San Antonio Busy Kids

I love all the tips for getting kids outdoors to enjoy nature and wildlife. Especially this one by Holly Ambrose, from Tropic of Mom, one of my fellow Founding Mothers of the National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There Campaign.

I was pretty good at that stuff when my kids were little. Mainly because they were cooperative. Now they are tweens with attitude…and they’d rather be on the computer, watching television or texting friends. They are the first generation of true netizens, the three-screen generation. And they are missing out on so much of the beauty of outdoors. It wasn’t a few weeks ago when I asked one of my children what the weather was like outside. Without even looking up from the computer, my child said cloudy. In fact, it was one of the sunniest, most beautiful days we’d had in a long time.

I find it much harder to entice my kids outside. While they are both intensely curious, that inherent reporter’s sense doesn’t extend to butterflies, lizards, flowers or bird nests so much anymore. Not cool enough, I guess.

Yet, it’s critical. A recent study finally shows – conclusively – that unstructured outdoor play is absolutely essential to children’s health and development. And when it’s missed, kids are sicker and more stressed.

Time to get creative. Here are some tips for encouraging older kids to get outdoors more…

• Buy some big cattails. Send them outside and let them shake until they can’t shake anymore. It’s a teenage version of bubbles.
• Find a friend and go for a walk or ride bikes to the neighborhood pool or playground. No pool or playground, no problem. Just walk and talk. Away from mom.
• Schedule a block party for kids only. Lemonade, cookies, comfortable lawn chairs and a sprinkler. (That one gets a big thumbs up from Twirl.)
• Go hunting for fossils. Texas has tons of dry creek beds. Find one nearby or drive a little further. Then, go walking in one of those dry creekbeds. You’re bound to find some good fossils or two. Take some water with you. It’s hot.
• Have your kids poke a hole in the cap of a water bottle with a pen, then go outside and squirt the water out, drawing pictures on the streets. (Twirl came up with this one.) Wet chalk works just as good, too.
• Get up really early one morning (this works better in the winter), go outside and look at the sky. The darker the area you are in, the better. Identify planets and stars. Hint: planets don’t twinkle.
• Head to the beach. Who doesn’t love the beach at any age? There, they can walk the beach and go shelling. Or dip in the water and go snorkling. Just avoid those jellyfish, except from a distance.
• Be an example. When you, as a parent, notice nature and marvel in it, it’s surprising how quickly even older children will follow along.

We have the benefit of living in a neighborhood with a greenbelt. One of the best outdoor activities the kids in the neighborhood ever did (without any parental encouragement) was gather every afternoon and build a fort together. They called it Fortsburg. And it was awesome.

It takes a little more creativity to get older children outside, but it can be done. So, go ahead, be out there.

I bought all of this for just $2.70!

Most recent update: Wednesday, August 18, 11:20 p.m.

Can somebody please tell me why I can buy a giant plastic tote for $4, and yet a 2″ binder can cost upwards of $7 dollars? My brain is still spinning over that one. So I’m on a quest to find some reasonable (okay – read C.H.E.A.P.) school supplies. I’ll track it here so you can share in the good finds. As possible, I’ll put expiration dates. But I make no guarantees you’ll get the deal….I’m not reading all the fine print. You’re on your own there.

As I shop,

1. I’m looking for name brands I can trust.
2. I’m looking for door buster prices.
3. I’m comparison shopping at several stores, comparing ad prices and in-store specials.
4. I’m assuming this is going to take more than one day out in the stores.

Here is my kids’ combined school supply list. I’m assuming yours is fairly similar. I’ve only listed the items I’ve found so far. I’ll fill in as I get good deals. If I find a better deal, I’ll update what I have here.

Trust me. I have no qualms about saving receipts and returning items when I find the same or better item cheaper elsewhere.

