End-of-year Stress?

It's the end of the school year. You have a bazillion final exams or essays to grade, many students to process through the digital grading system, several reports to file with your supervisor, and assorted signatures to secure on your sign-out sheet. Top that with your duties at home, and it is no wonder you're stressed. I understand and appreciate the challenges you are experiencing right now, so I offer the following suggestions to ease your life:

1. Eat right - research has proven that a diet filled with fast food and carbonated beverages causes our bodies to destroy the ability to effectively deal with stress. Instead, revise your shopping list to include whole grains, plenty of fruits and veggies, lean meats, and unprocessed foods. In other words, shop mostly in the perimeter of your grocery store. But, you say you don't have time to make all that fresh food? Consider using the almighty slow cooker! Make a big pot in the morning by tossing in all the meat and fresh veggies. By dinner time when you're exhausted, you'll have wholesome food waiting for your return home.
2. Meditate - Call it prayer, meditation, or downtime, but it is still an escape from everyday reality. Ten minutes - that's all it takes to recondition your mind and body to cope with everyday stresses. Consider finding a picture of your favorite vacation or a picture on the Internet of your fantasy vacation. Focus on that while you slip away from reality for a while. You'll emerge from the experience refreshed and renewed.
3. Exercise - Ah, those endorphins! Those feel-good chemicals that block pain, and are also responsible for our feelings of pleasure. They are released with exercise. So before you go home, run a lap around the track or head to your gym. You'll be better able to cope with the pressures at home after a stressed day at work.
4. Sleep - You don't think you have enough time to sleep because you have too much to do? Think again! You should be getting seven hours of sleep each night. Get too little sleep, and your work becomes sluggish, taking longer to complete the task. Get enough sleep and you become an efficient grading machine!
5. Plan - If you have those bazillion essays to grade and you have two weeks in which to get them done, then set aside time to several each day. That makes the task more manageable and less odious. Also plan time to spend with your support group - family and friends who care about you. Be in the moment - don't spend time with them while you worry about clearing the clutter in your room by the end of the school year. Enjoy your time with others - laugh, play, sing, or simply sip tea and talk (but not about work!)
6. Overlap - Try to find things you can do together, like straightening your room while you exercise (bend over five times before you pick up that piece of paper on the floor!) And when you plan your elementary book list for next year, add EnteleTrons™ titles because their books combine STEM topics with character education in the literacy curriculum! www.entelechyed.com/entelestore

When you put this plan in place, you'll have a less stressed end of the school year. Enjoy your summer and return in September ready to educate the next class of students who are eager for your words of wisdom on intellectual, social, and moral topics!

An excerpt from Woody's World

So many people have asked what my elementary chapter book, Woody's World is like, that I have decided to post an excerpt during Children's Book Week.  If you like what you read, you can order the book at Character Publishing. Now on sale!  Also, if you order a classroom set of 20 or more, I will send you my 8-week, 98-page Study Guide that includes a variety of learning experiences for third and fourth grade readers. (A $13.95 value at Teachers Pay Teachers) Woody's World recently won a 2013 Children's Literary Classics Seal of Approval.

Happy reading and please post a comment:
to post the first chapter here for your review during

Chapter One

The Princeton Trolley

            “We can’t make it,” I screamed.  “Stop!”

            “Trust me, Woody,” Henry yelled over his shoulder.  “We can beat the trolley.”

            I clutched the sides of our sled as we slid toward the tracks on a collision course with the morning travelers.  I had to decide whether to roll off the speeding sled and risk breaking several bones or to stay with Henry and risk getting killed.

            “Hold on!” Henry shouted.

            I dug my fingers into Henry’s shoulders and prayed that I had been good enough in my twelve years to merit a hereafter in Heaven.  All the times I had teased my little sister exploded into awareness.  All the times I had lied to my parents or cheated on a test flooded my mind.  I was doomed!

            I leaned forward and hunched over Henry’s pea coat.  My heart raced faster than the sled.  Hundreds of electric sparks shot past my head.  Hot oil from the tracks assaulted my nose as we slipped in front of the trolley.  I couldn’t tell whether the screaming came from me or from the travelers.

