...was the first book I ever read by myself. It's that time of year when we get to think about apples without that out of season guilt. The Fuji and Gala apples at Albertson's are only $.88 per pound because they were just picked and are at their ripest. It's my favorite time of year to have apples, to see apples and to read about apples.
Do you know who at Whitney is all about the Apple right now? Our own Brenda Morse. She was chosen to receive the Golden Apple Award from the Boise School District Board of Trustees this month. This is a very special District wide award that recognizes staff that consistently go above and beyond the call of duty in their job performance.
If you have been to the front office, you have most likely met Brenda. She is the first face you see when you walk into Whitney and hers is always a face of welcome. I cannot think of one instance when I saw Brenda without a happy or pleasant look on her face. Her willingness to help the PTO with everything from Trunk r' Treat to bake sales and everything in between has created a special bond between Brenda and the PTO. We just absolutely adore Brenda.
Congratulations on your Golden Apple Brenda! They could not have awarded it to a better candidate...really.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Dirty Dancing
In college I took "social swing" with my college "sweetheart". It was an actual class and yes, my college sweetheart and I were pinned, serenaded, and fire sided. It was almost the 1960's good girl Faber College romance except for the weekends of televised football, trips to country joints to speed up the swing dance and well, some other Animal House practices.
In Social Swing we learned to Waltz, Cha Cha, Tango, Rumba, Fox Trot, Swing and the dreaded Polka (our instructor likened it to a fast waltz; I likened it to well, something I could never do). But the Cotton Eyed Joe, now that was a dance. A spoke wheel dance meant to be mastered, savored and danced at full speed. It's glaringly like the polka but I think I was able to master the Cotton Eyed Joe from fear of being trampled by the ensuing couples. We had enormous fun and found this skill actually translated outside of college.
However, this University had very large classes. I remember my first upper division history seminar had about 150 people in the class. There were so many people in the class and the professor had slides, oh so many slides. He kept the lights low. So many people. So many slides. So warm. So sleepy from showing off new dancing moves.
I somehow magicked a B from the class but I was not proud of my performance in the class. I could have done better and I had wanted to do better. The professor knew so much. I wanted to spend time with him and talk about my paper and the history of England, about his original research. There was no time though. He had 150 people in just that class.
I traded that University for an even larger one. My first seminar in Eastern European history had 12 people in the class. 12. The professor was a young guy who was an expert on all things former Yugoslavian. He has written books, consulted on movies and is now the head of the history department. I took a class on Modern China and another on South Eastern Asian Problems where there were no more than 30 and 20 people in the class respectively. The professor spent less time lecturing and more time directing our thoughts on our reading as each one of us took a few minutes to talk each week. This professor is also an expert in his field and highly regarded. You wouldn't know it, but he tells you anyway that he didn't speak English until he was 21 and a few years later he had a Ph'D. There was a stint in there about Baskin Robbins but I think the whole English thing was a story just to make us work harder. And we did. My graduate experience progressed like that. Classes were usually no more than 20 students although there was a very popular history of Modern Sub-Saharan Africa class that was well attended at about 30 people. It was one of my favorite classes. Maybe my favorite was my Gilded Age class? Ooohh...the film class....
The class size mattered. All of those professors knew us. They knew who talked too much (me) and who needed to be broken of the habit post haste (me). They created people who knew that listening was more valuable than mindless chatter and that when you spoke, it had better be good. Graduate school is not a place where you get to have a "bad semester". I got a B, once. I attribute my success to my access to professors and the attention they could pay to my work. My work.
Thinking back it reminds me of the 3rd grade. I was the kid every teacher didn't want in their class. I had a bit of test anxiety, would finish too quickly so I was prone to exam errors but I could read 2-3 years ahead of my peers. This is NOT what you want when you're 8. We read from our readers individually. Before Christmas I was done with my assignment, well, actually, the whole assignment. The whole book. I devoured the next and the next. The teacher was perplexed with what to do with me. She had 30+ kids. (The class photo shows 30 but there had been an outbreak of chicken pox so I have no idea how many there actually were.)
What do you do with this precocious child who obviously can't be skipped up a grade because of test scores but when printed material is put in front of her it disappears? As a teacher, she had to attend to the other students having trouble and then there were times when the class would have to work on reading assignments together. For the most part, the other students were all on the same page. What to do, what to do? Oh, the solution is so easy! We'll just put her in the closet and let her do her reading there undisturbed! Yeah, because singling out a child by sticking them in a closet, even if they are an "exceptional" reader, is a GREAT idea.
I look at how my son's reading groups are taught at Whitney. They have broken them down into manageable groups according to abilities. There aren't so many students in the class that this is unreasonably difficult. At 24 students, my son's class manages this as I wish my teachers had. Without repercussions for being in the bottom or the top margins. All of these kids will become excellent readers in their own time. No closets of shame.
...and this is one more reason I'm supporting the Supplemental Boise Schools Levy on March 13, 2012
Because nobody puts Baby in a corner!
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
In Social Swing we learned to Waltz, Cha Cha, Tango, Rumba, Fox Trot, Swing and the dreaded Polka (our instructor likened it to a fast waltz; I likened it to well, something I could never do). But the Cotton Eyed Joe, now that was a dance. A spoke wheel dance meant to be mastered, savored and danced at full speed. It's glaringly like the polka but I think I was able to master the Cotton Eyed Joe from fear of being trampled by the ensuing couples. We had enormous fun and found this skill actually translated outside of college.
However, this University had very large classes. I remember my first upper division history seminar had about 150 people in the class. There were so many people in the class and the professor had slides, oh so many slides. He kept the lights low. So many people. So many slides. So warm. So sleepy from showing off new dancing moves.
I somehow magicked a B from the class but I was not proud of my performance in the class. I could have done better and I had wanted to do better. The professor knew so much. I wanted to spend time with him and talk about my paper and the history of England, about his original research. There was no time though. He had 150 people in just that class.
I traded that University for an even larger one. My first seminar in Eastern European history had 12 people in the class. 12. The professor was a young guy who was an expert on all things former Yugoslavian. He has written books, consulted on movies and is now the head of the history department. I took a class on Modern China and another on South Eastern Asian Problems where there were no more than 30 and 20 people in the class respectively. The professor spent less time lecturing and more time directing our thoughts on our reading as each one of us took a few minutes to talk each week. This professor is also an expert in his field and highly regarded. You wouldn't know it, but he tells you anyway that he didn't speak English until he was 21 and a few years later he had a Ph'D. There was a stint in there about Baskin Robbins but I think the whole English thing was a story just to make us work harder. And we did. My graduate experience progressed like that. Classes were usually no more than 20 students although there was a very popular history of Modern Sub-Saharan Africa class that was well attended at about 30 people. It was one of my favorite classes. Maybe my favorite was my Gilded Age class? Ooohh...the film class....
The class size mattered. All of those professors knew us. They knew who talked too much (me) and who needed to be broken of the habit post haste (me). They created people who knew that listening was more valuable than mindless chatter and that when you spoke, it had better be good. Graduate school is not a place where you get to have a "bad semester". I got a B, once. I attribute my success to my access to professors and the attention they could pay to my work. My work.
Thinking back it reminds me of the 3rd grade. I was the kid every teacher didn't want in their class. I had a bit of test anxiety, would finish too quickly so I was prone to exam errors but I could read 2-3 years ahead of my peers. This is NOT what you want when you're 8. We read from our readers individually. Before Christmas I was done with my assignment, well, actually, the whole assignment. The whole book. I devoured the next and the next. The teacher was perplexed with what to do with me. She had 30+ kids. (The class photo shows 30 but there had been an outbreak of chicken pox so I have no idea how many there actually were.)
What do you do with this precocious child who obviously can't be skipped up a grade because of test scores but when printed material is put in front of her it disappears? As a teacher, she had to attend to the other students having trouble and then there were times when the class would have to work on reading assignments together. For the most part, the other students were all on the same page. What to do, what to do? Oh, the solution is so easy! We'll just put her in the closet and let her do her reading there undisturbed! Yeah, because singling out a child by sticking them in a closet, even if they are an "exceptional" reader, is a GREAT idea.
I look at how my son's reading groups are taught at Whitney. They have broken them down into manageable groups according to abilities. There aren't so many students in the class that this is unreasonably difficult. At 24 students, my son's class manages this as I wish my teachers had. Without repercussions for being in the bottom or the top margins. All of these kids will become excellent readers in their own time. No closets of shame.
...and this is one more reason I'm supporting the Supplemental Boise Schools Levy on March 13, 2012
Because nobody puts Baby in a corner!
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The...
Levy...
"Mom, you said the 'D' word". Wow, this is a fun, snarky age.
A levee is a dam that keeps dangerous bodies of waters from flooding and ruining a town, a residence or injuring people. I was trying to explain the school LEVY to several people with the LEVEE analogy that if we do nothing about the current budget problems then the situation will flood in on us like a 'dam' breaking. Then I had to explain the difference between 'dam' and 'damn' to my son and decided that would either be the last time I used the levy/levee analogy or the last time I ever took my children with me...anywhere...ever...period...I'm not kidding.
A levy is a legal action taken to pay a tax liability. By legal action in the school levy's case (nothing scary here) it would be a vote (simple majority) that would add a certain amount of money to property taxes for those who own their homes or property in Boise. The assessed value of your house does not change but your tax would go up by an estimated $8 per month. Check the Yes! For Boise Schools Website for more details.
Levy also means to wage war; a definition that dates back to feudal ages when rulers exchanged their protection, land and resources for military service.
Before I go any further, I should mention I really wasn't sure I was going to write this. When I write a blog post, it writes itself in my head well in advance. To un-write it once I sit down would be unimaginable, impossible and non-productive. I mean, nothing would happen, empty blog, zippo, nada, nunca. So, with this post I'm stepping out on a limb and exposing a bit of an internal struggle that I wasn't going to share with anybody. Okay, I shared it with my husband and he said, "Okay, Herman Cain." You'll see what I mean in a minute. It was my mom who turned me around.
Did you read or hear about the little girl in China who was run over by a truck and then hit by another car? Neither driver stops to help her and none of the at least 15 people who pass her by did either. They have video. I wasn't going to dwell on this because the story doesn't end well. It makes you think, what would I have done?
What do you mean? What would I have done? I know what I would have done and I should never have questioned what my community would have done either.
A few weeks ago my oldest son and I were driving to pick up child number 2 and we saw a young man in the gutter with his bike to the side of him. Two of his friends standing over the top of him. Others had started pulling over. Nothing in this scene looked good so I pulled over too to see if anybody had called 911. One of his friends told me "he was cool". Yeah, I called 911 and his "it's cool" buddy bolted. I stayed until the police arrived. There's a whole lot more to this story but you get the idea.
Don't worry, I'm getting to the levy.
Last weekend, while Ada County Highway District was holding us hostage in the neighborhood, there was a flurry of police activity. Well, it was taking too long and I REALLY needed to leave and get a cup of coffee. So, I went in one of the only directions I could and there were half a dozen cops and oh my gosh, is that SWAT team with a, what in the heck is that gun! Back the float up. I don't need a cup of coffee that bad, back the car up and go the other way, where ever that takes me. Because just then up came a police officer with the biggest gun I have ever seen and I have seen some guns in the Alaskan bush.
Then the paramedics were waiting at the other end of the street and then a firetruck blazed in. Not good. Not good.
The next day I was getting that much longed for cup of joe and I ran into one of the other moms that had stopped to help the kid in the gutter. We didn't know each other but we talked for a minute and I mentioned the bazooka weirdness from the day before. The other mom said, "Yeah, some guy went nuts and they brought out the potato gun and bean bagged him. Then they had to bring out the tazer." Really? Non-lethal forces to subdue him? This lifted me like you would not believe.
Okay, I know this sounds nuts. These two incidents sound terrible but this is why I'm supporting the levy.
