Curb Alert! 2 Pink Ethan Allen chairs- some damage- North Wilmington Area

CURB ALERT!  2 Pink Ethan Allen chairs for free. Damage from cat scratches.  My cats and kids ruin all of our furniture :b   Can probably be reupholstered if you know what you're doing.  I tried reupholstering them myself- I did not know what I was doing!  They are kind of heavy.  Located in the Ramblewood Development off of Naaman's Road.  Turn at your 1st left onto Timberwyck Road, will be on your right hand side. 

Delaware Family Expo- Today!

Did you know that there is a Delaware Family Expo going on today at the Chase Center on the Riverfront?  I just read about it while skimming through the online version of Delaware's Out and About Magazine.

The Family Expo will be today from 10am- 4 pm or 5 pm, depending on the website that you go to, but I think it's 4 pm.   It is free admission and promises to connect you with local companies that will strengthen, entertain, and encourage your children and family as well as having costumed characters, indoor golf, an inflatable slide and many more special surprises.

Some local companies that will be there include the Brandywine Zoo, Delaware Nature Society, The Little Gym of Wilmington and the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

You just might see me there looking for fun summer camps for my boys!

Delaware State Parks Guide- there's an app for that!

When I heard there was a Delaware State Parks app, I was excited because I love all that our state parks have to offer, but I know that there is a lot out there to enjoy that I'm not even aware of.  So I happily downloaded the free app (lite version) to see what it had to offer.

One of the first things that I noticed on this app was the Severe Weather Alert that popped up telling me that minor tidal flooding was possible with the evening tide.  Whenever there is a Severe Weather Alert (more recently it's been about heat warnings) then the alert will pop up. You can choose to have the severe weather alert turned on or off if you find it annoying, but I thought it was quite helpful.

The first tab on the app is the Park Activities, where you can choose from activities such as Adventure Race, Baseball, Beaches, Bird Watching, Camping, Fishing and much more and find out which state parks have these activities.  For instance I clicked on Geocaching, which I am interested in doing in the future and it gave me 5 tabs, a Good-to-Know tab that explains what Geocaching is, and a tab for Brandywine Creek State Park, Cape Henlopen State Park, First State Heritage Park and Killens Pond State Park.  

One of my favorite features is the events tab where you can click on any day to see different events available at our state parks. Today it listed the audio and walking tours of the Dover Green at the First State Heritage Park.  Also, if you decide that an event sounds fun and you want to invite others, there is a handy invite button that automatically prepares an email for you.  One thing that I would like to see on the events calendar is a button to highlight which day it currently is, but that's only because I often have to pause a minute to figure out the date. 

While on this app, you are able to continue your social networking by signing in to Facebook and Twitter, which is always handy.

As I mentioned, the Official Delaware State Parks Guide app is free, but you are able to also purchase a pro version for $3.99 which contains additional tools such as GPS mapping, a tool to locate the parks nearest you (love!), a friend finder that let's you keep track of companions while on a trail and more.

To download either the free version or the $3.99 Pro GPS version, you can go to: DE State Park Apps

Also, if you decide to download the Pro GPS version, a substantial portion of your purchase is given back to the Delaware State Parks.  Not many apps do that!



So go check out the Official Delaware State Parks Guide app and if you know anything about geocaching, let me know :)

Our new family go to beach- Lewes Beach

We're very lucky to have a house in Rehoboth that we can go to anytime we want for free- my grandparents place! My husband took off on Monday so that we could enjoy a long weekend. We headed down Saturday morning and came back home to Wilmington Monday early afternoon. In that time, we went to Lewes Beach twice, out to eat, to the Rehoboth Boardwalk and my husband took our five year old to Mini Golf for his first time. And of course we spent time with my grandparents, my parents and cousins.

My family's favorite beach for a while now has been Tower Beach (which is a state park) because it used to be pretty uncrowded.  But I think the secret is out now, because it seems like for the past couple of years Tower Beach has gotten a lot more crowds. 

Now that we have young kids, the beach that we tend to go to is Lewes Beach because the waves are much more calm and we can feel more comfortable with our 2 1/2 year old and 5 year old playing in the water.

My parents are major beach bums who will stay on the beach for up to 8 hours each day.  While we enjoy the beach that's just too much for us with kids (even without).  We've found that it works out best for us to bring the kids onto the beach after 2:30/3 and then to stay for a couple of hours.  By this time, the crowds have died down a bit, it's easier to find parking and the sun is not too hot.  When parking at Lewes Beach during prime times, it can be very difficult to find a parking spot, my husband once spent over an hour trying to find a spot.  But every time we have gone later in the afternoon we have had no problems at all.  Parking is $1.50 per hour, so bring lots of quarters with you. 

Don't worry Rehoboth, your boardwalk still has my heart :)

Phanatical about reading

I love learning about programs that encourage reading and education!  The News journal recently highlighted the "Phillies Be a Phanatic About Reading program" in which two Delaware students were honored for being the "most outstanding" or "most improved" readers in the program.  Congratulations!  To read this article, go to News Journal.

 According to the MLB Phillies Website:

The program is divided into two levels: one for children in grades K through 3 and the other for grades 4 through 8. Children will be asked to spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day reading whatever book they select. Younger children will be given Phanatic coloring sheets to color in once they have attained their goal while older children will be asked to record the book they read and write a few sentences on their favorite part of the book.

The Phillie Phanatic will make a special visit to the top performing schools. To qualify for a Phanatic visit, children will report their progress to their teachers who in turn will tell the Phillies how the children have done in their reading endeavors. From that progress report, schools will be selected for a school visit.

One of the teachers' testimonials was:

This program has been terrific for reluctant readers. It has been especially rewarding for students that were not motivated readers. It has been rewarding to watch these young readers become more fluent readers.

How great is that!  To learn more about this program, check out Phanatic About Reading Program

Delaware's Education System

Last Monday I attended a discussing group at the Woodlawn Library in Wilmington titled "Waiting for Superman- A Candid Discussion about DE's Education System". In the beginning, an excerpt from the documentary "Waiting for Superman" was shown.

Then a discussion was lead by four panel members who included, Christopher Ruszkowski, who is the Deputy Officer of the Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Unit for the Delaware Department of Education, Catherine Weaver, Superintendent for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Dr. Mervin Daugherty, Superintendent for the Red Clay School District and Dorrell Green, former principal for Harlan Elementary and new Director of Elementary Education, effective July 1st. 

The panel members discussed their thoughts on the education of children in public schools in Delaware, touching on issues that they feel need to be addressed as well as highlighting positive aspects that are already in place.  There were disagreements among things such as how vital are smaller class sizes.  Many people feeling that smaller class sizes are very important and other people disagreeing with the opinion that if the teacher quality is there, the size of the class is not as essential.  The role of socio-economic backgrounds for children and their families was also discussed in terms of how it effects education.  Schools no longer just focus on education, but they also have to make it a priority to make sure their children are healthy, safe, clothed and fed. 

Overall, it was a interesting discussion that was unfortunately not very well attended.  There were, at most, 30 people in attendance.  This includes parents and educators.  The largest group there consisted of educators at Concord High School, who had four or five educators who were in attendance.  Because this is such an important issue, why was there such a low turn-out?  In my opinion, it was probably because this open discussion was not marketed very well.  I happened to hear about it about two hours before it was to take place and spread the word to my friend who is in early education.