Here is a free children's audio book site of classic books, fairy tales, and poems: Online Audio Stories.   What a great service.  You can either play the books directly from this web site. Or you can download the books to put on a CD or an MP3 player. These books are ideal for car trips or for listening to right before bed.

Here are some (of many) stories and poems they offer:

• Rumpelstiltskin 
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin  
• Pandora's Box
• Jabberwocky
• King Midas 
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Rapunzel  
• Little Red Riding Hood 
• Hansel and Gretel  

The stories and poems on this site bring back so many fond memories - and surprisingly a lot of kids these days don't know them.  These stories entertained me, they captivated me, and some of them terrified me.   When I was little, we use to have a real forest next to our apartment complex.   I would never, ever go too far into the woods - because I was utterly terrified the witch from Hansel and Gretel would eat me.
 

Recently, I was sitting in the family room of my house and I made an observation. My kids are becoming aliens.

My oldest son sits at our computer.  All at the same time, he chats with this dad, syncs his iPod (well actually my iPod), and watches a YouTube video about football. Across the room, I look at my younger son as he stands in front of our TV.  At the same time, he plays a video game, kicks off one of his boots, and tells me about his school's new part-time principal. (Who, according to what I'm told, is a BOY).

I do not have ... and have NEVER had ... this capability.

Multi-tasking confuses me. Too much multi-tasking fails me. My world is linear. If I stray too far from it - if I attempt to do multiple things at one time - I end up hitting snow banks with my van.

However, my kids are so different.  I recently read an article on the Internet.   My kids and so many kids around me are exactly what the article describes: digital natives.  Digital natives are people who have never known a world without video games, cell phones, laptops, Facebook, email, and text messaging.  These people use their superior cognitive abilities to make quick decisions and are able to handle multiple sources of sensory input at the same time.  They seem to have no problem listening and learning in an environment that has so much information coming at them.

This article also describes what I am: a digital immigrant. Digital immigrants saw the advent of our current technology long after their brains were hardwired. These people are better at reading facial expressions than they are at moving around the Internet. They are trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning. They address one task at a time - and they like it that way. Me.

So then - my questions is - how does a very linear, book reading, digital immigrant parent like me - raise and enjoy a chaotic, video game playing, text messaging, sound-bite driven alien? If this technology trend keeps up, how will we eventually communicate? What will our relationship be like in 10 years? 

I don't know for sure.  But I think, at this point, the best we can do is try to conform - at least somewhat - to our kids' world.  This is probably easier than trying to make them conform to ours.

This means - that we really CANNOT be passive observers anymore.  Depending on how it is used, our digital world can provide wonderful learning and entertainment opportunities for our kids - or it can be time consuming and even dangerous. We need to understand this. (This is especially true for sites like Facebook and MySpace.)  We need to show interest in our kids' video games - or at least try to. When our kids are texting, we need to be texting right with them. When our kids are looking at a computer and not at us, we really need to understand that these kids are, in actuality genius, multi-tasking aliens who have the amazing ability to watch YouTube, sync their iPod, and listen to their parents at the same time.  I'm not saying that it's okay for kids to not look at us when we speak to them.  

Again, I'm just saying that they are aliens.

The Internet, cell phones, email, and texting are a part of our kids’ culture.  And it’s not going away. The best we can do – with our limited knowledge - is help our kids get the best experience they can from it. Will we succeed at all these challenges? I really have NO idea. I hope so.

This video shows today's college kids. It has more of an education system spin on it, but it still represents the kids who I am talking about. Our kids. This is a wonderful video.
 

I've never been the best photographer.  However, I love taking pictures.  I especially love taking pictures of the people in my life: close up pictures of my kids laughing at a party - pictures of my husband staring intently at a football game (go Saints!) - and pictures of my nieces and nephews wrestling in the middle of their grandparent's floor.

But the problem is - I'm too cheap to buy a decent photo editing tool!   Currently, the only photo editing tools I have on my computer are an old version of Paint Shop Pro and Microsoft Paint (the tool that comes free with every Microsoft PC).

