Category Archives: School

15 Back-To-School Pins That’ll Save You Time, Money, and Sanity!

July 31, 2014Organization, Schoolback to school, OrganizingAlicia

My kids go back to school August 4th and while I feel more prepared for the start of the school year than I have in the past, I still feel like we’re going to have to rush to the store this weekend to grab a few things and Monday morning will be hectic. I would like to say that both kids will have their outfits picked out for the first week of school by Sunday, a lunchbox menu will be posted on the refrigerator, and the kids will be excited to do their homework after school. I’m joking about that last one. That couldn’t possibly happen. 😉

My online search for back-to-school organization and preparation ideas led me to Pinterest time and time again today. While I get some of the most interesting ideas from Pinterest I hadn’t considered going to Pinterest to get back-to-school ideas. Silly me!

Pinterest is a great place to get back to school money saving tips, outfit ideas, and homework station ideas. Who’d have thought?

Some of my favorite back to school tips and other back to school related content you will find on my Back-To-School Pinterest board are:

Back to School Routines for Kids & Mom
DIY Homework Caddy
25 Things to sew for back to school
Back To School Organizing: 5 Easy Steps To Packing School Lunches
Back to School Savings Tips and Sale Information
Back to school command center ideas
Kids closet clothing tags for back to school outfits
Crayon bin color labels printable
First day of school photo – printable by grade
School day routine printables
Back To School: Get Organized with an Easy School Planning Wall!
Back to SCHOOL: DIY Dry Erase Clip Board
DIY Back to School Station
Back to school survival kit
Back to school homework station

Follow The Mommy Insider’s board Back to school on Pinterest.

If you don’t have a Pinterest account, you should probably get one.. today! It’s free to sign up for a Pinterest account and you can think of Pinterest as your virtual bulletin board. I look at my Pinterest boards as the bulletin boards I’d like to have on my office and kitchen walls to inspire me, but don’t want the clutter on the walls. You can pin an image from just about any website and once you pin an image, you can go back to it anytime via your Pinterest page.

Happy pinning!

SIGG Kid’s Water Bottle and Aluminum Lunch Box Giveaway! #BackToSchool with @SIGG_NA

August 2, 2012Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Ages 10-13, Contests, New posts, Schoolback to school, lunch box, reusable, SIGG, water bottleAlicia

I haven’t been very excited about shopping this back-to-school season. It was when my daughter, who’s entering first grade this year, told me that she wants a new backpack and my son mentioned that he needs a new USB stick that I finally got interested in the idea of back-to-school shopping. Is shopping for 3-ring binders, printer paper, and colored pencils really fun? Not so much.

Something that my kids use every day and need for school is a water bottle. Much more exciting to shop for than paper and pencils right?

We have dozens of water bottles between the four of us. Our SIGG water bottles are what we call our ‘special bottles’. We each have our ‘special bottles’ that we do not share. Both of my kids have a special SIGG water bottle that they’ve used for at least two years and my husband and I have several that we’ve used for that long. I use them for road trips and when I attend conferences. I even have a couple of personalized SIGG water bottles. My son uses his SIGG water bottles on camping trips, hikes and at school, my husband uses them for every day drinking (not that kind of drinking silly), and my daughter takes her SIGG to school with her in her lunch box.

SIGG’s new Rainbox collection offers kids a colorful way to enjoy water or their favorite juice while at school. The new collection features 12 vibrant hues inspired by the rainbow. Running the spectrum from neon yellow to cool coral to royal blue, you will undoubtedly find a shade that catches your child’s eye. The sleek, loop top style bottles are manufactured and quality checked in Switzerland and are BPA and phthalate free. Like all SIGG bottles, they are completely taste and odor neutral and are 100% recyclable at the end of their long lives. The nonporous interior lining in the bottles ensures that it remains taste and odor neutral so you can have juice on Monday, milk on Tuesday and water on Wednesday and there won’t be any residual taste. How great is that?

SIGG water bottles are sturdy. My son’s SIGGs have been dropped from trees and have rolled down the street plenty of times and boy will a SIGG bottle roll far and fast! My son has put SIGG water bottles to the test and they can withstand just about anything.

Who knows, maybe getting a new SIGG water bottle will become an annual back to school tradition? I can see it now..my son will have a line of SIGG water bottles on a bookshelf in his college dorm. That’s a few years from now but hey, they’ll last that long!

