at school to help them continue to improve. With interactive animations, games, funny songs and lots of rewards, Reading Eggs motivates children to return to the program again and again.

Reading Eggs, which launches in the United States this summer, has received rave reviews from teachers, parents and even children who previously struggled with reading. In fact, a recent survey of more than 700 teachers shows that 97.2% would recommend the program to other teachers. Additionally, 99.6% of parents said they would recommend the site to their friends and 93.4% note an improvement in their child’s ability to read since they started using the program.

You can visit Reading Eggs at www.abcreadingeggs.com and follow Miss Lori on twitter at @misslori.

About Miss Lori

Miss Lori has been a National family treasure ever since she burst on the scene hosting the PBS Kids Preschool Block from 2006-2009. But even before her work with PBS Miss Lori was a family favorite because of the programs and media she offers with her company Miss Lori’s CAMPUS. Through MLC Miss Lori recorded her CD “Music n’ Movement TOGETHER!” a winner of the 2008 iParenting
Greatest Products Media Award, produced her family favorite DVD, “Activate & Be Great!”, and for the last three years she has regularly teamed up with WTTW-PBS Kids Chicago for her literacy and health tours. Education and Health are always on Miss Lori’s mind. Previously Miss Lori was an Ambassador for The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children
Campaign. This summer she is serving as an Ambassador for the American Heart Associations GoRed For Women BetterU Program. As well, WTTW PBS Kids will be airing Miss Lori’s self produced Miss Lori’s CAMPUS interstitials promoting her mission to improve the overall health and wellness of children and their families through education and activity. Always ahead of the curve Miss Lori is very active in social media. She is a highly regarded Blogger, serving on the board for Bloganthropy. Her insightful thoughts about life, parenting and community are as real as her music. As a “Marketainer” Miss Lori leverages her celebrity, and her acute understanding of the needs of families, to strengthen the bonds between consumers and brands through live and social media based events. Find her at MissLori.TV, ChicagoMomsBlog.com, WeAreTheRealDeal.com, YoungChicagonista.com, on Twitter and Facebook. For more information about all that Miss Lori is doing for her family and yours visit her performance website at www.MissLorisCAMPUS.com. SMILE On!

Fashionable Media Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to me, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. Opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation.

As a writer, I obviously like to write. With the advent of technology, much of my writing is now online. However, there is a part of me that still loves taking a pen to paper. One thing about being one of nine people living in the same house is that it can be hard to find a pen or pencil (at least where they are suppose to be) and sometimes even paper if the children happen to use it all!

So when the opportunity to review Zebra Pens came up, I took it. Not only are they useful to everyone in the family, but with school supply shopping just around the corner I thought you all should know about these great pens. I was sent the following products – 4 packages in all:

Daisies Ball Point Pens

Regal Roller – 2 sizes

* 0.5mmMicro Point Needle
* 0.7mmFine Point Arrow

Cadoozles – Mechanical Pencils

I really like all of these pens and pencils. I haven’t had any negative issues, other than the ballpoint pens needing a little scribbling to get them going. I love the fun colors and designs on them and the Cadoozles mechanical pencils. The only thing is the green and yellow-orange ink are harder to see than the other colors, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing especially if you journal or keep a diary!

And so far all of the Zebra pens and pencils are staying where they belong! Maybe there’s hope to writing utensils in the Gould home yet….time will tell.

I just learned about the Pizza Hut Book It Program today. I don’t know much about it, as the information was passed along through an email list that I am a part of, but I thought that it was worth mentioning for those who love freebies and for all the book lovers reading too.

The Book It Program is designed to provide incentives to parents, teachers and children to get children reading. It appears that if you go to the Book It website and click on the second banner, which is purple as seen below it will take you to your choice of schools so you can search for your school or get your school to sign up and you will receive free materials for the 2010-2011 school year. This offer is only good through June, so while you do have the whole month left to sign up, you might want to do it now before you forget all about it. That is something I am likely to do!

The Book It website also offers activities, printables, games, reading lists and more for children. In addition to that, the site includes resources for teachers: racking sheets, awards, calendars, tips and more! Not to leave parents out, parents will find book lists, helpful reading tips and tools, as well as an online parent club called Bound Together.