Until I can justify purchasing a copy of Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements), I mostly use free online photo editors.  Some of these editors are very nice, plus there's nothing to download.  Some of the programs are definitely comparable to the photo editors you buy in stores. Here are a few of my favorite:

Picnik

Picnik has a very slick interface.  I use this one the most - simply because this is Flickr's default photo editor and I use Flickr as my photo sharing site. Picnik has all the features of a basic photo editor.  I use this tool mostly for basic things like getting rid of red eye and for cropping pictures.

Pixlr

Pixlr seems like a real desktop application on your computer, complete with a workspace you can customize to your liking.  Pixlr is where I go when I want to do a lot of photo editing (adjusting color/brightness/adding layers).  This web application is probably my favorite online photo editor tool.

Flauntr

FlauntR is a beautiful photo editor filled effects, clip art, fonts, borders, and other features.  Not only a photo editor, you can add designs to your pictures, create slide shows, make avatars for your Facebook page, or create elecronic greeting cards.  My only complaint about this site is that I don't know where everything is! The Undo button (a NECESSITY in my world) was at first difficult to find.

Fotoflexer

FotoFlexer is another fun, easy to use web site.  My favorite part of this tool was the ease of use when I erased my pale legs from the background of my son's aborable baby picture.


 

About 10 months or so ago, I lost one of my favorite shirts; it simply seemed to vanish.  I use to wear this shirt all the time.  It was a longer style pink and white shirt and it fit me perfectly.  Most weekends, if I wanted to wear something casual and still look nice, I'd wear this shirt.

Well, as I was cleaning out one of my son's closets, I found this long, lost shirt.  The shirt was, for some unknown reason, laying on the side of an art supply bin and initially looked like an art smock.  But it wasn't - it was my lost shirt and I was ecstatic.  So, to reacquaint myself with this long, lost friend - I rushed to another room to try the shirt on.

Gasp.

It was too tight.  In about 10 months, I gained enough weight to make a shirt that once looked great - now look completely ridiculous. 

Completely ridiculous. 

My youngest son, to magnify my trauma, looked at me in my suddenly super-tight pink shirt and cackled a laugh that may have been heard all the way to Layton Ave.  Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully my husband was not home to witness this event.

New Year’s Resolution Number 1: To fit into my old shirt once again.

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And I will exercise regularly ... once again.

If you have a Nintendo Wii and the Wii Fit game, this is a great site - Wii Fit Routines. This web site has a section that groups the various activities on the Wii Fit program into a full 15-60 minute workout/routine. To view these routines, you need to sign up on the site (free). After you do this, you can choose from various difficulty level routines and you can choose between different routines, depending on your goal.  For example, there are routines for weight loss, for endurance, for strength, and for yoga skills.

One of my biggest complaints about the Wii Fit has been - compared to a gym - a Wii Fit workout never did much for me. The Wii Fit is fun (skiing is, for now, my favorite), but as for a workout, I was rarely left winded.  This web site helps you combine the right activities to give you a decent workout.  What a great help!  Before I saw this site, the Wii Fit was simply a bunch of little activities/exercises that contibuted to a fun evening with the kids.   Now because of this site, I've learned how to combine the activies together.  We have the new Wii Fit Plus game (which we are still learning) - so some of the routines on this site are a little different than what I have. But when this happens, I substitute.

Of course, Wii Fit will never be better than riding your bike outside or going to a gym.  But it's a great program and another option we can do in the winter in the comfort of our homes (in my pajamas) to exercise and do something fun at the same time. Maybe this will help me complete my New Year's resolution ...
 

Merrry Christmas to everyone I know! 

Santa just gave us an air hockey table and the coolest pair of night vision binoculars.  Give me a few weeks and I will be the air hockey champion of Wisconsin  - and a secret agent!

Honestly, it's days like this - spending the day with family, watching our kids (half asleep but wide eyed) fly from bed to a screeching stop in front of the Christmas tree, eating awesome food - that makes our otherwise crazy December worth it.   Have a wonderful day everyone!  

Here's a place we've been using for a while - ShareWi.com.  ShareWi is a nonprofit, volunteer-run organization that offers groceries at a discount price.

This place has saved us a lot of money!