**Don’t forget. Tax-Free Days are this week from August 20-22.**

Just in my email: Trailmaker backpacks $5 at H-E-B. Now that’s a doorbuster!
• #2 pencils .25 for Office Depot brand 12-pack at Office Depot through Aug. 21
  
• 24-count crayons .25 for Crayola at H-E-B or .25 for Scholastic brand at Office Depot through Aug. 21
• colored markers $1 at H-E-B
  
• red pens $1.32 for 10 Bic Cristal at H-E-B (who knew red pens were so expensive?)
• colored pencils .99 for H-E-Buddy 12-count at H-E-B
• pencil sharpener .50 at Staples through Aug. 21 or .49 cents with coupon at Walgreens through Aug. 21
• pencil top erasers
• highlighers $1 for 5-count Bic at H-E-B
• blue or black ball point pens $1 Paper Mate ballpoint stick pens 36-pack at Office Depot through Aug. 21 (limit 2)
  
• scissors $1 for Westcott student scissors at Staples through Aug. 21 and $1 – $1.25 at Big Lots (twice to three times as much for the exact same pair at H-E-B and OfficeMax!) or $1 for Fiskars student scissors at Office Depot through Aug. 21
  
• composition books .25 at H-E-B and at Wal*Mart through Aug 21
• spiral notebooks, 70 pages .01 at Staples through Aug. 21 (limit 6 with a min. purchase of $5) These were actually free after I applied the 20% off coupon in the online weekly ad. If you have a smartphone, don’t bother killing trees, just show them the coupon on your phone.
  
• 150-count loose leaf paper .50 at H-E-B
  
• graph paper
• pack of construction paper .99 for 40-count at H-E-B
• 500-count colored computer paper $5 at Staples through Aug. 21
  
• 500-count multipurpose white computer paper $1 at Office Depot through Aug. 21 (limit 2)
  
• school planner with calendar
• 100-count index cards .51 at H-E-B
• standard ruler .29 at Michael’s
• white glue .25 for Elmer’s at H-E-B (limit 6) or .20 for H-E-Buddy brand (no limit)
  
• glue sticks .25 for 2-pack Elmer’s at H-E-B (limit 6) or .20 for H-E-Buddy brand (no limit)
• protractor
• erasers .50 Pentel 3-pack white erasers at Staples through Aug. 21
• 2″ and 1.5″ three-ring binders about $5.99 per Better Binder if you buy 3 on the buy 3/get 1 free deal at Staples. Not the cheapest, but cheapest for the level of quality. These are really good binders.
• dividers with 8 tabs .88 at H-E-B
• 3-ring pencil bag $1 for simple one at Big Lots; $3.49 for multi-pocket, deluxe pouch on clearance shelf (plenty in stock) at Staples
• zipper supply pouch .05 at Office Depot through Aug. 21
  
• pocket folders with brads .15 at H-E-B or 6/$1 with coupon Penway brand at Walgreens through Aug. 21
  
• hand sanitizer
• 200-count tissues
• Webster’s dictionary $3.25 at Half Price Books (or do what I did and take in some old books, sell them to Half Price and use the proceeds to buy the dictionary and thesaurus. So really, the two cost me nothing. Woot!)
• thesaurus $2.98 at Half Price Books (free for me!)
  
• 1G flash drive $9.99 at Staples or $10 at Wal*Mart for a SansDisk 4G through Aug. 21
  
• box 25-count plastic zipper bags $1 at H-E-B

I didn’t need these items, but they might save you some money:

• Hammermill ream of copy paper .01 with rebate at Staples through Aug. 21 (limit 6)
• Dry erase markers $1 at Staples through Aug. 21 (limit 2)
• Sharpie 5-pack $1 at Staples through Aug. 21 (limit 2)
• 1″ binders at H-E-B .97
• Staples battery-powered slimline pencil sharpener FREE with rebate at Staples through Aug. 21
• Three-hole punch that fits in a binder $1 at Office Depot through Aug. 21
• RoseArt watercolors .50 at Target (the only place so far that I’ve seen watercolors on sale!)

Great ways to find deals on your own:

• Check the Sunday newspaper inserts
• If you have a smartphone, check out the apps. My favorite is Shopper for the iPhone. Select the stores you frequent and you can automatically check the weekly flyers while you are standing right there in the store.
• Go to the store websites direct. You can usually browse the weekly store circular, check out deals and print coupons. Be sure to sign up for email updates to a separate gmail account set up just to receive such offers. That way it doesn’t get mixed up in your regular email. You can get some great email specials only that way.

