Category: Back to School

A Calculator for High School…and Beyond

The new TI-Nspire from Texas Instruments, has a unique feature to it, a touchpad which allows you to navigate on the calculator.  With so many of this generation’s children having technology given to them almost right out of their cribs, this powerful computing device will take their math to the next level.  It is essentially a mini math computer.

Amber is currently two full years ahead of herself in math.  A freshman by age, she is nearly finished with her Algebra II credit and has her sights on working on Pre-Cal or Trig when she is done.  That makes this mathphobic homeschooling mom just a bit nervous.  I mean, how am I going to help her with that?!

Your kids can go Back to School feeling like a Jedi with the Star Wars branded products available through  Collective Brands‘ stores this fall.  Payless and Stride Rite are two popular footwear stores that fall under the Collective Brands umbrella.

The shoes, slippers, hats and backpacks feature

It’s easy to show off your school spirit with Simply Spray.  They have fabric paints for every purpose.

Simply Spray dries fast, has no odor and stays soft.  It is the ONLY non-toxic and non-flammable aerosol fabric pain, and so it’s safe for kids to use and wear.  It’s perfect for apparel and lets you create

So many schools have a dress code these days, and shoes aren’t an exception to the rules.  For safety reasons flip flops are often on the ‘do not wear’ list, and for good reason.  While comfortable and easy for young kids to get on and off by themselves, they aren’t the best for running and those little toes are exposed to the elements.  Let me share an alternative footwear choice; Sanuk.

I found Sanuk on the internet, and liked

In school I always struggled with Math, but excelled at Language Arts.  Perhaps that’s why I have numerophobia, but love words.  So Wordlock, a lock that uses words instead of numbers for combinations, is great for me!

Wordlock is really easy to use.  The Wordlock Padlock can only be opened with your combination.  To ensure maximum security there is no master combination.  To set your own combination on your padlock, you just

My family and I are self professed geeks.  The “why” and the “how” behind the object or activity needs to be discovered.  So a book entitled, Cooking For Geeks is right up our alley.  Jeff Potter, speaks geek in this science book about the kitchen and your food, and not only do you not have to go back to school to learn and be surprised on nearly every page, it includes many tasty recipes too.

The book features seven chapters (with my opinion of chapter highlights below):

Summer is over and school’s back in, but that doesn’t mean your kids can’t continue having fun, and do some learning too.  National Geographic Kids has three new fun and educational books for your children; National Geographic Kids Almanac 2011, The Big Book of Fun and Weird But True!

Your kids will love the interesting facts inside these books, and they’ll be itching to

Recently Carolina Pad asked if I would be willing to do a review of some of their Studio C collections for Back to School.  The Studio C collection products can be found at Walmart, Target, Staples, Office Max, Michaels, CVS and more retailers nationwide!

I love stationery products, notebooks, pens, pencils, and can never have too many of them around the house.  Last year I picked up some of the Carolina Pad ‘Eye Candy’ supplies at Target to add a little color and fun to my desk space.  As is usual of Carolina Pad they have a large selection of patterns this school year to choose from, as well as supplies covering many different functions.

Carolina Pad’s Studio C collections include;

Starting middle school or high school often comes with excitement and anxiety.  It doesn’t make it any easier if your teen has troublesome skin.  There are plenty of products vying to get on your teen’s skin.  Some are effective but contain lots of chemicals, others may not work for them at all.  Chemical astringents might not be the best solution for your teen’s face.

Let me tell you about a company that might be new to you.  Bellaboo.  Bellaboo’s products are

Don’t forget!  There are two new episodes of WordGirl premiering tomorrow, August 23rd, on PBS.

The end of summer is always a bummer.  In “Bummertime!”, it’s the last day of summer and Becky Botsford (aka dictionary superhero WordGirl) wants to spend it reading her favorite book in a hammock and play outside with her friends.  But Tobey, and his latest robot creation Chronos, are getting in the way.  Becky must figure out how to stop crime and still enjoy her last day of vacation.  The episode features two great vocabulary words