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As many of my avid followers to this blog have come to realize, I have been getting back to the basics of life by taking some much needed time to recharge, rebalance and get back to making my family my number one priority. Being a solo mom entrepreneur for the last 8+ years has meant many sacrifices especially for my husband and kids, now ages 12 and 10. By taking some time off and putting our family first I am truly thanking them for being the best family on the planet for allowing me to follow all my hopes and dreams!
Kids are so smart! They saw that I had become a workaholic! They challenged me that I had become addicted to checking my emails and all my favorite social media sites, especially Facebook and Twitter and sadly they were so right. Truthfully, I was spending 18 hour days in our home office trying to get through my 500+ daily emails, all my social media posts and trying to keep this blog going daily and it was starting to take its toll! I wasn’t as happy as I knew I deserved to be!!
Now that my kids have entered the world of cell phones and social media, I am glad that I went cold turkey to set an example in our house that phones and Facebook have a place in our lives but they need to be in used in moderation. I didn’t want to be one of those parents who goes to their child’s sporting event but spends the entire time on their phone or blackberry! I must admit that I rarely did that! Instead, I was guilty of being tied day and night to my email, Facebook and twitter!
Are you addicted to your cell phone, Facebook or Twitter page? Tell us your story!
How can we galvanize teachers, educators, parents, students, unions & administrators to truly fight for better schools with real concessions; finally putting the needs of America’s youth first?
After attending the 2nd Annual Mom Congress 2011 Conference (#mc2011) in DC along with educational leaders, 2011 Mom Delegates from each state and 2010 Mom Delegate Mentors from across the country, I would love to know your thoughts on how to walk this tightrope without getting hung up on each political agenda? For additional information or to join our voice, visit us at http://www.facebook.com/momcongress.
What an honor!! I am so humbled to be included in this list of amazing Mompreneurs like Julie Aigner Clark, Heather Armstrong, Daniele Ayotte, Julie Dix, Dr. Amy Baxter, Jenny Ford and included with so many great friends like Lucinda Cross, Lisa Druxman, Debbie Glickman and Hannah Keeley…WOW! Who is your favorite? Or nominate your favorite Mompreneur at http://www.babble.com/mom/work-family/best-moms-entrepreneurship-how-to-start-a-business-with-baby/
Congratulations to my Green Bay Packers who continued to preserve and fight each and every week even to the last play of the Super Bowl to become Super Bowl Champions!! WOO HOO!
Do you know of a deserving mom who is passionate about education? If so please nominate her for the 2011 Mom Congress and join me in Washington DC in April to meet Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan! Mom Congress has changed my life! Please pass this amazing gift forward and enter before 1/31/11
I am a solo mom entrepreneur who is currently taking some time off to deal with my own mother’s terminal colon cancer, so you can image how upset I was with Madison, WI’s Sly on the Radio and his outrageous comments that were replayed by Milwaukee’s 620WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes yesterday and today. To listen to these comments and judge for yourself: Click here to listen to the comments from the talk show segment, provided by Milwaukee radio station WTMJ.
So in the spirit of Sly on the Radio mocking Wisconsin’s Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch’s efforts to make cold calls to businesses in the state of Illinois to drum up business for the State of Wisconsin, yesterday I made cold calls to Sly’s own sponsors listed on the front page of his own website, to see how they felt about his comments. Of course, being business owners not one of them agreed with his comments. I was even more upset when WTDY Web program director Rex Charger defended the appropriateness of Sylvester’s remarks.
“It was obvious sarcasm and was not intended to be taken literally.”
So Charger if you stand by the remarks than answer this question…which part was sarcasm?
Being outraged that she is picking up the phone to cold call businesses in Illinois?
Calling her a “pantie entrepreneur” as if you can’t run a successful business from your basement and is if panties are some how unneeded or beneath him?
Or would you call it sarcasm to say that Wisconsin’s Lt. Governor got her job by performing “fellatio acts”?
Or is it called “sarcasm” to mock Rebecca Kleefisch’s colon cancer?
To quote WTDY’s own site on a recent story that made headlines in Wisconsin: “The man that attacked a beer truck with a metal pipe has committed a great sin in Wisconsin. This is a HATE crime.”
Thus I would not label it “sarcasm” instead I would call it HATE SPEECH.
