Image Credit: DiscoveryEducation.com

use brown paper bags), and Mommy to a sometimes daycare-goer (but who must always have her lunch packed) I have run into a familiar problem. While we use plastic reusable sandwich containers and plastic reusable containers for our fruits and other goodies, I still can’t help but feel we’re just not helping the environment all that much.

True, we no longer use the 15 plastic sandwich baggies/snack baggies a day that we used to, we are still using plastic containers.  Bear with me while I work this out on here…my blog {The blog I’m fairly certain few people actually read anymore…sure it might come to your inbox/google reader, but do you actually read this stuff?}.

I’m ready to forgo using plastic, of any kind, in favor of products that are sturdy, easily washable, ec0-friendly, and frugal.

Do these products even exist?

Am I doing more harm than good by getting rid of the plastic containers I already have to trade up/out for cloth or wooden containers?

What do you use in your child’s lunch? Are you a baggie person or do you have a clever, eco-friendly, and frugal way to send your kids their lunch in style?

I’m all ears! Share!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Green & Frugal Tips for Back to School

On the way to school today KG is complaining about how she isn’t learning anything new this year and everything they do in math is just a review of last year. She’s also bragging about how she’s always getting check marks on her work {which is equivalent to a 100%) and that she never misses any questions.  Without thinking I tell her she wont always get them all right.

Wait. Did I just tell her she wouldn’t always do well in class? Did I give her permission not to do as well as she has been?

OMG.

So I rapidly backpedal…

What Mommy meant to say was work would get more difficult in the future and the teacher {Mrs. K} have to review and make sure everyone was on the same page and understood the basics before moving on and teaching new skills. That is not to say you shouldn’t continue to try your best…omg, I think I’m making this worse…what mama meant to say was it’s ok not to get everything right all the time, but as long you do your best work I’ll be proud.

Oh MAN!

Did I mess this up or what?! All I wanted her to know was that there would be harder work this year and she might not always get everything right…but that that is ok as long as she is doing her best.

Sigh. This being a parent thing is hard.

Any suggestions how I can make this better? OR how to handle it better next time?

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. End of School Countdown: Planning for Summer
2. 13 Things We Love About Back to School

What does it take to get people interested in their school? I know it was just the first meeting and all, but still. The first meeting of the year is often one of our most important. We go over the budget and start planning for our Fall Festival {our largest fundraiser of the year}.

Our board works hard all summer while even the teachers get to take time off to get ready for the coming school year. We plan out the fundraisers, trying to be sure to only choose high profit yielding ones so we don’t have to beg the already over-extended parents for money over and over. We do landscaping at the school to make sure when the students arrive they have a nice, clean, welcoming school to come in to. Our board plans giveaways for the teachers and little ways to say Thank You {and only 1 teacher out of all of them makes it to nearly every meeting, most don’t ever come at all.}

Again, I know they’re busy…that they’ve been there all day and are ready to go home, but really? Is one day every month {heck I would take every 2 months} that much to ask. We’re always prepared for our meetings with an agenda, we start on time, and end exactly 1 hour later {sometimes sooner}. And by the way, we’re busy too. Most of us would love to be home with our children or relaxing with our husbands, but we’re there…every month. We spend countless hours during the year in classrooms or around the school making sure our teachers have the support they need and deserve.

But really it seems to me that this lack of participation on the part of the parents isn’t contained to just PTSO meetings, we see a slow-down, a lack of volunteering in parents starting in around the second grade. Parents come in with their kiddos in Kindergarten gung-ho ready to volunteer their hearts out and by the time second grade rolls around they’re barely stopping at the front door long enough to drop their kids off. Teachers and students need parental support through out the years, the copies don’t stop when your child reaches second grade and neither do the activities. We, as parents, need to step up and support our children and their teachers through out their school career. As we are able.

I understand work happens, but many of us are able to volunteer during the day {SAHMs I’m looking at you} even just one day a week. If you work, consider volunteering to help prepare lessons after work {like at night when you’re watching Glee} or on the weekends. If you’re a handy man {or woman}, let your school know you’re willing to help with repairs or improvements on the weekends or whenever you’re available. Schools are flexible and always need more help.

The more you volunteer and show your children their education is important to you, the more important it will become to them.

Do you have any suggestions on how to encourage parents and teachers to get involved in their PTSO? How about ideas to encourage volunteerism?

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. First Day of the 1st Grade
2. Free Clorox Clean Up Kit for Teachers!
3. Let’s Catch Up

If your child did see it or if you are going to show it to them it’s important to talk with them afterward.  Show them you are listening, that you care.

I really didn’t post this to cause an uproar, but am perfectly aware that it might upset some of my readers.  I just hope we are adult enough to watch it and take it for what it is.

A speech by our President and a chance to talk with your child about the importance of education.

Did your child’s school show it? Did you discuss his remarks with your child?  What was your general consensus?

Don’t forget to enter one of our great giveaways we have going on this week!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Build a Word Bank to Support Your Child’s Reading

By the end of last week I was at the end of my rope. I had had enough. I just couldn’t figure out why this brilliant child who amazes people daily with her intelligence had to be reminded every day what she needed to do next.

