Most of us know the sorry state of education funding whether we have kids in school or not.  I live in IL where the budget is calling for a 17% cut in education spending.  Our schools aren’t getting the money from the state like they are suppose to.  I won’t find out if Will will get preschool from the public school (even though he qualifies for it with his speech delay) till the middle of August!  Madison will be back into school most likely before I find out!  Education is in a sorry state in the country.

Bing’s Teacher Appreciation Website helps teachers help themselves. Here’s how it works: a teacher can log onto the DonorsChoose.org website to start a “classroom project” or donation request. Parents and students can then visit the Bing Teacher Appreciation site to leave a comment [up to 5 per visitor] about a teacher who has made a difference in their life, enabling them to receive a $5 giving code to donorschoose.org [one per comment]. Parents and students can then apply the $5 giving code to the “classroom project” of their choice. Classroom projects are created by teachers, so reach out to your childrens’ teachers and encourage them to submit their own projects!

Madison and I embarked on doing this.  The Bing site is super easy to use and $5 can add up quite quickly.  As my children have learned, every little bit counts.  I’ve also taught my children about giving back, so I let Madison choose what classroom project we were going to donate too.  I was given a $100 giving code to use.  Donorschoose.org is another awesome site (though I wish they would include private schools so my daughters school could benefit from this).  There is a classroom project for everyone!  Madison picked a classroom of kindergarteners like herself in Texas.  We were able to get a science kit for a class of 22 students.  What grabbed me was this statement in the description of the project:  ”Imagine a class full of little students walking around with a magnifying glass in the garden looking for bugs and looking for the grooves of a leaf.”  That is Madison to a tee, so I am very happy to help fund this class!

Make sure you check out the Bing’s Teacher Appreciation Website and write about your favorite teacher and help some kids in the process!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and a $100 DonoseChoose.org giving code to facilitate my review. Mom Central also sent me a thank-you gift certificate.

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I hate dealing with our public school.  They make things 10 times harder than they have to be for everything.  Seriously. However, with Will aging out of speech therapy in June, I have no choice but to deal with them.

In March, we were suppose to have a transition meeting.  The state and the public school were to set up this meeting and let me know the date.  Said meeting never happened, so I started making phone calls at the beginning of this month.  When I called my service coordinator, I was told the school hadn’t called them back.  I waited another week and then I called the school directly.

Getting to the right person wasn’t too tough.  However, whatever list we were suppose to be on — we aren’t.  I was like “I have a letter from the state saying that we need to get this scheduled”.  She then put me on hold for at least 5 minutes and then magically found Will’s paperwork.  We scheduled what I think is an evaluation for next Friday.  She told me I had to go to our home school and fill out a bunch of paperwork and prove residency.  She gave me a list of what I had to bring to do that.

Will and I went this morning to get the paperwork and give them what I needed to prove residency.  The paperwork was annoying and long (Just like it was when I had Madison screened for preschool.  Seriously, why is it any of their business how much I make and how old Bill and I are).  The kicker — I didn’t bring the right information in, because I was told the wrong stuff!  Needless to say, I was pissed.

Now, I’m not the first person doing this.  I do not understand why 1.  they can’t use all the crap I filled out for the state or 2.  how the administration building and the school don’t have the same requirements.  I was told from the school that they would not send the paperwork over unless I proved residency first (even though I have an evaluation scheduled for next week).  Now, the admin people told me that I could fill out the information packet and not to worry about having the other paperwork.  I could have screamed.

Now, you’d think the two buildings would know what the other one is doing.  Seriously, you;d think they don’t want to give us services.  Needless to say, after about 2 hours of running around, I got all the paperwork and went back to the school and turned it in.  Now, hopefully they manage not lose it between now and next Friday.

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As I have written many times on here, my husband and I have been struggling to figure out what we should do about Madison’s schooling for next year.  For those of you who haven’t been along for the whole ride, let be give you the short story.

My school district for a lack of a better term sucks.  They have cut music, art, and all extracurriculars.  We have went to referendum 3 times to get more money for the schools, and it has failed 3 times.  Needless to say, it’s not going through.  The school has no teacher’s aides and trying to get the school to tell me how many kids they have in their kindergarden class has been like pulling teeth.  I have yet to get an answer from them besides they won’t let the class size get up to more than 30 kids.

The private school we are looking at has 18 kids in the kindergarden class with a teacher’s aide.  It will be all day.  It also has gym, computer, art, and music one day a week.  They have answered all of my questions, and I do like what we have been told.  I’ve visited the school twice, and Madison and I have been there together once.

