2011 | 3 Boys And A Dog

2011 Holiday Gift Guides: Schedule and Links

November 1, 2011 by Kelli Leave a Comment

Although we have a great guide again this year (for our 3rd consecutive year) we didn’t have nearly as many submission as we did last year. Why? HARO has decided that Bloggers are no longer allowed to promo their Holiday Gift Guides via their site – just bloggers, like we are not REAL reporters or journalists. It used to be that you had to have a certain Alexa score, but that doesn’t even matter anymore. Shame, right?

November 1^st – 5^{th –}Men and Boys
·        Tuesday, 1 – Babies and Toddlers (0-4)
·        Wednesday, 2 – Kids (5-8)
·        Thursday, 3 – Tweens (9-12)
·        Friday, 4 – Teens (13-17)
November 7^th – 11^{th –}Girls and Women
·        Monday, 7 – Babies and Toddlers (0-4)
·        Tuesday, 8 – Kids (5-8)
·        Wednesday, 9 – Tweens (9-12)
·        Thursday, 10 – Teens (13-17)
·        Friday, 11 – Women (18 and up)
November 21^st – 22nd – House and Home (couple gifts, etc)
·        Monday, 21 – Couples
·        Tuesday, 22 – Pets

Filed Under: Holidays / Seasons Tagged With: 2011, bloggers, consecutive, couples gifts, guides, haro, holiday gift, Holiday Gift Guide, Holiday Gift Guides, Links, months, nearly, november, promo, schedule, scheduling, submission

Web Wide Weekend Wrap Up: October 8, 2011

October 8, 2011 by Kelli 2 Comments

wwwwrapup thumb 300x80 Web Wide Weekend Wrap Up: October 8, 2011

Welcome to the October 8, 2011 edition of mom blogger web wide weekend wrap up.

Jennifer Saksa presents New Typing Game Added to Free Typing Tutor Software posted at NCH Software Blog, saying, “A fun and free way for kids of all ages to learn how to type or improve their touch typing skills, KeyBlaze typing tutor software now has a game built in for a fun way to practice between lessons.”

Abby Nelson presents 10 Reasons to Consider a Nanny Who is a Mom posted at Nanny Classifieds, saying, “Finding the right nanny can be a really difficult and frustrating experience and it’s true that some parents go into it with pre-conceived notions of what a nanny should or should not be like (young and fun or older and experienced, etc.). We aren’t really sure why that is the case but over the years I have had some parents tell me that they would prefer to not have a nanny that has her own children. I think that’s really too bad because there are many reasons to consider Moms. Just being a Mother doesn’t mean that they are good or bad, better or worse, but it should NOT be a reason to exclude them from a search. In fact, you should see their experience as a parent in many ways consistent with “on-the-job” training that should help them in their career as a nanny. We are going to give you a few reasons to consider hiring a nanny who is a mother, but we want to stress that these types of life skills can and often do exist in people that have chosen a career as a nanny.”

Sara Dawkins presents 10 Household Details Your Nanny Needs to Know posted at NannyPro.com, saying, “Now that you have hired your nanny, it’s time to start thinking through the onboarding process (aka the first day). Typically, you will have thought through the basics like when they should show up and how to introduce your caregiver to the kids, etc. However, sometimes it’s nice to have a checklist of household details prepared in advance for your nanny. It’s true that you know your home along with the strengths and weaknesses. You also know where everything is and who to call in the event of an emergency whether it’s a repair or something even more serious. Of course, your nanny needs access to some of that information so here are 10 items that you should be prepared to download to your nanny on his or her first day:”

Nancy Parker presents 10 Reasons Nannies Don?t Love SuperNanny posted at eNannySource, saying, “SuperNanny and its primary competitor, Nanny 911, are a pair of shows that television networks promote as “reality” programming. In both of these shows the set-up is basically the same, in that upper-middle-class families who have multiple children, who are not angels, need to call in expert help to save the families from imploding. The expert help is the super nanny, a regular Mary Poppins on steroids. The nannies come to the rescue of befuddled parents and caregivers, and they turn all the little imps (sorry… it’s true) into model children using little more than Dr. Phil types of advice. The nannies do everything so much better than anyone else can, and they make it look super easy. Reaction among nannies in the real world that you and I inhabit has been mixed, but tends toward not loving it and here are some of the reasons why:”

DebB presents Don’t Let TV Market To Kids posted at Increase Metabolism & Live Healthy, saying, “Children are impressionable and TV commercials are not healthy.”

Blogging Tips

Lindsay Willison presents Landline Phone Service » 10 Ways Kids Survived Without Cell Phones in the 80’s posted at Landline Phone Service, saying, “Sometimes, it appears that cell phones have become a required accessory attached to every kid and teenager that you see in public. You see them being used for calls, text messaging, music listening, and game playing, virtually everywhere that kids are found. So, how did kids survive without cell phones in the 80″s?”

