Category Life

With schools closed in Southern California a lot of parents, including me, are scrambling to find things for our kids to do. I normally plan ahead of time for summer but obviously this is not summer and this was not planned. However, at this time, I am treating it as “summer break” and following my own schedule.

There is a lot of posts on Facebook about resources while children are out of school that I thought I would compile them all here on one page. I will add as they come up or that I find so keep coming back.

Last updated: 3/28/2020 10:30AM // New day new item

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Internet connect Activities Art Online Education Educational TV Exercise Meals

Music Other Resources Podcasts Reading Science Virtual Tours Writing

I don’t have wi-fi / internet for my child’s tablet, old phone or computer.

If you don’t have a home wi-fi connection you can use your phone to tether. Tethering allows you to give other devices access to the internet securely with a password. Here is a video showing you how to connect devices to your phone – This method does use up your data if you are on a data plan.

Spectrum offer internet to low income. I saw an image stating that they were offering free internet if you had a student, please call to confirm

Activities

• 150 Activities for parents that work remotely
• 101 activities for kids and family
• National Geographics for Kids
• 100 Activities to do at home
• Earn National Park Badges by mail.
• Frugal Fun for Boys & Girls, separated by age

Art

• Instagram- Stevenson Elementary smART Start
• Youtube – Learn to Draw Frozen Characters Olaf, Sven
• YouTube – Lunch Doodles with Mo Williams
• Cassie Stephens drawing live 9am PST / 11am CST / 12pm ET YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

Exercise

• GoNoodle for iPhone
• YouTube – Cosmic Kids Yoga
• YouTube – GoNoodle
• YouTube – Koo Koo Kanga Roo
• YouTube – Move to Learn PreK through High School
• YouTube – Kidz Bop Dance Tutorials

Meals

• Long Beach Unified School District – Ages 1 to 18 check for hours on their site.
• El Torito – kids under 12 eat free. Facebook & Instagram Please check since Governor announced restaurants are pick up / to-go only

Online Education

• Free – Scholastic Grades Pre-K – 6
• Free – Khan Academy Grades Pre-K – 8+
• Free Trial – ABC Mouse Ages 2 to 8
• Free Trial – Leap Frog Ages 3 to 6
• Some areas Free – Starfall Grades Pre-K to 3rd
• PBS Kids
• Typing Club please learn how to type ?
• Squiggle Park Reading Skills Ages 3 to 8+ and Reading Comprehension Ages 8 to 15+

Music

• YouTube – Beginning Piano
• YouTube – Begining Guitar

Other Resources

• Long Beach Public Library Digital Library
• Macaroni Kid – 36 resouces
• Mommy Maestra Listing of resources and dual immersion
• Harper Collins Publisher At Home Resources

Podcasts

• Brains On
• List of various podcasts from Common Sense
• List of various podcasts from Fatherly

Reading

• Free Kids Books Pre-K to 7+
• The Spanish Experiment – Spanish Audio Children Stories

Science

• Facebook – Science Mom
• Mystery Science
• YouTube – Mystery Doug

TV Time

• PBS learning schedule
• 100+ educational shows on Netflix

Virtual Tours

• From Totally The Bomb website, her links all point to Google Earth, there will be load wait time
• From Travel + Leisure website, famous museums

Writing

• Created by Facebook Bryan Shaw – Be A Historian About What Is Happening. English & Spanish

Time sure does fly! Our summer came and went in the blink of an eye and everything seemed to have been done within a 4 week period! LOL

The Start

The start to our summer was nice and mellow, swim classes in the morning, swim team session in the afternoons.  Dublin had to be at his swim team session at a particular time which narrowed where we could be for our field trips.  Almost everything I had was going to put us far from home and we couldn’t be stuck in traffic L.A. traffic nor did I want a wiped out kid.  Our outing options narrowed QUICKLY and my list from Planning Summer Break went out the door.

We did manage to go to the park twice! Thanks to my SIL (sister-in-law) Alba and my friend, Jodi. Don’t worry though we did manage to get out of the house and drive around town, mainly for business but we were out and I tried to make it fun.