This might surprise some people but I was privately on the fence about the supplemental levy for a very long time...I mean a very very long time. It's not that I object to the $8 per month, seriously, I can give up two trips per month to the Moxie Java drive thru. And I don't object to how the money is being spent:
What I object to is the bunt. We should be swinging for the fence. It just feels like we're waiting for a walk or a base hit just to get us through. Our kids are worth it and so is our community. I feel like the legislature should be funding our schools fully and then funding our neighborhood safety programs so that there is a School Resource Officer at EVERY school to help us in the neighborhood every single day. I feel like there should be a community center at EVERY school, that there should be a safe place for EVERY Idaho child to go to. I feel like we should have fantastic pre-k programs for families that choose them, even if they don't QUALIFY for them. Let's get our kids reading or reading ready earlier than ever before. Expand dual language around the valley so that every school is opening global doors for our kids. The Boise Schools Supplemental Levy is not enough. Idaho kids deserve more. Let's make them more competitive for the 21st century.
However, I am a realist and I know we need to do this for our own school district right now because nobody is coming to save us. We cannot (should not?) expect the legislature to come to our rescue in the next session.
All the times I have passed through towns like Tensed, Lapwai, Culdesac, Bliss, Wallace, Wendell, Horseshoe Bend and even Nampa I have wondered how these towns manage to keep their schools going. Sure, what goes on in the big city will trickle out to the smaller towns but the character of our state is defined by what goes on in all four corners and everything in between.
Education is the force that helps end the cycle of poverty. I'm not the only one who thinks that. UNESCO and a whole lot of other people on the internet who know better than I do. Like Oprah says, "When we know better, we do better." We see the poverty and know there are people in crisis that want to get their kids out. The Levy in a very real sense is a war on THAT cycle of poverty. We can end poverty for a lot of people if we can keep them in the school and keep the class sizes as they are now.
Our community at Whitney is a lot like some of the communities I've seen elsewhere that have deep poverty except for two striking differences, we have HOPE and we have some terrific people who inspire that hope like the staff and teachers through the school, the PTO, scores of fantastic involved parents, a really fabulous community center and just really good, decent people who stop their cars when they see a kid in the gutter.
We stop to help our neighbor, we stop to help our neighbor's children. We will pass the supplemental levy because we love living here and each child that comes out of our Boise School system has the potential to end the cycle. We will pass the levy because we need to maintain healthy class sizes. We will pass the levy because it keeps some of our biggest employers here, in Boise, paying taxes and paying payroll.
We stand at a lot of pivotal moments in our lifetime. This just happens to be one where the levee either gets stopped at the top or the dam spills wide open. What we need is the levy to fix the levee or else the kid in the gutter becomes so common place that you begin to ignore it. The non-lethal potato gun is replaced by a real gun.
This is one of those moments and this is why I plan on March 13, 2012 to vote to support the Boise Schools Supplemental Levy.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
"Mom, you said the 'D' word". Wow, this is a fun, snarky age.
A levee is a dam that keeps dangerous bodies of waters from flooding and ruining a town, a residence or injuring people. I was trying to explain the school LEVY to several people with the LEVEE analogy that if we do nothing about the current budget problems then the situation will flood in on us like a 'dam' breaking. Then I had to explain the difference between 'dam' and 'damn' to my son and decided that would either be the last time I used the levy/levee analogy or the last time I ever took my children with me...anywhere...ever...period...I'm not kidding.
A levy is a legal action taken to pay a tax liability. By legal action in the school levy's case (nothing scary here) it would be a vote (simple majority) that would add a certain amount of money to property taxes for those who own their homes or property in Boise. The assessed value of your house does not change but your tax would go up by an estimated $8 per month. Check the Yes! For Boise Schools Website for more details.
Levy also means to wage war; a definition that dates back to feudal ages when rulers exchanged their protection, land and resources for military service.
Did you read or hear about the little girl in China who was run over by a truck and then hit by another car? Neither driver stops to help her and none of the at least 15 people who pass her by did either. They have video. I wasn't going to dwell on this because the story doesn't end well. It makes you think, what would I have done?
What do you mean? What would I have done? I know what I would have done and I should never have questioned what my community would have done either.
A few weeks ago my oldest son and I were driving to pick up child number 2 and we saw a young man in the gutter with his bike to the side of him. Two of his friends standing over the top of him. Others had started pulling over. Nothing in this scene looked good so I pulled over too to see if anybody had called 911. One of his friends told me "he was cool". Yeah, I called 911 and his "it's cool" buddy bolted. I stayed until the police arrived. There's a whole lot more to this story but you get the idea.
Don't worry, I'm getting to the levy.
Last weekend, while Ada County Highway District was holding us hostage in the neighborhood, there was a flurry of police activity. Well, it was taking too long and I REALLY needed to leave and get a cup of coffee. So, I went in one of the only directions I could and there were half a dozen cops and oh my gosh, is that SWAT team with a, what in the heck is that gun! Back the float up. I don't need a cup of coffee that bad, back the car up and go the other way, where ever that takes me. Because just then up came a police officer with the biggest gun I have ever seen and I have seen some guns in the Alaskan bush.
Then the paramedics were waiting at the other end of the street and then a firetruck blazed in. Not good. Not good.
The next day I was getting that much longed for cup of joe and I ran into one of the other moms that had stopped to help the kid in the gutter. We didn't know each other but we talked for a minute and I mentioned the bazooka weirdness from the day before. The other mom said, "Yeah, some guy went nuts and they brought out the potato gun and bean bagged him. Then they had to bring out the tazer." Really? Non-lethal forces to subdue him? This lifted me like you would not believe.
Okay, I know this sounds nuts. These two incidents sound terrible but this is why I'm supporting the levy.
This might surprise some people but I was privately on the fence about the supplemental levy for a very long time...I mean a very very long time. It's not that I object to the $8 per month, seriously, I can give up two trips per month to the Moxie Java drive thru. And I don't object to how the money is being spent:
What will the levy provide?
100% of revenue from the levy will be spent on:
- Maintaining low class sizes
- Preserving quality programs
No administrative costs will be paid for with levy dollars.
All the times I have passed through towns like Tensed, Lapwai, Culdesac, Bliss, Wallace, Wendell, Horseshoe Bend and even Nampa I have wondered how these towns manage to keep their schools going. Sure, what goes on in the big city will trickle out to the smaller towns but the character of our state is defined by what goes on in all four corners and everything in between.
Education is the force that helps end the cycle of poverty. I'm not the only one who thinks that. UNESCO and a whole lot of other people on the internet who know better than I do. Like Oprah says, "When we know better, we do better." We see the poverty and know there are people in crisis that want to get their kids out. The Levy in a very real sense is a war on THAT cycle of poverty. We can end poverty for a lot of people if we can keep them in the school and keep the class sizes as they are now.
Our community at Whitney is a lot like some of the communities I've seen elsewhere that have deep poverty except for two striking differences, we have HOPE and we have some terrific people who inspire that hope like the staff and teachers through the school, the PTO, scores of fantastic involved parents, a really fabulous community center and just really good, decent people who stop their cars when they see a kid in the gutter.
We stop to help our neighbor, we stop to help our neighbor's children. We will pass the supplemental levy because we love living here and each child that comes out of our Boise School system has the potential to end the cycle. We will pass the levy because we need to maintain healthy class sizes. We will pass the levy because it keeps some of our biggest employers here, in Boise, paying taxes and paying payroll.
We stand at a lot of pivotal moments in our lifetime. This just happens to be one where the levee either gets stopped at the top or the dam spills wide open. What we need is the levy to fix the levee or else the kid in the gutter becomes so common place that you begin to ignore it. The non-lethal potato gun is replaced by a real gun.
This is one of those moments and this is why I plan on March 13, 2012 to vote to support the Boise Schools Supplemental Levy.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Happy Halloween and Thank You
I know Halloween is not a holiday of the same caliber of Dia de Los Muertos (thank you to my 7-year old for pointing this out; I stand humbled and corrected). However, Halloween has taken on a special quality for me since moving to our "new" house 8 years ago just 6 weeks before that snarky 7-year old made his appearance.
I was pregnant enough by Halloween to make it a slow waddle to the front door for trick or treaters. We had been in our house about 2 weeks and I wasn't sure what to expect at our door. Our old house was barely a trickle of costumed, giggling kids all hoping for a good payout. I was surprised at the new house by the wave of kids AND their parents on Halloween.
After about an hour the traffic picked up substantially and I could have sworn some of the kids were crabby and I recognized a few of the parents as some who had come by before. Then somebody burst out of the crowd and said, "I'm Mick (name changed to protect the vaguely innocent) and I live behind you. Welcome to the neighborhood!" I was taken aback and then they all looked a little nervous and somebody blurted, "So, are you renting out the basement apartment?"
"Um, no. We're just going to live in that space as well." That's a weird question, I thought.
The group started laughing and after Halloween we began to get dinner invitations. It took a while to piece it all together but our house had once had a sterling reputation for badness. It had been the house police had to be called to; it had been the one people avoided and rolled their eyes at.
It now knows a certain other kind of badness but one where rooms go uncleaned because of parental stand offs with unwilling children and the lazy principals of the land sometimes take the weekend off and forgive the grass their growth.
That Halloween introduced us to a new sense of community. A sense that has been forged by joining the school and the PTO. No matter how much of a drudgery you might think a PTO is, ours is not.
THANK YOU to our PTO, all the parent volunteers and the teachers and staff for putting on a fantastic Trunk r' Treat. It's safe, it's free and our Trunk r' Treat rocks! (Ooh, maybe we should get some music next year to celebrate exactly how awesome our school is.)
From all of the decorated trunks to the bouncy houses to the photo booth with a painted backdrop JUST FOR US and all of the games, it was an outstanding evening. Our PTO President, Rebecca Howard, was a fabulous wizard of ceremonies and made it a magical evening.
We are fortunate to have TWO churches that continually support our school. That's a lot of donations from parishioners that most likely do not have kids of school age attending Whitney or have kids at other schools.
The teachers and staff always go the extra mile for our school. I don't know of any other profession where people work all day and then stay all evening to work and have such a GREAT time doing it!
Thank you again.
Thank you ALSO to the parents and families who brought their kids. This is what it means to show up for your kids and be a presence in their lives. That is the real present of parenthood.
Most of all, thank you to our tireless Principal, Jean Lovelace, for creating such a tremendous sense of Community and giving everybody a safe place to feel wanted and appreciated.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
I was pregnant enough by Halloween to make it a slow waddle to the front door for trick or treaters. We had been in our house about 2 weeks and I wasn't sure what to expect at our door. Our old house was barely a trickle of costumed, giggling kids all hoping for a good payout. I was surprised at the new house by the wave of kids AND their parents on Halloween.
After about an hour the traffic picked up substantially and I could have sworn some of the kids were crabby and I recognized a few of the parents as some who had come by before. Then somebody burst out of the crowd and said, "I'm Mick (name changed to protect the vaguely innocent) and I live behind you. Welcome to the neighborhood!" I was taken aback and then they all looked a little nervous and somebody blurted, "So, are you renting out the basement apartment?"
"Um, no. We're just going to live in that space as well." That's a weird question, I thought.
The group started laughing and after Halloween we began to get dinner invitations. It took a while to piece it all together but our house had once had a sterling reputation for badness. It had been the house police had to be called to; it had been the one people avoided and rolled their eyes at.
It now knows a certain other kind of badness but one where rooms go uncleaned because of parental stand offs with unwilling children and the lazy principals of the land sometimes take the weekend off and forgive the grass their growth.
That Halloween introduced us to a new sense of community. A sense that has been forged by joining the school and the PTO. No matter how much of a drudgery you might think a PTO is, ours is not.
THANK YOU to our PTO, all the parent volunteers and the teachers and staff for putting on a fantastic Trunk r' Treat. It's safe, it's free and our Trunk r' Treat rocks! (Ooh, maybe we should get some music next year to celebrate exactly how awesome our school is.)
From all of the decorated trunks to the bouncy houses to the photo booth with a painted backdrop JUST FOR US and all of the games, it was an outstanding evening. Our PTO President, Rebecca Howard, was a fabulous wizard of ceremonies and made it a magical evening.
We are fortunate to have TWO churches that continually support our school. That's a lot of donations from parishioners that most likely do not have kids of school age attending Whitney or have kids at other schools.
