Filtrete Water Pitcher
About seven years ago, when we renovated a kitchen in our newly purchased Victorian home, we wanted to do it right so we made sure to buy the fridge maybe not of our "dream" kitchen, but certainly one a big step up from our last one. My one request? Water in the door. I loved this feature on my fridge…until I realized the filter needs changing every three months. The $40 filter every three months just doesn't fit into our tight budget. Instead, we switched back to a water pitcher in the fridge.
The Filtrete Water Pitcher from 3M is the perfect fit for our family. It's space-saving shape allows us to fit in all the other "necessaries" in our fridge (you know, things like chocolate cake…) and still have room for the water pitcher. The water has a clear, untainted taste, and the filter filters the water super fast, five times faster than other water filters! The ease of the pitcher has my family drinking a lot more water!
Filtrete also has a registration system that sends you seasonal newsletters, better living tips, and money-saving offers, but the best reason to sign up? They'll send you filter change reminders. Sign me up because I never remember when the last time I changed the filter was! You can also follow the Filtrete brand on Twitter andFacebook.
Best part yet, just for reading this post, you can take advantage of this coupon!
TKDDaughter gives the Filtrete Water Pitcher a:
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Filtrete and received the water pitcher to facilitate my candid review.”
Bing Our School Needs
I teach. I teach in a private high school. Money is tight, our budget is low, we reuse everything and our technology fails constantly. Many days we have no paper. It is frustrating to want to do the best by our students, but not to have the money to do so. However, we do it. We find other ways to teach successfully. We get creative. We find a Plan B, or C, or D. We do whatever it takes to be the most effective teachers we can with whatever resources we do have.
Bing recognizes the need for more school funding. In order to show their support for all those who assist in the educational process, they are running the Bing's Our School Needs Contest. Teachers and students have until Friday, October 22nd to submit an entry to show Bing through essays, videos, or photographs what they think their school needs the most. Bing will be giving away up to a million dollars in prizes and donations.
Does your school have a need? Check this video out, then go here to learn the details and how to enter the contest. Voting begins on October 27th, so check back on the site then to vote for your favorite school.
For doing the right thing and providing schools with a chance to do more, TKDDaughter gives Bing and the Our School Needs contest a:
"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and received a DonorsChoose.org giving code and gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate."
GreenWorks Walk to School Challenge
Filed under: Fitness, Freebies, General Information, Going Green, Health
When I was a in elementary school, I was always envious of the "walkers." These were the kids who lived close enough to school to walk. I lived far from my elementary school, so I had to take a bus. As a "busser" I could not go home for lunch. When we had our annual Halloween parade, I had to change at school, but the walkers got to go home and change. Luckily a friend of mine was a walker and she would take me home for lunch sometimes. It was cool.
When we were looking for a preschool for my son, we were so lucky to have two good preschools within walking distance of our house. I will never forget the experience of taking his little hand and walking him out of my arms and into school for the first time. Or the fast walk home to cry until it was time to pick him up again. We grew to love our walk to school together. The anticipation on the way there of what they would be doing that day and on the way home the sharing of what he had learned and experienced was priceless. Feeling the sunshine on warm days…dodging raindrops and jumping into puddles…trudging through the blizzard of '10…
It was just what we did. We didn't do it for health reasons, but what a nice benefit that was! It gave my son lots of energy on the way to school and helped him relax a bit on the way home. This is especially important with today's overuse of television and video games instead of active play. October is International Walk to School Month (who knew?!) and in honor of it, Green Works has created a fun website to help families join the fun and walk or bike to school and in the process, earn some money for their school to the tune of $5,000. Parents can sign up here. The top five schools with the highest participation could earn the big prize of five grand, but there's also individual prizes as well!
Remember, too, that walking to school is a great way to be "green." Every school is trying hard to be more green (or they should be)-paper recycling centers, cutting back on paper usage, and reusing as much as possible all work together to help make this world a little bit better.
So go green, use Green Works, and earn a little green for your school!
TKDDaughter gives the Green Works Walk to School Challenge a big:
"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Clorox Green Works and received a $30 thank-you gift certificate."
Healthy Choice Steaming Entrees
With my son in school, every single night it's a struggle for me to pack a lunch for him, let alone a healthy one for me. More often than not, I throw in a pack of tuna and some crackers and that's it. Ugh. Once in awhile this is fine, but a little variety would be nice.
I new alternative? Healthy Choice Steaming Entrees. This is not your average microwavable meal, folks! When you pull the entree out of the microwave, you instantly notice that the colors are brighter. Fewer ingredients and the use of steam all work together to release a great, fresh flavor. It also doesn't have that super salty taste of other microwave meals. In just a few minutes, you have a fresh, tasty meal for only a few dollars.
TKDDaughter gives Healthy Choice Steaming Entrees a:
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Healthy Choice and received samples of their new steaming entrées to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central also sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”
Mad Science Know Magazine
At the end of last school year, I made the decision to do a "Mama school" for my son. I knew that if he wasn't challenged during the summer, he would lose some of the skills that he had so painstakingly learned in preschool. Together we chose topics that interest with him and I spent oodles of hours prepping preschool lessons for us to do. As I prepared these lessons, I realized that most of them dealt in some way with science.
I am definitely a "humanities" kind of girl so this science thing is a challenge for me, but I love the fact that my little guy has such an interest in it. Recently we discovered a magazine that is perfect-it's called Mad Science KNOW Magazine. The magazine is colorful, informative, and most importantly, age-appropriate-for kids ages 6-9. My son is a huge fan of experiments and the magazine contains easy experiments with colorful pictures. You can check out the website here.
If you have a 6-9 year old with an interest in science OR you have a child who you want to instill a love of science, you will love this magazine published every other month. It's fun learning, but shhhh!! Don't tell your kids there is learning involved!
TKDDaughter gives the KNOW Magazine:
"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Mad Science and received the products necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate."