Last year we purchased a family membership at the McKinley Museum here in Canton, Ohio for about $49.  Doing so not only got us into McKinley for free but since McKinley is part of the ASTC reciprocal program we could get free or discounted admission into many other science museums around the US and the world as well. But then I started learning about memberships in other places that included zoo and science museum reciprocal privileges. The two I learned about were  Boonshoft near or in the Dayton, Ohio area (family membership $79) and Coyote Point Museum in California ($65).

Several weeks ago I purchased our new family membership from Coyote Point. Now, we don’t have any plans on ever going to California (though I was born there) but the price was better.

Before I bought though, I called a few places here in Ohio to see what admission would be. We will get free admission to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Akron Zoo. I think Cosi and McKinley may also be free. Now we can get into a variety of science museums AND zoos for FREE or discounted admission! Since I’m homeschooling now, this is a great thing

Today we broke-in our new Coyote membership by visiting the Akron Zoo for free but paid $2 in parking. My favorite exhibit was the jellyfish and the touch pool /kids play area near the jellyfish.

Do you have or know of a membership to anywhere special that the Hall of Fame Moms readers would benefit from knowing of? Please share in the comment section.

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{There is a short video in this post and you’ll need to click on a link to view it at my blog}.

We’ve had quite a week, sort of…and its only Thursday.  My husband, Joel, took the week off from work because he needed a vacation and its been anything other than that. Of course I didn’t take the week off for vacation so I’ve been watching kids (that one of my work at home jobs) and working on reviews/giveaways  (my other work at home job -blogging).  However we did have one vacation day!

A little while back I had received an email  from a marketing representative inviting our family to visit  Geauga Lake’s Wild Water Kingdom!

To be honest, I had contacted a couple of  indoor- water parks earlier this year (winter time)  to see if we could get in “free” in exchange for my writing a review for them.  It looked like nothing was happening other than I did get a phone call from one of them asking me to explain the angle {he wasn’t familiar with mom blogging but was interested in learning more}. In the meantime…

The months rolled by, summer arrived, and I never heard back and occasionally the commercial on tv for Geauga Lake’s Wild Water Kingdom would come on and my 6 year old would ask “can we go there?”  I don’t think I’d ever been to that water park, which is true of almost all.  The only time I can remember being to a water park was with my husband and our oldest son when he was still a baby.

So you can imagine how excited we were to learn we’d been invited and I was extra amused to see that it was by the one water park my son kept asking to go to.  We were going to get to visit Geauga Lake’s Wild Water Kingdom in Aurora, Ohio (only about a one hour drive from Canton) for free and they were going to give us Beagle Bucks to use as money within the park…we also got free parking.

We visited the park on Tuesday. Did we like? Did we love it?  Is there something in it for you?

You’ll have to hang on, I’ll share more in another post. I just wanted to at least tell you a little about whats been going on!  And it doesn’t end there, we had another surprise (not a good one exactly) awaiting us back home.

(to be continued…)

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My poor Baby Jack, who isn’t quite the baby anymore at a full 4 years old, took a tumble last week upon hearing that he was INDEED going to get chocolate milk afterall.   He doesn’t like white milk unless its mixed with the chocolate flavor Carnation Instant Breakfast Mix {which I’m so thankful to have instead of sugary not-so-good for ya chocolate syrup}.

Carnation Instant Breakfast mix (not the company, just the product   ) and my family became “tight” friends about a year ago when Jack was diagnosed as being at risk for being underweight. He’s just a little guy, was born a bit premature (as were both my boys) and had a partial soft-palate cleft on top of it all.  He’s usually not a big eater.  He’s never been a fan of white milk anyways and we were using chocolate syrup until I realized the benefits of Carnation. Okay so…

We’d been out of  the chocolate mix for about a day or so.  Jack and I went to Target where I usually buy my Carnation mix because its been the best price I could find and doggone it! I haven’t been able to find it there for some time now! {Whats up with that, Target?}. I never made it to Walmart to pick some up. So as far as I knew, we didn’t have any at home.

However, later that day I found we still had a partial packet in the cupboard. It was getting late and I knew that Jack would probably come in the house easier or quicker if he knew he would have chocolate milk to look forward too.

I didn’t expect him to come in the house “this” fast…  This picture was taken probably a few days after he fell on the cement scraping his face and knee. But it definitely looked worse at this point. Poor kid. He likes dirt too, btw.

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When I was pregnant with my first child I desperately wanted to be able to stay home and raise him. I did not want to put him in daycare. I remember scrubbing the tub one day, pregnant, crying about it just between me and God. Joel and I needed two incomes so how were we going to make it happen?

Long story short, I had to quit my job as a substitute teacher due to some high-risk pregnancy complications setting in and I’ve been home ever since!  To see our finances on paper *shudder*, last time I did, I believe showed that our situation was next to “impossible”.  But God has made it possible. Its a financial struggle, but He keeps us floating along.

I became convinced that God is on the side of the mom who wants to stay home with her kids.

Does that mean it works like magic? No. Does that mean every mom who wants this can just quit her job and stay home? No. Single moms,  wives of disabled husbands, and so on will have unique challenges.  But I believe that for mom’s who have a personal relationship with Christ and who desire to be home raising their kids instead of working an outside job that is keeping them from being there for their kids…that God can make it happen for you! He’s doing it for us and I know He is making a way for others.