We decided until our school district gets their rear in gear that the best place for Madison is the private school.  We’ve already enrolled her for the fall.  The rules seem a tad strict to me, but everybody keeps tell me that’s good.  I do think that has to do with the rebel in me.  LOL  Bill read through the handbook and found nothing wrong or restrictive.  Wish us luck and I hope kindergarden goes well!

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If you are not guilty, you should talk to the police, right?  Wrong!  By watching these two videos that I embedded below, I learned how the police can manipulate what you say and find you guilty of something you may have done!  They are long, but very interesting to see the police tactics.  This talk was given at a law school (I think).  This first video is by an attorney:

The second video is a police officer who pretty much tells you how he gets people to admit their guilt:

So what do you think? Will you talk to the police without your lawyer present?

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TThis post is sponsored, but the ideas, thoughts and ramblings are my own.

Since having kids, I turned into a big softie.   Yes, I’ll actually admit it.  I cry at things I never would have before, and I think about things that never would have crossed my mind before having kids.  I’ll be honest here — I get all teary eyed at Sears new commercials.  Their new campaign is about how one gift can change someone’s life.  Since I absolutely love Ty Pennington, I thought I’d show you what he had to say:

Okay, now that I’ve got myself composed again, I need to tell you what wishes Sears answered for my family. I was provided a $100 gift card from Sears that we were able to use this weekend.

Bill and I bundled the kids off early yesterday morning and headed off to Sears.  I luck out since Sears is actually walking distance from my house, and we actually shop their quite a bit — off the top of my head, we got a bench, our snowblower, and our lawnmower from there.  However, on this trip, we had no idea what we were going to get.  My Christmas shopping is pretty much done, so we were going to try to find something for the kids.

The first place we checked out was the outdoor decorations. Madison is always wanting more for our yard, and this isn’t something we spend a lot of money on.  Shortly after this picture was taken, Will decided to lay on the floor and talk to one of the deer that they had for a decoration.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the camera out fast enough to get that embarrassing photo of him.  Nothing really caught our eye in this department, so we headed over to toys.  Of course, there were a lot of toys to pick from, but really, my kids don’t need another $100 worth of toys right before Christmas.  Since the favorite part of any store for my husband is electronics, we headed to that department.

Once we were in electronics, my husband immediately walked towards the TVs even though we really don’t need one. Plus, $100 doesn’t really buy a TV (or at least not the ones he was looking at). Madison was being her normal hyper self running around looking at things until she saw the guitar hero bundle.  Yes, that is my whole family playing Guitar Hero in Sears.  Madison asked us if we could buy her the drums.

Now, the school district I live in has cut the art and music programs from the curriculum and will not be adding them back.  I have written many posts on this blog about how awful I think this situation is and how I feel that music definitely is a class that should not be cut.  My daughter loves to play instruments and sing.  I can’t imagine depriving her of it.  With the $100 Sears gift card, we will be able to fulfill her wish and give her the additional music support she will not be getting from our school.  Who knows — Madison may end up to be  talented singer, dancer, in a band, etc.  However, I’d love to give her the stepping stones she needs to reach her full potential.  (Plus, well, Guitar Hero is fun for mom and dad too.  Dad was all over getting it when I told him there was 3 Tool songs and Freak On A Leash by Korn.  I also need to add that the gift card paid for a portion of the cost of this bundle.  I paid the rest.)

Since we got such an awesome family gift from Sears, I’d like to extend this awesome opportunity to one of my readers.  Yes, I’d like to give you a $100 gift card to Sears to use however you like.

You can enter via blog comment, tweet or blog post:

Blog Comment:

I just need you to tell me what you think you’d want to spend your $100 on.  Head on over to Sears and let me know the item number of what you like.

Twitter:

I’ve made it super easy for you to Twitter about this contest.  Just tweet out this message:

RT @blm03 please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card – tweet to make your own wish:  http://urlbrief.com/8e0599

Blog Post:

You can also enter by writing a post about the contest and linking back to this post.  Make sure you leave a comment with the URL to your post, so I can count it as an entry.

Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration.  You can register up to three times by tweeting, leaving a comment, and doing a post on your blog.  The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all entries.  This contest goes until December 23 at midnight EST.  Good Luck!

Check out the other Izea Insiders for more chances to win:

BenSpark

Steven Sanders

Corrin Renee

Elizabeth

Laurie

Kat

Heather

Brett

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