The teachers and staff always go the extra mile for our school. I don't know of any other profession where people work all day and then stay all evening to work and have such a GREAT time doing it!
Thank you again.
Thank you ALSO to the parents and families who brought their kids. This is what it means to show up for your kids and be a presence in their lives. That is the real present of parenthood.
Most of all, thank you to our tireless Principal, Jean Lovelace, for creating such a tremendous sense of Community and giving everybody a safe place to feel wanted and appreciated.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Take Your Coupons to Amazon
It's Sunday. I love to pour over my multiple copies of the paper and organize my coupons. Did you know that most of the coupons you clip from the paper can also be found on the internet? Not just from our coupons.com link, but also at Amazon.com?
I just bought a bottle of Tide detergent. It was $5.99 and I used the $2.00 P&G coupon from the Amazon link to get it at $3.99, which is what I would normally pay at the store (I never pay more than $4.00 for detergent). Delivery was free because we're Amazon Prime members ($79 per year and for those of us who just refuse to go to the mall it saves a lot of money in shipping fees).
It's an interesting concept.
Amazon Coupons
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
I just bought a bottle of Tide detergent. It was $5.99 and I used the $2.00 P&G coupon from the Amazon link to get it at $3.99, which is what I would normally pay at the store (I never pay more than $4.00 for detergent). Delivery was free because we're Amazon Prime members ($79 per year and for those of us who just refuse to go to the mall it saves a lot of money in shipping fees).
It's an interesting concept.
Amazon Coupons
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
I love trash!
I talk about the Terracycle Program a lot but it's good to get some accountability going.
We get two checks per year, June and December.
Here are the current numbers. Overall we have earned 24,217 points or $242.17. We have redeemed (sent back to the school ($175.51) and we just accrued another $66.66.
We get two checks per year, June and December.
Here are the current numbers. Overall we have earned 24,217 points or $242.17. We have redeemed (sent back to the school ($175.51) and we just accrued another $66.66.
Points Earned: 24,217.0
Points Redeemed: 17,551.0
Current Points Balance: 6,666.0
We have already gotten off to a great start this year, which I expect will continue. Thank you for the support! Keep up your great energy! I am spending company shutdown this year doing a complete "Martha Stewart' makeover to my garage to give me the TerraCycling, Whitney School Project and Coupon overboard Pantry of my dreams.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Hugh the PTO Has Made Money This Week
The PTO rolled into some scratch this week.
Albertsons participates with Box Tops for Education by giving you extra Box Tops for every 10 qualified items you buy in a transaction. If you buy, for example, 10 boxes of General Mills cereal the register will spit out an extra receipt called a Catalina with 10 extra Box Tops on it. You take those and register with www.growinglocallearning.com and submit the code. By picking Whitney as your school, it will send all of the Box Top Codes to our school.
This week at Albertsons was special. They have this Instant Savings Special every 6 weeks or so where you buy 10 qualified items and you save $5 total on those items and you ALSO get 25 Box Tops. Have 10 more items? You get ANOTHER $5 off AND ANOTHER 25 Box Tops. I recently discovered you DO NOT have to split the transactions to get more than 25 Box Tops per transaction. You still get your regular 10 Box Tops per 10 items as well. So, if you buy 20 qualifying items you save $10 and get (4) Catalinas from the register, (2) with 10 Box Tops and (2) with 25 Box Tops for a total of 60 Box Tops, which is $6 for the school.
For the Growing Local Learning Collection Period between March 1, 2011 and October 31, 2011 I have earned 690 Box Tops just by participating in Albertsons' program. That is $69 for the school, which Whitney will get in December. Plus, almost every item I bought with this program has at least 1 Box Top on it. And because my son eats instant mashed potatoes like they are water (I know, Idaho!) this will add up quickly.
Once you register at Growing Local Learning you can also engage in a little peer pressure and healthy competition. The site shows how much Whitney as a school has earned through the program for the same period, for the previous period and overall since the program began.
For the March 1-October 31, 2011 period Whitney has so far earned: 3184 Box Tops. That's $318.40.
Last period? (11/1/10-2/28/11)? Only 530 Box Tops
Overall? 5859.
If you have been saving your Box Tops from Albertsons and waiting to enter them, NOW is the time to enter them on Growing Local Leanring's site! They will expire at the end of the year so please please please get those entered! The money from the period ending October 31 will be mailed to the schools in the December checks.
"Hugh's" in for another big money maker story? PTO Prez, Treasurer, and Yours Truly brought home $168, with a little help from Hugh Jackman from the Scratch for Schools Idaho Lottery event October 13 at the Grove Hotel. The event required PTO President Rebecca Howard and Treasurer Teresa Abbott to scratch 300 lottery tickets like mad in an attempt to get into the final round while I screamed at them to scratch the tickets completely to reveal the bar code and all of the numbers on the ticket (there are rules to this). 82 other schools competed and while our team scratched admirably, we didn't quite make it to the finals. Okay, we didn't make it to the finals at all but we did scratch our remaining 300 tickets to reveal $168 in winnings.
Just in case you're curious, the average take for a sealed package of 300 tickets is $160. Thank you again to the Idaho Lottery who have given the Boise School District $22,361,371 since the lottery was brought back in 1989. Since 1990, the Idaho Lottery, funded through lottery sales in Idaho, has distributed $473.8 Million to Idaho, the bulk of which are public schools. In 2010, Boise School District schools received nearly $1.5 Million.
We were cheered on by our good friend Hugh Jackman. Not the man himself but his likeness on a placard. To see what I mean, you need to attend the next PTO meeting on November 13, 2011 in the Whitney Library at 3:45. The thing about the placard that I didn't think about before hand is that we walked from the parking garage in downtown Boise to the Grove Hotel with me giddily waving my sign (I don't do anything halfway). I couldn't understand why everybody was staring. At first I figured they were staring at Rebecca, our PTO Prez, she is very pretty but COME ON I'M NOT VELMA (it's a Scooby Doo reference). They were staring right above me. Then I realized it was my placard getting all of the attention. What? Hugh? I know it's Hugh Jackman but I was careful to keep it PG. It took me almost an entire week to figure it out. In Boise the "Occupy Wall Street" movement hasn't made the mainstream like other places. Agitators in Boise are met with nervous glances. I think they thought Hugh and I were taking on the 1% instead of just trying to help provide an education for the 99%.
In hindsight, given their total lack of information regarding my activities and the contents of the sign, it's no wonder they looked so nervous. You really have to see the sign to realize why it's just so strange to see a woman walkin' around downtown in a Whitney Elementary shirt waving a Hugh Jackman sign.
Albertsons participates with Box Tops for Education by giving you extra Box Tops for every 10 qualified items you buy in a transaction. If you buy, for example, 10 boxes of General Mills cereal the register will spit out an extra receipt called a Catalina with 10 extra Box Tops on it. You take those and register with www.growinglocallearning.com and submit the code. By picking Whitney as your school, it will send all of the Box Top Codes to our school.
This week at Albertsons was special. They have this Instant Savings Special every 6 weeks or so where you buy 10 qualified items and you save $5 total on those items and you ALSO get 25 Box Tops. Have 10 more items? You get ANOTHER $5 off AND ANOTHER 25 Box Tops. I recently discovered you DO NOT have to split the transactions to get more than 25 Box Tops per transaction. You still get your regular 10 Box Tops per 10 items as well. So, if you buy 20 qualifying items you save $10 and get (4) Catalinas from the register, (2) with 10 Box Tops and (2) with 25 Box Tops for a total of 60 Box Tops, which is $6 for the school.
For the Growing Local Learning Collection Period between March 1, 2011 and October 31, 2011 I have earned 690 Box Tops just by participating in Albertsons' program. That is $69 for the school, which Whitney will get in December. Plus, almost every item I bought with this program has at least 1 Box Top on it. And because my son eats instant mashed potatoes like they are water (I know, Idaho!) this will add up quickly.
Once you register at Growing Local Learning you can also engage in a little peer pressure and healthy competition. The site shows how much Whitney as a school has earned through the program for the same period, for the previous period and overall since the program began.
For the March 1-October 31, 2011 period Whitney has so far earned: 3184 Box Tops. That's $318.40.
Last period? (11/1/10-2/28/11)? Only 530 Box Tops
Overall? 5859.
If you have been saving your Box Tops from Albertsons and waiting to enter them, NOW is the time to enter them on Growing Local Leanring's site! They will expire at the end of the year so please please please get those entered! The money from the period ending October 31 will be mailed to the schools in the December checks.
"Hugh's" in for another big money maker story? PTO Prez, Treasurer, and Yours Truly brought home $168, with a little help from Hugh Jackman from the Scratch for Schools Idaho Lottery event October 13 at the Grove Hotel. The event required PTO President Rebecca Howard and Treasurer Teresa Abbott to scratch 300 lottery tickets like mad in an attempt to get into the final round while I screamed at them to scratch the tickets completely to reveal the bar code and all of the numbers on the ticket (there are rules to this). 82 other schools competed and while our team scratched admirably, we didn't quite make it to the finals. Okay, we didn't make it to the finals at all but we did scratch our remaining 300 tickets to reveal $168 in winnings.
Just in case you're curious, the average take for a sealed package of 300 tickets is $160. Thank you again to the Idaho Lottery who have given the Boise School District $22,361,371 since the lottery was brought back in 1989. Since 1990, the Idaho Lottery, funded through lottery sales in Idaho, has distributed $473.8 Million to Idaho, the bulk of which are public schools. In 2010, Boise School District schools received nearly $1.5 Million.
We were cheered on by our good friend Hugh Jackman. Not the man himself but his likeness on a placard. To see what I mean, you need to attend the next PTO meeting on November 13, 2011 in the Whitney Library at 3:45. The thing about the placard that I didn't think about before hand is that we walked from the parking garage in downtown Boise to the Grove Hotel with me giddily waving my sign (I don't do anything halfway). I couldn't understand why everybody was staring. At first I figured they were staring at Rebecca, our PTO Prez, she is very pretty but COME ON I'M NOT VELMA (it's a Scooby Doo reference). They were staring right above me. Then I realized it was my placard getting all of the attention. What? Hugh? I know it's Hugh Jackman but I was careful to keep it PG. It took me almost an entire week to figure it out. In Boise the "Occupy Wall Street" movement hasn't made the mainstream like other places. Agitators in Boise are met with nervous glances. I think they thought Hugh and I were taking on the 1% instead of just trying to help provide an education for the 99%.
In hindsight, given their total lack of information regarding my activities and the contents of the sign, it's no wonder they looked so nervous. You really have to see the sign to realize why it's just so strange to see a woman walkin' around downtown in a Whitney Elementary shirt waving a Hugh Jackman sign.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Instant Savings Spotlight!
Through October 18th, buy any combination of 10 participating products advertised as such by Albertsons and when you use your Preferred Card you get $5.00 off your total order or $.50 off each item. These are all Box Tops items and as an added bonus when you buy 10 General Mills products in a single transaction you get 25 Bonus Box Tops that print at the register. (From there you register those at Growing Local Learning and Whitney gets the Box Tops). If that wasn't enough, when you buy 10 items Albertsons donates $1.00 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.
I'm a little more hyper about this stuff than most and want to make sure I squeeze every last nickel of savings, promised Box Top or donated dollar out of each 10 items so if you get behind me in line, run to another checker! I will separate my transactions if I have more than 10 participating items to make ABSOLUTELY sure I get my promised Box Tops.
Crazy? Yes. But, my Growing Local Learning account shows that during this current collection period I have racked up 365 Box Tops (so far). That's $36.50 for diligently monitoring my transactions (acting like a crazy person) and yes I used a coupon for each of the items. And yes, I really do buy 20 boxes of cereal every few months but that's because my children and their friends are Hobbits who demand second breakfast and thirdsies!
This week I'm going in for another 100 Box Tops. We're low on cereal again.
Monday, October 10, 2011
You Get How Many Papers On Sunday?
My husband has a LOW tolerance level for people like me. In fact, he comes home from the store angry at ME specifically if he gets behind somebody in line using coupons. Okay, I admit I'm a little obsessed but with the amount of laundry we do it doesn't hurt to have 22 bottles of Tide that all came in at under $3.00 a box.