Traveling and Swim Meets

In between swim and and business we did manage some traveling. Sean and I took a weekender to North Carolina to visit friends and eat lots of BBQ. BBQ was AMAZING and would definitely fly out just for that.

Right after that we were home for a few days to get us to our first swim meet.  The swim meet was part of the LA 84 Foundation, they are recognized nationally for supporting youth sport programs.  Dublin was given a scholarship to train and attend the meets for free.  If we miss the meets he’s not invited back, period! For our first event he got 3rd in Butterfly, 5th in Freestyle and 6th in Backstroke, all events were 25 yards so they were a good starter.

A few days later we’re off on a family and friends vacation to Acapulco! Couldn’t beat the price we got, $420 for 8 days in a private resort. This was not per day, full week! However, this vacation was right before a 2nd swim meet that Dublin had so he had to practice in the pool while guests were enjoying their time.  Dublin practiced for an hour everyday before he could have his fun time.  Enjoy the photos of our trip below.

What a summer this was, but more on that next week.  This week something major happened that caught my attention due to what I heard on the radio about John McCain.  If you haven’t read about him Wikipedia is good but I may buy a memoir.  I’ve never in my life dug around a politicians life to learn more besides Queen Elizabeth II after watching The Crown.

A bit comical but shows his power that in death he’ll still fight the fight for our political rights and in his final letter show, that we as a people can still and should come together.

Above is the video of his friend Rick Davis reading his final farewell letter, I opted to read it myself first and by me reading it it had more power than watching someone else read it, sorry Mr. Davis.  What stuck home to me was a paragraph towards the end.  John McCain was sticking it to Trump but in a way it resonated with the struggles that I think we all go through personally.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

Now take this same speech and substitute “patriotism” with “ideology”, “religion” or whatever you want to substitute it with that peeves you.  We have to get past ourselves and look beyond to the greatness of what and who we are.

I’m looking forward to hearing President Obama and President Bush give their speech, I’m sure it will be strong and powerful and something as a Nation we need to hear.

Hustles, 2nd Job, Plan B, extra income.

Do I dare ask how “the hustle” became to be the word we use? The definition isn’t exactly the best to describe a legit business a person is trying to do to earn extra income. Webster dictionary describes it as

Here is a little story about the history of the word from Merriam Webster.com

Although “hustle” sounds better than part time job and even better, you are now an ENTREPRENEUR!

In my defense

A lot of people I know have LEGIT hustles.  I realized the meaning of this word as I start a new hustle, yeah, yeah, another one but in my defense I was trying to find an appropriate “Swim Mom” t-shirt for myself and couldn’t find one.  My natural instinct is to just create it, thus, I made a whole line of Swim Parent/Family t-shirt and well side hustle created.  I’ll be adding a few more designs and quotes I like so stay tuned to the CafePress.

Why stop there?

CafePress is not the easiest to create a store in but that’s where I started.  If there is one, there are others so these designs are going to other CafePress style stores since people like various shopping options. Dub also wants a “team Dub” shirt and he wants us all to wear red so that he can see us in the stand during his swim meet. Cool, Mommy can make that happen!

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

This wasn’t turning into a reflective day but in researching something for our business I had to look up what week we were in for the year. Week 26, halfway through the year, 26 weeks left…

Obstacles

I know the first half of the year had tons of obstacles for us, we managed them and continue to power through.  As an obstacle arises I hear a voice from audios I’ve listened too – “Obstacles build posture”. So true to that statement, it makes me stop and actually learn from it and how to better handle the situation for next time.  Of course hoping there is no next time.  Seriously!

Accomplishments

I can’t really say I feel accomplished halfway through, I have so many things on my list that getting them all done by the end of the year will be a challenge in itself.  I sit here and laugh a bit because one of the goals was to read one book a month.  Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins is kicking my butt I’m not into it, maybe because it’s speaking truth? It’s staring at me right now, which is why I laugh.

I know I have

• reworked our main site
• got this site up and running
• I’m creating residual income opportunities
• set a summer break schedule that is working
• crafting more

I’m far from saying I’m feeling accomplished for everything but I’m also not beating myself up for not “achieving”.  The day is full of greatness as well as obstacles and like water I just flow with it.

