Dear America Series

One of my favorite book series is the Dear America series. It is about girls from different time periods and the circumstances they had to live under. The girls are usually around the ages of 11-14. It's really fun to read the inspiring fictional diaries of girls my age. I highly recommend these books because they have to do with interesting time periods and you never want to put them down. Here are some of my favorite books in the series:

• Survival in the Storm by Katelan Janke
• Dreams in the Golden Country by Kathryn Lasky
• I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly by Joyce Hanson

I highly recommend these books! They are very educational and entertaining!

Slither Scooter by Pulse

For the last few days it has been sunny and warmer than usual. This nice weather has alowed me to get outside and ride my Slither drift scooter by Pulse. It is called the Slither because the back of it spins out when you turn and it makes a slithering movement. It is so exciting to ride and I enjoy discovering new tricks and with every time I ride it I get better and more experienced. I think I agree with the recommended ages on the scooter: Ages 7+. I highly recommend the Slither and hope that there will be plenty more nice days to ride it!

P.S. Remember to always be safe and wear pads and a helmet when riding bikes and scooters!

Disclosure: This post was done about an item I own and wanted to share with others. I was not asked or compensated to post my honest opinion.

The Giving of Christmas

Hello everyone! Christmas is right around the corner and I would like to remind you of some things that you can do this year to help the less fortunate. You can give your time, money, and extra items to the people that need it the most. Here are some ideas of things that you can do to help your community:

• One thing you can do to help the less fortunate is donate to the Salvation Army. There are stands outside of grocery stores were you can donate money. Just listen for someone ringing a bell by a donation stand. Every penny counts and it makes a HUGE difference! Just imagine what would happen if everyone donated a dollar or penny! A lot of money would be raised, and many families would benefit!



• Another generous thing you can do is donate food to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Just pick up some canned food and drop it off at the designated locations listed on the Second Harvest website. My school had a Second Harvest peanut butter drive a while ago. The school that got the most donations won a trophy. Last year, my school won the contest, but this year the results haven't been announced.



• If you can't donate financially, then donate your time by telling others about the true meaning of Christmas. A lot of people are so busy with buying, wrapping, and visiting relatives that they forget what Christmas is all about. Christmas is not about rushing to mark everything off your to-do-list; it's really about how God loved us so much that he sent his only son to save us from our sins. We should always remember that, even when we're busy. Remind someone what the true meaning of Christmas is, and maybe that will inspire them to slow down and enjoy the celebration of Jesus's birth.
  

I hope that this post has reminded you that Christmas is not about rushing and spending. God's love and Jesus's birth is definitely something to celebrate! I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Tween's Guide to Room Cleaning!

When your parents tell you to clean your room, what do you do? Do you shove everything under your bed? Stuff things in closets and drawers? All of the above? Well, this is not really the correct way to clean your room, even if it does seem like the easy way out! When you hide everything in random places, the junk starts to overflow, and you never know where things are! Here are some tips that will help your room be clean and organized, and make room cleaning quick and easy!

1.) If you have overflowing avalanches all over your room, chances are, you need to weed out some stuff! Here are some tips on how to do so!

• First of all, set up 4 bags or mats. One for trash, one for paper recyclables, one for plastic recyclables, and the last for donations to toy drives or Goodwill. Set the things you want to keep in a neat pile to the side; you will organize them later.


• You can recycle letters that were sent home from school or church long ago announcing events that have already happened.


• You can also recycle phone numbers of people you met at summer camp, the park, etc., that you don't plan on seeing again and forgot almost everything about. Chances are, if you don't remember them that well, they won't remember you either.


• It is also pointless to keep every single coloring page, paper, and piece of artwork you made in pre-school and Sunday school. Pick out your favorites and get rid of the rest. You can type the stories and songs you wrote when were young and save them on your computer and/or flash drive. (Flash drives are good because if your computer crashes, you will always have your special pictures and documents on the small but helpful flash drive!) You can also take pictures of projects and artwork to get them out of the way. ( I call them "Throw Away Pictures"!) You obviously can't keep everything you make over the years!


• You can hand down or donate toys that you are too old for or don't need. Party favors are good examples. Some are useful, but most are just small toys like bubbles, bouncy balls, and plastic rings. The ones you don't want, your younger siblings or the less fortunate kids that don't have toys might love them, and will be happy to get them. If you find left over school supplies from last year, you have several options. By now you probably have bought all of the school supplies for this year, so you could either keep the old ones for back up or donate them to one of your teachers, just make sure they still are in good condition and work.


• There are 2 important things that you need to keep in mind while weeding out. The 1st thing is that if you have survived this long with the item shoved in the back of the closet, you can probably live without it! The 2cnd is that if you are not sure if you want to keep something or not, go ahead and keep it. If you get rid of something, you can't get it back, so discuss with your parents what you want to keep and get rid of, because they might want you to keep what you would have never thought of keeping. Remember, your parents are wise adults that are experienced in this area! They were in your position once too; they can help you!

2.) After you finish weeding out, it's time to start organizing! This will help a lot when you are looking for something later. Here are some tips about organization!