We’ll be out later today doing some more bargain hunting. Let me know if you are aware of any I haven’t found yet.

Tags: back to school, bargains, free, school, shopping, tips

I can’t believe it’s almost time to start back to school. I’m struggling with needing to go back to school shopping and all the pressures of getting organized with really spending some quality time with my kids. Before it gets down to the wire, here are some ideas that have been bubbling around in my brain as things I really want to do before summer’s over…

1. Put on some shorts, get out the sprinkler, grab the kids and go play in the water. Oh, I know…that’s pretty standard summer fare for toddlers, but when they are suddenly too big to sit in your lap anymore and you realize you haven’t played in the sprinkler for five or six years, it’s time to head outside again!

2. Ditto on the bubbles. Nothing brings a smile to everyone’s face quite as fast as getting a giant bucket of soapy water and some wands and blowing bubbles into the sunshine. You can make your own bubbles, but rumor has it you might as well buy them. They are cheap enough and the commercial solutions typically work better than homemade anyway. Nothing blows an afternoon like solutions that don’t work. (pun intended)

3. Go to the Llano river. Llano remains one of my favorite spots in Texas. I love the gold dust sparkling in the sand. The ancient rocks rising from the water. I could just go sit there all day. Closer to Kingsland, I love to wade in the Llano River at what’s become known as The Slab. There are some perfect spots to just watch the water run across your feet.

4. Draw a chalk box around an ant. Okay, I know…sounds silly. But it’s one of those things I’ve always wondered about. If you draw a box around an ant with chalk will it really never cross the line? Is that just some urban myth somebody once told me? Or will it eventually cross the line. If so, how long does it take? Is that true of all kinds of ants? Absolutely useless information…but it will put one of those lifelong questions to rest after all these years. And my kids won’t have to wonder either. Although I’m pretty sure it’s not keeping them up at night.

5. Pop a bunch of popcorn, stock up on the BIG boxes of candy, load up on sodas and stack up the cheesy movies…baby, it’s movie marathon at our house!

How are you going to celebrate the last few weeks of summer?

Tags: Be Out There, family, kids, summer, Tuesday

Source: SXC

Who says you can’t get something great for free? How about a free movie? Every Tuesday evening until August 10^th, The Village at Stone Oak is showing free movies to anyone looking to enjoy the stars. (pun intended) Don’t miss out; there are only two more chances for you to take part in this twilight event. Next Tuesday is Alvin & the Chipmunks The Squeakquel and Ice Age is scheduled for August 10^th.

Bring a couple of cozy lawn chairs and save some room for popcorn, soft drinks and snacks on sale at the Alamo DraftHouse Cinema sponsor tent. 

Location:  Parking lot south of Wachovia Bank

Time:  Movie begins at dusk (around 8:30 – 8:45)

Map

In my real life, I avoid crowds like the plague. In the past (pre-Appreciation Campaign 2010), we did have annual passes to theme parks, but my rule was always go off-season on off days when the fewest people as possible were at the park. When my husband and I went to Disney in the early years of our marriage, I spent days studying books and websites for the patterns of traffic so we could do just the opposite to limit the amount of time we had to stand in line smooshed between people.

I think it has something to do with my sophomore year in high school when my mother let me spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square. I’ve never experienced a crowd like that before – and I think it scarred me for life.

This weekend, Sea World generously invited a group of mommy bloggers back to San Antonio for a wildside reunion with our families. It was so much fun. Just us and 30,000 people at the park. Navigating that kind of crowd took some doing, but I walked away with some valuable tips, tricks and tactics.

1. Buy a Quick Queue Pass. It starts at $15 and it’s worth every dime.

2. When you are ready to go see a show, grab a snack and a drink and show up about 45 minutes to one hour before the show starts. Take the time to rest your feet and enjoy your snack. When they open the gate, you’ll have a chance to get a good seat. Be sure you don’t miss Azul. It’s a truly beautiful show. Best seats in the house are right in the center of the house. If you sit too close, you’ll miss much of the action.