I had a great time cold calling Sly’s sponsors! They are all small business owners and entrepreneurs who are trying to keep their own businesses going by utilizing advertising to bring in customers, regardless of their own political views. Many of them have the same views that I do on government and business: we can’t run a successful business if we are $14 trillion in debt and owe our debt to our own competitor, in America’s case: China. I certainly met some great businesses in my cold calling yesterday and one thing is for sure, we can all agree that we are united in the power of entrepreneurship because entrepreneurship made our country great and it is what will keep our country great! I will echo what many of them said to me yesterday: At least we have a Lt. Governor who is willing to pick up the phone on behalf of Wisconsin!
I challenge Sly to pick up the phone to learn more about his own advertisers because if their advertising dollars dry up, will he even care enough to find out why?
According to UNICEF, “Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names and two thirds of them are women.” In America, two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Statistics show that children who don’t learn to read by age nine may never catch up. Learning to read is the key to changing our global world.
I remember learning to read. I used the Dick, Jane and Spot books.
They were word picture association books with three words on each page. They were perfect for learning to read.
I think part of the problem for parents is that we are not professional teachers, who specialize in teaching children how to read and we might be using the “wrong” books to help our children learn to read. As an author and publisher, I am shocked by the number of books that are labeled as “early reading” and yet are not using the appropriate “early reading” vocabulary by age group. I love Dr. Seuss books!! They are fun and engaging and full of repetition and rhyming patterns, but unless they are part of the early reading series from Dr. Seuss, they are not always the best choice for word picture association and learning to read. WHY? Because word association doesn’t always work with Dr. Seuss; he uses silly off-the-wall rhymes that don’t add up in a child’s head. They would not automatically put together green eggs and ham, unless they already knew the book and the rhyme.
Top tips for helping kids learn to read.
Empower kids into the process with simple “early reading” books that use word picture association and stress word/picture connections.
Practice getting kids to draw one page word picture association, such as draw: Tom has apples.
Getting them to make the connection and guess what the next word is – Tom has…they can see the apples so they can say, apples.
Play games to get children to guess word association: if I say peanut butter, you say: __________.
Practice, practice, practice with the early learning books that specialize in word picture association and using words in the early learning vocabulary.
Make it fun with lots of picture books with repetition and rhyming patterns that are geared to “early reading”.
Read out loud time makes for better students. Studies have shown that preschoolers who have frequent read–aloud time with their parents have stronger language skills later in life—including higher reading, spelling and IQ scores at age 13.
Have you pledged to help a child learn to read? Visit www.target.com/reading to do your part to change our world!
It’s not too late to get your flu shot and protect your family from influenza. Heidi and Megan had the option of the flu shot or the flu mist, but because the mist is a live flu strain and we are around babies, we opted for the shot instead. Now that my girls are getting older they know the routine and request what it is they need:
Wash those hands long and often!
I can’t say it enough: Wash, wash, wash those HANDS especially if you are sick to help keep everyone else stay healthy! Wash long and often, especially after touching your eye, nose, mouth; before and after eating; coughing and sneezing; and of course, after the bathroom. I still listen to the sound of the water and if I don’t think it was long enough I will say definitely say something!
Make a Steam Room!
Shut the door, run the shower to create a warm sauna room upon entry. The girls love soaking in the whirlpool tub or take an extra long shower that helps to open up clogged airways. I have a television in our master bath room (my way of seeing the news without alarming my kids – especially during 9/11) so they enjoy watching TV as they soak in the whirlpool tub inside their steamy sauna room!
Hot Chocolate or Soup!
It’s a family tradition for hot chocolate and something to dip depending on how sick they feel: toast, graham crackers or cookies! How about some Chicken Noodle Soup! It really does work!
Gargle with Salt Water or Nasal Rinse
You know they don’t feel good when they request to gargle with a mixture of warm water and salt or a nasal rinse. We have a nasal rinse kit from the drug store. It has a salt solution packet that you add warm water; it comes with a spoon to mix and a special genie shaped bottle that you pour in one nostril to drain out the other nostril. It sounds gross but it really does work. Have plenty of tissue on hand because you will definitely be in need of blowing to clear and clean passages!
Cuddle Time and a Movie or Book with Mom!
We curl up on the sofa and watch a movie or read books together for a few hours of cuddle time. I make them sleep for a few hours while I work in my home office and only after I feel that they got enough extra rest, I allow them to have homework, play, books, crafts, laptop, iPod and/or television time!
