New Year, New Venture (and a Giveaway)

So I have recently been introduced to Jamberry Nails.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed this! :)  Have you heard of them? Jamberry wraps are heat activated vinyl wraps that adhere to your fingernails (as well as gel, acrylic, shellac, etc.) and last on your fingernails for up to 2 weeks and your toenails for up to 6 weeks! They do not chip like polish and there's no drying time!  Did you notice I said "heat activated"?? Here's the official Jamberry Application Video. FYI, I skip the cuticle oil. I found that my nails started to lift at the cuticles the one time I did use it. I also do a slightly different removal process (see below).

This was my first attempt at applying them:

Way neater than I ever could have done with polish!  BTW, I almost NEVER polish my nails! I'm just terrible at it!  Also, when I was little, I used to bite my fingernails. My mother told me "If you bite your nails, they'll never grow long!"  So, I started biting/picking at my cuticles instead, lol!  This is a horrible habit to have and nail polish remover is just plain painful!  Anywho, I've tried nail "stickers" before, but none have lasted as long as the Jamberries!

This is the next wrap I chose, just in time for the holidays!  How cute are the candy canes???

I loved these so much, I did them twice!  Here's the 2nd set on day 14, and after I broke 2 nails cleaning the house:

Not bad, huh?  You can see some nail growth, but they still look awesome!  On day 14, though, I was hosting a demo at my house and wanted to show my guests how I remove my "jams."  I don't have pictures, but basically I dip my fingertips in a small bowl of olive oil (about 1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp) and work the oil under the wrap from the cuticle to the tip. No Chemicals!  I totally love that!

This "Jamicure" has been on my hands for about a week now.  I'm not typically one to "mix-and-match" patterns, but I really like this combination!

I have to add something speech related to this post...My preschoolers love the patterns! They've been a conversation starter since I've started wearing them.  Some of my kids are even paying more attention when I point to things, lol!

So why am I telling you about Jamberry?  Well, I love them so much, I decided to become a consultant!  I started this blog and my TPT store, not as a way to make money, but as a way to share my ideas with the rest of you.  I have been SOOO fortunate to make a little bit of money from my TPT store and I am unbelievably thankful to each of you who has made purchases!  A few years ago, my husband went back to school. 

The short version of a long story is that, to supplement our income while he's in school, I have been thinking about joining a direct sales company (e.g., Pampered Chef, Thirty-One) for a while now and along came Jamberry! Talk about right place, right time!  I can host virtual Jamberry parties right on Facebook with my son in the same room!  

If you're interested in hosting a party right on Facebook, January is the perfect time to do so!  Check out the AWESOME bonus hostess rewards for January!  I still have a few spots left, so email me if you're interested (I'm using cmanchester1@yahoo.com for Jamberry related emails)

If you're interested in finding out more about Jamberry, I invite you to check out my website (www.cmanchester.jamberrynails.net) and/or Facebook Page.  

I'm so excited about this new venture! I'm going to do a giveaway because I believe that once you try Jamberry, you'll love it as much as I do! I'm giving away a half sheet of nail wraps!  Each wrap is meant to be used on 2 fingers (right hand, left hand).  I cut them down the center, but if you have short nails, you can get up to 2 manicures out of this sheet (right side of wrap, left side of wrap, center of wrap)! The wraps I have available are pictured above (Midnight Celebration, White Stars on Pink, Heartstrings, Sealed With a Kiss, Dizzy Blue, and Cool Blue Sparkle). Enter using the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What I learned in professional development...

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

[Source: WikiCommons]

Monday and Tuesday, I participated in two professional days to start the year off.  The underlying message of both days could probably be summed up in two terms:  "time on learning" and "rigorous instruction."

Time on Learning:
Essentially, my principal suggested that we have a lot of down-time in our school.  Because I work in a low income district, the students get universal breakfast.  That means that all students enter the school and have breakfast before they begin their day.  Many times, this eats into instructional time.  We discussed ways to reduce down time and to increase direct instruction.  I won't go into a lot of detail on this because I think these strategies would very much be building specific.  However, I've been thinking that I might start coming up with a quick activity to do with my kids during transitions from their classrooms to my room to increase their time on learning.

Rigorous Instruction:
I'm going to preface this one by saying that I missed the first half of the session to attend a Medicaid billing session....However, what I gathered is that rigorous instruction occurs when students are actively engaged in a lesson, they are using higher order thinking and problem solving, and they are encouraged to be persistent in their efforts.