Her schedule never changes. Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush hair, brush teeth, put on shoes, make bed, and grab back pack.  Late last week I ran across a magazine article suggesting we make a To Do list for her to follow. Ingenious! I am a lover of To Do lists!

It was SO simple, I just typed up a simple list with all the things KG needs to get done each day.  I slipped it in a page protector, taped it to the fridge, and added a handy magnetic dry erase marker.  With the addition of a timer our mornings run oh, so much smoother.  I set the timer for 60 minutes (the time she has before we must leave) after I wake her.  KG loves the responsibility of marking items off her To Do list and I love the ease of our mornings!

For more things that work, be sure to head over We Are THAT Family.

Don’t forget to enter one of our great giveaways we have going on this week!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Thankfulness: 8/6
2. End of School Countdown: Planning for Summer

Normally, our G is a very calm, collected, beautiful lady…Friday she sounded less than calm and collected.

“Amanda, you might want to come out here, KG has fallen and split her chin open.  She won’t let me look at it and there’s a lot of blood.”

“Is she freaking out?” I ask her…at this point I’m less than worried. KG is a bit dramatic (I have no idea where she could get that from..heh) and I figure she’s probably fine but just freaking out a bit.

“No, no. She’s calm, but I think she might need stitches.”

Now, I’m rushing around trying desperately to find my stupid shoes and where are my ever-loving car keys.  Because, now you see, I’m imagining blood everywhere, a huge gash, and holding my poor sweet child down while they thread a needle through her precious chin. (Now I remember where she gets her dramatic side from…) “I’m on my way.”

I hang up.

2.5 seconds later I arrive at the school, my heart is pounding out of my chest and I’m starting to panic a bit myself.

“Must calm down. Cannot frighten the child.  Must call Jon and the doctor and my dad and Mommaw and…”

G meets me at the door, “I really think she’s going to need a stitch or two.”

KG: “NOOOOO. No needles. No needles Mommy, they’re not going to use needles are they?”

Me: “Calm down sis, and just let me see.”  Well, I can’t clear the blood enough to be able to tell whether she really needs a doctors visit, but at this point I”m so frazzled we’re going.

So I call our fabulous pediatricians office, tell them KG may need a stitch or two, and get an appointment 2 hours later…WHA? 2 hours? Jeeze, but we decide to wait it out…she’s not in pain and the bleeding has stopped (mostly).

We go shopping to take our minds off the possibility of stitches, then I take her out to lunch (even though she ate at school).

Finally we arrive at said doctor’s office. Where they proceed to look at me like I am somehow responsible for the cut and they ask KG 4 times how she got the cut. Four times by four different people.

Aside from the suspicious glances I get, the doctors, nurses, and medical student are all sufficiently impressed with KG’s vocabulary and interest in all things medical.  She interrogates them on her blood pressure, pulse and temperature…then awes them with her intense insistence that she, too, will be a pediatrician some day.

We manage to make it out of there without a stitch, much to our delight, and with only some glue to hold her chin back together.  Mommy thinks at this point perhaps she could use some glue to hold her sanity together, but settles on ice cream for everyone.

Don’t forget to enter one of our great giveaways we have going on this week!

This post is featured on Family Friday.

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Teach Your Child to Try New Foods

We started doing this at the start of last year, carried it on through the summer when I pushed her with more advanced books and still do it today when she forgets one she retired long ago .  It total we have collected about 75 words and to date all save the more recent ones have been retired.

We’ve started a new word bank for 1st Grade from a small 3×5 notebook. It’s great because it keeps all the words in one place and she can conveniently carry it with her.

It has been so much fun to watch her vocabulary and confidence grow.  We also keep all of the words we retire…it’s fun for her to be able to look at those note cards and see what she’s accomplished.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, be sure to head over to We Are THAT Family!

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Teach Your Child to Try New Foods
2. First Day of the 1st Grade
3. My Little Black Book Keeps Me Sane

It is my “big” girl’s first day of the 1st grade and I’m a nervous wreck.  My stomach is tied up in knots and I’m more than a little sad about seeing her go.  I know KJ will feel the same way when she wakes to find Sissy gone.

Still, there is something thrilling about the first day of school. Even for me.

That backpack weighed more than she does.

The smell of all the new school supplies; you can feel the excitement from teachers and students, the expectations of the parents. Yep, it’s gonna be a great new year.

I met KG’s teacher for the first time just this morning…I really want the whole Room Mom thing and want her to know I am here to help in any way…but not in that whole Pushy-parent-who-thinks-she-knows-your-job-better-than-you kind of way.

She got her very first agenda today and just last night she was asking for her own alarm clock…in case Mom over sleeps. She’s growing up so fast.

She did me proud this morning. Walked right in there, hooked up with her buddies, checked out the fish tank, and set to work on the Seek & Find Ms. H had set out for her.

Bye Mom. Love you.

I am forgotten. And all is how it should be.

This post is linked up at Homemaker Barbi’s Family Friday.

Like what you read? Try these!:

1. Father-Daughter Dance
2. My Big Girl Lost Her First Baby Tooth.