This week I was on the a crusade to get my (5) 2-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper Ten for free when I noticed an add for Starbucks coffee. There was no coupon so I was about to toss it aside when I looked at it again.
On specially marked packages of Starbucks Coffee, only the "Morning Joe" bags, there are "peelies" sponsored by Starbucks and MSNBC for a $5 code to DonorsChoose.org.
"That's great Nikki, what does that mean to me?"
DonorsChoose.org is this fantastic website for teachers and librarians. Our teachers register on DonorsChoose.org and then they can add items to their cart from the list of stores on the site. It is virtually anything the classroom may need from supplies to Legos to laptops and projectors. Then when they go to checkout, instead of paying, they list their project on the site and it then welcomes anybody and everybody to give money to their project. The Starbucks Morning Joe campaign is giving anybody who buys that coffee $5 to give to ANY project they want to.
PLEASE, please, please encourage your child's teacher to sign up at DonorsChoose.org and make a request no matter how big or small. You would be surprised at the generosity of people NATIONWIDE. Mrs. Smith's 1st grade class and I worked on a project last year and before I knew what had happened the entire project was fulfilled from people around Idaho and the nation from people neither one of us knew.
The lesson we took from this is that PEOPLE WANT TO HELP EDUCATION and that TEACHERS MATTER to a lot of folks out there. It is very hard for the average person to show their support for public education but by giving directly to projects on DonorsChoose.org we know we can make a difference in a classroom. We know we can open a window for education even if a door shuts somewhere else.
Please let your teachers know that this tool is out there and we want them to make requests.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
This week I was on the a crusade to get my (5) 2-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper Ten for free when I noticed an add for Starbucks coffee. There was no coupon so I was about to toss it aside when I looked at it again.
On specially marked packages of Starbucks Coffee, only the "Morning Joe" bags, there are "peelies" sponsored by Starbucks and MSNBC for a $5 code to DonorsChoose.org.
"That's great Nikki, what does that mean to me?"
DonorsChoose.org is this fantastic website for teachers and librarians. Our teachers register on DonorsChoose.org and then they can add items to their cart from the list of stores on the site. It is virtually anything the classroom may need from supplies to Legos to laptops and projectors. Then when they go to checkout, instead of paying, they list their project on the site and it then welcomes anybody and everybody to give money to their project. The Starbucks Morning Joe campaign is giving anybody who buys that coffee $5 to give to ANY project they want to.
PLEASE, please, please encourage your child's teacher to sign up at DonorsChoose.org and make a request no matter how big or small. You would be surprised at the generosity of people NATIONWIDE. Mrs. Smith's 1st grade class and I worked on a project last year and before I knew what had happened the entire project was fulfilled from people around Idaho and the nation from people neither one of us knew.
The lesson we took from this is that PEOPLE WANT TO HELP EDUCATION and that TEACHERS MATTER to a lot of folks out there. It is very hard for the average person to show their support for public education but by giving directly to projects on DonorsChoose.org we know we can make a difference in a classroom. We know we can open a window for education even if a door shuts somewhere else.
Please let your teachers know that this tool is out there and we want them to make requests.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
PTO Meeting
Don't miss our monthly PTO meeting this afternoon (Monday, October 10th) in the school library at 3:45pm.
I, for one, plan to leave the kids with my unsuspecting husband who is off from work celebrating either Columbus day or Canadian Thanksgiving, not sure which. Did you know that Canada's first Thanksgiving was celebrated nearly 50 years (43 if we're going to get picky) before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock? It was celebrated by an Englishman named Martin Frobisher.
Which leads me to my segway. My kids and I have chosen one evening per week with some close friends to choose books and even videos from the library. One of the reasons we started going every week was to change out our Daniel Pinkwater books about the bad polar bears Irving and Muktuk. The Frobishers own the fancy hotel with the pool where Larry the other polar bear is a life guard. (See the transition?)
Our weekly library trips are part of our routine and exposes the kids (and their parents!) to a lot of books we otherwise would have not known about like the other books written by the Knufflebunny author, which are really funny to my kids. Surprisingly, joke books are really great for early readers. They require reading comprehension to tell and understand the joke.
Make a date with your kids, it's more fun than you would have imagined.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
I, for one, plan to leave the kids with my unsuspecting husband who is off from work celebrating either Columbus day or Canadian Thanksgiving, not sure which. Did you know that Canada's first Thanksgiving was celebrated nearly 50 years (43 if we're going to get picky) before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock? It was celebrated by an Englishman named Martin Frobisher.
Which leads me to my segway. My kids and I have chosen one evening per week with some close friends to choose books and even videos from the library. One of the reasons we started going every week was to change out our Daniel Pinkwater books about the bad polar bears Irving and Muktuk. The Frobishers own the fancy hotel with the pool where Larry the other polar bear is a life guard. (See the transition?)
Our weekly library trips are part of our routine and exposes the kids (and their parents!) to a lot of books we otherwise would have not known about like the other books written by the Knufflebunny author, which are really funny to my kids. Surprisingly, joke books are really great for early readers. They require reading comprehension to tell and understand the joke.
Make a date with your kids, it's more fun than you would have imagined.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Terracycle This Week
For October, our focus item will be candy wrappers! YEP! EVEN THE LITTLE ONES FROM HALLOWEEN! We did well last year just from a few kids' Halloween pails. As always, we continue to collect all of our other Terracycle items but a focus item really brings attention to what we're doing. Last month we did great with tooth brushes! Two of the white packages (jammed full by the way) are filled with toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes!
The bin is empty right now with a large shipment heading out to UPS this evening. When I say large, well, hmmm...so, I bought a new toilet over the weekend and that's what I ended up using to box up the Capri Sun pouches. Once we accumulate at least 500 pouches we are eligible to send them to Terracycle. I stopped counting after 500. My best guess is at least 750 Capri Sun pouches; I'll make Terracycle count. There were so many I had to wait to send them in until I acquired a box large enough to accommodate the shipment. Soooo, ours will be arriving in a toilet box. I'm sure the irony won't be lost on them.
Nikki "I love trash!" Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Monday, October 3, 2011
Money for Nothing
...and your "checks" for free! http://www.vistaprint.com/gallery/IP0AAAABAAAAAAA=/free-checks.aspx?xnav=LeftItem&xnid=LeftNav241_233_232
Don't you love getting money for doing practically nothing? When you shop online you can go to Box Tops for Education and earn Box Tops for Whitney. Right now there is a special on the site offering double Box Tops for online purchases:
http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/marketplace/Default.aspx?WT.ac=Feature_DoubleeBTCollection
If you go through the link at the top you can even get checks for free!
If you have started thinking (worrying and grinding your teeth at night is more like it) about the cost of your children's college education (or even if YOU want to go back to school!), you can add money to an Idaho Saves 529 account through Upromise.com simply by shopping. Register your debit/credit and grocery cards on Upromise to get started. When you shop online using the Upromise portals you will earn a percentage back. This money goes into a holding place where it rolls into your your designated 529 account on a quarterly basis. You can even establish a percentage for how much each recipient ought to receive.
Even if you do not participate in regular contributions or have established a 529 account, Upromise can get still begin collecting funds while you shop. They will simply hold onto those until you set up that 529 account.
Example:
Still not finding what you're looking for between the Box Tops for Education and Upromise stores? Try the Amazon.com link to the right of this Blog post. Whitney Elementary school gets a percentage of purchases through the Amazon link on this site.
Magic? No, it's just monetizing a website. Products and consumer websites pay smaller websites to advertise for them. Coupons.com will not work if the product user does not know about them. So, coupons.com pays Blogs and websites like ours for every coupon printed from the site. All we do on our end is contact companies like Amazon or Coupons.com and request membership in their affiliate program. We then insert the html code they give us on our Blog and people are given the option to click through to the site or ignore it.
If it's not free to the affiliate (that's us) then it's usually a scam and we run the other way. Upromise membership is completely free. Buying through the stores on Box Tops for Education is also free/there is no charge to use their site to connect to the stores they have listed. Again, if you find a program like this that charges you money to buy things through a website it is probably a scam you should avoid.
While all this may not amount to quick sums of big money, it is money for doing things we do every day or simply, money for nothing.
And yes, until I was in my 30's I thought the song went "Money for nothing and your checks for free." My husband also thought it was hysterical that I thought Bruce Springsteen sang "Bridge in Disguise" rather than Brilliant Disguise. To my credit, even though I KNOW what the lyrics are it still SOUNDS like that's what they're singing.
Nikki "she who loves Mark Knopfler even though she can't understand him" Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Don't you love getting money for doing practically nothing? When you shop online you can go to Box Tops for Education and earn Box Tops for Whitney. Right now there is a special on the site offering double Box Tops for online purchases:
http://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/marketplace/Default.aspx?WT.ac=Feature_DoubleeBTCollection
If you go through the link at the top you can even get checks for free!
- Go to www.boxtops4education.com
- Choose "Earn" from the menu at the top
- You will then see a drop down menu and will want to choose "Shop Marketplace"
- From there, select "See All Stores" and you can find the"Vistaprint" shop in the list (it's alphabetical)
If you have started thinking (worrying and grinding your teeth at night is more like it) about the cost of your children's college education (or even if YOU want to go back to school!), you can add money to an Idaho Saves 529 account through Upromise.com simply by shopping. Register your debit/credit and grocery cards on Upromise to get started. When you shop online using the Upromise portals you will earn a percentage back. This money goes into a holding place where it rolls into your your designated 529 account on a quarterly basis. You can even establish a percentage for how much each recipient ought to receive.
Even if you do not participate in regular contributions or have established a 529 account, Upromise can get still begin collecting funds while you shop. They will simply hold onto those until you set up that 529 account.
Example:
- Is there a Groupon you want to buy? Fantastic! Upromise can give your blossoming 529 account 4-6% of your Groupon purchase.
- The Upromise Old Navy link will give you Free Shipping and 5% back.
- I recently bought shoes from Kohls.com and got $4.32 back from that purchase. The money is then divided into my two 529 accounts and $2.16 will go to each account. I paid the same amount that anybody else on the internet would have paid (okay, I grabbed a coupon from RetailMeNot first) but instead of just getting shoes, I got a little extra to go towards college for the kids. That $2.16 will eventually wind up in their 529 accounts this year and begin earning interest. Thus, money for nothing.
- Christmas is just around the corner, and Target, Barnes and Noble and Toys r' Us all give you between 1-3%. Check back with Upromise OFTEN because the site frequently offers better savings, deals, coupons and extras for shopping through them.
Still not finding what you're looking for between the Box Tops for Education and Upromise stores? Try the Amazon.com link to the right of this Blog post. Whitney Elementary school gets a percentage of purchases through the Amazon link on this site.
Magic? No, it's just monetizing a website. Products and consumer websites pay smaller websites to advertise for them. Coupons.com will not work if the product user does not know about them. So, coupons.com pays Blogs and websites like ours for every coupon printed from the site. All we do on our end is contact companies like Amazon or Coupons.com and request membership in their affiliate program. We then insert the html code they give us on our Blog and people are given the option to click through to the site or ignore it.
If it's not free to the affiliate (that's us) then it's usually a scam and we run the other way. Upromise membership is completely free. Buying through the stores on Box Tops for Education is also free/there is no charge to use their site to connect to the stores they have listed. Again, if you find a program like this that charges you money to buy things through a website it is probably a scam you should avoid.
While all this may not amount to quick sums of big money, it is money for doing things we do every day or simply, money for nothing.
And yes, until I was in my 30's I thought the song went "Money for nothing and your checks for free." My husband also thought it was hysterical that I thought Bruce Springsteen sang "Bridge in Disguise" rather than Brilliant Disguise. To my credit, even though I KNOW what the lyrics are it still SOUNDS like that's what they're singing.
Nikki "she who loves Mark Knopfler even though she can't understand him" Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Terracycle Friday!
Don't forget your Terracycle items for Friday drop off! The bin will be outside the front doors between 8:30am and 3:15pm Friday.
