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Perfect Business is having a pitch contest for a chance to pitch to Sir Richard Branson: http://www.perfectbusiness.com/theperfectpitch/

Win five business grants $50,000, $25,000 $15,000 or two $5,000 grants from Alibaba.com, just share your story in a short essay on why you should be the Newpreneur of the Year at:  http://www.inc.com/newpreneur/

You can’t win if you don’t enter! 

Smiles – Stacey

Stacey Kannenberg
“Ready To Learn Mom”

• Empower your kids to help with shopping the sales for back to school clothes and supplies!
• Get them to help with organizing closets!
• Work with them to donate old backpacks and supplies!
• Schedule annual doctor exam and immunizations!
• Don’t forget annual exams with the dentist and eye doctor!
• Stay on schedule with wake up and going to bed times over the summer to make the transition easier!
• Keep reading over the summer!
• Build in weekly learning activities at the museum, zoo and library!
• Offer craft time and/or science experiment type activities!
• Build in exercise everyday to replace recess time!
• Stay current with PTA/PTO meetings and school activities over the summer!
• Attend summer community events to continue to network with families from your school district!
• Attend school board meetings!
• Be active as a family in your community!
• Schedule family play dates with classmates and their families to expand the family network - meeting at the beach, park, and library as a group to build a network of support for the entire family!  Children that have a huge network of support are more likely to succeed in school.  Parents need to help build that network to ensure the family is involved in education!

How I wish Yummy Spoonfuls was on the market in 1999!!!  I would have been the biggest fan. 

Agatha and I have become friends from The Mom Entrepreneur Group and we swapped products.  I was thrilled to try it with my friend Sara’s twin girls Riley and Addy.  Sara was a bit worried because the girls are almost two and have become very independent.   They loved it - and I mean, they really, really loved all the yummy food!!!  No surprise that it was voted the Number ONE Baby Food by Cookie Magazine and was recently highlighted on CNN.  

To check out this inspiring story - CLICK HERE.

My webmaster wrote a post on her own blog, and I just *had* to share it with you!  I love it!!!! WOW!!! How hard would that be for each school district to give out $$  in a raffle, and each child than gets good attendance goes into the pool with a chance at winning some summer spending money!!! I mean we spend trillions of dollars on education on how many kids in the U.S.?  Why can’t SOME of that money go TO the kids, directly, to encourge them to continue being great students?!

Here’s Tammy’s Post:

DD#3 just finished the 2nd grade at the local public school.  During her award’s ceremony, she received a certificate for perfect attendance.

Yesterday in the mail, she received another award for that perfect attendance - a check in the amount of $200!!!  As I understand it, a member of the community graciously rewards second graders with such checks, if they have either perfect attendance or if they miss 1 or 2 days. 

I was dumbfounded and have never heard of such a thing before!  Of course, she refuses to share with me … and she won’t even consider buying her dad a Father’s Day gift with some of her funds.  She emphatically (and loudly) has stated that she’s saving her money to buy her very own LAPTOP.  Can a geeky mom really be upset about that?!

I think I’ll head back to second grade next year!

For More From my “Secret Weapon” Tammy, Click Here

What an uplifting and powerful video!

I love this post and had to share!!! I could relate to it on so many levels and I also had to share your beautiful song too!

In honor of Mother’s Day, I wanted to share this song that I wrote for my children. It’s about life and love!  Enjoy!!  ~ Angie Ruark:  http://www.angieruarksblog.blogspot.com/

Where does your family go on vacation? Is it to busy, crowded places? Have you ever see a lost child? Has your child ever gotten lost? What would you do if your child got lost on vacation? What would your child do if he got lost on vacation?

Does your luggage have better identification than your children? Why is that often true? Is it because we think kids can talk for themselves? If your child is lost, would he know the right information and be able to communicate it to others? This information is even more important when on vacation because you are not near home, the information is very different than usual. The best solution is for your child to have the phone numbers and other important information written down in an identification bracelet, tag or card.