Wash, wash, wash those HANDS and stay healthy for the holiday season!!!
What is your secret tip to keep your family healthy?? Leave a comment and keep us all healthy!
Do you think paying this University Professor a Million Dollar salary is outrageous or just good business? Leave a comment and let us know your opinion!
Clark Atlanta University’s president made a million in 2008. That’s outrageous
At the time, those moves provoked widespread controversy on campus - a group even took Broadnax to court - but they seemed necessary. Now, it turns out that the hatchet man who was cutting classes and hiking tuitions was paid more than a million dollars in 2008, according to a new survey in the Chronicle of Higher Education (via The Daily Beast). (Broadnax is 22nd on the list.) That’s simply outrageous.
2:33 pm November 15, 2010, by ctucker
When Walter Broadnax took the helm of one of Atlanta’s historically black colleges - Clark Atlanta University - in 2002, the school, he said, was in financial trouble. So he set about laying off professors, shutting down some programs and increasing the tuition.
Fans of this site know that I am a huge fan of Mrs. P. Parents no more excuses about finding time to read to your child, this free website does all the work for you with the amazing Mrs. P. But now, Mrs. P has an interactive fairy tale book to help kids learn to read! WOO HOO!!! Check it out…
MrsP.com Releases First Interactive Fairy Tale Book
Kids Learn Reading Skills in Conjunction with Free Website
MrsP.com, the popular, award-winning children’s storytelling website, announced the publication today of its first interactive storybook, which uses Internet technology in a new way to help kids learn to read. Mrs. P’s Four Favorite Fairy Tales and Funny Stories collects in book form stories and introductions available on video at the free website and at the iTunes Store. Children will be able to follow along in the book as Mrs. P, played by The Drew Carey Show star Kathy Kinney, reads the stories with them.
“I’m very proud of Mrs. P’s new book because of its unique ability to help young readers improve their skills,” said Kinney. “Children and parents can open the book and read along with me at my website. We even have a Magic Dictionary at MrsP.com, so if kids comes across a word they don’t know, they can just pause the video and easily find out what it means.”
Studies have shown one of the most productive ways for children to improve their reading skills, particularly for learning ‘sight words,’ is to see the words as they are read to. “Everyone’s worried about the Internet making books and reading obsolete. We’ve found a wonderful way to make them work together,” Kinney said.
The new book includes “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” features 90 original color illustrations and offers new, comic introductions to the stories from Mrs. P.
“Mrs. P’s Four Favorite Fairy Tales and Funny Stories”will be available to the public at Amazon and other booksellers across the country via online ordering. Additional information, including a downloadable flyer, can be found at http://www.mrsp.com/Purchase.aspx
Ten percent of all MrsP.com’s after-tax profits from these sales will be donated by Mrs. P Enterprises, LLC to literacy organizations.
“Mrs. P’s Four Favorite Fairy Tales and Funny Stories”
ISBN: 978-0-615-39355-1 Binding: Paperback Trim: Color 8.5 x 8.5 in Pages: 126 and over 90 original color illustration Genre: Juvenile Fiction: Fairy Tales & Folklore - Anthologies Target Audience: Children ages 4 to 10
I am in St. Louis today talking about getting ready for Kindergarten at the Parents as Teachers Conference. Parents you are your child’s first and foremost teacher and this organization is a great resource for you! Check it out: www.parentsasteachers.org
I take every Election Day very seriously and am proud to exercise my freedom to vote. Since I was 18, I have missed one Spring Election during college and one Primary Election during the early years of marriage; both to the flu. Do you realize more people in this country vote for American Idol and Dancing with the Stars than vote in our elections? Please don’t stand on the sidelines; think of all those military heroes who have serviced or who have died for your right to cast your vote. I do understand that folks are upset that those who spend the most money on advertising…win! It’s the same way in the world of business…the large national brands have more money to spend on advertising than small mom solo entrepreneurial businesses such as mine; but I am proof that you can have a national presence without a national marketing budget! However, it’s the hypocrisy in education that kills me…one minute our education system is strapped to the bone and the next our educational leaders still find the ways and means to spend millions and millions on political advertisements and many of those advertisements are the exact opposite of their zero tolerance bullying tone…please every vote does count, make your voice heard!
I am not able to speak nationally on the Oprah Show; but I was able to speak to the Oprah Audience 2 minutes prior to LIVE on Oprah! That was her reaction show…we need the solutions show! What is your solution to our educational crisis?