I made an interesting discovery. The clear plastic cups coffee shops use for iced coffee drinks are Solo brand (McDonald's uses the same for their McCafe line of drinks.) We also Terracycle Solo cups for $.02 each so please keep your eye out for those cups! Even though they can be recycled in the blue recycle bins, I am more than happy to send them to Terracycle for a worthwhile upcycle (and our $.02).
Happy Terracycling!
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
I made an interesting discovery. The clear plastic cups coffee shops use for iced coffee drinks are Solo brand (McDonald's uses the same for their McCafe line of drinks.) We also Terracycle Solo cups for $.02 each so please keep your eye out for those cups! Even though they can be recycled in the blue recycle bins, I am more than happy to send them to Terracycle for a worthwhile upcycle (and our $.02).
Happy Terracycling!
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Papa John's Wenesdays Just Got Better
In early November 2010, the Papa John's Pizza people generously brought in pizza to our PTO meeting (see you really should come to the meetings just in case something like this happens!)
The Papa John's guy lets us dig into the pizza while he talks about a fundraiser they do with the schools. Each school picks one day of the week per month (only Mon-Thurs.) and if you mention WHITNEY when you make your order ON THAT DAY of the month 20% of the sale proceeds go to the school. The rest of the month, if you put WHITNEY in the promo spot on the online ordering form, the school gets $1.00 no matter the day.
Somebody then brightens up and says, "Wait a minute can we have the last Wednesday of every month?" Papa John's guy looks a little confused and says yes, that day is still up for grabs. The person who asks about the last Wednesday is getting giddy. I'm talking WAY too giddy for this conversation. "Really?" She turns to the rest of the PTO and then hits them with her best can-I-have-the-puppy-look.
The rest of the PTO looked a lot confused and for what was probably the 12th time that year and a harbinger of things to come, came to the realization that this PTO mom was/is nuts.
Okay, yeah, so the nutty PTO mom was me. But I quickly explained that the last Wednesday of the month happens to also be the day before Thanksgiving. Pizza chains report these as their 5 biggest sales days of the year:
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. New Year's Eve
3. Halloween
4. The night before Thanksgiving
5. New Year's Day
We couldn't have Sunday (by the rules of the fundraiser) and I couldn't predict what day New Year's or Halloween would fall on but Thanksgiving Eve will always be in the 4th week of November (it's possible we get Halloween, and one of the New Year's every once in a while and true that a 5 week November could screw us up but we should do well over time.)
In my giddiness I think I blurted out something like, "I never cook the day before Thanksgiving! Oh please can we have it??" The rest of the PTO agreed it might be a good fundraising night and thus we have the last Wednesday of the month.
But do you know how it just got better? I have yet to try out this coupon but I just found one online for Papa John's. The site it came from says it only works ONE day of the week. Guess when: WEDNESDAY!! Give it a try and let me know. It's supposed to take 25% off your regular priced items on your online order on Wednesdays.
Here are some pizza fun facts: http://pizza.com/fun-facts
*Note: Grady and I have even been to the single highest grossing independent pizzeria in the nation: the http://www.moosestooth.net/index2.htm in Anchorage, Alaska. That's a long ways to go just for a blog but I like to keep things authentic.
The Papa John's guy lets us dig into the pizza while he talks about a fundraiser they do with the schools. Each school picks one day of the week per month (only Mon-Thurs.) and if you mention WHITNEY when you make your order ON THAT DAY of the month 20% of the sale proceeds go to the school. The rest of the month, if you put WHITNEY in the promo spot on the online ordering form, the school gets $1.00 no matter the day.
Somebody then brightens up and says, "Wait a minute can we have the last Wednesday of every month?" Papa John's guy looks a little confused and says yes, that day is still up for grabs. The person who asks about the last Wednesday is getting giddy. I'm talking WAY too giddy for this conversation. "Really?" She turns to the rest of the PTO and then hits them with her best can-I-have-the-puppy-look.
The rest of the PTO looked a lot confused and for what was probably the 12th time that year and a harbinger of things to come, came to the realization that this PTO mom was/is nuts.
Okay, yeah, so the nutty PTO mom was me. But I quickly explained that the last Wednesday of the month happens to also be the day before Thanksgiving. Pizza chains report these as their 5 biggest sales days of the year:
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. New Year's Eve
3. Halloween
4. The night before Thanksgiving
5. New Year's Day
We couldn't have Sunday (by the rules of the fundraiser) and I couldn't predict what day New Year's or Halloween would fall on but Thanksgiving Eve will always be in the 4th week of November (it's possible we get Halloween, and one of the New Year's every once in a while and true that a 5 week November could screw us up but we should do well over time.)
In my giddiness I think I blurted out something like, "I never cook the day before Thanksgiving! Oh please can we have it??" The rest of the PTO agreed it might be a good fundraising night and thus we have the last Wednesday of the month.
But do you know how it just got better? I have yet to try out this coupon but I just found one online for Papa John's. The site it came from says it only works ONE day of the week. Guess when: WEDNESDAY!! Give it a try and let me know. It's supposed to take 25% off your regular priced items on your online order on Wednesdays.
COUPON CODE:WW25
Here are some pizza fun facts: http://pizza.com/fun-facts
*Note: Grady and I have even been to the single highest grossing independent pizzeria in the nation: the http://www.moosestooth.net/index2.htm in Anchorage, Alaska. That's a long ways to go just for a blog but I like to keep things authentic.
Friday, September 16, 2011
The Perilous Pickup Parade
Kids, it's 3:15, do you know where your parents are?
The perilous pickup parade waiting for you, of course! (Silly Whitney Blogger!) From the "silly" Whitney Blogger's perspective I have seen a lot of curious things that make for dangerous or at least annoying situations. There are more cars than there is space. (I have a theory there are more cars than children at the school and some people in the neighborhood come out just to yank our chain, but that's a different story.) The cars moving down Owyhee are mostly behaving well but sometimes you will get one that ignores the 20 mph speed limit causing sudden braking and hand gesturing when a child enters the crosswalk.
Inside the lot itself, there is a whole swirl of accidents-waiting-to-happen there. The most amazing thing I ever witnessed was a driver talking on a phone while an adult ushered a child into the car. The driver began pulling away before the child had even gotten into the car! They stopped the car but the child was no sooner in the car before the driver began pulling away again with that back door wide open.
Parents are equally befuddled as they yell for you, standing 15 feet away but their cries go unnoticed. You look this way and that but all you see are your friends. Did mom and dad get a new car that afternoon? Are cars becoming like the black luggage at the airport where you have to put obnoxious duct tape on them to instantly recognize yours. Hey! Not a bad idea just in case we all start driving the same Ford Galaxy!
It's nuts out there kiddies. So, what do we do? Suffer? It will get better in college when you are able to drive home but don't because you want to save your money for expensive, um, job interview trips in March.
Don't worry, I have such a great solution your parents will love it, the school will love it and their doctor is bound to send me flowers!
Did you know you can park absolutely free, without fear of towing at the Whitney United Methodist Church parking lot during school drop off and pick up? Simply park and walk over to pick up your kids and/or talk to their teachers. Because of the positioning of the lot you have a quicker exit off Owyhee as well! The quick walk may just be what the doctor ordered for your stress and the time it takes to walk over to the school may be outweighed by the line of cars you would have had to negotiate.
Still not convinced? Just try parking in the church parking lot and walking over to the school.
The perilous pickup parade waiting for you, of course! (Silly Whitney Blogger!) From the "silly" Whitney Blogger's perspective I have seen a lot of curious things that make for dangerous or at least annoying situations. There are more cars than there is space. (I have a theory there are more cars than children at the school and some people in the neighborhood come out just to yank our chain, but that's a different story.) The cars moving down Owyhee are mostly behaving well but sometimes you will get one that ignores the 20 mph speed limit causing sudden braking and hand gesturing when a child enters the crosswalk.
Inside the lot itself, there is a whole swirl of accidents-waiting-to-happen there. The most amazing thing I ever witnessed was a driver talking on a phone while an adult ushered a child into the car. The driver began pulling away before the child had even gotten into the car! They stopped the car but the child was no sooner in the car before the driver began pulling away again with that back door wide open.
Parents are equally befuddled as they yell for you, standing 15 feet away but their cries go unnoticed. You look this way and that but all you see are your friends. Did mom and dad get a new car that afternoon? Are cars becoming like the black luggage at the airport where you have to put obnoxious duct tape on them to instantly recognize yours. Hey! Not a bad idea just in case we all start driving the same Ford Galaxy!
It's nuts out there kiddies. So, what do we do? Suffer? It will get better in college when you are able to drive home but don't because you want to save your money for expensive, um, job interview trips in March.
Don't worry, I have such a great solution your parents will love it, the school will love it and their doctor is bound to send me flowers!
Did you know you can park absolutely free, without fear of towing at the Whitney United Methodist Church parking lot during school drop off and pick up? Simply park and walk over to pick up your kids and/or talk to their teachers. Because of the positioning of the lot you have a quicker exit off Owyhee as well! The quick walk may just be what the doctor ordered for your stress and the time it takes to walk over to the school may be outweighed by the line of cars you would have had to negotiate.
Still not convinced? Just try parking in the church parking lot and walking over to the school.
- Your doctor and your health likes it
- The school likes it
- The environment likes it
- You are being a good example to your kids
- You will meet new people; yes I promise the Whitney Blogger is in front of the school everyday and is one of the stranger of the people you will meet
- YOU will like it too.
- If you do have to drive into the school lot, pull as far forward into the lot as you can (regardless of whether you're dropping off or picking up.)
- If you are waiting to pick up a student, find a spot in the line as far forward as possible and SHUT your engine OFF. Idling your engine creates poisonous gases called carbon monoxide and dioxide. While today's cars produce 98% fewer hydrocarbons than their older brothers and sisters 30 years ago, there are more cars on the road today. Remember when most households only had 1 car? Sitting in an idling car can expose you to low level carbon monoxide poisoning or in some recent cases can cause catastrophic levels leading to tragic results. Shut your engine off, get out of the car and enjoy the company of your fellow parents and grandparents.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Dual Language-Get Your Child's Career Path Started Now!
I knew Whitney was special but I was not aware just HOW special until the PTO meeting this last Monday. As we introduced ourselves there were a lot of new faces but one of the PTO officers I had gotten to know over the course of the previous year and liked quite a bit, it turns out I didn't know as well as I thought.
She mentioned her student is participating in the dual language program. That much did not surprise me, many of the PTO parents have kids in the dual language program. What surprised me is that this particular parent had to get special permission for her student to attend Whitney because they live in Meridian. Another parent in the room promptly spoke up that they commute from Meridian as well to participate in the dual language program.
That's right, Whitney's dual language program is in such high demand that there are people from other school districts going through special processes and jumping through red tape JUST TO ATTEND WHITNEY!
As I write this, my youngest sibling is a world away in Morocco immersing herself in the culture and language with the hope of gaining an edge on her contemporaries when she graduates. The consequence of being a generation younger than most of your siblings is that they tend to baby you. Well, she certainly outsmarted us this time. When my sister graduates she will have a pick of jobs because of her intense focus on languages.
Whitney is giving our students an edge down the road. If they participate in the dual language program, Whitney students will be opening doors at the age of 6 that will otherwise not be open to their contemporaries at the age of 18.
Hats off to the administration at Whitney for implementing this program and our thanks to the dual language teachers for all of their hard work. Your work is garnering attention and you deserve to pat yourself on the back.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
She mentioned her student is participating in the dual language program. That much did not surprise me, many of the PTO parents have kids in the dual language program. What surprised me is that this particular parent had to get special permission for her student to attend Whitney because they live in Meridian. Another parent in the room promptly spoke up that they commute from Meridian as well to participate in the dual language program.
That's right, Whitney's dual language program is in such high demand that there are people from other school districts going through special processes and jumping through red tape JUST TO ATTEND WHITNEY!
As I write this, my youngest sibling is a world away in Morocco immersing herself in the culture and language with the hope of gaining an edge on her contemporaries when she graduates. The consequence of being a generation younger than most of your siblings is that they tend to baby you. Well, she certainly outsmarted us this time. When my sister graduates she will have a pick of jobs because of her intense focus on languages.