Children are infinitely more precious than luggage and therefore they need some sort of ID at all times, especially when on vacation. The best way for a lost child to be returned quickly is for them to have all the information needed to reach you, written down and on them. There are many different styles of child identification. You have to pick what will work best for your child and the situation. There are stickers to go inside shoes, shoe tags that go on the shoelaces, ID bracelets, ID tags that can be attached to the child’s cloths, and ID cards that can be carried in a pocket

The ID should contain all the information needed for the child to get in touch with you. At a minimum it should include: mom and dad’s cell numbers, grandparent’s number(s), and your hotel phone number. Give it some thought and see what you think your child would need if they were to become lost. Then, put that information in writing and put it on your child in some form.

One word of caution, don’t put your child’s name on the outside of bracelets, bags or clothing. This would give a stranger the opportunity to speak to them by name, making some children feel like the person is not a stranger since they knew their name. All the information can be written inside the bracelet or tag so that it can be looked at only if needed. Small children need to be taught what being lost means. One way to describe it is if they can’t see mommy or daddy. Then they need to be told what to do if they are lost. One suggestion is to teach them to look for another mommy with kids to ask for help.

You can find these and many more child safety products at Chicks & Cubs. Our child safety products  are reasonably priced, starting at just $8.00.

Vacation Blessings to you!

For more information, visit Cynthia’s site at http://www.growing-up-fast.com

In case you haven’t heard the news, the FTC has some new proposed changes in store for blog reviewers.  We can be sued and held personally liable just like a product company or brand for making false claims of products we are reviewing. 

I agree we should not be making false and outrageous claims!!!  But I still hear those types of “off the wall claims” in mainstream media today.  Why FTC?  So now the FTC is going to police the state of blogging for outrageous claims and full disclosure!  If you need help FTC, you can hire me at a fraction of the price you will pay some “watchdog” group to police the state of mommy bloggers.  I am sure I have some other mommy bloggers who can help too! 

Note to readers: Always look for an opportunity in the middle of controversy!

Note to the FTC:  You need to start cracking down on the airways of traditional, mainstream media to hold them to the same standard as “professional” bloggers.  I find the level of media bias a joke in mainstream media.  Allow me to illustrate.  Again, in case you may have forgotten, this is my personal opinion:  Media is funded by advertising.  You have XYZ advertiser paying you millions and billions of dollars and you don’t bury stories or oversell positions?  Right?  On a television show you have a “so-called news story” and you are having your advertiser “pay to play” to be featured in that so-called news story and I don’t see you, mainstream media, saying this is a paid three minute human interest story featuring this company!  What about those public relations firms that are “pay to play” meaning we will have you on if you pay this fee and we can get you quoted by this national media outlet???

Unsure what I mean by an outrageous claim?

The following is my made-up outrageous claim that in no way is a reference to any real or existing product that may make this same claim with the following statement as my personal opinion only and was not paid for by anyone for me to say and again this is just an illustration of full disclosure on a blog post by a mom blogger with the following example of an false claim: “this (made-up product for illustration) will make your four year-old read like a college professor in three days or less or your money back”; but again, how many times are you flipping though the channels and you hear those “type” of outrageous claims in our mainstream media????  Our mainstream media is getting a paycheck to have these type of claims voiced on their watch.  Might there be a deeper issue at play here?

This is my opinion and not a paid endorsement from any third party:  I think that the special interests groups from traditional advertising groups are fighting word-of-mouth and don’t want to lose money to grassroots word-of-mouth bloggers.  Bloggers are a cheap way to advertise when compared to traditional pricing.  Do you want to pay $50,000 for a social media package or hire some mom blogger for $25- $2500 for a grassroots approach?  Do you want to pay some company to do the work for you that doesn’t even have kids that use your products or pay that same mom blogger who has been using the product for the last 15 years to tell others about her experiences at pennies on the dollar?  I think tradition media is running scared!  They are losing money to this new movement!

Speak up!  Voice your opinion!  WE NEED YOU if you are a mommy blogger!