Scholastic Online Ordering

Our school is now trying the online ordering for Scholastic, so I thought I'd give it a try this month.

After ordering online for Market Day for the school for more than a year now, I thought ordering for Scholastic would be just as easy. It wasn't.

Entering the classroom information was easy. Then I tried to order for one of the kids. Ugh!

I first tried on a Friday night. The server was incredibly slow, and I searched all the items and couldn't find the 3-pack of books my son wanted even listed. So I added each book individually to my cart thinking maybe when all the items were ordered together the price would go down. But, then I got a message that the server was down and to try later.

Sunday night I tried again. This time the online information seemed to be more accurate. I could click on the Firefly flyer and see the books listed in it. And this time I saw the 3-book bundle he wanted.

Then I went to order for my older son. I found the books in his Arrow flyer he wanted, but he had also brought home a flyer called "Just Right books for every reader" that wasn't listed on his classroom. So I had to search the A to Z index to find the title he had wanted.

There are two things I don't like about Scholastic, especially after having used Market Day online. First, there's no search. So I can't search for "scooby doo" and see all Scooby Doo books. You can go through a menu and search by character, but it's not as easy. And it would be really great to be able to just search for a key word in a book title, or search for an author, and see what's available.

Second, there's no quick order. Probably because each flyer is numbered separately. I love the quick order on Market Day that lets me highlight my order form and just type in the order number for each product. I can get an order done in 2 minutes or less. Scholastic took me about 15 minutes when the site was working.

I did the online ordering because the teachers said the classroom gets a free book for every online order. But, honestly, filling in the paper slip and writing the check was actually much quicker.

We're busy moms. Any chance we have to speed things up we appreciate. I hope Scholastic revises their website soon to allow quick ordering.

Calming Morning Clothing Chaos

A few weeks ago through Amazon.com I got these amazing bins. Well, I call them bins. The actual name is "Kids Daily Activity Organizer - 6 Shelf Hanging Closet." (Yeah, it's easier to say "bins.")

So, anyway, as I was brainstorming ways to make the coming school year go smoother (i.e., no morning meltdowns over breakfast, clothes and watching TV before the bus), I found these online. I thought, what a great idea! Pick out each kids' entire week of clothing on Sunday so there are no cries of "I don't have any socks!" when I yell, "Get your shoes on, the bus is coming in 2 minutes!"

Of course, there's one slight problem with this system, at least for us. Unfortunatley, I don't live in a nice, new 5-bedroom home (ok, I was going to say mansion, but I didn't!) where each child has their own walk-in closet that has room for 4 seasons of clothing, coats, toys and a storage system like this. In fact, we live in an old 3-bedroom house built 100 years ago when a closet just had to be big enough to hold 5 hooks along the back wall. Seriously, that's what our closets had. So, now they have bars that are about 12" long-the length of the closet, but the closets are only about 15" deep; they're just barely deep enough for a hanger.

So, what to do? I love the system but lack the space.

My brainstorm, which I put into place today, makes the most of the space we have. About a year ago I had gotten myself a garmet rack. My intention was to put it up in the basement next to the washer/dryer to hang clothes. But, I never got around to it and it was still in the box sitting in the basement.

So, after helping my daughter clean her bedroom, she helped me put together the rack. (Then DH came and finshed the job because, man, those things are hard to snap together tight!)

The rack, which is now on wheels, holds 2 of the shelf organizers - one for my daughter and one for my son, who share a bedroom. The rack now blocks a spare door in their bedroom that isn't used (But the rack is on wheels and is very easy and lightweight to turn in case of an emergency that we'd need to use the door.)

It's a little high up for them to reach, so I might get some of those plastic chains you can put on hangers to lower them. But not only do both shelves fit, but my daughter's dresses can also hang between them instead of on a hook on the back of their door (freeing up that space for the future.)

Now my son's room will be a little more difficult. He doesn't have room in his tiny closet, and there's no real space for a rack. So I convinced my husband that if we put a hook in his ceiling, we can hang the shelves in an empty corner that's always been wasted space. For that I will need to get some of those plastic chains or he can't possibly reach it.

10 days til school starts, and we're getting organized for a good start to the new year!

Getting Ready for Back to School

The countdown has begun-four weeks left until school begins. Time for those 'back to school' preparations to begin in force!

We already got the backpacks I ordered through L.L. Bean and loaded them with school supplies on sale from WalMart. Getting this done early takes away some of the stress of getting ready.

I added the kids' art shirts from last year, so they're ready to go. We don't get our letter from school telling the kids their teacher or what they need until about a week before school starts. So I have to do the supply shopping on guesswork.

Organization can make a big difference when changing routines, like starting school brings. So I went supply shopping online. This year I ordered each of the kids a six-shelf canvas closet organizer labeled with the days of the week. The plan is each Sunday to sort the clothes and pick outfits for each day of the week. I'm going to add an index card to each day with the kids special that day. This will also help them prepare for their day mentally by knowing what's on the schedule (and hopefully prevent nice clothes from getting ruined in art class or my daughter wearing a dress on gym day!)

