Children need to feel loved in order to thrive. This book gives a lot of usable suggestions for how children interpret and feel love. What makes one child feel loved might not be the same for another child. Learn the love language of your child (or children).

I am giving away a copy of this book, The Five Love Languages of Children, and will mail it within the U.S. (Sorry, money is limited and I have to restrict it to postage I can afford.)

This is all you need to do to enter the giveaway: Leave a brief comment on this post with your name (first name is fine) and your email address. Your email address will be confidential and I will not share it with anyone. Names will be disqualified who do not leave email addresses because that is how I notify the winner. I will notify the winner by email to get their mailing address. Again, the mailing address will be confidential and I will not share it with anyone.

Deadline for entry is February, 10, 2010.

Using RANDOM.ORG to determine the winner, the winner is… Maria.  Congratulations, Maria!

If you would like your name entered twice, post about this on your blog and leave a comment with the link to your post.

*Watch for another book giveaway soon: The Five Love Languages. Learn your spouse’s love language and also your love language.

It’s fun to make Pillsbury Turkey Sugar Cookies for a fun project with the kids. Use icing for the “glue.” Glue 6-8 pieces of Candy Corn along the top edge of the cookie.  Glue 2 M&Ms in the middle of the cookie for the eyes. Use a small tube of icing to form the beak underneath the eyes (a small v-shape).  Make turkey feet at the bottom of the cookie.

I know several people who have gotten an online degree and are glad they did.  If I didn’t have a degree, I would consider getting one online.   For someone who had young children at home and wanted to get an online teaching degree, I think that would be great to be able to get a degree from home and be able to study at one’s convenience.

One online site that received attention from TIME Magazine and NBC is Western Governors Online University, founded by 19 U.S. governors to help working adults.  I like the fact that it is nonprofit, is competency based, and emphasizes that each student masters the necessary skills in order to receive a quality education and succeed.  If I were getting an online degree, I would consider WGU considering all of the positive things I’ve read.

Here are some tips and techniques for the homeschooling parent or public school teacher.   Check back from time to time for new articles and ideas.

There are so many uses for cardboard displays.  As a previous elementary school teacher, I think a cardboard display would be a great way to display books or maybe to set up an interest center.

If you have a business and need a way to display DVDs or CDs or maybe you don’t have a business but still need a way to display CDs and DVDs, then you might be interested in checking out these cardboard displays.

Online master degrees are becoming more popular.  There are quality degrees available that can be done online without leaving home.  Some top ranked schools are hesitant to offer online degrees because they think that the quality of the degree is diminished.   However, Gonzaga University realizes that the opposite is true and offers several quality masters degrees online.  Experienced professionals in the work force who might not be able to get a masters degree otherwise are able to get a quality degree in a time frame that works with their busy schedule.

By the way, Gonzaga University is:

• Ranked #3 in the west by US News and World Report
  
• Ranked “one of the nation’s best universities” by The Princeton Review and by Forbes Magazine
• Ranked a “best value in private universities” by Kiplingers Personal Finance.

Are you in the market for a laptop?  Check out wholesale laptops for savings.  Maybe you need one for your business or have a college student in the family who needs a laptop for college work.  Or maybe you would like to have one for home to check email and do searches on the Internet.  Whatever reason, in today’s market it’s great to be able to save money on your purchase!

In case someone doesn’t know, Cinco de Mayo means “May 5″ in Spanish.  When I think of May 5, I think of when I used to teach school and a lot of teachers would wear Mexican dresses (two of my dresses are in the picture), we would do Cinco de Mayo activities with the students, and the Hispanic teachers there would treat the faculty and cook authentic Mexican food for lunch.  The food was awesome!

If you would like to read more about the origin of Cinco de Mayo and about activities for children and the family, then visit Cinco de Mayo: Origin, Activities, & Books for Children on my site, “How to Teach Kids.”

If you are interested, you can go to How to Teach Kids to find out about the origin of Valentine’s Day which was interesting to me.  One part I thought was really interesting was that the first mass production of Valentine cards was in 1847 when they produced paper lace Valentine’s.

There are also activities for kids, a children’s DVD about Valentine’s Day and a long list of children’s books about Valentine’s Day.

Need some tips or techniques to add to your teaching materials?  I have started a new site called How to Teach Kids to share ideas that I have used in my 19 years of public school teaching and also ideas from teacher friends.  Hopefully, you will gain a new idea or technique to use if you are teaching your own children or a classroom of students.