Remember back when you were in school and you got to go on Field Trips with your class? I remember quite well. It was always so much fun and it was nice to learn away from the classroom environment and doing “hands on” projects.

One of my favorite Field Trips was actually in High School. We went with my Physics class to a local amusement park and learned about Velocity and Vectors and did projects by using the calculations from off of roller coasters and other rides. We learned a ton and had so much fun.

Now that I have children in school I always love to hear about where they are going and what they will see and do there.  As part of the PTO at my children’s school. I have been learning more and more how much these trips cost for the kids and how the cost is always rising. We (The PTO) have noticed the costs of good, quality, field trips for the kids this year is about $1500 per class!

Thank goodness we have a PTO at the school where my kids attend because without it there wouldn’t be any budget for field trips! School budgets get slimmer and slimmer every year and when they have to make cuts extra activities such as field trips are sometimes the first to go.

Field Trips For All

Hands-on experiences like field trips can help engage children in learning that can open their eyes to the world beyond the classroom. That’s why Lunchables Lunch Combinations wants to help deserving kids across the country go on an inspiring, educational experience with the launch of the program, “Field Trips
For All.”

Field Trips For All” is the first effort from the Lunchables Team’s new initiative called Project Potential. Aimed at empowering kids with opportunities to help them reach their full potential, Project Potential will provide enriching experiences kids might otherwise not have.

According to a 2009 report from The American Association of School Administrators, it’s estimated that over the course of the current school year, the number of school districts eliminating field trips will increase by 56 percent. That’s more than 30,000 schools.

How you/your children can help :

Anyone 6 years of age or older can nominate a deserving classroom by going tohttp://www.lunchables.com/potential/ and submitting a nomination. From all nominations received, 50 classrooms will be selected to go on an inspiring, educational experience.

I will be entering my son’s 7th grade class into this contest myself, to see if I can help them to go on a rewarding experience like the class did in the video.

Head on over to the http://www.lunchables.com/potential/ now and enter your child’s class, or any other you feel is deserving of this great prize. Leave a comment and let me know who you entered and why!

Thank you so much for trying to make a difference in our children’s lives!

The Plus Size Mommy

The Wright’s adventure continues in book 2 – “Wright On Time – Utah” .  In Utah the kids Nadia and Aidan are back. This time exploring a dinosaur dig, where Aidan, who is seven, is all about finding a Real Dinosaur bone.

See what kind of fossil Nadia helps to dig out. She also learns about figuring out writing that is in symbols. And you won’t want to miss what the glowing light is! (lol).

Yes, this RVing, Homeschooling family is back, and I cannot wait to read book 3 – Wyoming (neither can my 11 yr. old son).

I love that he is enjoying these books. However, he took my book 2 – Utah to school, and shared it with some friends and the teacher decided to read it to the class, which made this review late!  So, I wasn’t too happy about that. But these books are very fun to read and so Educational, I totally get why the teacher would want to read it with the class.

You can read more about these books and order them too by clicking on this link : http://wrightontimebooks.com

The books are on Sale currently at Amazon for $12.99 and you can get autographed by the author ones! How cool is that!!!

There are going to be 50 books about all 50 states in the series. This is HUGE since I know the kids at our school cover all 50 states in a state project that is a policy at our school and I think within the state of Pennsylvania.

So these are definitely worth the investment.

There is a glossary in the back of the books too with key words from the book with their definition.

My son and I are really enjoying these books, and like I said, we cannot wait until the next one comes out!

The Plus Size Mommy

*Disclosure – I received a copy of this book in order to do the review. All of my opinions are my own and are honest and true. I participated in this book review for Parent Reviewers.

The Jungle Gym Ride & Learn Giraffe Bike teaches toddlers (ages 18–36 months) letters, objects, numbers, animals and melodies through active play.

FROM ME : I was sent this toy from VTech Toys prior to Christmas, and cannot believe I forgot to do the review and let you all know about how wonderful this toy is. (I am so ashamed believe me ).