For complete program details visit www.BookItProgram.com

Editor’s Note: I contacted the lady who posted about this program and here is what she said:

“Yes I have used it for quite a few years now. Basically it’s a reading incentive program for your kids where you set the requirements and then reward them with a coupon for a free mini pizza from Pizza Hut once they achieve the goal. My kids love it.”

By Rebecca Burton, Reading is Fundamental (www.RIF.org)

Summer’s here and you’ve started making your annual checklist: Sunscreen? Check. Sandals? Check. Beach towels? Got ‘em. But while you’re going over the must-haves for the season, don’t forget the single most important thing your kids will need: something really great to read.

While relaxing on the beach with a good book is one of life’s most delicious pleasures, study after study has shown that reading is one of the most essential things that kids can do when school’s out. A 2002 report from National Summer Learning Association states that children lose approximately two months of learning over the summer, meaning that come September, teachers will spend those first few weeks re-teaching kids what they already learned the year before.

“Motivating children to read throughout the summer is essential to building lifelong readers,” says Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit. “And reading is the doorway to all other learning.” With that in mind, how do you convince your kids to build reading time into their summer plans? Fortunately, RIF has come up with a number of ideas to help you make this summer a season of reading.

. Combine activities with books. Going to a baseball game? Head to the library and check out a biography about your child’s favorite player. Is summer camp on the agenda? See if the camp has a blog you can follow.

. Lead by example. Show kids that you love to read by picking up the newspaper each morning or sharing about something you’ve read, and they’ll understand that reading is important to everyone.

. Relax the rules. Summer is a time when children can read what, when, and how they please. Don’t set any requirements, and don’t force kids to read something they’re not interested in.

. Visit the library. It’s got thousands of books and audiobooks to borrow, computers to use, and magazines to leaf through. Make the library your “go-to” destination for the summer.

. Think outside the book. Recognize that reading can happen in many formats, from eBooks to magazines to online read-along stories. Check out www.rif.org/kids for great read-alongs and other fun games and activities designed to keep kids reading.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to this: read. Read together, read separately, read anywhere, read everywhere. It’s the surest way to make certain that your kids will start the school year off right.

Rebecca Burton is a writer/editor at Reading Is Fundamental and has been working in the children’s literacy field for the past twelve years. She loves to read, travel, and hang out on the back porch with her husband and their two-year-old daughter.

By Frances Nankin, Executive Producer/Editorial Director, Cyberchase

Our kids are at risk over the summer months for losing the skills they’ve developed during the year in math – and the risk is greater
for losing math skills than reading skills. Summer is a time when children may lose gains in math learning if they are not offered
educationally sustaining math activities. Research suggests this loss is greater than the loss of reading gains and is also partly
responsible for widening achievement gaps as minority students progress through school.

I encourage parents and children’s organizations to help children overcome the summer slump in math. Here are some fun things you can do to avoid this summer slump and give your kids a leg up on math for the fall.

Money, Money, Money!

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Kids are always on the lookout for ways to earn money during the summer months. You can hone their math skills by helping them set a goal for the total amount they want to earn, and make a chart or graph to track weekly progress. Encouraging them to budget an amount for saving as well as spending is another way to engage them with money math.

How Far? How Many? How Much?

As parents, we get asked these questions often enough, but how often do we turn them back to our kids and share a brief math moment? If we say, About how far (how many, how much) do you think it is? and then suggest ways to estimate, we can help them recognize those times when an answer that is ‘close enough’ is actually ‘good enough!’ Estimation (or making an informed guess) is a useful math tool any time a precise answer isn’t necessary to solve a problem.

Going to the Game? Guess My Player!

Number puzzles are a fun summer pastime, and you can make them up on the spot at a ball game. Take turns picking a player’s number and making up clues to see if the other person can figure out who it is. For example: “My player’s number is an even number. It is more than 10, less than 15, and is a multiple of 3.”

Get Active!

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Summer is a great time to help kids develop good habits around physical exercise. As parents, we can help our kids choose a type of exercise they enjoy (swimming, riding bikes, hiking), and then set performance goals—bike or hike a certain distance in a given amount of time, or swim a set number of laps—to try to reach by the end of summer. The trick to success is to agree on an exercise schedule, and use a chart or graph to keep track of progress after each session. Keeping track helps kids measure progress, keep them motivated, and even predict how long it will take to reach their goals.

The Waiting Game: What’s My Rule?

