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Babies Online FREE Pregnancy Journals
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Create a daily online pregnancy journal, complete with pictures, instantly and for free! Tons of other great (and free!) stuff for expectant parents too, like weekly pregnancy calendars, baby names, and more so check it out!!
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I started this free for
moms website to help Moms get stuff Free. As I started to develop this site,
I realized that Moms need more than free stuff.
Sometimes it's a little advice,
sometimes reading articles on pregnancy, health or ideas on employment or sometimes, it's just a smile
you might need.
Every page will have free stuff
you can sign up for or download. Like newsletters or surveys,
contests.
Our site will be updated
regularly and I will add more features as time goes on. We have
online-shopping for expectant mothers, and your whole family.
I hope you enjoy this site and
if you have editorial to add or just would like to give feed back email me
at:
celineh@free4moms.com
How to Live a Rich Life
By:Carole
Pagan
Top
In today’s world, you may not even know what it is to live
a balanced life. When chaos and stress are the norm a
balanced life seems like some nostalgic notion.
So just
what is a balanced life? Basically, it’s having time
for everything
* Satisfying work
* Clean comfortable home
* Eating right
* Getting exercise
* Talking care of yourself
* Having time to spend with family and friends
* Having time for hobbies, or reading
* Having time to just relax
* Getting enough rest
* Having enough money to pay bills, have adequate
savings, and money left for fun.
The truth is, very few people live balanced lives today.
Anytime more focus is put on one area of your life, the
other areas suffer.
The most common cause of life imbalance is wanting more
than you can afford working longer hours to make more
money, and having more and more debt takes away
from your quality of life.
Ironic, isn’t it? The things you think you want, in reality,
make your life worse.
All around, I see people with big houses they can barely
afford, little or no furniture, and no time to spend enjoying
it. Then of course, people want the Escalade that costs as
much to keep gassed up as the outrageous payment.
Ask yourself, is working all those hours to keep these
“things” really making you happy?
In most cases you can find a less expensive choice that will
serve your needs just as well. The benefits of the less
expensive choice would be more money to spend on
other things, and not having to work as hard.
To many people, cutting back is a sign of failure. I don’t
know about you, but putting all that work into keeping up
appearances and never having any time to really live life
doesn’t seem very successful. What do you think?
Do you really want the big home that you have to work
extra hard to pay for, pay taxes on, furnish, keep clean
and maintain? Or would you be happier with something
a little smaller that would give you extra time and money
so you could actually enjoy life?
All of this “gotta have it now” thinking is just making
everyone miserable. No one can ever seem to have
enough, or work hard enough, or have enough time.
So much stress.
Imagine
how different your life would look if you had-
* A home just big enough to fill all of your needs, that’s
easy to keep clean and maintain.
* A nice car that gets good gas mileage and doesn’t
take a lot to maintain.
Wouldn’t that be a lot less stressful? Before you buy that
next “gotta have” thing, think about the real cost in time,
money, and what else you have to sacrifice. Is it really
worth it? Will it really make you happy in the long run?
All it takes is slight changes and you can have a much
richer life. Start focusing on having time to do the things
that make life worth living. Make time to garden, hike,
golf, boat, paint, read, or whatever else you love to do.
Spend time with family and friends. Get involved in your
community.
A richer life is not about money and things. It’s about
truly living.
If your life hasn’t turned out quite like you expected,
and it seems out of control, try a Whole Life Overhaul.
Go beyond self improvement- Get more information here –
http://CommonSenseLiving.com/wholelifeoverhaul.php
Essential Parenting Lessons for Enriching
Your Child’s Education By: Laurie Hurley
Top
Laurie Hurley is available for media interviews, discussions on education
and home-based business opportunities such as starting a tutor referral
business. Contact her at http://www.hometutoringbusiness.com or http://www.brightappletutoring.com
1-805.376.0033
“We have a science project due in two days and I don’t know when I’m going
to get the time to finish it.”
“I did research on the internet for the social studies report until midnight
last night.”
“We wrote the spelling words ten times before they were finally right.”
“I made flashcards for all of the multiplication and division facts in
preparation for the big math test.”
Do you think the above comments are from students, committed to working hard
to get good grades? Unfortunately, not. These are just some of the things I
hear from parents who enable their children to take short cuts in school or
who are too heavily invested in their kids’ homework and school assignments.
Parents who feel the need to do the work for their children aren’t helping
their children. “We” do not have a test or a project due, the son or
daughter does, so why is mom or dad doing the work?