            We coasted to a stop and scrambled out of the sled into a foot of drifted snow. Even though it was twenty degrees out, I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants.  Then I stared back at the trolley as it clack-clack-clacked its way toward Princeton Junction.

“Toot, toot!”  Henry made the trolley sound and pulled an imaginary cord.

            “Are you crazy?  You could have gotten us killed!  You could have ruined my sled!”  I flapped my arms in the air trying to shake off the lingering fear.  Henry stood motionless, gazing down the tracks.

            “Are you listening to me?”  I shook his shoulders.

            Without turning around, he said, “Woody, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.”

            “No, that was the most stupid thing we’ve ever done.  How did you know we would miss the trolley?”

            “I didn’t.  I thought it was worth a try.  I knew it would slow down before it went around the corner.  It worked, didn’t it?  You’re alive.  Your precious sled is in one piece.”

            I wrestled Henry into the drift.  We rolled around and around, laughing and punching each other until we both fell back, exhausted.

            “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Henry.”

            “Do what?  Have some fun and excitement?”

            He was impossible.  Since we first met in kindergarten, I’d never known him to be careful about anything.  And that’s what I liked about him.  My childhood would have been dull and boring without him.

            I picked up the cord of my sled and started toward home.  It was lunchtime.  Mom said she’d have tuna sandwiches and tomato soup for us.

            “Henry, don’t tell Mom about the trolley.”

            Henry looked at me for a moment, then ran his fingers through his thick, curly red hair.  “I may be foolish, but I’m not crazy.”

            Henry wasn’t crazy, but somebody on the train was a snitch.  When I got home, my father barred my way through the door.  His crossed arms and spread stance told me I was in bigger trouble than the time I had snuck a mouse into Miss Mallory’s handbag.

            “Woodrow Michael Bartram, are you out of your mind?” he boomed.

            “What do you mean?”  I took a step backwards, lengthening the distance between myself and Dad’s belt.

            “Uncle Mike saw you and Henry slide in front of the trolley today.  He called as soon as he got in the station.”

            I hung my head.  “It was either that or break my neck jumping from the sled,” I mumbled.  Out the corner of my eye, I saw Henry tiptoe from the inquisition on the porch.

            “Speak up, boy.  I’m sure you said you were sorry that you almost caused your mother and me to make funeral plans for you.”

            I could tell that the lecture would go on for hours, but at least he didn’t take off his belt.  The welts on my bottom had just disappeared from my last whoopin’.  Dad finished his sermon about responsibility with his usual comparison.  “Respect is like a Hershey bar, boy.  Every time you make someone lose respect for you, part of the candy bar gets eaten away.”

I had heard this analogy twice already.  The R disappeared when I thought it would be fun to drive the car up and down the driveway.  I wouldn’t have gotten caught if the tree hadn’t jumped out in front of me. Then I lost the E when Henry and I decided to climb up to the top of the Princeton water tower. We had taken sandwiches and a canteen of water and had only taken one bite when Dad found us.  Now the S was gone.

“Better watch yourself, boy,” Dad said.

“Yes, sir. I’ll try to be more responsible.”

            “Trying isn’t good enough.  You have to know how to be responsible.”

            The lecture continued for another hour with extra chores for a week added to my list and a quick lashing with his belt as we went inside the house.  Obviously, Mom knew nothing about my half-eaten RESPECT bar.  She gave me a hug and asked if I’d had fun sledding with Henry.  That day I vowed I’d make my old man proud of me … somehow… some day.

Creative Ways to Save for a Family Vacation

It's getting close to summer vacation time!  Have you saved enough to have fun for a week or two?  If not, here are some ideas from my friends at http://www.backupcare.org/:

Family vacations are a great way to make lasting memories that you all cherish for the rest of your lives, but they can also be quite pricey. That doesn’t mean that the trip of your dreams is out of reach, however, even if you’re faced with a relatively tight budget. These 20 savings tips can add up big time, helping you to reach your travel goals before you know it.

