If you are looking to foster or adopt an animal, check out these sites:

• petfinder.org (national)
• bestfriends.org (national)
• caws.org (Utah)
• utahpets.org (Utah)

If you are looking for a Suzuki teacher, check out the Suzuki Association www.suzukiassociation.org. If you are in Utah, you can check the Utah site at www.suzukimusicutah.org/.

NOTE: The YES Program only recently opened to individual students and their families and is only available on select days but you should check and see if your dates coincide with YES programs because your school-aged kids 6 and older get an exciting experience in the park behind the scenes (along with a chaperon) and your entire family gets discounted park tickets (our discount was 50% off the regular ticket price—an incredible savings). Fore more information, check out their website at http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/ and check out my podcast where I interview the YES Marketing Director about the program and learn more details at http://www.themompodcast.com/2010/10/03/educational-opportunities-and-disney/

Rusty and Rosy is not your run-of-the-mill software program that tries to teach children while mostly just entertaining them.  Believe me, we have tried several of those programs in our house and they were never worth the price I paid for them–even when I paid very little. I first learned about Rusty and Rosy because my son was using it in his first grade class during computer time.  He would come home and tell me what he had done and learned.  He was very excited.

When my daughter had a problem with preschool and we decided to bring her home (she calls herself a Preschool Dropout), I wanted to still find a way to get her ready for Kindergarten.  That is when I remembered my son’s experience with Rusty and Rosy and looked to see if the program was available to parents.

I wasn’t prepared for how excellent the program would be and how much my daughter would enjoy it.  We got our Rusty and Rosy drive and hooked it up to our computer.  The drive contains all the lessons and materials for 3 years of reading learning.  Once you hook it up to your computer and create an account online, Rusty and Rosy also has the ability to adjust to the skills your child already has and customize learning from the resources on the hard drive.

Because Anna had very little reading skills, Rusty and Rosy started at the beginning of the alphabet and with basic number counting as well as weather and dates.  We also get some science lessons thrown in.   As she increased her skills and her speed, the program adjusted so that she was never bored or over challenged.   She asks to use Rusty and Rosy just about every day and when she forgets and I remind her, she is more than happy to spend 30 minutes on the lessons.  Actually, I often have to tell her that she has spent enough time on the computer.

I find the lessons very interesting as well and usually sit with her an watch her learn.  The graphics and songs are engaging and the skill building exercises are good.  There are only a few activities she has not liked.  On the whole, she is excited to participate and learn.  She like Free Play where she can go back and do lessons and activities again that she has liked. Even though there is a lot of repetition, Rusty and Rosy makes it fun by changing the songs and graphics so that it seems “new” all the time.

One thing I have liked about the Rusty and Rosy program as a parent is that I can move the hard drive to any computer.  This means that if I need a computer for something, I can move her drive to another computer and her lessons start up in the same place.  We have used it on both Mac and PC with good results.  We had a couple glitches where a lesson started and then mysteriously skipped, but I found that the lesson was repeated later.

Also, Rusty and Rosy has a Manager that allows parents to see how their children are progressing and even tailor the learning a bit more.  You can choose to have your child learn keyboarding or you can choose for them not to participate in science lessons.

When I was playing around with the Manager, I also found another superb resource–Educational Resources.  This section contains worksheets for all sorts of activities like letters, numbers, as well as instructions for parents on how to use the resources successfully.  Instead of searching the internet for resources, everything is right here with guides and suggestions to help you teach your child.  Anna loves it when “play school” and complete worksheets together.

If you have two children who are at different levels, they can both be using Rusty and Rosy and the program tracks their differences.  We have not used this feature so I cannot comment on it.

You can purchase Rusty and Rosy through the Waterford site or through Home school sites and sites like UPSTART.  It is not cheap at around $500 but it is well worth the cost because you get 3 years of learning for up to 5 kids and it is customized to their abilities.  And when compared with preschool for a year, it is about half the cost in my state for a 2 day a week program.  In your state, it might be even less.  If you have more than one child at different ages, you can pay a bit more and get a lifetime subscription for just a bit more and use it with several kids.

I have to give this program my Squeal of Approval because it really lived up to and exceeded my expectations.  It is a great way to get a child ready for school, supplement or replace preschool, or to home school a child.  I would have never thought about home school because I don’ see myself as qualified to teach it, but this resource really made it easy for me to make our experience great.

AND–We were nominated for the Best of Salt Lake 2010 as the Best Resource for info for Moms!  Whooo Hooo!

For more information on Joy School, go to JoySchools.com and for more on Values Parenting programs, go to ValuesParenting.com.

Great containers we LOVE:

Lunchskins: Reusable sandwich and snack bags made from cute pastry bag fabrics–they saved more than 12 million plastic bags from being in landfills last year.    These can be washed in the dish washer or washing machine.

Other options are available from people on Etsy, but they may not be made of food grade materials.

KlipIt by Sistema: A cool container that holds a sandwich in one place and two sides in the other side.  Available at The Container Store or in Old Navy stores for a limited time.  They also make other cool containers you will want to check out.