SIGG Aluminum Box Maxi Metallic Purple — SIGG Aluminum Box Metallic Purple

I also love SIGG’s metallic lunch/storage boxes. Available in colors fit for boys and girls, this lunch box is perfect for a snack or a sandwich. SIGG sleek boxes are available in fun bold colors and are perfect for containing your child’s lunch or snack items or for toting school or art supplies. Offered in hues of green, blue, fuchsia and silver, these boxes ward off moisture and mold with their aluminum composition and for that reason are also odor resistant. Light, durable with a slick appearance, this a multi-functional box your child will be excited to take to school. They also make for an easy canvas for children to decorate with stickers or puffy paint so they can customize their container.

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Win a SIGG ABC water bottle and aluminum lunch/storage box!

SIGG water bottle and lunch storage box giveaway Open to U.S. residents ages 18+ only. No P.O. Boxes.

Entries accepted through 11:59pm EST August 22nd, 2012. Read our official contest rules here.

Follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am being compensated via product from SIGG, for this review. All opinions are 100% my own and were not influenced in any way. I really do have and love SIGG water bottles!

Something that Bothers the Daylights out of me! When is a Child too Sick to go to School?

January 11, 2012Health, New posts, Parenting Articles, SchoolSchool, sickAlicia

My daughter had a holiday party at school before Christmas break and I couldn’t believe what I saw in her classroom. Sick kids. Several of them. Coughing, red-faced, snotty nosed 5 and 6 year olds. I was beside myself. Why had these kids parents sent their kids to school sick. One girl was coughing so much she had to go to the nurse while I was there and several more kids had garbage cans right next to them to throw their snotty tissues in because they were blowing their noses so much. My daughter had just gotten over a cold and I kept her home for 3 out of 5 days the week prior because I (a) wanted her to recover and (b) didn’t want her to get anyone else sick. Why don’t all parents have the same consideration? I guess there can be extenuating circumstances such as not having anyone to care for the child while the parent is at work but still, kids need to stay healthy and not pass these nasty bugs/viruses around so please keep your child home if they are not feeling well.

I understand that when a child is sick, it is sometimes tempting to send them to school anyway. With many parents working either outside the home or from home, household chores and other tasks are often accomplished while children are at school. There are times, however, that a child is considered too sick to attend school, I believe. There are a number of reasons, both for the child and the other students, why a sick child should stay home.

Here are four reasons why a child not feeling well should stay home from school:

Cough – Excessive coughing would not necessarily include the symptoms caused by asthma. Although asthma with excessive symptoms should be checked by a doctor.
Fever – A child with low grade fever should be kept home from school as well. Fevers are transmittable whether they are low or high.
Diarrhea
Vomiting

A few more things to consider before sending a sick child to school:

The child may be contagious.
By sending a child to school if he or she has a cough, fever, or has had diarrhea or has vomited in the last 24 hours, the risk of other children catching the same illness whether it’s a cold, flu, or other illness, is substantially higher than keeping the child home.

It is well known that to get better, lots of rest is needed.
If a child is at school and maintaining a regular schedule of activities, his/her body is not getting the extra rest required to heal. When a person, especially a younger elementary age child, does not feel well, they often times want to spend extra time cuddling with their parent. It is important that parents spend extra time with our kids when they are feeling under the weather.

A common rule that should be followed is that a child should be completely fever free for a full twenty-four hours before they should return to the classroom.

Nobody knows a child better than their parent. It is essential that the parent or guardian take the time to determine if the sickness is bad enough to keep a child home from the classroom. It is in the best interest of both your child and other children to keep your child home from the classroom if they are ill.

What are your thoughts on keeping kids home when they aren’t feeling well or sending them on to school anyway? Tell us in the comments below.

The Kids Started School Today, I’m Alone in an Almost Quiet House and I Can’t Get Motivated!

August 15, 2011New posts, Personal, SchoolFirst day of school, motivationAlicia

I had big plans for today, the kid’s first day back at school. I have a newsletter to write, an events calendar to update, a massive spreadsheet to fill out, a dr. appointment to make, I need to exercise, take a shower, I have meals to plan, travel decisions to make, the library to call about a reserved book, schools to call about my kid’s lunch money payments, a house to clean, laundry to do, and I need to get my oil changed. I’m not sure why but I REALLY thought I could pull all of the things off today while the kids were in school. What was I thinking?

It’s almost 11am now, the kids have been in school for 4 and 2 hours and, I have answered a few emails, cleaned part of the kitchen, put a dent in the spreadsheet project, taken a few phone calls, and am currently staring at the computer in a daze of confusion wondering what do I do now?