As a professional educational consultant and owner of a busy in-home
tutoring service, I hear these comments at least three times a week from the
clients I visit. My job as a tutor broker is to match qualified tutors with
students. To make the best match possible, I meet every student and parent(s)
in their home to get a better idea of the students’ academic needs, as well
as personality and learning style. I interview the student, with the parent
present. We talk about school, the subject in which they need tutoring and
their study habits. What I discover is an increasing number of parents are
more stressed out than the kids because they are doing the work for their
children instead of teaching them good study skills and independence.
It is difficult to break the bad habit of doing too much for your children,
however, the following suggestions might help:
1) Realize that not all kids have the potential to get straight A’s. Some
parents believe that if their kids don’t get all A’s there is something
wrong. Absolutely not true! A well-rounded student is one who tries their
very best scholastically and is involved in social activities as well. Not
everyone can achieve a 4.0 average. There is nothing wrong with a passing
grade in all subjects, regardless of whether it’s an A, B or C.
2) Keep your expectations realistic. If your child is doing all of their
homework every night, studying to the best of their ability and taking
school seriously but not pulling all A’s, it is possible that they are just
not capable of living up the high expectations you have for them. If one
excels in reading and is less talented in math, accept that. Not everyone
can be excellent in every subject.
3) Make sure your child has a healthy mixture of academics and other
activities. A child who gets all A’s at the cost of having no friends or
social outlets is definitely going to suffer for it down the road. When
colleges look at a student’s academic record, they also look at extra
curricular activities, volunteer work, involvement in sports or the arts.
Grades and test scores are important, but so are being able to balance the
good grades with a well-rounded lifestyle.
4) Teach your child early on to be independent when it comes to school work.
In the primary grades, it is important to help your youngster establish good
study habits. Sitting with them and guiding them through homework
assignments, explaining or reading the directions to them is perfectly
normal and acceptable. By third grade, they should be able to do their
homework with much less involvement from you. Checking it over for them and
pointing out errors for them to correct is a good habit. By fourth grade,
homework should be reviewed by the parent. If there is a mistake, for
example, suggest that they review their work again because you found three
mistakes on pages one and two. Let them find the errors with limited
guidance from you. Fifth grade and onward, they should be totally on their
own.
5) Help your child establish a homework routine and provide a quiet place
for homework. Some kids come right home and do their homework immediately.
Others need to wind down and do it right before dinner. Others are
productive after dinner. Tune in to your child’s most productive time and
try not to deviate from an established schedule. They will get so much more
done if homework time is defined for them. As they get older, changes will
probably need to be made to accommodate other activities. The key is
consistency. Provide the right environment for homework and studying. If you
have children who are toddlers or younger, be mindful that it is distracting
for a brother or sister to try to concentrate if the television is blasting
or the other kids are being loud.
6) Communicate with your children’s teachers. Know what is happening in
class and what is expected to be done at home. Be sure to attend
back-to-school night and all parent-teacher conferences. Get to know the
teachers and establish clear lines of communication with them. Be aware of
how and where homework assignments, quizzes and tests are communicated to
the class. Many teachers utilize a school website to post assignments, etc.
Check the site regularly and ask to see the completed work. For older
students, DON’T correct it, but instead make sure it’s done neatly! Know
when the exams are and when big projects are due. This way, if your teenager
informs you they are heading to a friend’s soccer game and you know a big
exam is the next day, you can inquire as to whether they have studied.
Knowing what is happening in a class is very empowering for a parent.
7) Encourage your student to think for themselves. Provide a dictionary,
thesaurus, calculator and any other tools they may need to do their work. By
fifth grade, if your child is still asking you how to spell words, they
haven’t learned how to be independent. When my fifth grader asks me “How do
you spell ‘special’?” I reply, “I don’t know, how you spell special?” She
gets infuriated, but she knows I won’t tell her and she begrudgingly looks
it up in her dictionary. I could have given her the answer, but then she
would always ask me and not learn to do it on her own. After all, I’m not
the one who has to take the spelling test or write the book report, she is.
If your child is consistently confused and always has questions about school
work, your antennae should go up. One of three things is happening:
a) They are not asking questions in class when they don’t understand.
Shyness, embarrassment, or drawing attention to oneself by asking a question
is the most common reasons for not asking. Encourage your child to speak up
and that it is “OK” to not know the answer to everything. Chances are if
your child has a question, others in the class have the same one and are
also too embarrassed to ask.
b) They are lazy or something else is going on that you may not know about.