In the talks on rigorous instruction, we heard a lot about vocabulary, and the data from our school's performance on the ELA section of state-wide assessments.  After hearing all of this, I have to say, my selection for my professional summer reading book, Bringing Words to Life, was the right choice!  If you're not familiar, this book is about robust (aka rigorous) vocabulary instruction.  Many examples of rigorous instruction that were given to us reminded me of things that I had read in the book (and my principal hadn't even heard of the book!).

     

We also got to see some examples of test items that were difficult for our students as compared to other students in the state.  Many were related to vocabulary (especially synonyms/antonyms) and inferencing - two things SLPs work on quite a bit!  I'm really excited to use some of the strategies I learned in this book and to use my new EET this year!  I'm hoping both will make a difference in the students I service!

Are you implementing anything new this year?  I'd love to hear about it!

What I did on my summer vacation

I've officially been back to school for two days!  We've had an orientation session and a professional development session so far.  I'll be off the rest of this week and back to school when the kids return on Tuesday.  You may have noticed I've been a bit absent on the blog lately.  I've really tried to spend some time this summer just "being" in the moment, enjoying my son, and relaxing!  I think we all need time to relax and unwind and many of us (especially those of us who are also mommies) feel that we need to constantly be busy...I know I often feel guilty when I'm not doing something.

As an end-of-summer wrap-up, I figured I'd share some of the fun things we've done...

We went fishing with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  My son LOVED it!

We also got a fire pit for our yard and, if you can believe it, I made S'mores for the first time in my life!

Here are some other highlights:

We spent a LOT of time in my yard.  My in-laws bought my son a gym set for the yard and we have the kiddie pool with a slide.  We went to lots of fairs and festivals, a couple of zoos, the splash pad, and the beach!  My city, New Bedford, MA is known as "The Whaling City."  We ended up at the whaling museum, saw some whale skeletons and replicas of the whale boats.  The museum is in the downtown area of the city, which is paved in cobblestones!

I had many more things on my to-do list that we did not get done, but we did have a lot of fun!  I hope you all enjoyed your summer vacations as well!

"Can I Play?" An AHA! Moment

My son is at the age where his play is inventive. He's a "set-up" kind of player. I'm sure you've seen one or two of these throughout your career. These are the kids that take their time setting up scenarios (building an elaborate structure with blocks that become a zoo for their animals, setting up train tracks that include missing pieces so the trains face imminent danger, etc.). Check out this set up from the other day.  He's got a train station and crane (being handled by Captain Hook and his twin brother) on top and a gold mine on the bottom, but going up instead of it's usual down.

I wish I had gotten a picture of yesterday's train tracks/post office being attacked by a light up frog when Spiderman comes to save the day!  He tends to be so focused on the set-up that when he is playing, I usually take that time to read emails, Check out Facebook, and even write blog posts.  Yesterday I started feeling guilty that I had been spending so much time on the computer that I turned it off and said "Can I play?"

"Can I play?" Three simple words can have a huge impact on your child!  I can remember telling parents about the importance of play during my days of early intervention.  So why, as a parent myself, have I forgotten how important being involved in your child's play really is?  Anyway, you should have seen the look on his face when I asked if I could play with him...Bright eyes, huge smile and "Of course you can!"  I got down on the floor and grabbed a train (trains are involved in pretty much every type of play at my house).  We played for a while - adding characters, changing the set up, creating problems and solutions.  We had lots of fun and, I like to think, worked on some cognitive and linguistic skills as well (problem solving, pragmatics, etc.).  

The moment I saw the look on Matthew's face when I asked him those three simple words, "Can I play?," was an AHA! moment for me.  I wanted to share this post with you as a gentle reminder to ask your kids if you can join their play every once in a while.  Get down on the floor and get involved in the play! I promise your child won't be the only one who enjoys it!

Monster vs. SLP in Training

Help!  I think I've created a monster! Or maybe just a future SLP in training....You decide.  This is a typical conversation in my house:

"Is this purple?"
          Yes! That is purple.
"No.  I think you should look again.  Is it purple or green?"
          Oh, it's green.
"Much better!  It is green! Nice!"
          Thank you!