I’m exhausted from lack of sleep for the past few days and my husband is rubbing my huge to-do list in my face by singing Bruno Mars’ Lazy Song (you know the one…”Today I Don’t Feel Like Doing Anything”).. he doesn’t have to do anything!
But.. I am so grateful that my daughter who started kindergarten and my son who started sixth grade (middle school) got onto their buses without a hitch and with big smiles on their faces. That makes me feel great.

I think I’ll spend a few minutes making a list of what I absolutely need to get done today and let the rest go until tomorrow. I’ll also enjoy the photograph above, of my daughter and neighbor’s daughter with their cute smiles before getting on the bus. The morning couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

Anderson Cooper on Regis & Kelly this Friday – He wants your school supply buying and budgeting tips!

March 11, 2010Age 5-7, Schoolanderson cooper, budget, elementary, regis and kelly, school supplies, tipsAlicia

LIVE! with Regis and Kelly are expecting Anderson Cooper to stop by (filling in for Regis.. didn’t Kelly just say she would marry Anderson Cooper if given the chance, a few days ago? Hmm..) this Friday morning. Anderson is covering the current flux in education funding and wants us to help him get advice, secrets, tips to families that need it most!! In anticipation of his arrival we need all you thrifty Mom’s, Dad’s Grandmas and Grandpas to put your heads together for Elementary School children across America!
What are some of the ways you maintain your budget and still send your little ones fully equippedfor school!? What are some training strategies, and lessons you’ve instilled about respect, honesty and safety?

With having a 10 year old son, I have 5 years of elementary school supply buying skills and tips under my belt and I am well aware that the changing economy and rising jobless rates are impacting every part of parents lives from simple grocery buying to health care and one necessity parents of upcoming Kindergartner’s have to think about is school supplies. School supplies do not only include paper, pencils, crayons, and folders, but parents also have to consider travel expenses, field trip fee’s, clothes, shoes, backpacks, and yes, hair cuts. All of these add up and all of these are necessary to help your child enjoy and appreciate their education.

What to consider when shopping for your Kindergartner’s school supplies and getting him ready for his first year of elementary school:

Buy notebook paper, crayons, and pencils in bulk when you are able to.
Character school supplies, clothing, and backpacks are more expensive than solid color clothing and backpacks and can cause conflict between students (you know.. some kids don’t like Batman while others love him!).
Talk to your child about why it’s important both socially and environmentally, for him to ride on the bus.
Ask your child who he would most like to carpool with so you can schedule carpool days with other parents to save on gas money.

Here are a few tips that I follow when getting my elementary age son ready for a new school year each year:

Buy one pack of paper, one pack of pencils, one notebook, and/or one pack of crayons, every week or two during summer vacation. Doing this will ensure that parents who are on a budget aren’t slammed with one big school supply bill right before the new school year begins.
I buy folders, pencils, erasers, and paper in bulk whenever I can.
Local consignment sales are often held just before school starts are a great place for buying lightly used backpack, school clothes, and shoes.
Remind your child how important it is for him to keep his hands clean while at school because not washing hands is a huge factor in spreading illnesses at school and when kids get sick, parents have to spend MONEY to go to the doctor! Let’s teach our kids to was their hands so our individual health care costs go down!

Store Freebies and Coupons for school supplies

Live in a neighborhood with lots of kids? Chances are kids moving up to middle school have left over school supplies such as pencils, notebooks, and other things they didn’t use last year and can’t use in middle school that they would be happy to hand down to your child.
Check drug stores and office supply stores for penny sales and free-after-rebate items in July.
The Internet is a moms best friend! Visit coupon websites to find coupons for big brands like Bic, Post-It, and more.
Almost everyone knows someone who works in an office.. ask your friends who work in an office if they can give your child some paper, notebooks, pens, markers, and highlighters.

Local Church and Government Resources that may provide free and inexpensive school supplies

Ask your child’s school system if they have programs that give kids free school supplies.
Parents can contact their local United Way and Salvation Army to find out if they offer free school supplies.
Many churches collect school supply donations during the year and disperse them to families that need them before the next school year begins.
Check with your county school system to learn about their free lunch options for qualifying students.

IT’S YOUR TURN TO SHARE YOUR TIPS!

Share your back-to-school shopping and budget tips with us and with Anderson Cooper.

via Twitter:
@Regis_and_Kelly
@AndersonCooper
@mommyinsider

Share your thrifty back-to-school shopping tips with The Mommy Insider and the world, in the comments below.