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Oh my lord! Dub is officially out of 1st grade at 1pm today, 6/14.  I’ve been working on my 168 hours to schedule my work, his school work, play and field trips. Yes he’s getting school work, we have a membership at education.com and he’s going to keep doing something so he doesn’t forget what he’s learned.

Dub’s breakdown

His breakdown will consist of math, writing, reading, typing and maybe music.  He likes reading so we’ll continue that during the summer, but, I’m upgrading him to harder chapter books. The class was also typing reports and I think typing may help him put thought to “paper” faster.  Thus far all my sheets will come from education.com as well as the typing.  The website has a typing “game” that will help with key strokes.

Music is a maybe, I haven’t decided if I should just let him mess with the piano, teach him a tune or teach him to read music. Regardless this is up in the air because he also love LEGOs and maybe I’ll have him build some things as a challenge. I found some LEGO challenges so we’ll see.

• Little Bin for Little Hands Lego Challenge Calendar
• Pinterest Lego Challenge

This last week of homework was a lot of double digits subtraction and addition along with algebra so I’ll be guiding him towards that with math.

My breakdown

I’m leaving my Tuesday and Thursdays as shopping days for my online sales.  Usually I have a limited time to shop because I have to be home in time to pick Dub up from school. With him coming along he’ll 1) learn what I do during the day for our businesses 2) he can help me source what is “cool” with the kids that may be a potential item for the store. These days will also be for scheduling lunch appointments and networking.  I do bring him to my networking events so he can learn how to network, meet people and discuss business.

Fieltrips

I’m leaving Friday’s as our field trip days and more shopping, field trips will include eating destinations I’ve been wanting to stop by at like Churroholic!  Now I have no excuse to skipping lunch, I have another body with me to feed.

Here is a list of places we may visit if my plans work out to schedule things.

1. Mulligans (mini golf)
2. Los Angeles Public Library
3. Seaside Lagoon
4. LA Zoo
5. Exposition Park
6. Dave and Busters
7. Chuck E. Cheese
8. Long Beach Aquarium
9. Summer Movies – Regal, Cinemark
10. Bowling – check out this site to see if your bowling alley is listed for kids bowling free.
11. El Dorado Nature Center
12. Sky Zone
13. Bounce U
14. Johns Incredible Pizza
15. Santa Ana Zoo
16. Discovery Cube Los Angeles or Orange County
17. Boomerang

168 Hours

Are you aware that you actually have 168 hours a week to accomplish anything and everything you want if you plan it right? Yeah neither did I until I picked up the audio book for Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think*.  See I gave you a tip right there, no time to read, listen to a book.  As you can see above I am still working on it.

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

This week Dub had lots of things going on that I forgot to prep my post! He’s out of school next week I’m trying to figure out a work/outing/teaching schedule, as well as running our Amazon store, shuffling him to Dance and Swim Monday through Friday… it’s been hectic.  Thank goodness for Sean that he can shuffle him to swim on some days and help out with Amazon stuff.

Field Trip

This week I volunteered to go with Dub class to their field trip to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.  I’ve been there countless times. I practically grew up in the museum since we were there every weekend when I was growing up.  I was assigned the boys of the class, 5 7 year olds!  We had about 3 hours for them to see everything in there and thankfully I new where things were!

We hit the African animals exhibit, the North American Animal exhibit, the dinosaurs, we zipped through the Los Angeles History, literally we just walked in and walked out so we could get to the Nature Lab with all the bugs.  What boy doesn’t like bugs, right? We got through it all in time for lunch and then they say, “let’s see the rocks!”. What?! Boys want to see gemstones? uh hmm, I was not expecting that so after lunch we had time to go back in to see ROCKS before we met the rest of the class at the designated area.  LONG DAY… and it gets longer.

Swim Team

Dub was asked to join the swim team as part of the LA84 Foundation.  Registration started same day as the field trip and first swim session was later that evening! Poor Dub, walking the field trip and now the swim team later, I know he was BEAT and then…

Dance Recital

Tuesday, he had a dance recital where he performed in 4 pieces with most of the dancers Anne Pennypacker teaches.

