Many blog readers search for free drawings or giveaways for items they can use.  I haven’t run any on my blogs lately but have found nice ones on other blogs and web sites. 
I discovered a  school days drawing, offering some neat school (or office) supplies at Little Fun, Little Learning with Karen’s Avery School & Office Supply Giveaway.
Karen also has a great blog for parents of young children, where she researches topics of interest and gives you information about them.
This giveaway of Avery school and office supplies runs through October 11. (Don’t leave your comments here for the drawing, but go over …read more

With school starting up soon (or in some cases it’s already started) it’s important to consider the impact paper use in school has.

According to Conservatree, you can estimate that…

1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
A “pallet” of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton. Therefore,
1 carton (10 reams) …read more

People all over the country were hitting the stores early Saturday morning, lines from here to Timbuktu. Why? One answer…the tax free school weekend. For those that actually do not know this is when many, if not all, stores decided to take the tax on any school related items.
Items such as: anything electronic (computers, laptops, printers, calculators, etc), school supplies (you know everything on that teacher’s list), lunch boxes, bikes, locks and of course….clothes.
Now for some this isn’t much of a break so they hit the stores in previous weeks and others are waiting for those last minute deals …read more

Woo hoo! Today we got the remaining school supplies we needed for the kids to start school this fall, with the exception that a few have to actually be bought at the school as they want
everyone to be dressed the same for gym class. The only problem I have with this is they are charging an arm and a leg for the gym clothes. If they are simple shirts why can’t we dress buy them cheaper at the store? My guess is they have some logo on them just so they can charge the extra amount. UGH.
The only things we …read more

School is just around the corner and all those school sales are hitting every store within walking, driving or mailing distance. So the tough question is what is it your child MUST Have for school. I mean
yes you will get those lists in the mail, posted at the stores, new letters from the teachers that come home with your child that first but the real question is what do they need before school starts?
Here’s a list of the top 5 must have items:
-  backpack-  Your child will bring home tons of papers that first week of school so help them …read more

Where do your kids do their homework? While my kids have a full-up kids office, complete with computers, kid-sized office chairs and supplies, I prefer they do the bulk of it at the kitchen table.  They are more focused there.
So what do you really need to create a home study area at your house?
Start with a well-lit, solid surface with plenty of elbow room. In my house it is the kitchen table, but a desk would work well too. Just make sure there is enough room to spread out and write. Another reason I like the kitchen table for us …read more

Even though the first day of school is still 4 weeks away, I have started to make my checklist of things we need to do to get ready for back-to-school. With three kids going to two different schools, it does take some planning and organization or else I will be a nut that last week of summer.

Check ups and doctor’s notes. My son has his annual physical tomorrow and he will get all of his required shots for entrance into middle school. While I am there I need to get a copy of both of the girls’ shot records, too. …read more