This toy is one of my daughter (who is now 21 mo. old) favorites and she learns form it. Not only educationally but also I think she will be learning to ride a bike this summer! And although it makes an awesome Holiday gift around Christmas time, it still is an awesome gift at Easter as well.  So if your wondering what you can get your toddler this Easter or for their birthday this is definitely a toy they will love.  It has music, games, and it is a cute giraffe that looks like a stationary bike. When your child is playing the games they can win as they pedal the bike part! It is a great invention for children. It is very stable too. This was one of my concerns as I didn’t want it to be able to tip over. But it’s platform is spread wide so chance of tipping is minimal. The base also is adjustable so that as your child gets older and bigger, it “grows” with your child for many fun years of play!

You can see more about the Ride & Learn Giraffe and also more of the great VTech toys here : http://www.vtechkids.com/

My household has always been a VTech Toy family. I have 4 children and all of them grew up playing with VTech toys. They are educational fun which I love and so do they

VTech Toys was also so great to work with over the Winter Holiday Season, they allowed me to Donate some wonderful toys to a local church to brighten 4 children’s Holidays. I was able to donate 2 of the VTech Kidizoom camera’s and also 2 of the V-Smile Motion game systems. I donated them to 4 children in the community where I live. These children’s parent’s were not able to provide too many presents for them this past Christmas and so I was happy to be able to help them with some great presents for their children. The children were VERY happy and thankful to receive these very nice presents this Christmas.

THANK YOU VTech !!!

The Plus Size Mommy

*Disclosure – VTech sent me the Ride & Learn Giraffe and also the 4 presents for donation FREE of charge to me. My review of the Ride  & Learn Giraffe from VTech are my own honest opinions on this product. The idea’s are mine as well. Please also know that the PR firm OlilvyPR, that VTech uses maintains a HIGH standard and code of ethics with bloggers. Also maintains a very high standard of integrity. Therefore in no ways shall this Free product sent to me for me to review shall be held as compensation for a favorable review. As stated before all of my reviews and comments and idea’s about a product are my own honest opinions.

So now there is a new iPhone App. for expecting parents :

The Most Baby Names app is based off the #1 selling baby name book in the country, The Complete Book of Baby Names.

Why Most Baby Names?

* It’s fun, exciting, colorful and interactive! Hear babies giggling and ducks quacking or shake the rattle for a rockin’ good time!

* Most Baby Names features 103,000 names – competitive baby name apps don’t come close!  (Did you know the closest app has 6 times less names than we do?)

* Look up baby name definitions by clicking on the blue arrow in your lists or choose the * “Surprise Me” option for a combination of unique names.  (Who knows, we may have found you a winner!)

* Browse by individual letter or customize it to search for a specific first and last letter

* Add names to your Favorites List to look at later!

Types of Names

Use our simple list scroll to find various baby names under exciting topics such as:

* Celebrity names (i.e. Maddox, Phinnaeus and Beckett)

* Under the Radar Names (i.e. Bianca, Piper, Georgia)

* Name Alternatives, Most Popular in a particular year, Classic names and even College Football Stadium names!

They continuously incorporate feedback from our users and recently launched a redesigned app complete with many exciting updates!

The Plus Size Mommy

Matt Knox, Founder and CEO of DiggersList, a home improvement online resource, has 10 quick and cheap home-protection tips that will help you minimize damages to your home and your wallet.

For earthquakes:

• Fasten lamps, china and other small valuables to shelves or surfaces with puttylike anchoring or museum wax.
• Install latches on cabinet door in order to keep contents inside
• Secure your water heater to a wall stud with a water-heater strap

For fires:

• Install a fireplace screen to keep embers inside
• Have a spark arrestor installed in your chimney

For floods and rain:

• Install weather-stripping on and around doors and windows to prevent water from seeping into your home.
• Install storm shutters or create your own using precut sheets of plywood cut to fit into each window
• Install storm doors

Many of these items can be found via DiggersList, which when compared to stores like Home Depot can get save you 50 cents to the dollar on every purchase.

DiggersList is now available in Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. However, they are looking for referrals to new cities to start lists in. So you can goto DiggersList.com and suggest a new city now.

The Plus Size Mommy

Two SUPER WHY episodes, Comic Book: Attack of the Eraser and The Big Game, will be in movie theaters on weekends in February as part of the Kidtoons program.

