Custom Monsters

I

*disclosure: I just signed up as an affiliate (figured I might as well since I was going to link to them anyway). So if you click the image above and make a purchase, I do get a commission.

Cupcakes do not need to be dressed up

Why do all the parenting magazines I get focus on food presentation? As, if I make the carrot look like a caterpillar, my kid will suddenly be interested in eating it.

REALLY? I mean does any kid really fall for that? Mine doesn’t. I’m so desperate to get Zach to eat vegetables, that I even bought that book Deceptively Delicious. Even if he can’t see the vegetables, even if can’t taste the vegetables, he still somehow always knows when they’re there. It’s like he has Veg-dar or something. If he sees so much as a microscopic green parsley leaf in his food he has to pick it out. (oh, and whine about it, too)

How did I end up with a kid that hates vegetables this much? I love vegetables. I’m not exaggerating – I could sit and eat a head of lettuce, just like that, with no dressing. Just pick off the leaves and munch them like they were potato chips. (Spaghetti Squash may be the only vegetable I really don’t like).

But then the parenting magazines will take things too far. They’ll make cupcakes look like little turkeys for Thanksgiving.

REALLY??? This is one thing that doesn’t need to be dressed up. We don’t have any problems getting the kids to eat cupcakes. While it may be FUN to dress up a cupcake to look like a turkey, it doesn’t need to be done, he will eat it anyway, and my time is probably better spent trying to make the turkey look like a cupcake so he’ll eat that. (He’s not big on meat either. I honestly don’t know how he survives.)

As I posted on Twitter – I told Zach if he ate asparagus, it would make his pee smell. He thought that would be really cool. It almost worked. In the end, he chickened out.

I think what we need is more Popeye’s. I remember as a kid, watching Popeye cartoons, I was encouraged to eat spinach. Of course, I don’t know why. It’s not like I really wanted to look like Popeye. Zach does like that “party in my tummy” song – it so cracks me up. (If you go to that link, and get the song stuck in your head, you can thank me later) 😉 But it’s not enough. I think the real solution is that we need more vegetarian super heroes! (and less turkey cupcakes!) Captain Cucumber saves the day!!!

Or maybe not.

Cello Tuner – iPhone App

RCello Tuner Simple: $0.99*

Of course NOW there is a free app on the iTunes store that was not there originally! However, I still think the $0.99 is worth it for Cello Tuner Simple. The free app does not play the note endlessly, it just plays it for a few seconds and then stops on it’s own. As well, Cello Tuner Simple SOUNDS more like a real Cello. The free app sounds like an electronic keyboard. (Although both are clearly electronically generated)

Cello Tuner (Alvin Yu): free*

*Price at time of this writing.

Any teachers out there?

There’s this great program that they do in Rachel’s school called “Art Through The Ages.” It’s completely run and taught by the PTA and the idea behind the program is to teach kids both history, and art history, while also giving them an art class. The time period is discussed along with what things were happening in the world and a particular region at that time, art during that time frame is shown and discussed, and then the kids get a chance to try their hands at creating similar art using similar methods from the time. Rachel loves the program. She comes home and tells me all about what she learned, and what she made.

This year I offered to help. Honestly, I really didn’t think they’d need me or that they’d pick me to lead the lesson. I thought maybe there were better trained people and I would just be helping them. I chose the Renaissance time period. Yesterday we had the training, and I found out that, in fact, *I* will be leading the lesson. (There was someone listed as being available to help me – but I haven’t heard from them).

So the history portion (as far as I understand it! Someone PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong!) talks about the shift from God-centered thinking and artwork, to human-centered. People sent less money to Rome to the Church. Because of the bubonic plague, there were just less people around in general, which meant less famine, less (business) competition and a “middle class” rose into being that had more expendable money. Some of this money was spent on the arts; Music, plays, artwork. Artists could make a living on their craft – and this gave rise to an explosion in creativity.

This is the point that we’re supposed to do an activity with the kids to get them to “feel like they’re in this time” – and unfortunately the activity just made no sense to me. The activity they had revolved around having a few kids pick a “job” (for example: corn farmer) and having them set a price for their product – and would the rest of the class pay that much, (if there’s just one corn farmer – do you have much choice) – and then if there are more corn farmers – how does their competition and price change.

I just don’t get the connection between that activity and the Renaissance. There’s got to be another activity (non-art-related – that comes later) that can give them a better understanding of the time period. Unfortunately, I’m on my own if I want to try something different (which we’ve been given the freedom to do) but aside from the fact that I 1) suck at public speaking even in front of kids! and 2) suck at teaching in general – WHAT?! What do I do??

