Product Review: Uptime Robot
Do you have your own robot working for you yet? Uptime Robot is a free website monitoring service that works so you don’t have to. This business tool is my secret weapon. Uptime Robot checks your website every few minutes to see if it’s up and running and notifies you if it’s down. Downtime happens to the best of us, but hopefully, you can catch it before your customers do. Just this week I was trying to find the menu and hours of a new business but I got an error with every link I tried. Bummer. When I visited the restaurant that day, I let them know and they thought I just had the wrong link. It was up and running today, but using a service like Uptime Robot could have saved them egg on their face. It takes just a few minutes to set up this free service and you can choose to receive an email or text message when your website or course page is down. Plus their smart team of robots can monitor all sorts of other things for you, except what’s in your fridge or when you are running low on basic supplies like…
Strategies to Reinforce Learning
How can you reteach or preteach topics during school breaks? Summer is a great time for parents or tutors to reinforce learning when there’s less academic stress or pressures of homework. I have 4 strategies that work across all grade levels and all abilities of learning. Teaching vocabulary – Reinforce the vocabulary and languages of the standards. Review vocabulary from the past year or get a jump start on the upcoming year. If the student cannot understand the big words in the test or assignment question being asked then they probably cannot answer the question very well. If they KNOW what the question is asking, it will be a better test of their knowledge. Struggling students will learn so much of the lesson through just the key vocabulary. If the unit does not come with a list of vocabulary words and definitions, try googling a vocab list for that topic. Chances are they are pretty available. Print a copy of the words and definitions. Print a second copy and cut it apart. Have the students match words and definitions even if you need to limit it to sets of 2 or 3. Build confidence by starting at their independent level…
Summer Balance For Kids
How many days will it take for you to first hear “I’m bored” from your kids this summer? Finding the balance between commitments and boredom is a tricky thing each summer depending on the age of your kids. Much needed rest after a busy school year is needed by both parents and kids, but many kids find it hard to occupy themselves after a few days. Some parents want to avoid this and sign their kids up for too many commitments during the summer, exhausting both the kids and the chauffeurs. Here’s a few tips to help your family find summer balance for kids. Pick a few commitments wisely. Nothing wrong with a summer camp or two. Consider researching a few your child might like and letting them pick one or two, not every week of summer. Same goes for recreational classes. Ask your kids to prioritize their top few interests and go from there. If budgets are limited, consider hosting a camp week swap with other families. You plan one fun theme day at your house complete with lunch and activities, then another families hosts the next day and so on. Easy and inexpensive themes are water day, water…
Multigenerational Travel
Planning a multigenerational family reunion this summer? Multigenerational travel is not as difficult as it sounds if you remember a few tips beyond just agreeing on the budget and location. The rewards of multigenerational travel far outweigh the planning. We are just returning from a week at the beach with multigenerational family and friends. Most of us love the beach. The rest enjoy getting away, being with family, and swimming at the pool. This beach house had something for everyone, plus lots of bedrooms and bathrooms and two main gathering spaces. My best friend and I brought our families plus our moms. Choose a location that has lots of bedrooms so everyone will have a quiet place of their own. Sometimes bunking a single grandparent and a child in a room with twin beds is quite a good arrangement. You know what works for your family. Asking the grandparent first is a good idea. Consider stairs and elevators when you are taking older generations or those with wheelchairs and baby strollers. Many things are doable for a night or two, but longer stays need more thought for mobility issues. Most rental houses now have detailed floorplans available so you can…