Soar to new places in February with SUPER WHY, as Super Why, Princess Presto, Wonder Red, and Alpha Pig go on reading adventures like you’ve never seen before.  Wham!  Pow!  Bam!  Join the superheroes inside a comic book, where they’ll use their literacy powers to stop the diabolical eraser from erasing the words in Reader Valley in Comic Book: Attack of the Eraser.  Then get ready to cheer for Super Why and his friends as they learn the importance of practicing in The Big Game.   Visit  http://www.kidtoonfilms.com for more information and to find SUPER WHY in a movie theater near you!  Super Duper!

The Kidtoons program is dedicated to helping parents connect with their kids by bringing family friendly animated movies to the big screen every weekend at participating theatres across the country.  Participating Kidtoons theatres showcase a fun, affordable family friendly matinee movie and provide a family experience filled with entertaining, kid-friendly characters, as well as cartoon shorts, music videos and sing-alongs before each movie. We even have fun giveaways for the kids, such as stickers, temporary tattoos, activity books or toys after every film.

Be sure and check it out! Only 2 week ends left!

The Plus Size Mommy

Catty Wompus is a Brightly colored book that is about Friendship written by Julie Howe.

My daughters really enjoyed this story about a little girl named Catty Wompus who had everything but was not a very nice little girl, until one day another little girl gave her a chance at friendship. It tells about how having a honest friendship is much better than any material things you could ever have.

I really enjoy reading this story to my girls. They may be a little young to understand the whole concept, but I feel by starting to instill these concepts into a child as early as possible truly can start to shape how your child see’s the World around them and the people in it.

It is very important that children give other kids a chance, even if they seem like they are mean or miserablefriendship or love might be the one missing link in their lives that they do not have, that can completely change their little World for them.

You can buy the book, learn more about the book and sign up for the mailing list here : http://www.amtopmcreative.com/clients/cattywompus/

You can Fan the book on Facebook here :  http://is.gd/8KAYP

I think your daughters will find this an enjoyable book and I believe you will enjoy reading it to them.

The Plus Size Mommy

*I was sent this book to review for  free on behalf of my relationship with Parent Reviewers. My thoughts and my honest review of this book are my own.

I was so upset by this I wanted to see if my children reacted the same way. My children are bi-racial (I am white, my husband is black). We never speak down upon ANY race in my immediate family (cannot speak for Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and so on). I have ALWAYS taught my children to like everyone and be nice to everyone. And not just for race, for people who are physically challenged, mentally challenged, and so on. for NONE of us are perfect and everyone deserves equal treatment in my book.

I try VERY hard not to judge people, in my house, we serve the Lord, and being a Christian means that God is the ultimate judge and ONLY judge that matters.

I try to instill all of these morals into my children in every way I can. I know how it is to be judged, I know how it feels to be judged, even before people know anything about me. And lemme tell you, it isn’t a nice feeling AT ALL.

To me, if you have  green hair, polka dotted skin, and your 2 ft. tall, with 1 leg and no arms, I will love you just the same as anyone else.

What I look for in friends is character. Honesty, Caring, Integrity, and Loving people. I try really hard to surround myself with people like this.

I also know that people DO and WILL make mistakes. I am a forgiving and patient person. I may be upset, but I will come around.

I never hold grudges, and again Life is just TOO short to worry myself with this mess, and to be upset over things I cannot control, and things that I don’t agree with.  But we are ALL Human and we all say and do things that others may not agree with, but we may not walk in those shoes. We may never walk in those shoes.

Example- I would never steal. But If I was in Haiti right now fending for my family and my life, and I had no water, no food, your damn right I would steal so I could live. So, we can really never say never. A lot of people in Haiti I am sure never thought they would go to these extremes either. But things and situations change in the blink of an eye, and those who once said the same, I would never steal, are now theives.  And some may say it isn’t really stealing, to justify the actions, but taking anything that isn’t yours, is stealing. Even if it is a $1 off of the ground in the supermarket parking lot with no one around. You didn’t earn that dollar, and finding it doesn’t magically make it yours.

So, anyways, lol, I am sorry, I got onto a tangent here.