The one thing I want to order and haven't yet are battery-operated alarm clocks for each kid so they can wake themselves up on time.

The week before school starts I'll put the kids to bed 15 minutes earlier (8:45 instead of 9), and I'll wake them up earlier (8:45 instead of 9). I'll continue this each day until they're getting up (without too much effort) at 7 and to bed by 8. Generally over a period of 7 days has been enough time for the kids to adjust. They're little, so getting up earlier hasn't been too much of a problem. We just move up our entire nightly routine with baths right after dinner.

Our library's summer reading program ends Aug. 21, so we can probably skip reading books at night for one week. Each of the kids read at least 100 books. The other thing I must do is fill out their required reading forms and put them in their backpacks for the first day. (Their reading is due by June 2011, but we get it done over the summer.)

Clothes shopping is another back to school activity that we're almost finished. A trip to the Philadelphia Premium Outlets and some online ordering covered that. Each kid has new socks (my kids wear out socks very quickly) and new sneakers, and at least two new shirts to wear that first week.

Haircuts are another chore we try to do a few weeks before school starts. My oldest had his hair cut Saturday. I just have to take the other two to my hairdresser and that will be done.

I wish I could say I wake up early the first day of school and make the kids a giant homemade breakfast to start their day, but knowing my kids they wouldn't eat it anyway. They're not big on breakfast. So I'll just make them Eggos and give them juice, and they'll be perfectly happy.

The night before school I'll read "The Night Before Kindergarten" to my youngest (who's starting kindergarten), I'll tuck the other two in and remind them how exciting it will be to see their friends and meet their new teacher, and I'll share in their nervous chatter about what new experiences the year will bring.

Then once they're asleep I'll make sure my camera is charged and ready to go for those precious "first day of school" photos. I'll remind the husband he has to go into work late the next day so he can be there for that special walk to the bus stop, and I'll read a book and relax knowing that tomorrow, for a few hours at least, the house will finally be quiet!


“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms blogging program to be eligible to get a HarperCollins book set. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Time to Order Backpacks

I know it doesn't seem right, with six more weeks of summer vacation fun to go, but it's time to start thinking about BTS. (That's Back To School).

This year I decided instead of taking the kids to the local chain store to buy over-priced character backpacks (that someone else in the class is bound to have), I was going to order them quality backpacks online.

I looked through a couple catalogs I had received in the mail, and I settled on L.L. Bean. I've gotten other items through their online store before, I knew they had quality merchandise, and the one time I had to deal with customer service they were super helpful and replaced an item (entirely free of charge).

So I brought up the backpack choices on their website and narrowed the selection down to three choices. I called each kid over to the computer and told them they could pick one of the three. It went surprisingly well! There was no fussing that they had to have (insert latest cartoon or Disney live person show name here) on their backpacks because that's what everyone else would have.

I was also happy to see that L.L. Bean was also currently running a sale on backpacks! I did a quick search online for coupons and found one for free shipping with a minimum order, so I clicked through that link as well, saving almost $10 shipping.

Although the website said the package would arrive in 7-10 days, I ordered the backpacks on a Saturday and they were here Wednesday.

The true test of the backpacks will be how they hold up to the destructive force of an elementary school student. But they can't do worse than one year when my first grade son's character backpack was literally falling apart by Christmas. He had to finish the year with a cheap backpack I found in January, when the selection isn't so great.

Free Book from Borders

If you have children age 12 and younger, don't miss the Borders summer reading program.

My little readers, who've already finished at least 25 books each, had no problem reading the 10 books required.

On Sunday we visited our local Borders Express at the mall to turn in their tickets, which I had printed online.

The girl working at Borders was very helpful, showing us where the books were that the kids could choose from. Then at checkout, all I had to do was hand the books and completed forms to the woman at the register. She scanned each book and each coupon, and they ring up as 100% discount with coupon.

Their choices were "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen, "The River" by Gary Paulsen and "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown.

The books retail for $6.99, $5.99 and $4.99, for a savings of $17.97 for three free books.

The program is simple and worthwhile. Just have your kids read 10 books, fill in the online form, and take the completed form to your local Borders.

Create a Summer Calendar

With four weeks of school left, we created a simple summer calendar to mark all the major, and minor, events of the season.

I started with a free 2010 calendar I had gotten in January and still had lying around. I cut out June, July and August and trimmed the edges.

Then we used a glue stick to attach the pages to a $0.59 piece of neon green poster board.

Using Sharpies, the kids added the names of the months and drew some pictures.

I have a nail on our dining room door where I hang seasonal decorations. Rather than tape the calendar to a wall, I punched a hole in the center at the top and hung it on the nail.

It's a little out of reach for the kids to write on it while it's on the door (which is good because I don't want stray Sharpie marks on the door). But it's in a perfect spot for us to look at while we're eating dinner at the dining room table as we discuss our summer fun plans.