Free Sesame Street Shows

Sesame Street has a bunch of episodes on iTunes that you can download for free and they talk about how to deal with deployments. Very cool! Major props for Sesame Street!
Just click here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/learn-along-with-sesame/id215221061

Your Child's Education

If I have not already stated in previous posts, I am an educator. I used to teach full-time, but with the birth of my second child, husband deploying, and subsequent development of my Chron's Disease, I have since become a stay-at-home mom. Even though being a mom, wife, and homemaker is my primary job now, I still miss teaching.

My oldest child is in Kindergarten this year and has struggled herself with building her sight word knowledge and her number knowledge. As a parent, I wonder what my child is learning in the classroom, and as a teacher, I wonder how I can help her with the areas she struggles with.

Most children in America today have some sort of struggle during the year with their education. As a parent, your job is to be aware of what your child is learning and where they are struggling in their studies. In my experience as a teacher, many of my parents had no desire to help their children in their schooling once they left the school and they struggled, passing the grade by the skin of their teeth. I hope that you readers out there take the advice I am going to give from the point of view of a parent and a teacher.

If your student is struggling in school:

1. What subject are they lacking in and why?

2. What can I do as a parent at home to help my child learn what they are supposed to learn this year at school?

3. What type of learner is my child? (Are they audial- learn by hearing, verbal- learn by speaking, or kinisthetic- learn by doing?)- This information helps you as a parent and the teacher work within their best learning modality. Most students learn with 2 or more modalities. (My daughter has struggled this year because she is primarily an audial learner- imagine trying to teacher her numbers when she does not learn visually!)

4. Be proactive not reactive. Try to be in constant contact (I suggest monthly) with your student's teacher just to make sure you are on the same page with them. The teacher should be sending home weekly or biweekly work that has been corrected so that you can see what your child has been working on and what they are not completing successfully.

5. If your student has learning issues, what modifications are being made for your child and are they working?

6. If your student is on medication for ADD/ADHD, is it effective while they are in school? (ie. are they alert and paying attention or are they lethargic and unable to do any of their work in a timely manner?)

Keep in mind that your student's teacher sees your child more than you do, so constant communication is imperative to ensure that your student succeeds and grows during the school year. Remember this rule when it comes to your child's education: You are their greatest champion in the educational system. If you don't care, they won't care, and their teachers will not care. I have seen too many children thrown to the wayside in the educational system because of parents not taking an interest in their child's education. I hope that we as American moms can bring about a change in the thinking that school is not a babysitter, it is a place for our children to learn HOW to do things; but it is our job as parents to continue to foster what they have learned at school when they come home.

If you have any concerns or specific questions about how to help your child in their schooling or if you need help with quality questions to ask the teacher during a conference, feel free to ask in the comments section and I will respond. I would love to hear any and all thoughts on education and what you feel may be lacking in today's educational system. Our children are our future and we, as their parents, must ensure that they are help up to the highest standards, and then pushed some more. There is so much that children are capable of and I find it sad that many of them do not live up to their potential. I want to change that way of thinking!

Getting your finances in order

Hello dear readers. I know it has been such a long time since we have posted on our blog. Between Shevaun's move to her first duty station in Hawaii and her husband's first deployment and my own long-term illness, it has been a struggle getting through the day-to-day activities let alone our hobby and business building. So, I think it fitting to discuss getting your finances in order as the beginning of this year as already come and gone! Many of us are mothers who are in families with only one income, our husband's. We are forced to learn early how to find deals, cut unnecessary expenses, and sacrifice our wants for the needs of our families. The first suggestion I make to families who live on a strict budget is to make a list of your necessary bills. For example: Rent/mortgage, electricity, phone, water, trash. Those are the necessities. Then follow by making a list of your other bills. For example: Cable, Internet, car payment, cell phones, car insurance, and credit cards. After you have made this list, put the average monthly amounts that you pay for each next to them. Remember, this is just an average. So, say you pay $700 for your rent. You would list that next to RENT. Obviously, some bills vary month to month, so that is why I suggest you put an average payment. You really get a sense of where your money is going during the month this way. Next comes the extra necessities: Food and gas! Many people, when they make a budget forget about these necessities. The key to this exercise is to see what your total debt is and how to get it down as much as possible in as little as time as possible so that you can be better off down the road. When it comes to credit card debt, list the total amounts that you owe as well as what you are expected to pay each month. Keep in mind that if you are making the minimum payment on these, you will take a long time to pay these off. My suggestion would be, if it is within your means, to double your minimum payment each month or at least try to pay a little extra depending on what your minimum payment is. If you have a high interest rate, i.e. 21% (which is ridiculous), I would suggest closing the account and paying it off in regular installments. A reasonable rate for a credit card is anywhere between 12-14% for someone with an average credit rating. However, if you have a good credit rating, you should not accept anything above 10% interest rates. Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, and the only way to get out of a majority of debt is to determine what our needs are versus our wants and stick to the needs list at least until you have downsized your debt a bit. Building a savings account is also very important. Most of us can't afford to put that much into savings. So my biggest suggestion is to start with $10-20 each paycheck until other debts are paid down and slowly increase that amount. This will allow you to not rely on those credit cards anymore for purchases as you will have a cash base you can go to. I am not ashamed to say that my husband and I are in the same situation as many active duty military personnel. We are working on paying off all of our credit card debt so that we have a larger sum in our savings for emergency purposes or for larger purchases that we do not want to charge. It is doable, no matter how much you owe. The key is to talk openly with your partner, look hard at your needs vs. wants list, be honest about your bills, and if possible buy things second hand. I recently outfitted my son in a 4T wardrobe of summer and winter items (minus socks, underwear, and shoes) for $40 and they are all well cared for items. I did this by looking on a local site in my area called lejeuneyardsales.com. You can do the same by looking for gently used items for your children (because lets face it, kids are expensive), by going to yard sales and looking at second hand websites like the one I use here where I live.