• Rockstar Popstar – “Chillin’ Like A Villian” from Descendants 2, he played King Benjamin
• Lyrical – “Perfect” by Ed Sheenan
• Musical Theatre – “The Greatest Showman” from The Greatest Showman
• Jazz Theatre – “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman

Her classes are through the parks and rec for Long Beach, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach.  We bounce between all of these depending what Dub wants to dance and what city is offering the class.  Los Alamitos does charge extra for “non residents” so that’s a bit of a downer.  Dub wants to try tap next fall so we’ll see how he feels then about it and that shiny shirt, he now wants to wear it everyday! NO!

Hope you enjoyed this post of what has been going on for my 2 days, quick and hopefully short.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Hustle #2 with Disclaimer

Disclaimer is right here up in front of the line, I am what DoTerra calls a Wellness Advocate and this is my Hustle #2. We mainly use essential oils for ourselves and I advise on what has worked for US here at home. I’m not a DR., I’ve had no training in essential oils except what I research for myself. Using DoTerra essential oils is for us to live a better healthier life at home instead of putting chemicals into our bodies or our environment.

Baby Teeth

Moving along, with my story. I have baby teeth, yes I’m a grown woman and have baby teeth, it’s genetics, I have one on either side of my bottom teeth.  I do not have adult teeth beneath them. My brother has baby teeth and so does, I mean, so did my mom.

I go to the dentist regularly, all was good and fine until I started teaching Dublin to floss. Mind you I didn’t floss regularly like I should. You know laziness, we all lie on the dentist chair what’s wrong with this little lie. Well, something happened while flossing that my gum would hurt. Hurt became uncomfortable and then I just couldn’t chew on that side. WTH! I would treated it with doTERRA Clove essential oil to numb it or maybe doTERRA On Guard essential oil but it was just uncomfortable. When swelling would go down and I would try to eat on that side, it would swell up again. Annoying!

Dentist appointment

I made an appointment with the dentist, new dentist always means new x-rays.  Lo-and-behold, I was told that this tooth had to come out because the root was almost gone.  “The tooth has served you well for all these years, you need a bridge”, says the dentist. Say what?  I previous dentist that I LOVED once told me “if the tooth last past 35 years old you’ll have it forever”.  Ok, I believe him and I would like to keep my tooth please.

Do you know what a bridge is and what they do and how much it cost? They want to ruin two side teeth to put a bridge where my baby tooth was.  So I’ll have 3 ruined teeth! uh no.  The other route is a post, drill a hole where the root was and screw a new one in. This sounds better but the cost!  I’ve looked up dentists in Tijuana Mexico and found someone with lots of Yelp reviews and high star ratings but I’m still not giving up on this tooth!

Essential oils trial 2

I dug around a bit more and found that Frankincense essential oil would help. It did, the swelling would go down, the hurting stopped but if I tried to eat on that side it would start all over again and that stuff is pretty bad tasting.  I kept researching and found that Myrrh essential oil has been the cure all for centuries and was even one of the gifts when Jesus was born. Winner, winner.  I tried that and within days the pain and swelling was gone and could eat again without a problem or the re-occurrence of the problem.  Now lets see if my gum under the tooth is healed on next visit.

 

Now that I’ve been diving into self development books and working to be a better person to myself and to others. I’ve stopped to think “Where does me truly come from?”, “Where was I, where am I going?”

High School Years

In my mind, I believe I was “hard to read”, were you thinking (if you are reading this and you know me) “Are you happy, upset… I can’t tell” What did it matter to you how I felt? You are either going to like me for me and my shitty ass attitude or my smiling fucking face once you got to know me and I opened up to you. If I feel a wall between us, no fucking way am I opening up. That’s just who I was, or how I felt I was towards everyone. I know I may have scared some people away because of it, didn’t make many friends, I don’t think, but that’s who I felt I was, then.

