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Marriott’s “Nickelodeon Your Stay”
Filed under: Freebies, General Information, Services, Travel
All of our vacations in the first 5 and a half years of our son's life have been to beach condominiums. Essentially, it's like being at home-someone else's home. So when we got to our vacation this past December to see the famous Mouse and friends, our son walked into the hotel room (a pirate room, but still…), took one look around at the one room hotel and asked, "Where's the rest of it?" and walked into the bathroom expecting it to be a hallway to the other rooms.
And while this room was cool, he still felt uncomfortable. That's why l love Marriott's new "Nickelodeon Your Stay" campaign. At nearly 2,000 Marriott hotels, kids are given a cool Nickelodeon bracelet and a code for free online games a Nick.com as well as an activity mat. Plus, if you eat at one of the hotel restaurants, kids get a special place mat with one of their favorite characters. So, kids feel important and comfortable and most importantly at home.
For a small fee, you can upgrade the package to include all of the above and a storybook and either a SpongeBob or Dora the Explorer pillowcase. My kiddo got a Spongebob pillowcase and I can tell you, he loved it and I know it would make him feel a lot more comfortable at a hotel.
Check out the website for more information as well as some freebies-coloring pages, a travel journal, and travel bingo pages. Kudos to Marriott for this great idea to make kids feel a lot more included in their hotel stay.
TKDDaughter gives Marriott's Nickelodeon's Stay Your Way a:
I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Marriott and received a Nickelodeon gift pack to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central also sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.
Smart Love of Learning
I received this email today, "Thank you for such an amazing year, it was fabulous to have you as my teacher. I know it was a challenging year but you helped me build confidence, get over my fears and just do my best. You are the best English teacher I have had." THIS is why I teach. Not for the emails of praise, but because I was able to take a scared and insecure 14 year old, help her gain confidence, and watch her succeed.
I got to watch this same experience this year as a parent. My son went into his final year of preschool with a lot of anger, insecurity, and a severe lack of motivation. His teacher would have none of it. With praise and tough love and a ton of humor, she transformed my son into a confident, able, skilled boy who discovered his own amazing sense of humor and many interests. I will be eternally grateful to her as he moves through the rest of his education-she has set the foundation and it is a strong one.
Do you have a favorite teacher memory? If we think back, some of the most memorable people in our lives taught us something, whether in the traditional classroom or just in everyday life. In this day and age, though, reaching this technically saavy kids can be hard. Eight years ago, my department was given some money that was beyond our normal video and resource book money. When asked what we could use the money for, I knew exactly what I wanted-a SMARTboard. Those next few years, my teaching was challenged in new ways…I was reaching students who normally would have passed the time in apathy. They were fascinated by the uses of this "touch screen" and all the ways we could use it. Don't know what this technology is all about? Check out this link to the "Magical Classroom" -you'll be amazed!
The people at SMARTboard revolutionized the classroom for educators and students. Now, they want to honor those who work so hard everyday in the classroom. They have a Facebook page where you can join discussion groups and learn tips on how to raise funds so that your school can get its own SMARTboard. AND, once you join the group, you can enter to win a SMARTboard-this would be an amazing item to win!!!
TKDDaughter gives SMARTboard Love of Learning a:
This post was written as a part of a MomCentral blog tour.
Smail Honda Village-Honda Accord
Buying a new car is usually one big pain in the you-know-what. Our local dealer should stop being called a "dealer" because they offer no deals to speak of. We ended up searching out quotes on the internet and it was amazing, the disparity of service and treatment that we found.
Some "internet managers" sent us messages that looked like this:
"i would like to hep u in yer serch to find a car. lemme know what i can du for u."
Some in charge of internet sales responded like this:
"I WOULD BE HAPPY TO HELP YOU IN YOUR SEARCH FOR A HONDA ACCORD SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU ARE COMING IN THANK YOU"
For being in charge of internet sales, one would think that people would know how to spell and that typing entire messages with caps lock on means you're screaming at me.
Then we began dealing with Smail Honda Village and a young sales man by the name of Mike. Professional and courteous doesn't even begin to describe how wonderful this guy treated us. Not only that, but he beat every other quote we had when it came to purchasing our new car. When one dealer beat him on price, he bent over backwards and knocked even more money off our car price.
We were headed out to visit my husband's family in western PA anyway, so it only seemed to make sense to buy our Honda Accord from Mike at Smail Honda. When we arrived at the dealership with our trade in, there were no surprises. We got what we were promised on our trade in, were given no funny business on the price of the new car, and had a very pleasant purchasing experience.
If you are looking for a new Honda, and are in the Greensburg PA area, or if you don't mind traveling to the area, I strongly recommend you contact Mike Pomaibo, Internet Director at Smail Honda Village, located on Route 30 East. There was no haggling, no broken promises, and we actually had a pleasant experience with someone who seemed like anything but your stereo-typical car sales man. Because Mike is the internet director, you can reach him, as we did, via email at mikep at smailhondacars dot com. If you mention "Black Belt Mama" or this blog, he's promised to give you extra VIP consideration in the form of a great deal on your new Honda.
I don't often write up service oriented reviews, but I couldn't not write up this experience. BBM gives Smail Honda Village and their internet director, for the high level of service, for no hidden agenda's. . .
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