New to Couponing? Easy Tips to Cut In Your Bill in Half
Many thanks to Tara & Mandi for DealSeekingMom.com for letting me share my tips on how I cut our family of five’s grocery bill in half in less than 2-months. The article is called, “From Confused Coupon Criticizer to Coupon Connoisseur (in the making)” . Believe me, if I can do it after years of trying and always giving up, because it my savings never made it worth all the time and headaches I bared…Finally by simply involving my 3 girls in the process–I’m finally capitalizing on some major cash saved!
There are some great conversations taking place in the comments section, so please hop over and share your input or ask questions. For example, based on Stephanie & Melissa of Serendipity is Sweet’s input, I’ll be posting some tips for saving money on specialty foods (such as halal foods) and how to transform cranky I-hate-grocery-shopping to grocery-shopping-spree-helpers!
Invention & Imagination Curriculum – CT Invention Convention is not limited to CT residents
Please note: The curriculum is NOT limited to CT residents, but the CT Invention Convention participants must be CT residents. The CIC (CT Invention Convention) provides a great innovative curriculum for students in Grades K – 8. The major difference between hosting a Science Fair and Invention Convention is that a student researches, reports & displays work of past Scientists for a Science Fair, while they are fostering the love and promotion of creative, outside-of-the-box and forward-thinking, problem solving, innovation, and imagination for an Invention Convention.
Of course, there’s a great benefit for participating a Science Fair and we support them. But, one must choose to participate in one or the other, we recommend participating in an Invention Convention.
You may remember that our eldest daughter invented/designed the Muslim-on-the-Go Portable Prayer Pack. We followed CIC’s whole curriculum, and we held a local invention convention in which the CIC founders/organizers were our judges. Six students were selected to compete at the statewide event, and 3 of the entries were our 3 daughters. Our eldest one 2 awards, Lincoln Financial Presidential Award & the CIC Recognized Student Award.
The full-day event will never be forgotten for our entire family. They had a scavenger hunt-type of activity for students to learn about each Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut. The speakers were motivational. But, the girls gained most from participating in their peer judging circle, something unique to Invention Convention.
Our daughter has been blessed to be mentored by a local handbag designer, Dori of S1Bags. our daughter has a mentor who took her under her wing! Our samples will be sent by the end of November. If all goes well, we plan to host a prize in her honor, as other little inventors did the same, who started humbly off at CIC.
To participate in the CT Invention Convention, registration opens October 19, 2009. All the information is available here, (From the page:)
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
OPTIONAL DOCUMENTS (These are older documents available for free from their website. Please continue reading below…)
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Invention Plan (43 KB DOC) – You may wish to use this form to inform and involve the parents
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School Judging Sheet (43 KB DOC) – If you have a school invention convention to select students for the state convention, you may wish to use this judging sheet
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Student Activity Booklet (67 KB DOC) – This booklet may be useful for getting the kids’ creative juices flowing.
If you are local and available, October 17, 2009, I highly recommend that you participate in the Teacher’s Training. They have additional information not available online. Since I could not participate in-person, we were able to do it over the phone, thought it wasn’t as long nor as good.
UPDATE: Due to high demand, they opened a January 9, 2009 training date. Homeschool parents are more than welcomed to get certified training from them too
Regardless, the CIC staff is available to assist in anyway possible, so register and get the materials sent to you, or
Also, you can just contact them, and let them know that Ponn Sabra recommended you to them. Either Charlie, Honey (Honora) or Helen will answer, and they all know me. I know that they are working with other states and countries, so don’t be shy to contact them even if you don’t live in CT.
My girls and I look forward to hosting a homeschool invention class in the state of CT. So, if you are interested, feel free to comment below.
Kids Healthy Eating Test
I teach many classes for kids healthy eating at area schools, churches, the Jewish Community Center and more. [Ponn: We'll have to get you into the Islamic community too, inshaAllah, God willing ] Frequently the organization is using grant money to pay for the healthy eating class for the children. When that is the case we offer a pre-test and a post test so that the results can be used for future grant funding.
Children’s Healthy Eating Test
Can you pass the children’s healthy eating test without taking the class? (The answers are found at the bottom of the page.)
- Which foods that are whole grains? organic flour, whole wheat flour, brown rice, rye flour, oatmeal
- What does organic mean?
- My breakfast cereal is probably whole grain: True or False
- Dessert is good for you: Always, sometimes, never
- Fat is good for me: True or False
- Which Fat is better for you? olive oil or butter
- Should I eat the skin of organic apples?
- Which of the following are processed foods? Sponge Bob Macaroni and Cheese, Apples, Raisins, White Flour, Mom’s home made macaroni and cheese.
- Which is better for you Captain Crunch cereal or Kashi Crunch cereal?
- Which foods are are vegetables: celery, cherries, cabbage, broccoli, peanut butter, steak, cupcakes
- I think it would be better for me to eat white bread instead of whole wheat: True or False
- Which foods are protein: chicken, broccoli, lemons, fish, peanut butter, grapes
- Which foods are carbohydrates: oranges, oatmeal, ice cream, barbecued chicken, eggs
Cooking For Kids
If you got more than 5 incorrect answers and are cooking for kids on a regular basis you may want to learn a little more about your foods. Kids who cook before they are twelve will live a longer healthier life. When you get your children involved in cooking healthy good-for-you foods at a young age you are investing in their life long health. The passion of cooking is a gift for your children that will las their whole entire life.
Natural Foods For Healthy Kids
Kids who eat a natural-high fiber-chemical free diet have a lower risk of many diseases. Research has shown that high fiber diets and natural foods reduce your chances of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more. Your children deserve a long and healthy life. Learn more about natural foods to fight cancer, hearth disease and keep your kids healthy.
Healthy Cooking Test Answers
- whole wheat flour, brown rice, oatmeal
- grown, harvested and transported pesticide, herbicide and synthetic fertilizer free.
- False
- sometimes
- True
- olive oil
- yes
- Sponge Bob Macaroni and Cheese, White Flour
- Kashi Crunch
- celery, cabbage, broccoli
- False
- chicken, fish, peanut butter
- oranges, oatmeal, ice cream
Holistic Health and Wellness columnist, Deb Bixler is a natural diet and lifestyle educator who focuses on small daily choices that add up to big results. Learn more about her holistic health and wellness approach to life with this COOL reminder chart on how to live a healthy life style. Deb provides a vast resource of healthy recipes and ideas on how to speed up your metabolism naturally at her healthy living resource center. If there are any specific topics of interest that you want her to cover, please contact us and let us know.
Past articles written by Deb Bixler include:
Climate Quilt Project – Saving the Planet One Patch At A Time
Get your old t-shirts and scraps of fabric ready for a fun and worthwhile project! Kids across the world are now making pledges to save the planet with their participation in the recently launched Climate Quilt Campaign—check-out www.climatequilt.org. This is a perfect art project for homeschoolers to get together for a quick, fun, educational hour! [Yes, I'm going to organize a local one, details below].
The Climate Quilt Campaign, a project co-founded by HabitatHeroes.com and the Green Schools Alliance, is an effort to tangibly connect children worldwide around the issues of Climate Change and what they can do about it. The Campaign is designed to empower youth, raise awareness, build global community, and be the voice of children around the world who are pledging to do their part to help save their planet.
Children in every country and city throughout the world can get involved through their schools or individually to have their pledge patch included. The goal is to have the finished quilt on display in Copenhagen during the UN conference on climate change. Leading up to Copenhagen, the quilt will be celebrated in countries on all six continents including the United Kingdom, the Phillipines, China and Australia on the same day in a grand gesture of solidarity as together, children promise to help protect the Earth they will one day inherit.
The Climate Quilt Campaign officially launched on September 23rd. The Climate Quilt was officially debuted on September 22nd on NBC-TV “Today Show”:
There are many ways for you and your kids to get involved with the project!
- Make Pledge Patches with your kids today, instructions available here,
- Click here for a Sample Lesson Plan (which we’ll be using for a local homeschool art class we’re organizing),
- Assisting with your sewing expertise by becoming a Quilt Volunteer, or
- Help spread the word to family and friends, by sending a ready-made email directly from their site here.
- If you live in CT and want to join us, please comment below & contact me directly for details. If we get at least 14 kids to make patches we can quilt up a “group section”…But, we need our quilters’ help [Hint, hint: ValleyCentralHomeschool moms! ]
This is an on-going process, but if you get your patches sent in soon, the Quilt is going to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen December 7, 2009.
Please share how you’re going to get your family and community involved! Check out this image for more examples (Click here to zoom an enlarge the image):