Peter presents Starting a Blog: A Complete Guide to Setting Up Your First Blog | The Blogging Blog posted at The Blogging Blog.

Parenting

Charles Chua C K presents What Can You Do Productively in the Last three Months of 2011? posted at All About Living with Life.

Linda Rodriguez presents Breast Cancer Awareness Month: How Will You Contribute? posted at Christian Dating Sites, saying, “The month of October has arrived and with fall knocking at our doors we tend to think of pumpkin patches, cooler breezes, apple cider and the color orange. Considering that October also means Breast Cancer Awareness month, instead of orange, we should change the color we normally associate October with to the color pink.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of mom blogger web wide weekend wrap up using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Share |

Technorati tags: mom blogger web wide weekend wrap up, blog carnival.

If you would like to see your giveaways, awesome reads, freebies, etc featured in this weekly post simply drop me an email. It is FREE to be included in this post! I will be accepting submissions weekly so you can ALWAYS drop me an email if you have something you want shared. So, if you want your post included, drop me an email at Kelli@3boysandadog.com with your link, title, and category.

Filed Under: Web Wide Weekend Wrap Up Tagged With: 2011, blog, Blogger, cell phones, film, mary poppins, mass media, mom, nanny, nanny 911, nanny classifieds, october, Supernanny, touch typing, typing tutor software, web, web wide weekend wrap up, weekend, wide, world wide web, wrap, wraps, WWWW

Teachable Moment: September 2011 time to find your child’s talent

September 1, 2011 by Kelli Leave a Comment

A Teachable Moment™: September 2011

Dr. Susan Bartell

Is it time to find your child’s special talent?

The start of the school year brings enthusiasm. A new class, friends and experiences are all exciting. Many kids can’t wait to try every activity introduced by teachers and peers. So, should you let your child try it all or is it better to encourage him to stick with one or two areas he already enjoys, and in which he may already show signs of excelling?

It can be tempting to let your child try every new activity. After all childhood is the best time to explore and grow—and there’s no way for her to discover a passion without trying many things. On the other hand, too much diversification can make it difficult for a child to immerse herself fully in a new experience and it can become confusing and stressful for her.

So, is it possible to encourage exploration and find your child’s passion, without her becoming overwhelmed and distracted? Yes! Here are four simple steps that will give your child opportunities to explore, yet still build upon current passions, talents and interests:

1. Nurture passion and interest. If your child shows an interest in, or talent for any given activity, support this by enrolling him in a class, after-school activity or school club that nurtures the interest. Pick one area of passion on which to focus. If an activity is seasonal (like a sport or a school play), you can have a replacement activity once the season is over. The replacement need not be another ‘passion’, but can be a new area that your child wants to explore (see #3 below). Stick to one area of passion at a time, or your child will become overwhelmed and lose interest in everything.

2. Balance is essential. Kids younger than ten don’t usually need more than two days a week to work at their area of interest. More than this can cause burnout and possibly an eventual rejection of the activity. In addition, make sure there is time for homework, play and exploration of other areas. Older children may become more intensely involved in an activity they love or that requires greater commitment to be competitive. This type of commitment is admirable and should be encouraged—but not at the cost of eating, sleeping, school work or a social life. As the parent, you must make sure your child is physically and emotionally healthy—even if she is an Olympic athlete or superstar in the making!

3. Encourage participation in a new activity. This can be a sport or creative art that your child has never tried, or even a less structured activity like baking or magic. Ask him to commit at least two or three months to the activity. This is enough time to achieve an initial level of mastery, so that the activity feels more like fun than work. After this period, he can decide whether he wants to continue or move on to something new.

4. Resist the urge to jump on everyone else’s ‘activity bandwagon’. Your child may come home each week with something new to try. Make a list of these activities and explain that she can try one at a time, giving each one at least a couple of months to see if she likes it. You’ll likely find that she’ll lose interest in many of the ideas on the list after her initial ‘nagging’. If you stick to these four tips, your child is sure to become well-rounded while still discovering her passions and talents.

Dr. Susan Bartell is America’s #1 Family Psychologist. Her latest book is The Top 50 Questions Kids Ask. You can learn more about her at www.drsusanbartell.com

Filed Under: Guest Blogger, Just for Kids, Parenting, Teachable Moments Tagged With: 2011, activities, bartell, Children, cognition, Dr Susan, education, encourage, Find, moments, Parenting, passion, school activities, september, special talent, susan bartellis, susan sto helit, talent, teachable, teachable moment, Teachable Moments, time

Conference Exposed: #BlogHer 2011 Recap

August 30, 2011 by Kelli 1 Comment

Well, it has been one crazy weekend, no doubt. From being totally overwhelmed on day one, to having my blog offline pretty much the entire time, to not learning one thing! But, I did a BUNCH of networking and have a bunch of people to catch up with ASAP. In fact, instead of writing this post, I should be working on what I am going to say to each person.