Fast forward 20+ years…

WOW, what a bitch I was. I can say that about me now because I know what my attitude was like and yes, the wall. The wall of insecurities, we all have one and hide behind it or go behind it every once in a while. I catch myself hiding behind it sometimes and then wonder why? Why am I not open with everyone I meet, they have the right to know who I am, where I come from, maybe we have similarities. Maybe we have the same goals and ambitions… we just need to talk. Let’s have coffee, let’s talk about YOU. Who are you? What do you like to do? How are the kids? How are your parents, dead, alive? am I getting to nosy, too personal? Are you building your wall towards me as you read this? Yes, I can tell.  I’ll stop…

Mindful Meditation

I started being more curious about people when I started meditating after I got laid off, I had more time for me and my awareness.  5 minutes to start and get used to this meditation stuff.  Then it grew to 15 and 30 minutes. Not daily, now-a-days I’m too rushed for daily.  The only time I did daily was when I started Kundalini Yoga at the park, that was really fun.  Meditation, has calmed me.  Has helped me see deeper into people without them having to say anything. <smile>

Curiosity builds awareness

I believe curiosity about each other builds awareness. However, I hope you understand I do have to ask, I do have to “get nosy” to get to who you are, what makes you go? What makes your essence, I ask for curiosity, I ask because I love what you are doing, where you are going or I just love your being, your essence… or maybe I’d like to help, or or or. Is it inappropriate? I won’t know until you tell me or I sense it, again I’ll stop but remember curiosity builds awareness and we learn from each other so stop hating the questions that come at you, just ask Why?

In my last post I mentioned planners and journaling and how I have issues with both of those styles. Let’s chat about them for a bit.

The Corporate World

While being in the corporate world I heavily relied on my Franklin Covey Monarch binder system.  Everything was in this planner, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g: meeting, calls, work assignments, maybe a lunch.  I used it for 3 or 4 years with dedication. I planned the day before I left, looked at it in the morning to reassess priorities.

Once I was let go life changed, the need for this monstrous planner did not fit my lifestyle.  I had more time for building our businesses, volunteer at  school, crafting, lunches, networking and family time. Since I wanted to have all this going on I had to find time, productive time.

Journal Writing

I did a bit of research on journaling and thought this would be my ticket. Journaling provided me the ability to have a to-do list, keep track of various things like: reading, water intake, steps, meditating. THIS, however, was thought out and it just seemed so tedious that I didn’t even try. *sigh*

I’m press for time to do A – Z, I have no time to be designing! I know I have 168 Hours in a day and I would like to maximize that. Journaling seemed to take up a chunk so on we move to find something else.

Happy Planner

My next attempt was The Happy Planner by Me and My Big Ideas. I had seen it pop up in my Pinterest feed and I loved it! The Happy Planner had the ability to add pages when necessary, it had a calendar, I could be CREATIVE. I was in heaven. I created my own meal planner with grocery list, a sheet to write quotes when I would read books because writing in books is EVIL! A page that list my ideas for crafts because who needs Pinterest for that. I carried this everywhere and it grew and it grew. The calendar wasn’t as useful after a while since my schedule is flexible and ever changing, it eventually got abandoned.  The binder became too big for me to carry and it didn’t fit nicely in my purse. It became bulky and the pages we getting loose. Next.

Full Focus

In  comes the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt. This planner is to be used on a quarterly basis which I thought was a great idea, who plans for the whole year?  Ok, I kinda do as one of our business has conferences every quarter and monthly trainings.  The video I saw was very intriguing as to how it was structured. The planner had pages for a to do list, time allocation, goals, achievements for the week, weekend plans and how to change things up. Lovely! I actually had to think about what I was actually doing. Structure to all my hustles was now here! Hallelujah!

Meh. I stopped using it after three months. I did learn that my days are repetitive with changing parts due to the types of hustles I’m doing.  My times are flexible to move components, so a 9-5 workday schedule doesn’t really work., half a page is dedicated to a 9-5 schedule.

As I write this piece I think I’ll revisit this planner.  I’ll watch more videos that are available and see what I can do to restructure my days.  There are components that I love and quarterly sounds about right for changes in lifestyle, likes and business items.

I’ll let you know in 90 days if I’ve continued with the Full Focus Planner or if I’ve moved on to something else.

Hustle #1

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.