Also invited to be in the Friday audience is Stacey Kannenberg, a mother of two schoolchildren who lives in the Town of Fredonia and started a series of “Get Ready to Learn” books.
Milwaukee is having one on Saturday, November 6th at 3:00 at the Sherman Park Coffee Shop, 4924 W. Roosevelt Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53021. Will you be attending?
Does it always have to be just another manic Monday? Well, stop wishing it were a Sunday and let Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions, help you get a grip on your family’s morning routine and quash the counterproductive chaos. Seriously those manic mornings can take a toll on your own mood and productivity; Amy has some great tips in her appearance with The Today Show’s Katie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb to help with your morning routine:
I missed being with Alison Rhodes at the ABC Kids Expo this year in Las Vegas. After seeing the video, I feel like I got a taste of all the new hot trends in baby and kids products!
Sue Mayer’s blog hit a nerve with me and will with every mom who has ever had to fight for their child. Her son, Sam was the inspiration for the Cedar Valley Character, Sam from our book: Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
Sue, Sam and the rest of the Mayer Family, we are sending you strength, hope, courage and love on this new fight!
Thank you so much Target, Parenting Magazine & Mom Congress for inviting me to be at your Read Connect Grow events in DC and St. Paul.
Target is concerned with low reading-proficiency and graduation rates throughout the country. Target has taken a stand on improving reading in our nation’s communities. Target’s goal is to expose as many children as possible to the joys of reading, and strive to have them reading proficiently by the end of third grade. Target plans to donate more than $500 million by the end of 2015 to support education, doubling its support to more than $1 billion. What a commitment to literacy!
“Target’s ties to education run deep, but we are compelled to do more to address the education crisis in the U.S. and put more kids on the path to graduation so they are ready for college, a career and life. The time to act is now, and it starts by reading with a child,” said Laysha Ward, Target’s president of community relations. “Our reading pledge is the first of many steps Target will take to ensure our kids are globally competitive. We need every parent and caring adult to join us in creating a movement that will chart a new course in education and help our children succeed.”
The financial commitment is part of Target’s new reading initiative, Target Read With Me, aimed at helping more U.S. children read proficiently by the end of third grade. Why the focus on third grade? Research shows that reading proficiently by the end of this crucial is a significant milestone on the path to graduation. Indeed, according to Annie E. Casey Foundation, this is when children make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn.
As part of the initiative, Target also announced a reading pledge, a donation of up to 2 million books to kids in need, and plans for an innovative reading center that will reach communities across the country through a physical and virtual presence. What an amazing pledge!
Thank you Target for including me along with five other amazing Mom Congress Delegates in your “Moms with an Eye on Literacy”, your special literacy advertisement in the November Parenting School Years Magazine! Thank you for celebrating the accomplishments of Mom Congress Delegates who are leading the fight for early literacy: Jamie Pearce (Idaho), Angeline Gorham (New Hampshire), Liza Weidle (North Carolina), Chanda M. Kropp (Minnesota), Emily Rempe (Ohio) and yours truly, Stacey Kannenberg (Wisconsin).
If you live in NYC, are a mom, teacher or someone who cares about literacy, join Target, Parenting Magazine & Mom Congress on 10/21 to celebrate literacy! To sign up, visit www.readconnectgrow.com. Plead time to read with a child at www.Target.com/reading.
KinderCare Learning Centers has teamed up with Mom Congress to support moms advocating for education change in their schools. This is your opportunity to be recognized for your involvement and efforts in your local area.
Email your 200-word essay to [email protected] by November 4th and share how your advocacy efforts are making a difference today.
One essay will be recognized with a special gift of a book station and a library of 24 books from Kindercare! Books will be chosen based on the age of the child.
On Monday, NJ Gov. Chris Christie was in Wisconsin campaigning with Governor Candidate Scott Walker. I want to personal thank the Scott Walker team for allowing me the opportunity to pass along my solutions to education to Gov. Christie! Education reform needs to happen. Our schools are failing and have been since 1970! No amount of money has helped! I have been most impressed with Gov. Christie’s crusade to take the left and right out of politics and work with Mayor Cory Booker to put politics aside to create a new kind of public school in Newark with the help of Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million dollar donation. Here is the blank slate…what are your solutions? How do we fix education?