1. Start a Family Travel Fund – Pitch in as a family. Contributing allowances, gift money and spare change as a group helps everyone take responsibility for the expenses of an exciting travel adventure.
2. Hold a Garage Sale – The garage sale is a time-honored tradition that can help you create more space in your home as well as collect a bit of pocket money. Holding a garage sale with the intention of putting 100% of the proceeds towards your vacation is a great way to jump-start your vacation savings account.
3. Break Out the Change Jar – Making a habit of dumping your pocket change into a large jar adds up surprisingly fast, even more so when every member of the family is chipping in.
4. Liquidate Your Assets – Selling a bunch of old collectibles that are taking up space online helps you corner a niche market that may not be available through a traditional, on-site garage sale. In some cases specialty items can fetch much higher prices online.
5. Establish a Family Dinner Routine – If your family eats out more than once a week, start researching money-saving meals you can prepare at home and deposit the average check price of those meals into a dedicated savings account.
6. Make Cutting Energy Costs Fun – Make a game of seeing who can use the least amount of energy in your home. Not only will you save big on your utility bills, you’ll also be reducing your household footprint.
7. Sign Up for Flash Sale Groups – Online marketing groups that offer flash sales generally have big-ticket items available at bargain-basement prices for a very short time. Signing up for these groups can help you save big and you can put the money you would have spent away for your family trip.
8. Have Family Coupon Clipping Parties – Clipping coupons is tedious work, but it can be fun when the whole family sits down together to make an event of the chore.
9. Encourage Kids to Contribute – Whether they’re mowing lawns, babysitting, setting up a lemonade stand or chipping in from a birthday fund, encouraging your kids to contribute allows them to make a difference in your vacation budget. This gives them a sense of pride and the savings account a boost.
10. Break Bad Habits Together – If one member of the family is a smoker, another has an expensive coffee habit and the kids are all addicted to sugar, making a family effort to break those bad habits while putting the money saved in a travel account can be a great motivator on all fronts.
11. Cut Down on Car Use – There are times in most families’ lives when it would be just as easy to walk, use mass transit or bike to a location than to drive. When those opportunities arise, take advantage of them and save money on gasoline in the process.
12. Hold a Savings Competition – Competing with one another to see who can save the most is a great way to encourage savings, especially when you’re all contributing to a common goal.
13. Make a Savings Thermometer – There’s a reason why the savings thermometer is a fundraising standby: it works! Making your own vacation savings gauge provides an actual goal and shows how much further you have to go before you reach it.
14. Start a “No Waste” Challenge – The average family throws away a shocking amount of money through sheer product waste. Starting a “no waste” challenge encourages more responsible habits and saves money.
15. Take Advantage of Local “Free Days” – Museums, libraries and other institutions often run “free day” promotions. Taking advantage of them allows your family to enjoy no-cost entertainment, freeing up more funds for travel.
16. Host Potluck Get-Togethers – There’s no need to stop entertaining when you’re trying to save, but instead of footing the bill for the entire meal just hold an old-fashioned potluck! When everyone contributes to the party, you’re able to save big and still enjoy the company of your nearest and dearest.
17. Hold Fashion Swaps – Kids outgrow clothing so quickly that it’s not uncommon to send an item with tags still attached to the local thrift store. Hosting a fashion-swap at your house with other parents allows everyone to trade out gently-worn clothing, saving money and enjoying one another’s company in the process.
18. Go Paperless – Stop spending money on stamps, envelopes and checks by going paperless with all of your bills.
19. Get DIY Savvy – There are so many things you can do at home for a fraction of the price of purchasing store-bought goods, all you need is a bit of know-how. Online tutorials for everything from making butter to building furniture are plentiful.
20. Visit Professionals in Training – Rather than spending a small fortune on haircuts, teeth cleanings and other basic services, consider visiting your local training center. There, professionals in training will perform these services with the supervision of a skilled instructor at a fraction of the cost!

Happy parenting!!