Ok, I want to break it down individually to explain why I would still go back even though the top sounds like a horror story.

I was totally overwhelmed at BlogHer 2011

On the very first day there, Thursday, none of the people I knew online had arrived yet, or if they had I didn’t know it because internet was non-existent for me! Literally, I walked for about 2 hours and never could find a place to eat… all by myself! I finally gave up. Then, I went to the event area figuring someone would have to be hanging out even though it was way too early for it to start. I didn’t see anyone, so I walked up to the registration booth where I saw people working and asked them only to be told (very rudely mind-you) that it didn’t open until 3:00. “yeah, thanks… that is not what I asked!” Arggh. At this point, I am tired, hungry, embarrassed, feeling a bit left out, and (most of you didn’t know this about me) but nicotine-free for about 24 hours. Needless to say, I found a quiet corner and called my mother in tears. God Love Her… she laughed at me. ROTFL!

Finally, I met with people I knew and things got better until the first party that night. My hotel was a good 25 minute walk away from the party and I went with a friend. I was tired.. ok beyond tired since I was running on about 3 hours of sleep almost 24 hours before. I was ready to go back to the room and well, she wasn’t. I don’t blame her, but everything was too much for me so I just left – yep… in tears! Geez, these conferences make me cry when I am NOT a crier. So, I am in the elevator when the tears came and there must have been at least 1/2 a dozen other women in there and they all just stared at me like I had an Octopus attached to my face! This one lady – ONE PERSON – took one look at me and just wrapped me in a hug.

So, Day one was horrible!! If I could have gotten a flight, I would have been on my way home right that second! I wanted my Mom, my Husband, and my darling boys – you know, all the people that think I am a Super Star because I was going with a huge brand (Tropicana and PepsiCo) and would be meeting some amazing Celebrities. Those people that don’t quite understand what I do and think it is the most awesome job ever. Yeah, those people that love me unconditionally instead of all the Cliquey people that think people in Alabama are uneducated rednecks.

With that said, I made a friend in the elevator that night and vowed to find her again. I did and her name is Sugar. Yep. sweet and darling Sugar Jones! Thank goodness for her.. she honestly helped me. I didn’t really know why I was crying except that it had all built up I guess and needed to come out. I guess you could say Sugar woke me up to the fact that there would be some friendly people in the 3500 people there and I just had to find them.

Day Two at BlogHer got a bit better…

Day Two dawned pretty good with me finally getting a meal and finding my friends that I had met before or been friends with on the internet and even making a few new friends.

I spent an hour in the PepsiCo Promenade getting people to make the Tropicana Fruit and Veggies Pledge, conducting interviews, and giving away coupons for FREE orange juice.

I attended my only class of the day, Minding Your Own Business: Connecting with Brands from he Inside Out. Can you say, FLOP!? OK, not really… I sat down at the perfect table… a table full of nothing but brand representatives, so I was able to network with them. Including (yeah, you can insert jumping up and down and screaming here) the Head of Marketing to Women for Harley Davidson!! OMG!! Right!? So, I was able to start some relationships with them… then, the class started and I got furious with what was happening! Brands were getting ticked, bloggers were getting ticked, the panel was fighting. I finally asked for the microphone and basically said,

Let me just say that I have been a review blogger for about 3.5 years and all this fighting is ridiculous! Bloggers, I don’t know about you but I get literally 1,000+ emails per day from brands pitching me their products. It is funny to laugh about the off-the-wall pitches, but honestly if it doesn’t fit my plans I explain that it does and WHY and move on. It is my blog and my choice. Brands, same goes! Instead of getting ticked at the people that want cash money to conduct a review, remove them from your list of contacts or red flag them so you never contact them again and move on the another blogger. Guess what… there are more of us than brands.

OK, so it was a bunch more in depth than that and I am super curious to read it when the transcribed meeting goes live. But you know what happened when I tried to leave that meeting? I was stopped by numerous brands thanking me for that and wanting to work with me! Yeah, baby! LOL! So, although I learned absolutely NOTHING from the panel… I did make some great connections and am super excited to see what they bring.

Day Three (or Day Two of the Conference) Just About Killed Me!

Wow, I am over 1000 words on this and still have a long way to go, so I am ending this here. You will see more from me soon, including some of those interviews I conducted. wlEmoticon smile2 Conference Exposed: #BlogHer 2011 Recap

Filed Under: Conference, Travel Tagged With: 2011, blogher, bunches, conference, conferences, day, didem, exposed, god love, harley davidson, horror story, ok, people, Recap, recaps, roma, turkish people, year of birth missing

Menu Plan Monday: August 29, 2011

August 29, 2011 by Kelli 1 Comment

Do you have a plan for the week? I was going to make Taco Bake again this week since we love it so much, but decided not to when I saw it featured at Talking Dollars and Cents for the week. I decided it had received enough notoriety. Don’t want the Taco Bake getting the big head, ya’ know!