Everyone spends time waiting, whether it’s at the doctor’s office, in line at the supermarket, or sitting hungry at a restaurant. Before kids get cranky, here’s a fun and simple math game that helps build algebraic thinking skills while beating the boredom! Player A picks a number between 0 and 10 and says it out loud. Player B silently picks a secret rule (plus 3, for example, or minus 2), applies the rule to the number, and says the new number out loud. Keeping that new number in mind, player A says another number, player B silently applies the same rule, and gives player A the new number. The play continues until player A has enough information to guess the rule.

Cyberchase offers fun episodes, web games and hands-on activities and events and free, fun resources to strengthen children’s math skills over the summer. Visit Cyberchase online at www.pbskidsgo.org/cyberchase

Or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/cyberchase to access sneak peeks at the new episodes, fan events, exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, photos and more related to the Cyberchase Summer Challenge. Watch Cyberchase on your local PBS Station.

About Cyberchase

Cyberchase – the daily animated math series on PBS KIDS GO! – is produced by THIRTEEN in association with Title Entertainment, Inc. and WNET.ORG. Executive producers are Sandra Sheppard, THIRTEEN’s Director of Children’s and Educational Programming, and Frances Nankin. Ellen Doherty is senior series producer. Major funding for Cyberchase is provided by the National Science Foundation, Ernst & Young LLP, Northrop Grumman Corporation and PBS. Additional funding is provided by The Volckhausen Family.

About WNET.ORG

New York public media company WNET.ORG is a pioneering provider of television and web content. The parent of THIRTEEN, WLIW21 and Creative News Group, WNET.ORG brings such acclaimed broadcast series and websites as Worldfocus, Nature, Great performances, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Wide Angle, Secrets of the Dead, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Visions, Consuelo Mack WealthTrack, Wild Chronicles, Miffy and Friends, and Cyberchase to national and international audiences. Through its wide range of channels and platforms, WNET.ORG serves the entire New York City metro area with unique local productions, broadcasts and innovative educational and cultural projects. In all that it does, WNET.ORG pursues a single, overarching goal – to create media experiences of lasting significance for New York, America and the world. For more information, visit www.wnet.org
.

“School’s out for summer” – almost, believe it or not! Wondering how to tell your schoolhouse staff they rock? Here are seven thoughtful, no-fuss gift packs that teachers are sure to appreciate, hot off the press of the latest issue of Disney FamilyFun magazine.

Stamps of Approval: These sweet stamps let teachers say “great job” with ease, and they come together fast from cork and adhesive-backed craft foam.

Happy Travels Car Sachet: Stuffed with a sweet scent, this little luxury makes a great gift for a teacher who may be hitting the road this summer.

Painted Thank-You Mug: With the stroke of a paint pen made for pottery, kids can turn an ordinary mug into a useful keepsake.

Favorite Reads Photo Bookmark: thank the teacher for making reading fun with a bookmark that lists your child’s new
favorite titles.

From the Whole Class – Sow Giving Tree or Give a Crate (or a barrel!) of bulbs: Surround a potted plant with a grouping of card stock envelopes shaped like flowers, or pack up a gardening kid for an all-natural way to say thanks for helping kids thrive.

For more great ideas that will make teachers feel special visit http://familyfun.go.com/schools-out/schools-out-teacher-gifts/teacher-gift-ideas-855379/.

Fashionable Media Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to me, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. Opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation.

We received the Tot Talk Learn to Count placemat to make mealtime an educational opportunity and fun too. As you can see from the above photo, it has a cute design with the front featuring 12 different insects an a corresponding number to represent the amount of insects for that number. – 1 Caterpillar, 2 Praying Mantises, 3 Rhinoceros Beetles, 4 Cicadas, etc. On the backside of the placemat there is the English, French, Spanish and Chinese words for each of the insect names and a little box for children to write in the correct number of insects that they count and even color with wipe off makers or crayons. It also features numbers 1-12 in all four languages too.

Our 4 year-old daughter really likes it. She likes hearing the different languages, well, at least the ones that we know how to pronounce like English, Spanish and French. We are not familiar with Chinese. Even our 2-year-old will join us when we are going over the insect names, counting and saying the numbers in the different languages – All the while trying to say them with us!

We are very happy with Tot Talk product we received. They not only offer a variety of educational placemats but other educational materials too. Visit www.TotTalk.com for more information and details.