Camp Corner 1

I've decided to start a section of my blog called "camp corner." I love working with children and I've worked at many different summer camps, child care centers and I will be student teaching this semester. This section is devoted to introducing you to new (or reminding you of old) ideas to use with your kids, as you teach, as you work as a summer camp counselor, as you work at a daycare, etc.

Toddler Activity

Bubbles! Toddlers love playing with bubbles, chasing them and popping them, or just watching them fall. Bubbles can usually cheer up a forlorn toddler. Just be sure to have a towel nearby for bubble "juice"!

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Toddler Tip

For the toddler room, make sure there's two (or more) of each toy - two scooters, two play telephones, two baby dolls, etc. This solves a lot of problems, as children this age do not always understand the concept of sharing.

Kids Activity

Friendship bracelets! Children of all ages love this, even the boys. They can make bracelets or keychains or anklets or whatever they please. When teaching children this craft, I always begin with the twist friendship bracelet. Then I move on to stripes, then chevron, and then hearts and more! Make sure to stock up on friendship bracelet string/embroidery thread - it goes fast!

Kids Tip

Make sure that if your daughter is wearing a skirt or dress that she wears shorts too! Chances are she will be rock climbing, using the monkey bars, doing cartwheels, dance routines, etc. Plus, its just a good rule of thumb.

Product Spotlight

This one just cracks me up: 

Chicco Rocking Eggplant

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It's a rocking eggplant! It is designed for toddlers, and it allows them to sit and rock - on a giant purple vegetable! Older kids also enjoy it too - they use it to scoot around in a weird, flying eggplant sort of fashion. Also, this large plastic vegetable also has a face with a nice friendly smile. And a stem that is removable for some unfathomable reason.

Well, that's all I've got. More Pinspiration coming your way soon!

Pinspiration Day 1: The No-Equipment Workout

My inspiration, this pin

The article it links to provides seven different exercises that only require the use of a wall (hence, the no-equipment workout). The article claims that by doing these every other day, you can lose two pounds a week. I can't verify that this is true, but I can tell you that it's an intense workout. My sister and I (I'm out of shape, 21, and my sister is in track, mildly in shape, 15) tried it, and here's what we found:

1. Sit-n-sculpt - This one was effective and I can tell I'll be sore tomorrow. It worked out a very large amount of my muscles, but was still possible with me being a bit out of shape.

2. Side slimmer (pictured above) - This one wasn't even possible for me and my sister could only manage it for maybe two seconds. Yikes.

3. Climb the wall - Another impossibility, for both of us.

4. Arm-Flab Fighter - Looks funny, but fun and hopefully effective.

5. Pike Position - Is this possible? For anyone?

6. Booty Bridge - Another excellent exercise. You can really feel it after about ten reps.

7. Pumped Up Plank - Possible in the modified version. I could only do it for 30 seconds, but I'll work my way up there. =)

8. Burpees - These let you finish the workout with your heart pumping like crazy.

I wasn't able to do the entire workout, but I feel like I accomplished a lot in a little amount of time and with no equipment needed - no sneakers either.

This pin, and many others are available on my Fitness board. If you want to follow me, click the Pinterest link to your right. =)

30 Days of Pinspiration!

June is going to be filled with 30 posts of projects that were Pinspired. Look for posts one and two tomorrow, since this weekend was crazy!

Useful Technology: whenisgood.net

While I'm getting my crafty posts together, I thought I'd share with you a resource I am always recommending to people. It is extremely useful and I'm always surprised when people don't know about it.

Today's feature is: whenisgood.net

Here's basically how it works - say you need to have a meeting (for a group project, committee, bible study, get-together, etc.) and you want to find a time that works for everyone.

Go to whenisgood.net and click on "new event" (or create an account at this time, it's up to you.)

You'll see a screen that looks like this.

You will eventually send out a highlightable version to those you want in your event. Here, you get to configure what they see - do you want them to see different hours? look at one by half-hours? only have it for a week, or weekend? And don't forget to name your event!

 Tip - to highlight a whole row, just click on the date at the top!

So... this is a sample of how I might configure it.

In the picture above, I am only wanting to hold my event those four days and I only want it to happen sometime between 9 am and 5 pm.

Then, click "create event"!

They give you a code you can use to view your results - this is important!

Next, send the code to your participants. They will get an e-mail, and then have the option to select when they are free. I don't like to use Outlook, so I usually just copy/past the hyperlink into my own e-mail host.

This is what your e-mail recipients see. Then, they get to select when they're free.

This person, for example, appears to be free all day Tuesday and Thursday, but only 2-3 on Wednesday and 9-10 and 2-3 on Friday.

So, now you wait for responses. When you're ready to schedule the event, return to the website and check out your results. Don't forget the code!

This is what you see! Green slots are times that everyone is available. The red dots represent how many people are unavailable. In this example only one person is unavailable at 9 on Tuesday, but three are unavailable at 5 on Friday. This makes it easy to find alternative times if neccessary.

Tip: If you're having trouble scheduling the event (maybe there are no green slots) you can also exclude some responses. They are listed to the left of the page in order of freest to busiest. So you can eliminate your most restricting person to find a better time. This section also allows you to view individual responses.

So there it is! I love this and it is a great and easy tool for any type of group meeting where you want to easily see where everyone is available - the website does it for you!

Another Update!

Life has been super crazy lately! I "graduated" college (I still have to student teach), I started a new job, I moved back home, my sister (and adorable nephew) moved back in town and so much more. I still plan on getting this blog up and running in June - so be prepared!

Finals Week Stress Relief!

If you need some stress relief, be it from finals or whatever, here are a couple of ideas!

1. Write a blog post. Sort of like I'm doing now. Haha. =P
2. Play a cute game - such as Chuzzle, and adorable fuzzy-ball match-3 game.

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or on Facebook, try Jelly Glutton - another match three with adorable animations.

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I know, a lot of match threes, but it's mindless, which means stress-relieving.

3. Check out HappyCavy.com. It's a website devoted entirely to everything guinea pigs. Including a blog, a photostream and live webcams of guinea pigs! Cuteness!

4. Watch youtube vidoes. Such as this one:

or this one:

Have any other videos, games or other stress relievers? Let me know in the comments! Good luck on finals!

Updates!

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted! I have one more month of class before I walk in graduation and I student teach next semester. Hopefully you'll see a lot more of me in the upcoming months.

So here are some goals for my blog that I'm already working towards!

June 2013 - 30 days of Pinterest projects. I'm going to complete thirty things that I've pinned on Pinterest! A crazy undertaking, but I want to feel like Pinterest actually helps me to be productive.

July 2013 - 30 days of crochet! I want to feature 30 different crochet projects from many different sources. I'm working hard to get them all done!

August 2013 - I'm going to debut a new line for my Etsy store, which will include 25 crocheted items, along with separate listings for their patterns. Hopefully, I'll be able to do this!

In other news, my friend introduced me to an awesome website - lang-8.com. The site allows you to practice writing in whatever language you are learning (in my case, Spanish) and have your entry edited by a native speaker. You can even get suggestions like, "this is correct, but you would never hear anyone say that..." and so forth. And you get to edit entries in your own native language. Which means I get to learn a new language and help others learn mine!

My goal is to write a post a day to improve my Spanish. I found this wonderful Pinterest board with many, many wonderful ideas for writing prompts.

Happy Friday!