Recycled Sandwich Wrap (Original idea from Family Fun)

1. Find a sturdy food grade bag (Large cereal bags, candy bags, cracker bags, Pirate’s Booty bag).  The best bags are thick and have some silver lining in them–or they may be completely silver like the cereal bags inside the Costco Kirkland brand cereal boxes.
2. Cut the bottom from the bag, open the side seam, and clean the bag.
3. Cut it into a 10 or 12-inch square.
4. Attach self-adhesive hook-and-loop dots at two opposite corners of the square, one on the front and the other on the back of the bag.

Love Notes for the Lunch Box:

You can write your own notes for your kids lunches, get some online, or get these totally cute ones with great kid-fun facts along with your note.  We like “Did you Know that a Turtle breathes through is Butt?  OThey are called Lunchbox Love by SayPlease.com.

Ideas for Great Lunches:

Remember to think power snack instead of full lunch since they don’t have time to eat a large meal.

• Peanut butter and crackers
• Bagel sandwich
• Rollup with cucumber, bell pepper and salad dressing
• Tortilla, spread with PB, wrapped around a banana—can add a drizzle of honey
• Tuna salad and crackers
• Quesadilla (just cheese, or add some ground beef) serve with salsa
• Hard boiled egg, roll, fruit or veggie
• Fruit smoothie: I love this trick—make several smoothies, freeze in 8 oz containers and pop them in your child’s lunch. They will defrost and be ready to stir or spoon up by lunch
• Cold pizza
• Baked chips (whole grain/healthy versions)—dips or sauces if you like
• Pretzel, cheese stick, apple/grapes
• Crackers, lunchmeat, cheese (homemade lunchable)
• Waffle
• Plain tortilla (dip in salsa or spaghetti sauce—or nothing)
• Bagel (loads of different flavors), apple
• Granola bar and a piece of fruit or a vegetable
• Muffins and a fruit smoothie
• Soup in a thermos
• Pasta. Fun bite sized shapes. Toss with parmesan cheese, include some sauce to dip it in. Eat like chicken nuggets!
• Dry cereal (not the sugary stuff—how did that EVER make it to our breakfast tables?)
• Biscuits and jam, stick the two sides together.
• Cookies: make with smashed beans instead of butter, applesauce for half the sugar, add raisens and nuts. Keep in freezer)

If they have a microwave:

• left over dinner
• Macaroni and cheese (add a little milk in the container so it won’t be dry when reheated)
• Soup (homemade or from a can)
• Pizza

Sides:

• Nuts
• Cheese sticks/slices
• Snap peas
• Canned fruit
• Carrot sticks
• Dried apples
• Broccoli and ranch
• Cucumbers
• Grapes
• Bell pepper slices

DRINK:

Water. Really. No fruit drinks. It is a lot of money and they really need to rehydrate with some good old water.  Check out the Kleen Kanteen or the SubZero Stainless steel containers instead of the plastic ones.

Cowboy Cookies (with healthy alternatives)

1 c butter OR 1 cup mashed white beans
*1 c sugar
*1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla or 1/2 t almond extract
**2 c flour
**2 c oatmeal
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c chocolate chips

Mix butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla or almond extract.  Add dry ingredients, then chocolate chips.  Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes.

* You can decrease the sugar or alter with sugar substitutes. If using agave, you will need to increase the flour and oatmeal until the batter is not too runny.

**For Gluten Free cookies, use gluten free flour, xanthum gum and gluten free oatmeal.  Follow the instructions on your gluten free flour for quantities.  I found that I had to add another 1/3 c to the recipe to make it work.

If you use beans instead of butter, you are created a “perfect protein” mix with the oatmeal.  My kids could not taste the difference in the cookies and I felt less guilty about giving them something tasty.

I make a separate batch for me and lessen the sugar, use agave or xylitol and add some protein powder to make a protein cookie.

Check out her site and some great ideas at http://bookclub4boysinfo.blogspot.com/2008/12/start-book-club-for-your-boy.html

UPDATE:  Nancy’s son and his friends met for the first Boys Only Book Club and about 50% of the kids showed up, but they had fun and Barnes and Noble was very accommodating to help them choose books.  They chose Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.  They will be meeting every 3 weeks over the summer to get them interested in reading.  They also joined the Barnes and Noble reading plan, the Borders reading plan and a local library reading plan that all give freebies to kids who read.

Check out these lists of books for kids in every age and group: http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/forparents/tp/summer_reading.htm

Check out the local library reading program

Check out bookstore reading programs like Barnes and Noble and Borders book programs.

Here are some of our kids’ favorite books:

• 39 Clues series
• Percy Jackson Series
• Diary of a Whimpy Kid Series
• When You Reach Me (2010 Newbery Winner)
• Savvy (2009 Newbery Honor)
• Hoot
• Flush
• Scat
• Bud, Not Buddy
• Hatchet
• Captain Underpants
• Stink
• Miss Daisy is Crazy
• Time Warp Trio Series
• Encyclopedia Brown
• Fablehaven
• Swindle
• Zoobreak
• Radio Fifth Grade
• Invention of Hugo Cabret
• No Talking (any Andrew Clements book)
• Magic Tree House Series
• Al Capone Does My Shirts