3. Don’t wait until you are starving to eat. With that many people, the lines can get long, and there’s no quick queue pass for food! I’m not sure to age-old rule of wait until the show starts worked for us. It was sort of catch as catch can. Sometimes the lines were long, sometimes they were short. Sea World had an amazing food deal where you could dine all day for one price. And, that deal got you into the Ports of Call picnic behind the amphitheater where there was never a line.

4. Get wet, and often. A frequent tactic we use is to go to the water park first. Most folks wait until the afternoon when they are dying of heat, so in the mornings, the water parks are usually less crowded. Great thing about Sea World, though, is most of the rides will get you wet, so you can still cool down on the water rides in the afternoon. Our favorite is Rio Loco. You ride along the river, relax and then have a ton of water dumped on your head. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

5. Carry your money, cell phone, camera, papers and anything else you don’t want to get wet in a plastic bag. I didn’t. But my Rio Loco ridemate did. He was a lot smarter than me. His stuff stayed dry. Me? I learned a valuable lesson about fanny packs and how water has no problem whatsoever working its way through the teeth of the zipper.

Don’t shy away from the last few weeks of summer at a theme park. You can get some seriously good deals right now.

Sea World is offering a coupon where kids get in free and adults get in at a kids’ price. Print it out from this link and go. I think it’s the best deal around right now.

Fiesta Texas’ deal is everyone gets in a kids’ price.

I should mention (for those of you who care), that Sea World did provide me and my family tickets into the park, food and quick queue passes as part of the wildside family reunion. They were great hosts and have done an beautiful job of building community among Texas mommy bloggers.

Tags: Be Out There, family, kids, outdoors, summer, Tuesday

Butterfly Dance

Tags: Be Out There, nature, outdoors, summer

I love butterflies. I see them fly around my butterfly garden this summer, and it always brings to mind one of my very favorite kids’ songs…and one of my very favorite Texas musicians. If you have elementary-aged kids, introduce them right now to Lucas Miller. Seriously – you can’t listen to his music and not smile.

Tags: Educational, family, kids, music, Science

Wow…I can hardly believe the Fourth of July came and went so quickly, and we’re half way through the year already. Where does the time go?

Twirl is happily rooted in camp…although that wasn’t the case for the last several weeks. Anybody else had an issue with camp counselors spreading negativity? Kids coming home crying? What’s up with that?

Source: SXC

I’m not going to out the camp, only because this is the first time in three years we’ve ever had this problem, and they fixed it right away. Still, how is it possible that camp suddenly turned into I-don’t-even-know-what to call it. Behavior charts, threats and clear class favorites? It was as if one person’s bad attitude had spread throughout the entire camp.

I saw it going downhill after the first week, but at first, I thought maybe it was just the girls kitten fighting. You know how tweens nip at each other sometimes. I knew there was one “mean” counselor, but it didn’t seem all that serious. But as time went on, the signs become more obvious that this was escalating to a much higher level. Twirl started feeling sick. She was sleeping in later and later and coming home feeling more and more tired. The day she got into the car and burst into tears was the moment of truth when she finally let out all that was happening.

The “mean” counselor had been making the campers feel like they were terrible kids, undeserving of her time, attention or care. Like in a bad movie, the negativity seemed to be spreading to the other leaders. If the children didn’t want to participate in something, instead of being encouraged, they were berated. One child got a mark on her behavior chart for crying. The counselors were yelling at the children, threatening to take away their field trip and making them do calisthenics in the morning.

I made a quick phone call to confirm with one other mom, dropped my daughter off at home that same afternoon and high tailed it back to the camp office. Fortunately, I’m not a complainer, nor am I known as a helicopter mom, so I think they knew something was up when I walked – rather mindfully – straight into the camp director’s office and had my quiet – but firm say.

The very next morning, I’m told, there was a line of moms outside the camp office. There were some who simply mentioned the behavior of the counselors was unacceptable, there were others who admitted there were probably some interactions amongst the children that were contributing factors and still others who ranted and raved and threatened withdraw their children. None of us were quite sure how any of this happened at such a camp, with its stellar reputation and long history of fabulous experiences with all of our children in the past.

Fortunately, the staff’s ears were wide open, their hearts in the right places, their minds clear enough to understand we weren’t just kvetching unnecessarily. They took the steps they needed to take right away to fix the problems that needed to be fixed.