Every month, we place an online order for the groceries we want.  (You can also mail in a paper form.)   On the form, we note the date and the place to pick up the food.  When the day arrives, we pick up our groceries - normally at Immaculate Conception church in Bay View.  Sometimes we can just walk in and grab our groceries.  Sometimes we have to wait in line.  But every time, it is WELL worth it.

For example, last month, for about $20.00, my family took home two bags of groceries. These bags included fruits (apples, oranges, and pears), vegetables (onions, corn niblets, and cabbage), meats (pork chops, chicken breasts, sandwich meat, chicken nuggets, and bacon), and a bag of potatoes.

This place is great.  Not only does ShareWi offer a great deal to the communities in this area, this organization also helps families - like mine - eat better during a time when it is just way too easy to just pick up fast food in between afterschool activities.

Writing about homecoming.  Announcing the Renaissance students.  Getting 11 p.m. emails from Mr. Katte.  Gathering pictures from the latest Lincoln PTA events.  Receiving emails about the Hang Tough kids.  Realizing, in astonishment, that Mrs. Gestwicki was not the principal of Park View.

This was what I did for two years.  After the kids went to bed, I sat at my desk, wrote, and posted blogs about our schools on CudahyNow.  I wrote about everything from scholarship winners to new recreation department classes to the most recent fundraiser results.  I did this on my own time and I loved it. 

On these nights as I wrote,  I usually had this quiet goal in the back of my thoughts.  The goal was to promote a certain kind of self-fulfilling prophesy – like a mirror.  By showing the great things about our schools and by bragging about our successes, the students, teachers, and families would, in turn, read about their successes, feel a stronger pride in what they were doing, and become even GREATER.

But could a busy, working mom possibly achieve such a goal?  I don't know.  It’s been an uphill challenge.

For two years, the school district blog was the focus of so many late, late nights.  It was one of the reasons why my house was usually a little (or very) messy. It was why I rarely watched TV.  It was also why, if you saw me, you sometimes saw circles under my eyes.  When the summer came, the school blog was the reason I crashed face down in our backyard until September.

The blog was too much work for anyone with my lifestyle.  And yet, it rarely bothered me.  I didn’t want to stop.   The blog was my passion.  Every time, I announced a scholarship or an award, I became excited.  Every time I received an email from Mr. Haeger, I smiled.

But things change.   And the uphill challenge continues.

Our economy touches everyone ... including volunteers.

Because of slow newspaper sales, our South Shore area communities lost their only local reporters. Therefore, for several months, other than my blog, Cudahy schools had little voice.  They had bigger stories to share but there were no reporters to call.  They wanted an outlet - an outlet that consisted of more than my daily blog that praised students and classes.

What could I do?  Could I give more?  Could my late nights get longer?  Could I sleep any less?  Would someone help me?

Suddenly, as our school district blogger, I saw myself standing next to a double-edge sword and I didn't know where to go.  What I was doing for the district was not enough.  But what I was doing, the blog, was - to my frustration - all that I could give.  My efforts could not fix this problem and this problem wasn't going away.  So with goals not yet attained, I let the blog go - to watch someone else take on a larger paid public relations role for the district.  I had to be honest with myself.  Without a reporter in Cudahy, our schools needed a lot more than my late nights.

Volunteerism is essential for any community.  It is our love for a city, for a school, for a church or organization put into action.  Without volunteers, how would we have most of the events in our city?  However, at a certain point, all volunteers need to see their own value and limitations - and be able to redirect themselves to a place that better serves themselves and the community. 

Where is that place for me - now that I have no more honor rolls to post?  I don't know.  But I'm sure I will eventually find it.

Until then, I feel both relief and sadness - relief that I can finally clean my house (!) and sadness that after two years and 350 posts, the blog will probably go away - to take shape into a new and hopefully better form.  Hopefully, some of the wonderful people in the district will remember me.  Hopefully, they will meet my kids and smile and remember who their mom is - and understand that, more than anything, I still believe that our success is like a mirror. The high morale and success of our schools as a whole directly reflects on the high morale and success of our kids as individuals - and vice versa. That is the truth - and my main goal for the blog.