If it wasn't obvious, the quotes in green were said by my soon-to-be-four year old son and the purple, (you guessed it) me!

Conversations like this are a daily occurrence in my house.  I can't even tell you how often I'm corrected on the names of toys/characters ("No, that's Mr. Waternoose.  Say 'Water' now say 'noose'!").  Don't even get me started on semantics!  I had just gotten off the phone with the groomers at Petco before this little exchange...Mom, who were you talking to? Petco.  Mom, Petco can't talk. It's a STORE!  Ok, I was talking to the lady at Petco.  That's more like it!

After being home for two weeks and getting corrected constantly, I'm starting to feel a little sympathy for our students!  (Also wondering "Is that what I sound like?").  I've been thinking, "Oh Boy! I've created a monster!"  Now I'm wondering if we have a future SLP in training!

I know your kids have had "speechy moments" too!  What's the funniest "speechy" thing your child has done/said?

To Be (Free) or Not to Be (Free)

"Why do some SLPs provide materials for free and others charge?"

"How do you decide what materials you are going to charge for?"

"How do you decide how much to charge for your materials?"

"Why do some blogs have advertising and some do not?"

"Do you plan on reducing the number of freebies and start charging for all of your materials?"

These are some of the questions I've been asked lately.  I figured if many people were asking, probably more were wondering.  So, here goes:

I discovered the world of SLP blogs in January of this year, shortly after I discovered Pinterest.  I thought it was wonderful that so many creative SLPs were putting their ideas out there and sharing with the rest of us.  I loved the idea of an online community as well and I wanted in! (Check out this post from CC at If Only I Had Super Powers on  social/pragmatic skills for the blogging community).  In June, I had some extra time on my hands (Hello, Summer!) and figured that was the perfect time to start!  

Let me tell you, when I started, I had so much to learn (still do!)!  For instance, did you know that Mayer Johnson does not allow SLPs to create materials using Boardmaker PCS icons and share them free of charge in files not original to Boardmaker?  This means that they do NOT want you to create a PDF and share files made with their software to people who do not have Boardmaker.  Mayer Johnson prefers you to share activities created with Boardmaker on the Boardmaker Share site.  My first activity that I uploaded was created using Boardmaker PCS.  When I learned this, I had to scramble to get it down, remove the PCS, and add other graphics.  Interestingly, Mayer Johnson DOES allow you to sell materials that are made with less than 50 PCS!

by Scrappin Doodles

You see, people/companies that create graphics (e.g., Mayer Johnson, Scrappin Doodles, MelonHeadz) have "TERMS OF USE."  Some allow you to create educational materials with their graphics and give them out as freebies on a blog.  Others allow you to sell materials on TPT.  Others allow for either type of distribution.  Some graphics are free, but most are paid.  I try to grab free graphics when I can, but I typically pay $2.00-$7.00 for the graphics I use.  Also, some companies require you to purchase a license (in addition to the graphics) to distribute materials created with their graphics.

Now, I never got into this blogging venture to MAKE money, but I certainly did not get in it to LOSE money!  So, I added advertising to my page.  Well, most people don't click advertising links, so that was not paying for the graphics/licenses.  I then became an Amazon affiliate and added links to Amazon for my "Book of the Week."

That still doesn't cover the cost of graphics, so I decided to add a few paid items to my TPT store.  That's been more helpful! (Thank you to those of you who have purchased items!!!).  How do I decide which items to sell?  Typically those that are larger files and have taken a lot of time to create are the ones that I put up for a fee.  I like to keep costs low, so I don't charge more than a few dollars.  I do not have the "paid" seller account at TPT, so I actually get a little less than half of the total price of the item!


I think that covers all but the last question.  The answer to that one is "yes and no" - While I DO plan to add more paid items to my TPT store, I DO NOT plan to charge for all or most of the materials I post.

The bottom line is that blogging is a labor of love.  It takes a lot of time, effort, and sometimes money to create new materials to share (whether freebies or paid).  Offering materials free of charge or for a fee is a personal decision for all bloggers.  If bloggers decide to charge for an item, consider purchasing it if it meets your needs!  When a blogger offers a free of charge item, support that decision by posting a "thank you" comment.  Comments on blogs and Facebook pages are always welcome and appreciated and motivate us to keep doing what we're doing!

Hope that answers some of your questions and helps you understand (at least from my perspective) why some materials are free and others are not!