When any student, regardless of age and grade is over their head, it is
common to just shut down and tune out. To this kind of student, there is no
point in taking notes because they don’t get it anyway, so why bother?
Homework is too confusing for them; they have scored poorly on every test,
so why try? It is also possible that something else is bothering them. Have
they recently changed schools from elementary to middle school or middle
school to high school? Some kids don’t handle transition well. Has their
group of friends changed? Have they suddenly become loners or too social?
Tune in to your students’ behavior and talk to them about it. Elevating
their self-esteem will do wonders and is often the cure for the lazy
syndrome.
c) It is possible they might have a learning disability. A child who has
struggled since the early grades might have a learning disability. For
example, if your sixth grader is still reading at a third grade level or
your ninth grader hasn’t mastered his math facts, there may be a legitimate
problem. The best thing to do is talk to the school first. You have a legal
right to ask for your child to be tested by the school. Unfortunately, due
to budget cuts in education nationwide, this process is not always as easy
as it should be. Talk to your pediatrician and ask for a referral for a
qualified psychologist who specializes in learning disabilities.
Teaching your child to be independent will result in a much healthier
relationship between you and them and a much more peaceful home life. I have
heard from so many of my clients who have not fostered independence in their
children that homework time results in tears, screaming and a general sense
of rebellion and indignation from their children. This can be avoided by
setting your children up to be winners – and that doesn’t mean straight A’s,
it means they are capable and willing to do their best and you are capable
and willing to accept the results.
Laurie Hurley is the Founder & President of Bright Apple Tutoring Service,
Inc. based in Southern California and Home Tutoring Business, available for
purchase in the U.S. and Canada. If you are looking to begin a tutor
referral service in your community without the high cost of buying a
franchise, contact Home Tutoring Business, http://www.hometutoringbusiness.com
at 1.805.376.0033. |
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7 Unique Ways To Make Someone Smile
By: Roger Carr
Top
Roger Carr is the founder of Everyday Giving. His life purpose is to help
people help others. He lives with his wife and son in historic
Fredericksburg, Virginia. Learn more ways to give and sign up for the free
Everyday Giving ezine at http://www.everydaygiving.com.
Do you want to put a smile on someone's
face?
Maybe make their day a little bit
brighter? It doesn't have to take much time or money on your part. In
fact, many things can be done as a part of your normal routine and cost
little or nothing. You won't know how many people are encouraged by your
kindness because smiles are contagious. Try out one or more of these 7
ways today to put smiles on their faces.
1. Write an encouraging note to others that have encouraged you or that need encouragement. Handwritten notes that are given to encourage, not
just for thanking someone for a gift, are rare. That makes handwritten
notes even more special. Start a new practice of sitting down and writing
an encouraging note on a regular basis. You just might start an epidemic!
2. Take a friend out to lunch or invite her to your home for a meal. You
will get to know each other even better than you do right now. If you feel
like being more adventurous, throw a party for several of your friends and
put smiles on a multitude of faces.
3. Give someone an inspirational book to read. You will feel good doing
it, reading the book will change the person, and they will think of you
every time they read it.
4. Ask a friend or relative if you can take care of their kid(s) for a day
or evening. If you have been a parent, you know the value of being able to
have a few hours of "adult time" without worrying about the children.
Don't wait to be asked to baby-sit when it is required. Offer to do it at
a time when the parent can do something fun and relaxing.
5. Deliver a meal to someone you know that is sick or having a rough time.
We have all been sick and know the last thing you want to do is be out of
bed. There are also times when life is tough and it is hard to do all of
the daily chores. You can be a tremendous help by providing a meal that
can be enjoyed.
6. Volunteer time to supporting your local church or charity. Every minute
you dedicate to a church or charity will cause many smiles. You will put a
smile on the face of each leader just for helping without being asked. You
will also be putting smiles on the faces of those that are being helped
through the organization.
7. Thank everyone that supports you throughout the day. The list of those
that you come in contact with is endless. Remember family and friends,
secretaries, co-workers, teachers, Sunday school teachers, pastors, store
employees, janitors, gas station attendants, those that deliver your mail
and newspaper, and servers at restaurants.
I know this is a list of 7 ways to put a smile on someone's face, but
there is one more way that can't be ignored. Reveal a genuine smile to
everyone you meet. You will experience how easy it is to get others to
smile!
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