The Pride in Our Schools blog may go away, but its name and its goal will never leave.  The uphill challenge continues.  But this time – with someone else, someone with more time leading the way.

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Clarification - my personal blog - Laptops and Swingsets is not going away. I will still update this one - probably more often now.  The blog I was talking about is the Pride in Our Schools blog.  I updated that blog ... as well as this one. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to change my ATT Wireless service plan.  So I called them after I got home from work.  As I waited and waited for an operator to answer the phone, the following things happened:

• Our giant inflateable pumpkin collapsed in our front yard, causing my husband to run out the door.
• My cell phone rang, causing me to stare at my ringing cell phone in frustration.
• My kids suddenly saw each other - not as boys - but as superhero and villain - ready and willing to take each other down - causing my youngest son to grab a bungee chord, swing it over his head, and yell "Indiana Jones!"

So after 20 minutes of waiting and witnessing insanity unfold in my house, I had to grudgingly hang up the phone to deal with these issues.

Fonolo

If only I knew about this web site a couple of weeks ago!  Fonolo.com.  Fonolo is a website/free service that automatically connects you to the department of the company you want to call. There are currently more than 400 companies on this site. And more companies are being added all the time.

All you do is go to the web site and create a profile with your phone number.  You then locate the company you are looking for, select the department you want, and click CALL.  That's it.  You walk away and continue with your daily routine.

Your phone will ring right before you connect to the operator.  No waiting.  No digging through frustrating phone menu options.  No swearing at your phone.  And the operator has no idea that you weren't pacing and multi-tasking prior to hearing their voice. What a great idea. The site also keeps track of your calls and even can record calls, if necessary.

As a mom who sometimes has three things happening at the same time, it is so nice to find free services like this - with goals to make our days easier.

Here's a chance for one of our Cudahy schools to win 20,000!  It just takes a couple minutes.  Care2.com and GreatSchools.net launched an America’s Favorite School contest to recognize and reward schools that go the extra mile to help our children succeed.  You can only enter once.  But at the end of this eight week contest (November 8), the school with the most votes wins $20,000. 

Cudahy High School - Vote

Cudahy Middle School School - Vote 

Lincoln - Vote

Park View - Vote

Kosciuszko - Vote

General Mitchell - Vote

J.E. Jones - Vote

Nativity of the Lord - Vote

St. Pauls - Vote

To find another school, go to this site: http://www.care2.com/schoolcontest

This is such a useful web site - qipit.com.  So many times I have been at work doing the following simultaneously:

• looking at a white board covered with notes or diagrams
• attempting to quickly and neatly rewrite everything into my notebook
• swearing

Qipit is a web site that allows you to take a digital picture of white board information, notes, letters, instructions, brochures, and anything similar and send it to the site, which then converts the image to a PDF. 

What a time saver!  And the service is free.   Of course, better quality cameras produce better PDFs. All you need to do is:

1. Register on the web site.
2. Take a picture.
3. Email the picture to copy@qipit.com (or upload the image directly on the site).
4. Wait. Within a few minutes, your picture is a PDF. 

So now, as others around me frantically write in their notebooks, I plan to take a picture, stretch my hands behind my head, and laugh at the silliness of all the note taking.

Having two boys, it can be frustrating to find books they like. This is especially true with our youngest son.  Our youngest son, when he goes to the library, he first plays at the Lego table.  Then he plays at the train table.  Next he plays iSpy on the computer.  Then he tells me he's bored.  Finally - almost as a afterthought - he smiles, grabs two or three books at eye level, and tosses them my way. 

However, through the years, we have found books that both our boys have liked. Thank goodness for Amazon.com reviews, recommendations from friends, nice librarians, and a lot of trial and error.  Here's a list of our favorite boy picture books -

	My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis
	Monster at the End of this Book An old classic. I loved this book when I was little! Now my kids like it.
	I Stink by Kate and Jim McMullan
	No David by David Shannon and all the other books in the series.
	Do's and Don'ts by Todd Parr  I love Todd Parr books.
	Underwear Do's and Don'ts by Todd Parr
	Twelve Terrible Nights by Marty Kelley
	How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen and all the other books in the series.
	Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Strickland
	Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod