Seat Check Saturday

We recently upgraded Mister Aiden's car seat to a booster. The new seat is by the same company as all our other car seats have been, but it's a completely different design than we're used to. Which meant we may have had to pull out the manual or watch an online video or two. These things can be a little tricky! Since I know first hand that installing a car seat isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, I wanted to share some info with you about Seat Check Saturday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that nearly 3 out of 4 car seats are not used correctly. That's a huge number, and represents far too many children who are, in effect, unprotected in a car accident. A car seat can not protect your child the way it is designed to if it is not installed properly!

So what can you do? This Saturday (September 25) is National Seat Check Saturday. As part of Child Passenger Safety Week (September 19-25), communities nationwide will have certified technicians available to provide hands-on child safety seat inspections and advice - for free! Just click the links below for more information.

Find nearby car seat inspection stations on National Seat Check Saturday and throughout the year: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm

View instructional videos, handy informational flyers, and links to product ratings and recall lists.: http://childcarsafety.adcouncil.org/

Chat with a child safety seat expert on twitter @ChildSeatSafety

For more information on Child Passenger Safety Week and to find your local car seat inspection station visit http://www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/CPS

Check out child safety tips on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/childpassengersafety


Keeping it real: I was not compensated for this post. The information and links were provided to me as a member of Global Influence.

Proof Tolerance and Acceptance Do Exist in The South

.......even if good grammar and vocabulary do not......

What's Going On Around Here 09/10/10

I don't know about your corner of the world, but it's still hot HOT hot here.

Yep, that says 111 degrees. Needless to say we're still holed up in the house for the bulk of the day. I'm really longing for some crisp cool Fall weather!

Over at Learning a Latte:
1.  What it really looks like to homeschool a preschooler
2.  I've had to accept that my son doesn't necessarily learn the same way I do
3.  Having that realization led me to tweak our phonics curriculum (and I am so excited to report that it got us back on track, and we are three lessons away from finishing the Kindergarten level of Hooked on Phonics! Yay!)
4.  Dr. Heather Manley wrote a guest post on good health habits for the start of the school year. I also reviewed her fun health series, Human Body Detectives.
5.  I reviewed a cute crafty book to go along with your dinosaur studies.
6.  Discovering my homeschool style was key when I first started thinking about homeschooling. I asked some super amazing women to write about their chosen homeschool style, and it has been such an informative and interesting week! Check out their posts on unschooling, virtual schooling, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, and Classical Education.

Over at Like it a Latte:
1.  If your kids like to ride scooters, check out the new Shox Scooter
2.  We discovered Moon Dough and it's my new favorite! It's super cool!
3.  Thermos wants you to know their lunch kits meet all CPSIA standards.
4.  I love fusion music, and I'm currently digging a fusion of classical and rock and roll. Seriously. GNR set to classical. It works!
5.  We've been noshing on yummy new cheeses from Weight Watchers!
6.  There's still plenty of time to enter the Long Live Your Mattress sweepstakes from Protect-A-Bed!
7.  I'll be sporting a very pretty pink beach bag just as soon as it cools off enough to hit the beach!
8.  Come find out about the Yo Gabba Gabba! Cool Tricks contest, and some new Yo Gabba Gabba! Books/CDs/DVDs!
9.  Finally, check out JumpStart Online. It's a really cute interactive virtual game for the kiddos. My son has a ball, and I love that it's a secure site.

Over at Type-A Mom
1.  My final article was published, which discusses educational options for teen moms.

I'm Not Hip Enough for Banned Books

I adore Goodwill.

I get ridiculously excited when I know a trip to Goodwill is in my plans for the day. It's like Christmas, I'm telling you. I don't bother looking through the clothes like most patrons do. Maybe if they were organized in some fashion that made logical sense instead of, I don't know, by COLOR! I might poke through the racks. But when the sizes are jumbled together and brand new items are wedged in next to something that hasn't seen sunshine since 1983, I'm just not really interested in having a look-see.

Instead I spend my Goodwill time lost in the books. Some Goodwill stores barely have any books. I know, I've been to them (and never gone back). The few stores that I frequent though, have walls of books. Walls the entire width of the store, floor to ceiling, full of books. For this bibliophile, it is sweet sweet heaven on earth.

I typically look for books I can use for homeschool, and have amassed quite an impressive library over the years this way. The books are usually between $0.50 and $2.00, so I grab them up by the bagful. Have you seen the price of brand new books? Goodwill is my happy place.

On my last trip I picked up a children's book by Maurice Sendak. I didn't bother to read it before I bought it. When books are $0.50 I tend to just grab and buy and read later. I knew the author (Where the Wild Things Are, anyone?) so into my pile the book went. A few days later when I got around to reading it I was left scratching my head.

"Well that's a rather odd book."

Now, maybe this dude always writes weird stuff. I've never read Where the Wild Things Are (I know!) so maybe this is his M.O. But this book....The Night Kitchen...was really really odd. I decided to check out the reviews on Amazon to see if there something I was missing. And that's when I discovered......

It's a BANNED BOOK!

Now, I don't know about you, but just knowing it's a banned book instantly made it much cooler in my eye. "You mean this book offends and isn't fit for public consumption? Bring it on!"

But.

I don't quite understand why it's so controversial. Okay, the little boy is drawn naked. Anatomically correct naked. I can see where some people may take issue with that. But apparently the controversy goes deeper than a nekkid little boy. Apparently some people think the entire book is sexual in nature.

I don't get it.

The book is odd. The book doesn't really make any sense. The little boy is naked, but he is dreaming.

I still don't get it.

I must not be hip enough to see the sexual innuendos hidden inside the words on the page. I must be daft...because I just thought the book was about the night kitchen.

Humph.

Hurricanes Are No Place For Drunks

I don't dig drunk drivers.

One of my highschool friends lay moaning and screaming in my mom's arms on the side of the road after being hit by a drunk driver. He died shortly afterward. That kind of stayed with me, and I've never had any tolerance whatsoever for anyone who chooses to drive while impaired.

Just the other day we were headed down I-95. A car ahead of us was having some serious trouble staying in their lane. It was fairly early in the day; much too early for most people to be that intoxicated, yet late enough that I doubted they were still partying. The driver was swerving so much that passing vehicles were slamming on their brakes to avoid being hit. I noted their license plate and the mile marker sign and called them in. At one point we were close enough to see that the driver was an older woman. Maybe she wasn't drunk at all. Maybe she was having medical issues or was on some medication that made her a little loopy. Regardless, she had no business driving and she was a definite hazard on the road. No sympathy here.

In a few days a big ole' hurricane is going to be affecting the East Coast. Having grown up in Florida and still residing in the Southeast I am all too familiar with what goes down when a Hurricane is on its way. Ya'll know what I'm talking about...hurricane parties. As if wandering around in a massive storm isn't bad enough, let's do it while drunk! 

And to top all this off, it's Labor Day Weekend. So even if you don't have a Hurricane Party to attend there will be plenty of other opportunities. Please. Make the right choice. Don't drive if you're even the slightest bit impaired. Thanks to the folks at Global Influence, here are some sites I want you to bookmark and use if you need them.


1. 50 Nonalcoholic drink recipes to serve up at your Hurricane/Labor Day party
2. Nationwide list of alternative drivers who will happily take your drunk ass home (sometimes in your own car). Plug this number in your cell phone today!
3. Check out the Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving website for more information.

Keeping it real: Links provided by Global Influence. I was not compensated for this post.