Whitney is giving our students an edge down the road. If they participate in the dual language program, Whitney students will be opening doors at the age of 6 that will otherwise not be open to their contemporaries at the age of 18.
Hats off to the administration at Whitney for implementing this program and our thanks to the dual language teachers for all of their hard work. Your work is garnering attention and you deserve to pat yourself on the back.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Terracycle List
Have you noticed the strange Terracycle box in front of the school and wondered what you can put in there?
Here is what we are collecting:
· Drink Pouch Brigade®: Capri Sun, Minute Maid, Kool Aid all seem to be okay
Scott Brand Brigade®
Huggies Brand Brigade®
Scotch Tape Brigade®
Cereal Bag Brigade®
Elmer's Glue Crew Brigade®
NEOSPORIN Tube Brigade®
Lunch Kit Brigade®
Candy Wrapper Brigade®: ANY SIZE! Think about that Halloween stash when it's reduced to rubble.
Cookie Packaging Brigade®
Tortilla and Tostada Bag Brigade®
Inkjet Brigade®
Cheese Packaging Brigade®
Personal Care and Beauty Brigade®
Revolution Foods Brigade®
Sprout Baby Food Pouch Brigade®
Peanut Butter Brigade®
Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade®
Bear Naked Brigade®
CORE Wrapper Brigade®
Brigada de Empaques de Tortillas y Tostadas® / Tortillas and Tostadas Bags Brigade®
Bottle and Can Brigade: Brought to you by the Dream Machine Recycle Rally
Method® Refill Brigade®
Solo® Cup Brigade®
Keyboard and Mouse Brigade®
Laptop Brigade®
Digital Camera Brigade®
Cell Phone Brigade®
Dropps Laundry Packages
Pens and Sharpies
Corks Brigade
Chip Bag Brigade
Home Storage Brigade: They said they would stop accepting Ziploc bags at the end of the summer but it seems they still have the brigade active and because we have collected $98 from sending in Ziploc bags, keep sending them in! They accept any brand, any size.
Kashi Package Brigade®: they accept cereal bag liners so send in any brand cereal bag liner and we will send these here!
Here is what we are collecting:
· Drink Pouch Brigade®: Capri Sun, Minute Maid, Kool Aid all seem to be okay
Scott Brand Brigade®
Huggies Brand Brigade®
Scotch Tape Brigade®
Cereal Bag Brigade®
Elmer's Glue Crew Brigade®
NEOSPORIN Tube Brigade®
Lunch Kit Brigade®
Colgate Oral Care Brigade®: Any brand toothbrush or toothpaste seems to be acceptable; these items are made into non-brand specific items like engineered decking material so they don't seem to care about the brand.
Candy Wrapper Brigade®: ANY SIZE! Think about that Halloween stash when it's reduced to rubble.
Cookie Packaging Brigade®
Tortilla and Tostada Bag Brigade®
Inkjet Brigade®
Cheese Packaging Brigade®
Personal Care and Beauty Brigade®
Revolution Foods Brigade®
Sprout Baby Food Pouch Brigade®
Peanut Butter Brigade®
Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade®
Bear Naked Brigade®
CORE Wrapper Brigade®
Brigada de Empaques de Tortillas y Tostadas® / Tortillas and Tostadas Bags Brigade®
Bottle and Can Brigade: Brought to you by the Dream Machine Recycle Rally
Method® Refill Brigade®
Solo® Cup Brigade®
Keyboard and Mouse Brigade®
Laptop Brigade®
Digital Camera Brigade®
Cell Phone Brigade®
Dropps Laundry Packages
Pens and Sharpies
Corks Brigade
Chip Bag Brigade
Home Storage Brigade: They said they would stop accepting Ziploc bags at the end of the summer but it seems they still have the brigade active and because we have collected $98 from sending in Ziploc bags, keep sending them in! They accept any brand, any size.
Kashi Package Brigade®: they accept cereal bag liners so send in any brand cereal bag liner and we will send these here!
I know this will sound very insignificant but Terracycle and their partners give us $.02 for each item. That means $.02 for every Ziploc bag, every cheese wrapper, every pen and even every plastic cup. Computer accessories, laptops, digital cameras and cell phones are more. All of these items, things that cannot be placed in the big blue recycle bin, add up to actual money the school can use anything the PTO decides it needs. Terracycle gives us no restrictions or guidelines on how the money must be spent. Last year we brought in nearly $200 from the garbage that not only would have been thrown out, it would have gone to a landfill and not one bit to a recycling center!
All you have to do is remember to bring those items to the school and put them in the Terracycle bin in front of the school's front doors anytime between 8:40 and 3:15 Fridays.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent and "School Garbage Mogul"
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Welcome Back Whitney!
Greetings and Welcome Back Whitney!
Did you have a good summer? These first few weeks it has been great to connect with old friends and meet new ones.
New and RETURNING Parents (Grandparents and Guardians too!), you have a wonderful and significant role in your student's development. There are many ways you can participate in your student's education and one of the more fun ways is through the Parent Teacher Organization. Did that say fun? Yes! Whitney Elementary School's PTO ROCKS! You determine your level of involvement and that doesn't mean coming to every meeting or feeling obligated to sign up for every activity or even one. Join us September 12 @3:45 PM in the Whitney Library for our first PTO meeting of the year. Choose how you want to contribute whether that be by coming to a PTO meeting every once in a while, signing up for Trunk or Treat or committing to saving your old toothbrushes for the TerraCycle program!
One of the PTO's finer functions is to raise money for the school. I, myself, am the sort of person that defies traditional PTO molds and created my own PTO niche. I found that I LOVED figuring out new ways to raise money for the school. This Blog has several links like the Amazon.com and Coupons links that are both monetized. What that means is that if you click on those and make a purchase through Amazon or PRINT coupons by clicking on the coupons link, small amounts of money are given to the school in what is called a referral fee. There are people out there who make a living doing this, why shouldn't the school raise funds doing the same thing? I also discovered that it's not just Capri Sun packages that we turn in to raise money but also toothbrushes, candy wrappers, wine bottle corks and even used make up containers! I dedicated a small space in my garage to this collection effort and now I send in two or three packages per month. During the 2010-2011 school year we raised $174 from collecting garbage and shipping it for free to TerraCycle.net.
Our very talented and very pleasant fundraising coordinator, Kara Souza, is also the Box Tops for Education coordinator. We raised the potential of what we can do last year by bringing in a whopping $1621, an increase of almost $1200 over what we had brought in prior to the 2010-2011 school year.
What do we do with the money? Last year the PTO helped out the school by buying toilet paper, copy paper and paying for a test proctor. We also added coat hooks to the hallway adding a new level of safety to the hall (piles of backpacks might prevent kids from escaping the building efficiently in the event of a fire) and it is a good hygiene practice.
What is your homework? Think about how you would like the PTO to spend money. Would you want a fund set aside to bring in fun science, technology, engineering and math tools? Would you like to see a scholarship for Whitney Alumna to help them with their application fees into colleges? What do YOU want to see? Your homework is to think about that and then come to the PTO meeting and share those ideas with us!
Your other homework is to go to www.terracycle.net and see if any of the items on the list are things you routinely throw away. If so, those are things YOU can bring to the school on Fridays and place in the TerraCycle box at the front doors. For example, toothbrushes and toothpaste containers, any kind will bring us $.02 each. It doesn't sound like much but it does add up.
Oh, and I almost forgot. When you go to Albertson's or Fred Meyer, watch your receipt for an extra piece of paper that includes BOX TOPS!! I have put the Albertson's on Vista on the alert and they will are willing to hold Box Top Catalina that pops out of the register that gets left in their recycle bin for Whitney. If you mention you are with Whitney and a bundle of Box Tops is thrust upon you, fear not. You may send those on to the office who will direct those to either Kara or to me and we will enter those codes for you if you do not wish to do that work.
Welcome back to school everybody! It is going to be a great year.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Sunday, July 31, 2011
It's almost the end of July and I thought I would get another Blog post off before it clicks over. This will be a bit more frenetic than usual but it's mostly just links to other pages that I think you will like.
Have you seen the United Dairymen of Idaho's win milk for a year contest? MILK FOR A YEAR!! You may enter once per month: http://dairyforayear.com/
There are TWO Box Tops for Education sweepstakes right now. One is an enter daily for a huge sum of box tops at http://www.boxtops4education.com/ and the other is a fun new sub-site they just created with General Mills: http://generalmills.promo.eprize.com/buildingwithboxtops/:b=ie7/?affiliate_id=1d. There is one "instant win" on the playground and you can enter twice per day for the sweepstakes (once for signing in and the other for answering Box Top trivia in the library). Thus far I have won 5 Box Tops. Okay, I know, .50 cents isn't enough to write up a whole Blog entry about but COME ON!!! I spent two minutes clicking and one minute winning for Whitney!
School supplies are at their lowest price yet. Here is how to get the very best deal. Collect all of the ads with the best prices, for example, Fred Meyer has crayons for .25 cents still and you can buy up to 4 boxes of crayons. Make sure you do not have to have a customer loyalty card to get the discount listed in the ad (this step is important to make the next step work.) So, you do not want the ad to say, crayons .24 cents with Grand Central Happy Go Lucky Shopper Card. Next, take your ads to TARGET or WALMART. Pick up your supplies and take them to the register ask them to price match. At Walmart they may do it at the register at Target they will do it at customer service. It has been my experience that Target is more than happy to do this and you can pick up school supplies at a great savings.
Happy last 24 days of summer vacation!!
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Have you seen the United Dairymen of Idaho's win milk for a year contest? MILK FOR A YEAR!! You may enter once per month: http://dairyforayear.com/
There are TWO Box Tops for Education sweepstakes right now. One is an enter daily for a huge sum of box tops at http://www.boxtops4education.com/ and the other is a fun new sub-site they just created with General Mills: http://generalmills.promo.eprize.com/buildingwithboxtops/:b=ie7/?affiliate_id=1d. There is one "instant win" on the playground and you can enter twice per day for the sweepstakes (once for signing in and the other for answering Box Top trivia in the library). Thus far I have won 5 Box Tops. Okay, I know, .50 cents isn't enough to write up a whole Blog entry about but COME ON!!! I spent two minutes clicking and one minute winning for Whitney!
School supplies are at their lowest price yet. Here is how to get the very best deal. Collect all of the ads with the best prices, for example, Fred Meyer has crayons for .25 cents still and you can buy up to 4 boxes of crayons. Make sure you do not have to have a customer loyalty card to get the discount listed in the ad (this step is important to make the next step work.) So, you do not want the ad to say, crayons .24 cents with Grand Central Happy Go Lucky Shopper Card. Next, take your ads to TARGET or WALMART. Pick up your supplies and take them to the register ask them to price match. At Walmart they may do it at the register at Target they will do it at customer service. It has been my experience that Target is more than happy to do this and you can pick up school supplies at a great savings.
Happy last 24 days of summer vacation!!
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Whitney Community Center Carnival TONIGHT
I popped over to the Whitney Community Center to check on the new raised beds. Talking to Chris Kranz, community center supervisor, he mentioned there is a FREE carnival at the Whitney Community Center TONIGHT from 6-8pm.
The activities are hosted by the BSU TRIO Upward Bound. All activities, prizes and candy are free. Did I mention the games, prizes, cotton candy and snow cones for all ages? Did I mention it's all free?
If you need more information, you can call Chris Kranz at 854-6625.
http://www.cityofboise.org/Departments/Parks/Activities/YouthServices/page44712.aspx
It's Tuesday once again. Did you know that McDonald's offers half price Happy Meals on Tuesday nights between 5 and 7pm? I hear the naysayers loud and clear. However, for a cheap thrill you can get chicken nuggets (45 calories each), milk and sliced apples. See, not so bad.
Tuesday is also the day to order your veggies and fruits from Bountiful Baskets:
http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
The activities are hosted by the BSU TRIO Upward Bound. All activities, prizes and candy are free. Did I mention the games, prizes, cotton candy and snow cones for all ages? Did I mention it's all free?