• Have a certain place to put calculaters, text books, folders, and papers that always stay at home. Keep them together in one place so that you will always know where they ar


• Keep odds and ends together in a small bag, drawer, or neat pile.


• Have a somewhere like a cabinet or drawer to keep all of your games or puzzels. If you are in the mood for a game, you will be able to see all of your options at once without having to dig through your room!


• Keep all of your art supplies in a cabinet, closet, or drawer. Have some sort of way of knowing which supplies are have been opened, and which are unopened so that you won't, for example, open a new box of crayons when you already have 2 opened.


• You might want to find some storage bins and cadies to put your make-up, jewelery, and hair accesories in.


• You need to make sure that you put your things were you will be able to find them easily when you need them.

I hope these tips are helpful to you when you're cleaning your room. Every once in a while weed out and organize to suprise your parents with a neat room. I just resently cleaned my room and my parents were impressed with the results. They couldn't believe how organized it looked! I am happy to share these tips with you, and I hope they work wonders for your room too!

Tri-Cross Eco-Edition

Hi everyone! I recently played a cool game called Tri-Cross Eco-Edition! It is similar to checkers and requires 2-4 players. There are several different versions, and I prefer the 2 player face-up version. There are two ways to play that, and I like to play so that the first player to get all of the other player's pieces wins. It takes a fairly long time, it takes shorter time than Monopoly but longer than the Memory card game. It does require strategy, but is easier than chess the way I play it. I love that it is packaged in a cloth bag and the only thing that is not made of cloth is the pieces and the instructions! It cuts down on waste, and 10% of each purchase goes to an Eco-Friendly charity, so when you purchase it, little by little your saving the world!

I would say that it is a game for kids 9 and up! This game will have you thinking, and it will show you that reducing waste is just one game away! Please visit the Tri-Cross website today for helpful instructional videos. The videos helped me better understand the game.

*I was provided with the Tri-Cross Eco-Edition in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for reviewing this product.

I'm on Twitter!

By TwitterButtons.com


I can't believe I'm on Twitter! I'll tweet about new posts, books I'm reading, and much more! Just click on the cute birdie on the right side-bar. I would love to have more followers, and I'll try to follow you too!



I also would love it if you put my button on your blog! You can get that also on the right side-bar. I appreciate all of my readers and hope to her from you soon! Tweet you later!

4 Great Nintendo DS Games for children 6 and up

My wonderful follower Ann (http://ann-crabs.blogspot.com/) liked the post I did about Style Savvy so much that she wanted to know about good ds games for 6 year olds. I have some games in mind that I hope will be helpful!


1.) Nintendogs Lab & Friends

This was one of my first ds games and I still play it occasionally! It is not too complicated, and it teaches you a little responsibility, because you have to feed, groom, and give water to dogs. You can walk your dog , enter your dog(s) (you can have up to three), into contests, and shop for supplies and toys. These are the three dogs I have on my game in the order I got them: Daisy (A yellow lab), Rachel (An orange poodle), and last but not least, Sammy (My new cute little Welsh Corgi). After you get better at being a trainer, the kennel gets more varieties of dog breeds. So it gives you things to look forward to! There are also different versions of Nintendogs, but I guess which one you choose depends on which types of dogs you like because there is also a Chihuahua and Dalmatian version. I've played this one for about 2 years, and it is very fun!


2.) Littlest Pet Shop DS Games

There is a variety of littlest pet shop ds games and they are very fun! But I will warn you that all of the games are pretty much the same, except for the pets available and a little more small differences. My cousins and I love the minigames and they always keep them laughing! It's hard to get them to put it down! You start out with 3 pets and earn money to buy more as you go. You can get toys and playsets for you and your pets to play with. I was kind of sad when I got my last pet and couldn't get anymore, but the game continues even after you get your last pet, which I love! Must-have for littlest pet shop lovers!



3.) My Baby First Steps

This is a great game that lets you watch your baby grow up! It gives you guidelines of what you are supposed to teach your daughter/son each month. It will make you laugh and it is also a good game to teach you responsibility! The only down side is that you can complete it very quickly, and I was very disappointed when I found out that after your baby grows up, you have to delete it before you can get a new one. That's why I only play it every once in a while so that my virtual baby boy, Jonathan, won't grow up too fast. But other than that it is a great game where you will feed, play with, teach, put to bed, change clothes on, and change diapers of your baby! This might require a little help from their parents, but soon your kids will probably get the hang of it! There are more "My Baby" games that I haven't played but I'm sure they're great too! This is one of the newer games in the series!



4.) Let's Draw!

Last but definitely not least, this game provides fun for kids that love to draw! It will teach you to draw a variety of animals, bugs, shapes and more with easy steps. You can color your drawings crazy colors and play with them in fun games. This game doesn't require a lot of reading, and it writes out and shows you the steps instead of only writing it out leaving you wondering what the directions mean. Your child will love it, especially if they love to draw!



I hope this review has given you all great ds game ideas! Thank you so much Ann, for being such an awesome supporter of my blog! And I also thank all of my other follows for making my blog more and more famous!