Now, I’m not God to know what his exact plan for every individual is but I do know that He tells us what His will is in the bible. Its up to us to accept it and believe it and live it. And that requires a good bit of faith! Which the Bible tells us that “without faith, it is impossible to please God”  Hebrews 11:6.

God’s will is stated in scripture for you and I. However, His plan as to how His will will unfold for us as individuals will be different. Same will …different plans.

I do work. I work from home and have been working from home since my oldest (who is 6) was just a baby. I’ve done a number of things to earn a little extra income from home. Such as…

• Selling antiques, old stuff, and clothing on Ebay
  
• Selling the above at a flea market
  
• Selling clothing and misc to  consignment stores
  
• Selling maternity and child items through a twice a year local church sale
  
• Teaching myself how to earn money online by blogging and affiliate marketing
  
• My main source of extra income is doing part-time childcare for other working families.
  
• AND, my husband sells parking and bottled water/or pop during the Pro Football Hall of Fame festivities since we live so close. Which I also blog about. The festival starts in about two or three weeks so you might want to subscribe to my email updates if you’re interested in that.
  

I don’t make a living at what I do it but I do make enough to help with the finances. I have also seen my earnings increase over the years.  And after all, its my husbands God-given responsibility to provide for our family and he does a great job at it…even taking on a second job at times.

But, making the “stay-at-home” thing work goes even deeper than “what can I do to make money”.  I’ve found that part of making this work includes, for me, becoming savvy using coupons and rebate programs and taking advantage of freebies. Now I don’t take advantage of everything that I become aware of but I have learned how to use these to my advantage.

I plan to share some tips on how I went about earning money from the ways I listed above. I hope you will subscribe for my email or RSS updates so you don’t miss that post when it comes up. If you have any work-at-home questions for me please leave a comment and I’ll get back with you. Thanks for reading today!

Don’t forget, I also am featuring a WAHM (work-at-home mom) or Self-Employed Woman each week through the summer. I hope that what they are doing to help their families income might inspire some of you who are looking for opportunities as well

Its a sign of the times, again. School supplies are on SALE!  Whoo-hoo! I like this time of year. I’ve been buying Elmer’s Glue Sticks for .25 cents…markers as low as .70 cents…finding 500 sheet reams of paper for next to nothing in rebate programs. Yeah…

I like it!

This year is different for me.  I am officially homeschooling and we’ve already begun on a small-scale. My boys like it. They are motivated. But I’m learning that there are “triggers” to their motivation.

What motivates my boys?

For my oldest it seems to be  wrapped up in the knowledge that he has goals to reach that appeal to him and as he finishes the educational tasks I give him he gets a sticker to put on his goal sheet. He feels a sense of accomplishment! When he fills a row of 11 he gets to pick a prize. It can take days to fill.  The prizes are simple. Plastic farm animal toys (I paid like $3 for a bag of them) that they can pick one of  (not get the whole bag) or they can pick a piece of candy (snack size M&M’s or a single Reese’s Cup) . Stuff like that.

For my youngest, I think his motivation primarily is his big brother. He follows him. And who wants to be left behind, right?! I have the same set up for him as well…chart, stickers, prize but his tasks are not lofty and his row to fill not as long. Sometimes I even throw in a bonus reward for something they do that day that they didn’t expect to get a reward for.

Some parents may feel like a child should do what they need to do without being rewarded because …they should do whats right without reward. I see the point, but don’t agree with it across the board of life. And besides, they are children, not adults. They cannot reason like us.  Plus, they can’t go get a job to earn money to go buy that coveted toy…like mommy and daddy can (think fancy shoes we don’t really need, boats, furniture- you get the point).

They are dependent on what we as parent’s can give them or choose to give them. I choose to give my kids something to “look forward to”.  It also teaches them something about how diligence and hard work can pay off in life. It teaches them something of setting goals and reaching them and what it feels like to accomplish something.  I think there are a number of lessons to be learned by using a reward system. {Btw, we don’t reward them for everything they need to do…such as clean up their toys, brush their teeth.}

What motivates your children ? … What motivates you ?

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I’ve come across some links I don’t want to forget about and you might want these too.

Borders “Double Dog Dare” summer reading program for kids. Print out the form found at that link, list the 10 books (any books) your child has read and fill out the form. Take it to Borders so your child can pick out a FREE book!  There are 10 titles to choose from I’m planning to do this for my oldest.

Pizza Huts’ Book-It Reading program. Since I am planning to homeschool my soon to be First Grader in the fall I was able to enroll him in the program.  The kit is shipped in September and covers 6 months of the new school year. If you’re child is enrolling in online school or going to another school environment you might not be able to enroll your child. The school itself may have to do the enrolling. Some Pizza Huts in Canada and Puerto Rico do offer this program as well. Click here to find out about the Summer Reading Program that will give kids a chance to win a prize and some other fun stuff like printables and more!

Are you a homeschooler or just want to do some fun educational activities with your children this summer? You have to know about CurrClick! I love this site! They offer very affordable and many free notebooking/lapbooking type studies that you buy online and download to your computer. Then you can print what you want to use. You might be able to buy some hard copies but you can explore the sight for more info. I’ve scooped up many many free studies and bought some affordable ones too

And for more Homeschooling resources click here!

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