SO, this segment on the news really got me so upset, I decided to try it unofficially at home with my daughter who is 4 as my test subject.

What they did on the news was ask children about her age which baby doll was the good one and then what baby doll was the bad one.

Here is how our unofficial test turned out :

I was so proud as a mother of how she reacted and at her responses. Although she said the black baby was the “good” baby is not why I am happy with the results, it was because her REASON why the black baby was the “good” baby, she said it is because it is her sisters favorite doll. Disturbingly on the news some of the black children said the black baby doll was “the bad one” and the white baby doll was “the good one”. I do not understand other than the people who we surround ourselves with how this can be a child’s answer to this? Based all on skin color alone?
It terrifies me that these are their answers. It terrifies me to think people are STILL judged to be good or bad based on color or race.
It saddens me to no end.

I think I will pray on it. Pray for people to get to know others and see how much alike we are. How our hopes and dreams are so much alike. How much more love could be in the world if we weren’t wasting our time judging others who we don’t even know, instead of taking the time to get to know them.

So while I pray, I ask 1 question of you…. what would YOUR child’s answers be?

I love you,

The Plus Size Mommy

Ahh the mighty 5-second rule. Yep, we use it at our home (MOST of the time). Although lately I am thinking renewed stipulations are needed to be told to my children

This came about when my 10 yr. old son was eating spaghetti with meatball’s one night a couple weeks ago, and well, we all know the song…and then my poor meatball fell down to the floor, rolled out the door, and became a spaghetti tree?

NOT HERE…. Nope, after my son’s meatball fell onto the floor he picked it up, and popped it back into his mouth, before anyone could even say a word and ate it ! YUCK, yea, I know…I was so grossed out, he didn’t even look at it to see if any dirt was on it! ICK, I still gag thinking about it. But to a boy of age 10, this was most cool and funny. NOTTT!

So, I ask…Do you incorporate the 5 second rule in your home ?

I mean, if it is like a piece of something that the chance of something sticking to it is slim, I don’t mind, but a sauce covered meatball, this is where I draw the line, lol

A few days ago, I was asked to work with Clorox again on a campaign with Samantha Bee (From the  ”Daily Show”). She discussed the 5 sec. rule , you can read more about it here :  http://simpleandsurprising.com/

WIN!!!!

I am able to offer you a Clorox Gift pack values at $20 with a variety of Clorox Products!

You can enter Just by sharing with us your favorite funny 5-sec. rule story. The guidelines are below to enter to win

• Do you or someone in your family follow the 5-second rule? – comment and tell us who uses it and with what ? = 1 entry
• Who’s more likely to follow the 5-second rule in your house? – comment and tell us who and if anyone is against it, tell that too! = 1 entry
• What are the most popular items to 5-second rule? – comment and tell what are the top 5 items where the 5 sec. rule is used on most frequently = 1 entry
• Do you have a funny 5-second rule story? – comment with your funny story = 1 entry
• Thinking about Sam Bee’s style, what’s your parenting style? – comment and tell us how you parent = 1 entry
• Share a picture or funny video with us (send a link) of someone using the 5 sec. rule – comment with a link to the photo or video = 5 entries !!!!

This contest starts NOW and will end on Feb.  9th, 2010 at 8PM EST. Winners will be posted to this site. As with all giveaways winner MUST be a subscriber to this site, either via subscription or through Facebook feed. Winner will be posted to this site by Feb. 10th, 2010. Winner will have 48 hours to email me to claim their prize.

Have fun with this, I am sure this can generate a lot of funny stories and photo’s, I would love to hear them and share them.

There is MORE… Here are some other bloggers who are also holding the giveaway of the Clorox Prize pack, so you can visit their blogs and have even MORE chances to win!

• CONSUMER QUEEN
• BanteringBlonde

Thank you to all who enter and Good Luck !!!

The Plus Size Mommy

*Please note, stories, video’s, and photo’s may be posted to the Clorox  Facebook page*

*I am being compensated via giftcard for this post*

* I am participating in the Your Shape Challenge through Collective Bias , I received the game for free
and I am also receicing fun prizes and perks. Your Shape is from Ubisoft.The weight loss and any idea’s are my own.