If you need more information, you can call Chris Kranz at 854-6625.
http://www.cityofboise.org/Departments/Parks/Activities/YouthServices/page44712.aspx
It's Tuesday once again. Did you know that McDonald's offers half price Happy Meals on Tuesday nights between 5 and 7pm? I hear the naysayers loud and clear. However, for a cheap thrill you can get chicken nuggets (45 calories each), milk and sliced apples. See, not so bad.
Tuesday is also the day to order your veggies and fruits from Bountiful Baskets:
http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Friday, July 8, 2011
And the British Are Here....
Whew, so my "Britas Are Coming, Britas Are Coming" post timing worked out. The British Royal Couple some of us have been waiting for longingly, have finally arrived in California. I've been waiting for this for months, just like something else that FINALLY happened this week. Yes, more spectacular than the shuttle Atlantis lift off today it's the official Back To School Shopping Season!
It is now time to throw caution to the wind and head back to the stores to stock up. However, be wary, prices for all items are NOT at their lowest yet. Here is what you can buy right now:
Fred Meyer
Crayola Crayons: $.25 Limit 4
Glue (orange top/Elmer's): $.25 Limit 3 (From https://savingstar.com/ if you use the $.75 off two it's a potential money maker; just follow the Saving Star rules)
Spiral Notebooks: $.15 Limit 10 (this price will probably go lower to $.11 or $.10)
Composition books: $.25 (I use these for work and I don't remember them being on sale last year)
3x5 cards: $.33 (I didn't see a limit)
Erasers: $.33
Folders: $.15
Colored Pencils: $.99 (I think these will get down to $.89)
WAIT for lower prices on these:
Rulers
Pencil cases
Pencils
MARKERS (WAIT FOR THESE TO BE $.99 at least!!)
Scissors
ShopKo is usually the price leader on all of this stuff so I was surprised when Fred's came out first. Following their Free Admission Discovery Center of Idaho Fridays, they have upped their ante in what they give to local education initiatives. Coming out as the first to do back to school sales at these prices is a sure sign of their overall commitment to education.
If you are able to, participate in a little S.O.S. In my world, that means buy up to your limit (every time you enter the store) and then dump an enormous pile of Crayola Crayons on Principal Lovelace's desk.
Welcome to the USA Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!
Simply Frugal
I love reading with my kids. Sometimes when they struggle with a word I show them a word within a word. In the word "Simply" is imply. My behavior is Simply Frugal these days, this may imply to some that I am cheap. Maybe, but I like to think I do more with less so that I can do more later. After all, I have big plans for my kids as I am sure you do too!
What my kids frequently see are the "bad parent nights" and "woohoo Groupon $5 for $10 worth of SnoCone" nights. In fact, I frequently bump into certain PTO other mothers while being frugal. My "bad parent" night is taking the kids to McDonald's on Tuesday nights for half priced Happy Meals and then we go to the Library! for a huge stack of books. Cheap, not healthy but tons of fun for around $5.91.
A few weeks ago in a group PTO brainstorm email, I suggested we find an EXTREME couponer in the Whitney School family and start a pantry. Principal Lovelace is looking into it. Meanwhile, I have been keeping up with my Simply Frugal mode and collecting free and nearly free toothpaste and toothbrushes with my own coupons.
I'm not an extreme couponer but I value the coupons as if they were actual cash. I began thinking about the pantry idea and thought, what if we kept the items at the store and just taught the practice of couponing and being Simply Frugal to the rest of the school community? We are not talking about everybody in the school wiping out the shelves every week but just taking what we all need.
So what happens when you have 25 tubes of toothpaste and no mustard? We trade. There will be weeks when I am out of town for work and will not be able to take advantage of a sale. Those weeks I may not be able to stock up on what my family needs and I will need to make a trade. Let's face it, everybody has been hit by this recession but if we work together we can further our individual goals.
Our own Blue Star and Gold Star families have shouldered an incredible burden during this recession. Food prices have gone up, wages have gone down and when we asked our service men and women to go to the front lines for us, they did, often leaving behind a tremendous financial burden. If we can relieve that burden by helping one another out, why should we not find everyway possible to accomplish this.
One way to help military personnel overseas is to collect all of your EXPIRED coupons and send them to bases overseas. That's right, expired coupons. Military bases overseas can use the coupons for up to 6 months after their expiration date! As soon as school starts up you can bet I will have an efficient method for collecting expired coupons if you're interested.
As a community, we should look beyond all of our differences and find ways to shoulder our burdens together. In the coming months and in the first PTO meeting, I want to find a way we can get together as a community of Simply Frugal people and cut down our grocery spending so that we can do more with less.
What are YOUR ideas? Monthly coupon club where we can share ideas and maybe trade some of our cache of freebies in exchange for something we really need?
In the meantime you will find a few additions to this blog, some of which are links to printable coupons and others are great resources for teaching you how to coupon and be Simply Frugal. The links for the coupon sites DO GENERATE money and in all of the great Nikki blogs with link ideas, everytime you click on a coupon link on this blog, it will hopefully send you to a site that will give us a few cents back for Whitney's PTO.
I will also spend some time trying to direct you to bargains to get your kids back to school like the savvy shopper I know you are.
Simply Frugally Yours,
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
What my kids frequently see are the "bad parent nights" and "woohoo Groupon $5 for $10 worth of SnoCone" nights. In fact, I frequently bump into certain PTO other mothers while being frugal. My "bad parent" night is taking the kids to McDonald's on Tuesday nights for half priced Happy Meals and then we go to the Library! for a huge stack of books. Cheap, not healthy but tons of fun for around $5.91.
A few weeks ago in a group PTO brainstorm email, I suggested we find an EXTREME couponer in the Whitney School family and start a pantry. Principal Lovelace is looking into it. Meanwhile, I have been keeping up with my Simply Frugal mode and collecting free and nearly free toothpaste and toothbrushes with my own coupons.
I'm not an extreme couponer but I value the coupons as if they were actual cash. I began thinking about the pantry idea and thought, what if we kept the items at the store and just taught the practice of couponing and being Simply Frugal to the rest of the school community? We are not talking about everybody in the school wiping out the shelves every week but just taking what we all need.
So what happens when you have 25 tubes of toothpaste and no mustard? We trade. There will be weeks when I am out of town for work and will not be able to take advantage of a sale. Those weeks I may not be able to stock up on what my family needs and I will need to make a trade. Let's face it, everybody has been hit by this recession but if we work together we can further our individual goals.
Our own Blue Star and Gold Star families have shouldered an incredible burden during this recession. Food prices have gone up, wages have gone down and when we asked our service men and women to go to the front lines for us, they did, often leaving behind a tremendous financial burden. If we can relieve that burden by helping one another out, why should we not find everyway possible to accomplish this.
One way to help military personnel overseas is to collect all of your EXPIRED coupons and send them to bases overseas. That's right, expired coupons. Military bases overseas can use the coupons for up to 6 months after their expiration date! As soon as school starts up you can bet I will have an efficient method for collecting expired coupons if you're interested.
As a community, we should look beyond all of our differences and find ways to shoulder our burdens together. In the coming months and in the first PTO meeting, I want to find a way we can get together as a community of Simply Frugal people and cut down our grocery spending so that we can do more with less.
What are YOUR ideas? Monthly coupon club where we can share ideas and maybe trade some of our cache of freebies in exchange for something we really need?
In the meantime you will find a few additions to this blog, some of which are links to printable coupons and others are great resources for teaching you how to coupon and be Simply Frugal. The links for the coupon sites DO GENERATE money and in all of the great Nikki blogs with link ideas, everytime you click on a coupon link on this blog, it will hopefully send you to a site that will give us a few cents back for Whitney's PTO.
I will also spend some time trying to direct you to bargains to get your kids back to school like the savvy shopper I know you are.
Simply Frugally Yours,
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Britas are Coming! The Britas are Coming!
I got a coupon for a Brita water bottle a few months ago and have been on the hunt for it ever since. http://www.brita.com/products/filtering-bottle/brita-bottle/?gclid=CO63mPT56qkCFcFo4AodzmodWA
If you take the "pledge" to use fewer bottles of bottled water at http://www.filterforgood.com/ you can get a $5.00 coupon towards the $9.99 Brita bottle. I will add a code to our page as well.
I just found the bottle itself for sale at a local Fred Meyer for $9.99. That is the suggested retail price from Brita and anything lower is a pounce worthy deal.
So, why am I mentioning it here on the Whitney Blog? Brita products carry Box Tops for Education on them!
Yes, it might be summer but our Whitney community is in PRIME Box Top collection time. A very good friend of mine handed me 21 Box Tops the other day (lots of Juicy Juice is being had right now). That's another $2.10 we can put towards our kids and their dreams for the future.
We can always put those dollars to good use at the school but what do YOU see for Whitney?
For example:
Keep clipping those Box Tops over the summer and when school starts up, join the PTO. You do not need to become the PTO President or even a regular meeting attender. Join the email distribution, come to meetings when you can and find your niche. Even if you can never come to a meeting, the most important thing about the PTO is the community of thinkers and resources we have pooled.
A word about Britas: You can recycle your filter by going to Brita's website. I'm currently trying to talk TerraCycle into taking these as well. http://www.brita.com/your-brita/recycle-your-filter/
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
If you take the "pledge" to use fewer bottles of bottled water at http://www.filterforgood.com/ you can get a $5.00 coupon towards the $9.99 Brita bottle. I will add a code to our page as well.
I just found the bottle itself for sale at a local Fred Meyer for $9.99. That is the suggested retail price from Brita and anything lower is a pounce worthy deal.
So, why am I mentioning it here on the Whitney Blog? Brita products carry Box Tops for Education on them!
Yes, it might be summer but our Whitney community is in PRIME Box Top collection time. A very good friend of mine handed me 21 Box Tops the other day (lots of Juicy Juice is being had right now). That's another $2.10 we can put towards our kids and their dreams for the future.
We can always put those dollars to good use at the school but what do YOU see for Whitney?
For example:
- Should we set up a scholarship for Whitney elementary graduates to help them with application fees for college? Just getting an application into Harvard can be cost prohibitive for some families; it is not free!
- Should we work toward putting electronic response systems in every classroom? (You know, those clickers that let the shy kid in the back of the room try their hand at answering a question without the risk of raising their hand.)
- Should we raise money to get the LEGO STEM curriculum in every classroom?
Keep clipping those Box Tops over the summer and when school starts up, join the PTO. You do not need to become the PTO President or even a regular meeting attender. Join the email distribution, come to meetings when you can and find your niche. Even if you can never come to a meeting, the most important thing about the PTO is the community of thinkers and resources we have pooled.
A word about Britas: You can recycle your filter by going to Brita's website. I'm currently trying to talk TerraCycle into taking these as well. http://www.brita.com/your-brita/recycle-your-filter/
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Happy Growing Season!
We finally have had some hot days in the valley and what a difference this has made to our growing season! Have you been by Whitney and noticed anything new? So far, I have noticed the fresh vegetables growing (look around a little bit, some of the plants' location surprised me at first), of course I noticed all of the kids still participating in great summer programs offered through the city at the school and the new solar panels!
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Photo credit: Boiseschools.org Winter 2011 Newsletter (http://www.sd01.k12.id.us/newsltr/community_update/winter.pdf)
The Whitney Community center, lead by Chris Kranz, in cooperation with the school has planted a living lab right outside the Community Center. Kranz also dug in and procurred additional seed money from the Boise Urban Garden School (B.U.G.S.) for the 2011 growing season. Walk around the school and observe their hardwork. I enjoyed stumbling upon the location of a hidden tomato bed!
The original 7 raised planting beds from last year on the southwest side of the building are soon to be joined by 10 new raised beds. I agree with Principal Jean Lovelace when she talks about the benefits of planting edibles. Not only does it give our kids access to nutritious food they brought into this world but it is something they should be very proud of in the community. It gives our kids an identity as somebody who had a hand in making something special. This is a fantastic project and one I hope we get to see at every school in the valley.
