Carson-Dellosa Summer Bridge Activities Great For Back To School

When did August hit? Summertime might almost be over, but there is still time to get some mental gears turning to prevent summer regression. Beyond reading, your child needs to work on their math, writing, science, and social studies. Get some work in and be ready for the school year with Summer Bridge Activities from Carson-Dellosa Publishing. According to the National Summer Learning Association, most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency over the summer months. You can be your child’s best advocate and get them back into the learning, and help stop regression.

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Carson-Dellosa Publishing offers workbooks for toddlers through high schools. You can get grade level books or focus books beyond the basic classrooms learning in subjects such as Christian learning, fiction, foreign language and ESL, puzzles and games, test preparation and more.

These curriculum books are also excellent sources for not only summer breaks but during school year extended breaks or to help you further your child’s learning at home without the use of their boring, viewed-it-over-and-over-again school textbooks. Our family has a month long vacation planned during the school year and this book will help me keep my Pre-K student up on grade appropriate learning.

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My son and I have done many of the pages from his Pre-K/Kindergarten practice book. He loves completing the tasks and earning his sticker for completing a page. He skips around and choses things he’s interested in like mazes and coloring robots (which is pre-mathematics as it’s a geometry lesson – tricked him into learning!). Actually my son loves learning and fondly calls this book his “drills”. He ASKS ME to do pages while is little brother is in naptime … what a problem to have! Working in his book also gives my son experience using pens and pencils. But when we don’t have a writing utensil, my son and I can keep up with his curriculum using Carson-Dellosa Publishing’s activity cards (offered for grades Pre-K through 5th), so you can get some learning-on-the-go into your schedule. The Carson-Dellosa activity cards are connected together by a plastic screw at the base and make a great learning tooling in an airport terminal, in the car, or at the doctor’s office. My son loves the small tasks, funny jokes, and cool facts.

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It’s not too late to get what your child really needs for back to school. Get their school supplies and with Carson-Dellosa boost their brains! Get FREE SHIPPING on any $15+ online order using promotion code EVG121 between August 12-29, 2011 at checkout.

If you want to keep up with Carson-Dellosa Publishing you can do so not only through their site, and on Facebook and Twitter @CDPub as well. This will also keep you in the loop on any new products and special offers.

We received samples for this review.

About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.

Ten At Home Chemistry Projects

Since summer is in session and we all have kids to entertain, why not combine fun with science. Here are ten easy at home chemistry projects you can do with your kids. Remember safety, read all the directions, make sure you have all the ingredients and make sure you have fun learning as a family.

image1. Mentos & Soda Fountain

2. Erupt a baking soda volcano

3. Uncover the chemistry of blood

4. How chemistry is involved in the game of baseball

5. Make Home made slime

6. Ice Cream in a Baggie

7. Discover Liquid Density

8. Cleaning Pennies

9. Discover Crystals with Rock Candy

10. Make Home Made Giant Bubbles

Dow Chemical, a leading global partner of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry, has produced three videos, showcasing three different at-home experiments you can do as a family and use as a way to get kids and students excited about the power of chemistry and science in their everyday lives. I included links to three of their videos in the list above, the one about making a volcano, the chemistry of blood and how chemistry is involved in the game of baseball. The stars of the videos include Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Planetarium Director for TFI, and Dr. Katie Hunt, Director of Innovation Sourcing & Sustainable Technologies at Dow Chemical, as well as special guest, Dr. Ken Mistry.

We decided to try making a volcano at home as our first at home chemistry project. Making a volcano at home is super easy. All you need is Baking Soda and Vinegar and food coloring for fun.

 

 

I was provided with a gift card to create and share my home made science project.

Package Deal at Hilton Branson Convention Center and Silver Dollar City 50th Anniversary celebration in 2010

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hiltons of Branson. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hilton One of my favorite hotel chains is the Hilton. I’ve only used them once but it was amazing. So I can only imagine how wonderful it would be to visit one in Branson Missouri. I have so many friends that have vacationed there that it must be a great place to go. I mean the attractions in Branson are very alluring. You can visit their crystalline lakes and mountain scenes, or Ride the Duck (just like we have here in Seattle, it’s where you sit on a boat with wheels, you drive around and then when you hit the water you’re on a boat) and tethered balloon rides. As far as friends recommendations go, Silver Dollar City comes highly recommended and they are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2010. Their package prices include tickets to White Water, Showboat Branson Belle, The Wilderness and Ride the Ducks. Use Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel to get a package including a hotel stay. The package includes a three day park hopper and overnight hotel rates at 439.00 a night. For this price you will receive two adult tickets and two children’s tickets.  My personal experience with Missouri doesn’t reach further than the capital; St. Louis and her beautiful arch. I need to go back and do some further investigation of my own.

Check out the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing. They have a list of Summer activities to help you plan out your summer vacation. Spend Father’s day as a family with the wonderful accommodations that only the Hilton is capable of providing. You can book your package and be there for the Father’s Day Salute. That sounds like fun for dad. One of the package deals that Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing is offering is their Romance Package. This package is valid until October 25, 2010. It includes full American breakfast for two in your room or the designated restaurant, and if you stay longer than one night you can enjoy buy one get one free entrees.

These are only a few of the options that you can do in Branson with the Hilton.

 

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One Step Ahead Jumbo Hopscotch Splash Mat #giveaway

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One Step Ahead was very generous and gracious when I contacted them and asked if they would like to be on Mom Start for a review and giveaway.

One Step Ahead loves mommy bloggers and for me I was able to choose from few different products and I chose the Jumbo Hopscotch Splash Mat. The Splash Mat retails for 24.95 and is recommended for ages two and up. 

I didn’t read the directions so this is my story. I took i tout of the box and hooked up the hose to it. I was surprised that it had to fill up before it worked. It didn’t take long though and then the water was spraying out in between each of the numbers.

My daughter didn’t like the water coming out very strong so I turned the pressure down and then she would play in it. She’s not very into getting wet but I was able to encourage her and she was counting up and down repeating after me. We had fun on it until the mosquitoes came out. IMG_0632

I really liked it and I played on it with them. I haven’t had any problems with it. I found it very slow to release all of the water in it. We live in Washington so I expect it to get yucky before too long, but we’ll enjoy it for as long as we can. She can practice reading her numbers and we can remember colors and the shape of squares. She played with the little sandbags as well. It came with four and it was still very difficult for her to share one with her brother, but she did.

You can win one:

 

To Enter:

Visit One Step Ahead Summer Fun and choose something else that you think would be nice to try some time.

Extra Entries:

None Bloggers get and extra entry for every e-mail they send out linking to this giveaway cc louise@looksblue.com (be sure to leave a comment for every person you e-mail, for example if you e-mail 10 different people leave 10 different comments)

Subscribe to my blog
Follow me on twitter tell me your twitter ID
Blog about the giveaway include a link to me for five extra entries
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Add my button to your blog/blog roll
Dig, Stumble, or fav me on Technorati (two entries for each one)
Leave a comment for every entry and the giveaway ends July 31st.

The contest will run until Friday July 31st 11:59 pm Pacific. The winner will be selected by www.random.org

Now is the time to Donate to the Fresh Air Fund

Right now any gift you make to The Fresh Air Fund will be matched dollar for dollar by a group of generous donors! If you can give $25 that means $50 for inner-city children. $50 becomes $100!

But you must make your donation by June 30th to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

Donate now!

Fresh Air Fund KidsThey are also still looking for host families.

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