As many of you know I was so blessed to be invited to the screening of the documentary, “Waiting for ‘Superman’” about our educational crisis in America. Since I was meeting face-to-face, for the first time, the amazing Louise Sattler, @Louiseasl for a “Girl’s Night Out” in Chicago and since she picked the magic dates, it was only fitting that she was my guest to our Oprah Experience! The screening took place inside the famous HARPO studio on Sept. 23 and the following morning,
we were inside the live studio audience for the reaction to “Waiting for ‘Superman’”.
This is a must see for every parent, student who is old enough to watch a PG rated move, teacher, educator, administrator involved in education!! This film illustrates that our potential success, the future of prosperity in American and generations to come is in crisis. Warning: the film from Davis Guggenheim, the maker of “An Inconvenient Truth” shares the grim and depressing news that our current public educational system has been failing since 1970 and spending more and more money has not made any significant difference! It fuels the debate on whether it was our failing schools that lead to the downfall of our neighborhoods or was it the downfall of our neighborhoods that lead to our failing schools?
Guggenheim shares the plight of five compelling children who are hungry and eager to learn but stuck inside the walls of a failing public school. We learn the heart-breaking saga of Anthony, Daisy, Bianca, Emily and Francisco. They all have dreams and goals. They all agree escaping public schools is the only option for each of them to succeed. The film also highlights renegade reformer and Superman, Geoffrey Canada, who tried and failed to change the public school system. So he started his own Charter School, The Harlem Children’s Zone, where his educators start with a child and family at birth and stay with them until they graduate from college. We are also introduced to the KIPP Academy, another successful Charter School but we are also told in the movie that many Charter Schools are also failing schools. We meet another superhero, Michelle Rhee and her battle to change the system by cutting the central office and firing bad principals and teachers who were ineffective inside an already failing system. She found education to be more about the needs of the adults. Michelle Rhee’s days are numbered at the top of DC’s public schools. Soon she will be another victim of a system who is resistance to eliminating bad tenured teachers and moving to a pay for performance incentive for teachers to excel. The educational system believes that no teacher should be left behind regardless of performance.
As a student inside a public school in America, maybe you are not surprised by these finding because you have already seen those cracks in education inside your own school. Maybe you have had more than a few horrible teachers, been tested on things no one ever took the time to teach, or have seen your favorite teacher disrupted and overwhelmed by the same three kids who should have been suspended years ago! Maybe you are that teacher who is tired of trying to reform a system that is intolerant of change or maybe you work with that teacher who is stumping those 25 minds in math leaving them 6 months behind grade level?
You can’t go by what the critics have said about this movie because many have inconveniently missed the truth about “Waiting for ‘Superman’”. Many fabulous educators have tried to change the system. They couldn’t because the top tiers of education, those who are paid the most to care about education, care more about protecting their own jobs. They have enabled a powerful ally in the teachers union with the stance all teachers should be protected regardless of performance. Thus Guggenheim’s agenda is simple: to create a firestorm so hot that it smolders and burns down the current failing and crumbling foundation of education.
Miss Suzy was my first book. I can still remember sitting in my mom’s lap reading that story over and over and over again! How I loved that book as a child and how I loved reading that book to my own kids. The world of books holds the key to everything: adventure, escape, fantasy, mystery, romance, science, travel, knowledge and so much more! It doesn’t take many books to have an impact on a child. Homes that have more books in the household produce better students. Studies show that a child with as little as 15 books in the household will stay in school for an average of two years longer than those without access to books and a child who has access to over 500 books is more likely to attend college.
I am getting ready for my “field trip” toady in DC to celebrate childhood literacy on behalf of Mom Congress, Target and Parenting Magazine! As I was packing, Megan read me a chapter from a book she is reading in 4th grade about a boy who was pulled into a prank that hurt his elderly neighbor. As part of his punishment he has to email back and forth with another lady, Wootie, who is currently living in an old age home. Wootie is a hoot and reminds us of our own Grandma Martha, who we miss dearly! How fun to share memories and get lost in a great story! I love it when the girls come home from school eager to read to me! It makes up for all those nights when they were little and I was running on empty and they would haul 15-20 books into the bed for us to read each night. It’s so fun that they still love Miss Suzy just like I did when I was little. Thankfully (big sigh), even at age 11 and 9, Heidi and Megan still snuggle up and let me read our favorite childhood books to them…again…and…again!
In honor of Read, Connect & Grow childhood literacy who will your book buddy be? Visit Target to learn more:
