Monthly Archives: June 2008

Jun 28 2008

A Day at Camp….

Spent the day at PodCampOhio learning more about the new media community and social media networking. The day long event took place in Columbus, OH which is about 1.5 hours away from Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky. Above is a photo of myself (left) with Laura and Loree of World’s Best Burger. We all live in Cincinnati and carpooled to the event together.

Attended lots of great sessions including Managing Multiple Online Identities by Daniel Johnson Jr. I don’t know about you guys but sometimes I feel like Sybil. Daniel really broke it out and provided some great tips and resources for keeping it all organized and making your online life easier. Later, after PodCampOhio ended I was part of a podcast that Daniel did on the days events.
For my second session I attended Orchestrating a Viral Explosion. Jennifer Laycock with Search Engine Guide hosted the topic and educated attendees on how to best work with us (parenting) bloggers. It was refreshing to hear her presentation because she said all the right things. For those of you who do reviews, you understand why that is so important.
For my third session I sat in on a session called What Not To Do, hosted by Luke Armour and Paull Young. The session was a great overview on the things you need to keep in mind when blogging, Tweeting, etc. They had some great examples of embarrassing things that people had put out there, not thinking that it was then available to the entire world.
Overall PodCampOhio was a great experience. It was nice getting to finally meet so many people that I’d only known through blogs, forums or Twitter. It was so energizing to be in a room full of people who all “got it” about new media and the online world. To be able to talk about blogging and not have the person’s eyes glaze over was awesome. The experience definitely left me jazzed about my blog and wishing I could attend BlogHer.
Jun 28 2008

Great Books to Keep Your Children Engaged in Learning

Studies show that it is important for children to stay connected to their educations so I was thrilled to check out two books from Cedar Valley Publishing - Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten & Let’s Get Ready for First Grade.

If you are looking for books that make it engaging and fun for kids to learn (without really knowing it) than these are your books. They are great.

Each books begins by introducing you to the teacher and her class of children. These are the characters who help with the lessons throughout the book. Both books feature dry erase marker friendly pages and are filled with colorful photos. The lessons are great and really had SM feeling confident.

The author, Stacey Kannenberg is a nationally renowned education expert with expertise in children’s education, and “Mom-entrepreneurship”.

With SM having just finished Kindergarten I have found the combination of the two books to be really great. The Kindergarten book helps to remind and reinforce what he learned this past year and the First Grade book gives him a chance to prepare for what is ahead.

If you are looking for books that will help keep your child engaged in learning over the summer than I highly recommend these. Unlike any book before, SM has really connected with these. He’s been taking them to his grandma’s house for the last couple of weeks and even brought them on our recent trip to Lake Cumberland. You know they are good if he’s bringing them on vacation!