By that afternoon, our children were happy once again. The counselors and children both had received a “talk” realigning everyone’s expectations. I’m still doing temperature checks every day, but the camp experience just keeps getting better and better. I have to say, I was a tad bit worried there might be some retaliation on the children, but none of that has appeared in any way, shape or form. In fact, the counselors are being more creative and focused as ever, working on team building and self-esteem. It’s good to see the kids start to blossom again.

The best part – Twirl got in the car and told me she was very proud of herself for telling me what was going on. I was proud of her to. And I was proud of myself for really listening, taking it seriously and doing something about it.

Two things really stand out for me:

First…how often do we tune our children out assuming they are over-emphasizing a really small situation in the hopes they can either get themselves out of it or get some sympathy from us? I know I’ve done that before.

Second…I’m constantly amazed how one person’s negativity can infect an entire group, yet how it takes an army of positivity to turn things around. Why is that?

Your thoughts?

Tags: camp, family, kids

Okay – so if you haven’t registered yet, now’s the time to register for the National Wildlife Federation‘s Great American Backyard Campout.  It’s happening this weekend on June 26. Did you know 90,000 people participated last year in getting their kids out under the stars for a little outdoor bonding time?  This annual event, now in it’s sixth year, was developed to create lasting memories for families and friends by connecting them in the great outdoors.  It’s something simple you can do to promote happier, healthier children.

I’m so excited about this. Really…me…with my five-star hotel standards. We’ve got our tent (actually about $25 at Academy), and I’ve already practiced putting it up. What I learned: add little ribbons to the stakes in the ground so they don’t get lost in the grass and your husband finds them when he’s mowing. Just. Don’t. Ask.

If you register on BackyardCampout.org, you’ll get all kinds of great tips and how to’s for camping: packing lists, recipes, nocturnal wildlife guides, stargazing, outdoor games, campfire songs and stories, engaging nature activities. I’ve also posted a few on City Brights.

Go ahead – create some memories!

Tags: backyard, Be Out There, camping, kids, nature, outdoors

A few of the shells the kids found on St. Joe's

A trip to the beach without finding shells is a disappointing experience. Our family rarely had luck shelling in Port Aransas until, happily, we discovered St. Joe’s Island (also known as St. Jo’s Island, St. Joseph’s Island, and San Jose Island). This off-the-beaten path destination can only reached by the Jetty Boat from Port A’s Fisherman’s Wharf  – about $10 for adults; $5 for kids. The ride over is about 10 minutes.

St. Joe’s is uninhabited and privately owned but open to the public for swimming, surfing, fishing, relaxing, and shell collecting. Take water, sunscreen, plastic buckets for your shells, and whatever else you’re willing to lug around – and use the restroom before getting on the boat. No facilities of ANY kind on the island.

My kids were thrilled with the discoveries they made along the beach – sand dollars, lightning whelks (the state shell of Texas), and other sea creatures whose names I don’t know. Interesting pieces of driftwood can also be found. On one trip we found a live starfish that had washed up on the shore (yes, we threw him back in). Sand crabs – some good-sized ones at that – will wander the shoreline with you. Good finds can also be gathered back near the grassy sand dunes, but don’t let the kids wander off too far as they may encounter snakes.

Some say the fall (especially November) is the best time for shelling on St. Joe’s – we had a very successful trip last October. Our summer trip, however, was also enjoyable and productive. My family plays a “game” to see who can find the most interesting or unusual item, with each member’s most-prized discovery revealed right before we return to the boat.

St. Joe’s has a colorful history. Many treasure chests are reportedly buried somewhere on the island. The treasure is attributed to the pirate Jean Laffite, who roamed the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800s. You never know what you might stumble upon. Since the island is privately owned, no government department cleans the beach on a regular basis. The trash that is there has washed up from offshore. Please don’t leave any more.

A trip to St. Joe’s can be part of a longer beach vacation, but we’ve also made it a day-trip from San Antonio. We’ve never been disappointed, and our china cabinet proudly displays the many treasures we’ve found there.

Tags: beach, fall, kids, Port Aransas, sand dollars, shells, St. Joe's Island, summer