October will soon be here, and I’m so excited about the fall and winter holidays! The social butterfly in me loves all the parties and bonding, festive decorating and abundant kindness this time of year.

Another reason for that ‘night-before-Christmas’ feeling in my stomach: our family is hosting monthly activities parties, and I can’t wait for them to begin!

• In October: we’re throwing a Halloween-themed party. We’ll set up a spooky beverage bar, serve scary snacks, play a monstrous game of bingo and produce a shadow puppet show. (We may also squeeze a little housewarming in there too, because even with fun, this momma’s a multi-tasker!)

• In November: we’ll host hands-on, educational activities centered around exploring nature and science, learning about Native Americans, and giving thanks.

• In December: it’ll be a family-style birthday bash (for yours truly and other December babies). We may make a dance map to practice language skills (and put a snap in our step), whip up tie-dyed tissue paper, or create snowy salt paintings.

Among the many goodies our holiday party guests will enjoy is an opportunity to win prizes in Education.com’s Activities Photo Contest. By uploading their activities pics as contest entries, they’ll have a shot at winning: children’s guitars from BerkeleyWind.com; Kenny Loggins’ new family CD, “All Join In”; and the grand prize package of a $500 gift certificate to Shutterfly and a $250 cash prize from Education.com!

I wish I could win that grand prize package. Cash is always handy, of course, and I’d use the Shutterfly gift certificate to produce some photo memory books as special keepsakes for our family members near and far. Browsing Shutterfly’s offering, I might also pick up some thank you cards, create a 2010 calendar, or surprise our daughter with a CenterStage Poster of her and the Jonas brothers. As an Education.com employee, though, I’m ineligible to win prizes in the contest, so will have to appreciate the prizes vicariously. I will enjoy doing the activity projects with our daughter, and will upload our photos to help other families understand each activity better as well.

At our holiday parties this year, it may not be the fruit punch, treats or attire they’ll be talking about. Instead, it’ll be the countdown to winning and active flash bulbs that’ll have ‘em abuzz. To all of the activities party paparazzi everywhere: may your happy holidays also be sprinkled with the prizes and fun of the Activities Photo Contest!

As I’ve posted before, I’m having a little bit of a hard time saying goodbye to summer.  Thank goodness, my job here at Education.com has put a little “happily” in the ever after of summer.  As you hopefully know, this summer we held our first ever Summer Activities Challenge.  In this summer long contest, we challenged families to do at least 20 different Education.com activities together.  Those who completed the Challenge earned a personalized Certificate of Achievement and were entered to win one of 100 LEGO Creator Mini Sets or a new Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook.

We were SO excited about the results!  We had over 2,000 families join us in the challenge.  Many of them wrote to us to tell us about their experiences and said things like:

• My grandkids and I have had more fun doing projects from your site.  They are 4, 2 1/2 and 2 years old.  The ideas I got from you brought so much fun for us, helped the kids learn so many things and brought us all closer.  Thank You So Much!  It made our summer!
• I just wanted you to know I was so pleased I came across your web-site this was so great-I had to work this summer but it gave us a chance to do things together that did not take a lot of time for the most part and even my 19 year old got into the act and helped her brother.  I have you bookmarked can not wait for next summers’ activities GREAT JOB!
• Many thanks for all the summer fun. I’ve been telling all my friends about your great site.
• I enjoy your [Summer Activities Challenge ] e-mails so much.  I use your ideas many times each week.  They come in handy when we get tired of playing and need something new to do.  Keep up the good work.  Very much appreciated.
• We had a terrific and active summer thanks to Education.com’s Summer Activity Challenge!!!

And now I have the GREAT honor of announcing the grand prize winner of this year’s Summer Activities Challenge - Tamara Schoch!  Congratulations Tamara!  We hope you and your family enjoy the new laptop…and don’t forget to add Education.com to your ‘favorites’ list! ;-)   Congratulations too to the 100 families who won Lego sets and to ALL families who participated, avoided the summer slide, and had fun learning together.  We can’t wait to see you all again for next year’s Summer Challenge!  And stay tuned to our site - a new Activities Photo Contest will be announced soon!

Kat

It’s not the season of summer I miss exactly.

Ice Cream for Lunch...again. I love summer.

 It’s “Summer-Me” -the mom I am all summer - that I’m sad to see go.  Summer-Me is fun and laid back.  She stays snuggled in bed for a long time in the morning with munchkins excited to tell her every second of last night’s dreams.  She allows ice cream for dinner, camping in the living room, and staying in PJs all day.  Summer-Me cares not about bedtimes or schedules or even exactly how many times a day her children’s teeth get brushed.

Summer campout in the living room - on a (gasp) weeknight!

But Summer-Me is gone now and in her place is a more structured and stressed mommy called…oh, I don’t know…”School-Year-Me.” (See? Even her name isn’t as pleasant as “Summer-Me”).  Anyway, School-Year-Me looks down her nose at morning snuggle sessions and can say “Hurry! We’re Late!” fifty times in the amount of time it takes a four year old to remember a dream out loud.  School-Year-Me is a slave to her iPhone calendar with its multiple entries every afternoon for soccer practice, cub-scout meetings, PTA events, and homework time.  School-Year-Me counts vegetable servings and minutes until bedtime.  And she knows exactly how many times a day her children’s teeth get brushed.

So, I’m going to allow myself a few minutes to sit here and mourn the loss of Summer-Me but then, I’ve got to get moving…my iPhone says we’ve got gymnastics this afternoon and those spelling words aren’t gonna learn themselves for Whiz’s test tomorrow’s.

Happy Fall! 

Kat

Fall ushers is an important time for juniors and seniors in high school who are preparing for college applications, and it is also an exciting moment for newly admitted and returning college students to begin the new academic year on college campuses across the United States. With recent budget cuts, many high schools have been forced to let school counselors go, forcing many high school students online to get advice on topics, such as writing college essays and getting letters of recommendation. In addition, many college students struggle to navigate a larger campus with stricter academic requirements than they are accostomed to in high school. We have partnered with John Wiley & Sons, Inc, a top education publisher, to bring high school students, college students, the most practical tips and advice for navigating the transition to college. See here for a complete collection of articles from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

High school students may be interested in articles on why the college admission process has become so competitive, what colleges look for in an applicant, and choosing a college once you have been admitted.

College students will likely benefit from articles on everything from Organizing Your Study Space, Participating in Extracurricular Activities, and Managing Academic Pressures at College.

There is even information for students who are seeking an alternative to the traditional four-year college, including community college.

We hope that students and parents find this information helpful. Typically, this content is available only on the bookshelf of your local bookstore, so please let us know if you would like to see more of this kind of information!