For the 13th Year, the Office Depot Foundation National Backpack Program Equips Children in Need for Back-to-School

Thank you to the Office Depot Foundation for providing sample products for us to donate to our elementary school community.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I've share about the Office Depot Foundation National Backpack Program during previous years and am happy to report that 300,000 backpacks will be provided to children in need for this back-to-school season.  I am always happy to support a retailer who gives back to the community, especially when it is in support of education because every child deserves an equal chance at succeeding in school.

To tell you the truth, when I think about charitable programs that support education, I always think they are doing good somewhere.  I don't associate such programs with my own community because our school is not a high-poverty school.  After a brief conversation with our school principal, however, I learned that there are many families in our school who cannot afford to buy basic school supplies for their children.  How can a child succeed in school without writing utensils, notebooks, and something with which to carry their books back and forth?  My family is quite far from being wealthy, so I am very conscious of how much it costs to equip 3 children with everything they need to start off a new school year.  I am very thankful to be able to donate 3 sackpacks complete with filled pencil cases, provided by the Office Depot Foundation, to our school.  Hopefully they will make going to school a little bit easier for 3 children this fall.

To learn more about how you can support the National Back Program and other Office Depot Foundation projects, visit OfficeDepotFoundation.org, as well as their pages on Facebook and Twitter.

Review: "Simply the Best" by Middleton and Petitt

What makes a school or school system successful? Good teachers and thriving students, say Kelly E. Middleton and Elizabeth A. Petitt, in their book, Simply the Best: 29 Things Students Say the Best Teachers Do Around Relationships. In this book geared towards teachers, Middleton and Petitt asked students what things the best teachers do and listed 29 things in the book along with tips, research, and much more.

“The best teachers know us personally.” In the Mason County school district in Maysville, Kentucky, the teachers have all made it a point to personally visit the home of each of their students in preschool up to grade twelve before school starts in order to get to know them better, meet their families, and build a personal relationship before classes even begin. As a result, the students in that district are excelling.

“The best teachers remember our names and use them.” Names are intertwined with identity and students use this as one of the yardsticks to measure their first impression of teachers. School staff must take extra precautions to ensure they take the time to learn to pronounce difficult or unique names, conveying to students that they appreciate not only the unique or beautiful nature of their name, but also the person who owns it. Being a uniquely-named person myself, I can appreciate this.

“The best teachers check on us when we are sick or even when we have sickness in our family.” Teachers in the Mason County school district call home if students miss more than one consecutive day, sometimes calling daily to check on them. They send hand-written notes, cards, make visits to home and hospitals, and more to let their students know they care. They even have the entire class make a phone call saying, “We miss you!” to make the ill student feel special. They also help the student get back on track if they miss too much school, instead of just letting them fall behind.

These are just a few of the many amazing tips this book has to offer for educators. It also has many places to reflect on your own role as a teacher, how you’re doing with letting your students know you care, and how your district is dealing with the children they are entrusted. This book is an invaluable resource to any educator; be it a teacher or school board official.

Simply the Best is available on Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and AuthorHouse.com and retails for $21.99. Click on this link to preview the first 26 pages of Simply the Best. You can also find more information on Middleton’s website.

Thank you to AuthorHouse for sending us a complimentary copy of this book to base this review upon.

Announcement: Scholastic Children’s Dictionary Back-To-School Blog Tour

I am excited to announce that the Scholastic Children's Dictionary Back-To-School Blog Tour begins today! I am even more excited to tell you that 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires is going to be one of the stops on this tour. What does that mean for you? That means you have an extra-generous giveaway to look forward to at every blog listed below.

Start off by visiting Piera at Jolly Mom today! If you love giveaways, then you are going to have a fun two weeks courtesy of Scholastic books. Don't forget to come back here on August 19th to see what I have in store for you!!

1. July 23rd ~ Jolly Mom
2. July 26th ~ Momma Findings
3. July 28th ~ The Mommy-Files
4. July 30th ~ The Dirty Shirt
5. August 2nd ~ 1StopMom
6. August 4th ~ MommyMandy
7. August 5th ~ Guessing All The Way
8. August 6th ~ Serendipity Mommy
9. August 9th ~ The Divine Miss Mommy
10. August 11th ~ From Dates To Diapers
11. August 12th ~ MomDot
12. August 16th ~ My Sentiments ExactLee
13. August 18th ~ Mommy Niri
14. August 19th ~ 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires
15. August 20th ~ Mom Knows It All

Review: Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks

Anyone who has been a long time reader of my blog knows that I am an avid believer that children should engage in educational activities outside of school. I even started my Kindergartner-in-Training series last summer to make sure my son was well-prepared to start elementary school. This summer, I did not have a clear plan about what skills my son should be working on. I know he was already doing some 1st grade work in kindergarten, so I wanted him to continue on that path.