The ART portion of the lesson I think I can do (or at least do better than what is planned for the HISTORY portion) – I’ll be covering the new concepts that came about during the Renaissance such as “vanishing points”, “foreshortening”  – I can show paintings during the Medieval time and compare that with paintings during the Renaissance. I can show how vanishing points work – etc. Then the kids are to try their hands at creating a “fresco” (which actually isn’t really a fresco – from what I understand – fresco means painting on WET plaster – secco is painting on dry plaster. Most FRESCO’s were a combination of fresco and secco because while the fresco had more permanence, the colors couldn’t be as vibrant – so most artists went back over their fresco and added details with the more vibrant colors – secco) The kids will be painting on DRY plaster. (Do I bother to explain the difference between fresco and secco? They didn’t even mention it in the training and just said the kids will be doing a fresco – which is wrong!)

But what about the HISTORY portion? Any ideas? Any resources? (I could use more painting samples too – any websites out there that have a lot of examples I can show the kids?) (I should probably add that this is for a 4th grade class)

Man, I am NEVER doing this again!!! There’s a VERY GOOD reason I don’t homeschool – I absolutely SUCK at this!

Heal the Heel

MHeel Tastic” product. It looked interesting and I really wanted to try it, but wasn’t interested in paying for shipping, etc.

I went to Walmart the other day and while standing in the checkout line saw they were selling it. Impulse buy – but I figured I’d give it a try. Put it on that night before bed and was immediately impressed with what it did to my heels. I *did* put socks on because I was concerned about it leaving marks on the sheets, and I put it on again in the morning and again, my heels looks SO MUCH BETTER. And it’s not just because this stuff has just went on. I can put lotion on my feet and it really doesn’t have the same kind of effect that the Heel Tastic did. I’m seriously going to go back and pick up a bottle or two more. Nothing I’ve ever tried has worked as well as this stuff did.

I’ve seen them selling this stuff all over the place online, but if you have a Walmart nearby, go see if they happen to have it there and save yourself the shipping.

Want a FREE night at the movies?

U

General Mills is doing a promotion right now when you buy two boxes of specially marked boxes of cereal, you can print up a free movie ticket. (up to $12 value) Here’s how it works: Look for either Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Trix or Reese’s Puffs cereal. Inside, you’ll find a code. When you have two codes – go here to enter them in and get your free movie ticket! (Click to find a list of participating theaters or for more details.) You should be able to find these boxes in stores starting the beginning of this month (November)!

To help spread the word about this promotion, General Mills, through MyBlogSpark, sent me coupons for us to head to the theater ourselves as well as a coupon for a free box of General Mills cereal. Personally, the only somewhat kid friendly movie out right now is Where the Wild Things Are, and I think it’s not something my kids would enjoy. I know for a fact that there’s a few more kid movies coming out soon. In fact the new Disney movie is due out in the middle of December: The Princess and The Frog – so I’ll be holding out a bit before we head to the theaters.

BUT! I didn’t want to wait to tell you about the promotion because I have a packet of 4 free movie tickets and a coupon for 1 free box of cereal for a GIVEAWAY! (The tickets are good until September 2010, so if you’re like me and wanting to hold out for a particular movie to be released – you’ll still be able to do that)

HOW TO ENTER “MOVIE MOMENT” CONTEST:
I’m going to keep this really simple. Each item below only counts once and is worth 1 entry into the contest. You can do just the first one – or all three – up to you.

1) (Mandatory Entry – you must at least do this one) Leave a comment on this post.
Make sure you put in a real email address (that you check often!) as this is the method I will use to contact you if you win. In your comment, I’d love to know what movie you’d want to see (or if you’re going to hold out for awhile for a particular movie to come out). Or tell me what your favorite movie is. 🙂

2) Tweet about this post. If you’re feeling uninspired, you can use this text exactly:

Go to the movies FOR FREE! Details and MOVIE TICKETS GIVEAWAY here: http://bit.ly/3vJGvJ Pls RT

Then come back and leave a comment telling me you did (and tell me your Twitter ID so I can see your tweet) 😀

3) If you have a blog – mention and link to this post.

Contest ends November 12th at 10pm MST. There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest. I will be using random.org to choose the winner. I’ll contact the winner via email, and he/she will have 48 hours to respond. After 48 hours, if I don’t receive a response, another winner will be chosen.

Word Cub – Educational iPhone Game for Kids

WLearning Cubed, LLC.

Zach loved playing this game. He has a pretty good grasp on his letters already, but this was a great way to reinforce what he already knows and push him along to getting ready to read. The game is fantastic and if you have a child that is just starting to learn letters or is a pre-reader, I highly recommend getting it! It’s really well done!

Word Cub: $1.99 (at time of this writing)