The tomatoes aren't the only things growing rapidly at Whitney; have you seen some of the Whitney kids running around? My own are growing like weeds and we all know when they grow, they eat, eat and then eat some more. Whitney is fortunately part of the Summer Breakfast and Lunch program just in case you want to throw in an extra feeding FREE of charge. Summer Food Service Program. Meals will be provided to children, ages 1–18, without charge. Breakfast from 7:45–8:30; lunch from 11:15–12:30— Whitney Elementary. For more information please see: www.boiseschools.org.
It's no wonder the neighborhood kids are getting bigger and looking so good--I see them riding their bikes, at the school playing and frequently walking to and from South Pool. It is very nice to see so many families riding their bikes together and enjoying the summer. This is also a visible reminder to drivers that we must all be on our best behavior. That means: obey the speed limit, make full stops at stop signs, follow the rules of the road, drive defensively and if you see a child on a bike or walking give them the right of way even if it is yours to take. Let this summer be a safe one and not a tragic one.
We're growing our gardens, our kids, our healthy habits and did you know that even though school is out we are still growing our PTO funds? Beginning in September 2010 we grew our TerraCycle program at Whitney to include just about anything TerraCycle collects. In less than one year we have collected $147.00 from sending in non-recyclable trash like Ziploc bags and earning credits at $.02 per item. These are items that would normally end up in the landfill, yet TerraCycle has committed to upcycling them into products such as fencing or decking material. The list of what we predominantly collect is as follows:
Capri Sun Drink Pouches
Scott Brand Plastic Wrappers
Huggies Wrappers*
Scotch Tape Dispensers
Cereal Bags
Elmer's Glue Bottles and Sticks
Neosporin Tubes
Lunchable Lunch Kits
Colgate Oral Care Items
Candy Wrappers
Cookie Packages
Home Storage (Ziploc bags*)
Tortilla and Tostada Bags
InkJet Print Cartridges
Cheese Packages
Personal Care and Beauty (shampoo bottles and makeup containers)
Revolution Foods
Sprout Baby Food Pouches
Peanut Butter Pouches
Energy Bar Wrappers
Core Wrappers
Method Soap Refills
Solo Cups
Keyboards and Mouse/Computer Periperals
Laptops
Digital Cameras
Cell Phones
Chip Bags
Writing Instruments
Wine Corks
* Some items also have Box Top for Education coupons on them making them extra valuable to us! If you do not remove the label, I will remove the coupon and hand it over to our Box Top coordinator to ensure we get all of the money off the packaging that we can.
On some of the collection brigades like Ziploc and Colgate, I have been turning in other brands aside from the brand sponsor as well. For example, I turn in generic and Glad bags as well as Ziploc bags and Crest toothpaste tubes and toothbrushes as well as Colgate. Even if we do not get credit for the item (it appears that thus far we do) it still diverts these items from the landfill.
Over the summer, KEEP SAVING! If it becomes a burden to hang onto your TerraCycle items please let me know and I will pick them up or we can arrange a group drop off at the school one day.
Speaking of saving money, have you noticed the southside roof of Whitney these days? After school let out construction began on the solar panels for the roof. These will contribute to the overall eco-friendly construction of the school. Yes, I totally geeked out about the whole thing and will be reporting in this blog how much money the school saves in electricity costs as soon as Principal Lovelace gives us a report in the fall.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
The Whitney Community center, lead by Chris Kranz, in cooperation with the school has planted a living lab right outside the Community Center. Kranz also dug in and procurred additional seed money from the Boise Urban Garden School (B.U.G.S.) for the 2011 growing season. Walk around the school and observe their hardwork. I enjoyed stumbling upon the location of a hidden tomato bed!
The original 7 raised planting beds from last year on the southwest side of the building are soon to be joined by 10 new raised beds. I agree with Principal Jean Lovelace when she talks about the benefits of planting edibles. Not only does it give our kids access to nutritious food they brought into this world but it is something they should be very proud of in the community. It gives our kids an identity as somebody who had a hand in making something special. This is a fantastic project and one I hope we get to see at every school in the valley.
The tomatoes aren't the only things growing rapidly at Whitney; have you seen some of the Whitney kids running around? My own are growing like weeds and we all know when they grow, they eat, eat and then eat some more. Whitney is fortunately part of the Summer Breakfast and Lunch program just in case you want to throw in an extra feeding FREE of charge. Summer Food Service Program. Meals will be provided to children, ages 1–18, without charge. Breakfast from 7:45–8:30; lunch from 11:15–12:30— Whitney Elementary. For more information please see: www.boiseschools.org.
It's no wonder the neighborhood kids are getting bigger and looking so good--I see them riding their bikes, at the school playing and frequently walking to and from South Pool. It is very nice to see so many families riding their bikes together and enjoying the summer. This is also a visible reminder to drivers that we must all be on our best behavior. That means: obey the speed limit, make full stops at stop signs, follow the rules of the road, drive defensively and if you see a child on a bike or walking give them the right of way even if it is yours to take. Let this summer be a safe one and not a tragic one.
We're growing our gardens, our kids, our healthy habits and did you know that even though school is out we are still growing our PTO funds? Beginning in September 2010 we grew our TerraCycle program at Whitney to include just about anything TerraCycle collects. In less than one year we have collected $147.00 from sending in non-recyclable trash like Ziploc bags and earning credits at $.02 per item. These are items that would normally end up in the landfill, yet TerraCycle has committed to upcycling them into products such as fencing or decking material. The list of what we predominantly collect is as follows:
Capri Sun Drink Pouches
Scott Brand Plastic Wrappers
Huggies Wrappers*
Scotch Tape Dispensers
Cereal Bags
Elmer's Glue Bottles and Sticks
Neosporin Tubes
Lunchable Lunch Kits
Colgate Oral Care Items
Candy Wrappers
Cookie Packages
Home Storage (Ziploc bags*)
Tortilla and Tostada Bags
InkJet Print Cartridges
Cheese Packages
Personal Care and Beauty (shampoo bottles and makeup containers)
Revolution Foods
Sprout Baby Food Pouches
Peanut Butter Pouches
Energy Bar Wrappers
Core Wrappers
Method Soap Refills
Solo Cups
Keyboards and Mouse/Computer Periperals
Laptops
Digital Cameras
Cell Phones
Chip Bags
Writing Instruments
Wine Corks
* Some items also have Box Top for Education coupons on them making them extra valuable to us! If you do not remove the label, I will remove the coupon and hand it over to our Box Top coordinator to ensure we get all of the money off the packaging that we can.
On some of the collection brigades like Ziploc and Colgate, I have been turning in other brands aside from the brand sponsor as well. For example, I turn in generic and Glad bags as well as Ziploc bags and Crest toothpaste tubes and toothbrushes as well as Colgate. Even if we do not get credit for the item (it appears that thus far we do) it still diverts these items from the landfill.
Over the summer, KEEP SAVING! If it becomes a burden to hang onto your TerraCycle items please let me know and I will pick them up or we can arrange a group drop off at the school one day.
Speaking of saving money, have you noticed the southside roof of Whitney these days? After school let out construction began on the solar panels for the roof. These will contribute to the overall eco-friendly construction of the school. Yes, I totally geeked out about the whole thing and will be reporting in this blog how much money the school saves in electricity costs as soon as Principal Lovelace gives us a report in the fall.
Nikki Rutledge
-Whitney Parent
Monday, May 9, 2011
Budget Cuts: Reality Shows
"Your Epidermis is showing!" "What's the difference between broccoli and boogers? Kids won't eat broccoli." "What do you sing to the birthday kid who gets sick at their own party? Happy barf-day to you!" My son is really into jokes right now.
While many things in my house are high comedy, there is no joke about the school budget cuts. They are real, they are tangible and they have arrived at our school. I wanted to take a few minutes to explain the reality of the budget cuts and what they mean to our kids and what Whitney's PTO is doing about it.
Last week our PTO President sent an email passing along an emergency request from the school's head custodian requesting toilet paper and cleaning supplies to get the school through the rest of the year. The school's janitorial fund has dried up, there are no other funds left for such luxuries as toilet paper or clean bathrooms and a clean cafeteria. As any reasonable group of people would, we sent a check immediately for $393.21.
It is the end of the year, as you know, and supplies are running low but because of the budget cuts it appears our kids are expected to do without. We do not agree. The office ran out of paper so the PTO bought 150 reams of paper for $382.50. This paper will be used for many things from letters written to parents, to assignments copied for your kids to your kids' report cards.
As many of you with kids in the upper grades know, ISAT testing just finished up. ISAT testing is required testing and there are many requirements for a proper test taking environment. One such requirement is a proctor to ensure all of the other requirements are followed. One would think the cost of this proctor would be borne by the state but alas, it is a cost that the school must bear. Total cost for two weeks of testing came to $800. Because of the budget cuts the school did not have enough money to cover the cost of the proctor. The PTO wrote a check for the entire $800.
Thus far, the PTO has written a total of $1575.71 to the school for supplies and personnel that should have been covered by the regular budget. This is how the budget cuts actually impacts your kids. Had the PTO not been able to raise that money we would be asking your kids to bring in toilet paper and a bottle of cleaner. Seriously. This is the reality of the budget cuts.
So, where does the PTO get all of this money? The PTO spends a great deal of time fundraising. During the school year we have engaged you and your students in two fundraisers. The first, in the fall, was the wrapping paper/gift catalog fundraiser and the second, in the spring, was the cookie dough event (raised $3400). Throughout the rest of the year, regardless of when school is in session we continually raise money through the following ways:
As it happens, our reality is showing.
-Nikki Rutledge
Whitney Parent
While many things in my house are high comedy, there is no joke about the school budget cuts. They are real, they are tangible and they have arrived at our school. I wanted to take a few minutes to explain the reality of the budget cuts and what they mean to our kids and what Whitney's PTO is doing about it.
Last week our PTO President sent an email passing along an emergency request from the school's head custodian requesting toilet paper and cleaning supplies to get the school through the rest of the year. The school's janitorial fund has dried up, there are no other funds left for such luxuries as toilet paper or clean bathrooms and a clean cafeteria. As any reasonable group of people would, we sent a check immediately for $393.21.
It is the end of the year, as you know, and supplies are running low but because of the budget cuts it appears our kids are expected to do without. We do not agree. The office ran out of paper so the PTO bought 150 reams of paper for $382.50. This paper will be used for many things from letters written to parents, to assignments copied for your kids to your kids' report cards.
As many of you with kids in the upper grades know, ISAT testing just finished up. ISAT testing is required testing and there are many requirements for a proper test taking environment. One such requirement is a proctor to ensure all of the other requirements are followed. One would think the cost of this proctor would be borne by the state but alas, it is a cost that the school must bear. Total cost for two weeks of testing came to $800. Because of the budget cuts the school did not have enough money to cover the cost of the proctor. The PTO wrote a check for the entire $800.
Thus far, the PTO has written a total of $1575.71 to the school for supplies and personnel that should have been covered by the regular budget. This is how the budget cuts actually impacts your kids. Had the PTO not been able to raise that money we would be asking your kids to bring in toilet paper and a bottle of cleaner. Seriously. This is the reality of the budget cuts.
So, where does the PTO get all of this money? The PTO spends a great deal of time fundraising. During the school year we have engaged you and your students in two fundraisers. The first, in the fall, was the wrapping paper/gift catalog fundraiser and the second, in the spring, was the cookie dough event (raised $3400). Throughout the rest of the year, regardless of when school is in session we continually raise money through the following ways:
- Box Tops for Education http://www.boxtops4education.com/ ($1621 this year a $1200 increase over last year! Keep clipping those box tops and checking the box top site for promotions, it MAKES A DIFFERENCE)
- TerraCycle http://www.terracycle.net/ (Yep, one piece of trash at a time. So far $30 this year.)
- Target Red Card https://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-005174&ref=sr_shorturl_tcoe ($45.56)
- Papa Johns Pizza last Wednesday of the month (ex. Feb. earned us $43.25)
- A bake sale put on by two ambitious students and so many generous donations and buyers! ($286.29!!)
As it happens, our reality is showing.
-Nikki Rutledge
Whitney Parent
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