When I had the chance to try out the Summer Bridge Activities books, I was excited. I usually think up my own activities, so it would be nice to have some that are created by experts.

These workbooks are designed to be a "bridge" between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. It is set up so that your child does 2 pages per day for 60 days and it is estimated that it would take your child 15 minutes to complete those two pages.

Well, I have quickly come to the conclusion that these books are only a good fit for children who are a little behind or right where they should be in reading, writing, and math. If your child is a little ahead, then these books may be far too easy. In the Grade K-1 book, my son can do 8 pages in 10 minutes. He has not completed the entire workbook yet, but looking ahead, there is nothing in it that he will find challenging until the very last few days in the entire workbook.

Since not all children are the same, I want you to be able to judge whether this book would be right for your child. This book covers the following:

• Single digit addition and subtraction
• Writing upper and lowercase alphabet
• Sounding out parts of words (beginning sounds, vowel sounds, etc . . .)
• Telling time
• Sequences
• Counting by 2s, 5s, etc . . .
• Counting money
• Counting to 100
• Reading comprehension
• Following instructions
• Rhyming

There are probably a few more things, but this list should give you the general idea. There is something unexpected and fun I found in this workbook, which is the "Fitness Flash". At intervals, there are instructions for your child to do something physical. It could be something as simple as 10 shoulder shrugs or something like imagining you are an animal stretching, acting it out, and asking your parent to guess what animal you are pretending to be.

Overall, I think these workbooks would be useful as long as they match your child's skill levels.

You can find Summer Bridge Activities Workbooks on SummerBridgeActivities.org and other retailers of educational books, such as CarsonDellosa.com .

Thank you to Summer Bridge Activities for sending us a sample workbook free of charge to base this review upon.

Review: Learning From Home on Educator.com

For a long time, my husband has been interested in learning more about computer science and programming. He's purchased books about C+ and about Java, but it is difficult to learn straight from a book with no interaction. For this reason, he welcomed the opportunity to try out the home education services on Educator.com .

The Educator website offers a wide variety of courses in the areas of mathematics, science, and computer sciences. Some of the most popular courses include basic ones like Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and General Chemistry, but some advanced placement courses are also offered, such as AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and AP Statistics. Out of the eleven courses available under Computer Science, my husband chose to conquer Java.

What my husband thought about Educator.com:

1) It was extremely easy to get started. Once registered, you simply select the module you would like to start with.

2) He thought Professor Ghyam (the Java instructor) was very animated and kept a good pace. He was not monotone and used a very conversational approach.

3) He liked that you can skip ahead or repeat each video session as often as you would like.

4) The layout of the site is very user-friendly.



5) Since the site does not allow you to ask questions on the spot, my husband feels that the course he took (Java) cannot stand alone, but would rather be a better tool as a supplement to a programming book.

6) Although there is a discussion section, there were no other participants on during the times my husband was logged on.

7) The "Exercise Files" did not contain any practice problems yet. If it had, this would have been more helpful in the learning process.

My husband thinks that, as the site stands now, it is worth $20/month if one is looking for a supplement to other learning resources. If the Exercise Files and the Discussion section were up and running, he thinks that Educator.com could possibly serve as the only resource one would need to learn a subject like Java.


Thank you to Educator.com for providing us with a review product free of charge.

12 Build-a-Bear Workshop Scholarships

There are just over two weeks left for you to submit an application to nominate a child between the ages of 7 and 18 to be one of the 12 winners of the Build-a-Bear Huggable Heroes awards for outstanding community service by a child. Each of the 12 children will be given a $7500 educational scholarship plus $2500 to donate to the 501(c)(3) charity of their choice. For the complete details, please visit the Build-a-Bear Workshop website.

The deadline to enter online is February 27th, 2009 11:59pm EST. If you are mailing your entry, it must be postmarked by that date. Official Rules