Valuable Sunscreen Information

In a new investigation of 786 name-brand sunscreens, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found widespread evidence that many products on the market are not safe and effective, including one of every eight high-SPF sunscreens that does not protect from UVA radiation...

Read more about this very important information here.

I am shocked to find some of the sunscreens I use are not only ineffective in blocking all bad rays, but are actually hazardous to my children!

I am pleased to have found the EWG website and will be looking through it more carefully very soon.

Scholastic Books

I can remember I was the only student in my class at St. Luke's school, from 2nd through 6th grade, who ordered every single time my teacher handed out those Scholastic flyers to the class. Not only did I order every time, but I often came home with a dozen books at a time. Up until my parents got divorced, my mother would let me order as many of those books as I wanted, as long as I promised to read them all.

Well imagine my delight when I found out that homeschoolers can order from Scholastic too. Just go to their website and order a catalog for the grades you'd like, then place an order once you receive it. It's that simple.

Many homeschool groups collect orders and place them as a group. I can't understand why the individuals don't place orders themselves though. Perhaps their group collector neglected to tell them they can, because they themselves want to collect all the points for each order? One point is awarded for each dollar spent, and traded for free merchandise in the flyers. Often there are specials where purchasers can earn 3x (for example) their bonus points by purchasing a certain amount.

So I can see why the group collector would benefit from a group order, but there is no benefit to the individual at all. There is no minimum order, no tax, and no shipping. So you can order one book for 95¢, have it shipped right to your door, and get one point for yourself to use later. Actually, the only negative thing about individual orders is that the catalog only comes in sets of 50 flyers. It's a one inch thick thing which is pretty wasteful since I only need one flyer. On the other hand it is recyclable where I live.

I also like that I can save up a few months worth of flyers and order all at once online (instead of by mail), which can only be done without a fee if $20 is spent at one time. This way I get my books, my Scholastic points, and my Disney Visa points!

I've ordered many things from Scholastic over the last several years. In addition to the obvious books, we've also ordered computer games, models of body parts like an eye and a heart, games like pizza pie fractions and car math, and activities like a book of calculator games with a calculator. Many a stocking-stuffer came from Scholastic.

One of the other fantastic things about Scholastic is their warehouse sales, which they have a few times a year. They literally open up the warehouse and clear out the stuff. Everything is typically 50% off listed price.

I went to one in Danbury today, and spent $200. I came home with enough Klutz kits to give for birthday party presents for probably two years. I also got several new Christmas books, since I'm getting sick of our old ones, several computer games, two hard cover copies of two books by the authors of The Quiltmaker's Gift, (one of each to keep and one of each for gifts), grammar and algebra books to tuck away for whenever someone asks about those things, board books to give to my nephew for his first birthday, and a really cool book called Scholastic Encyclopedia Of The Presidents And Their Times, which will be great to refer to with my boys, but I really bought for myself to sit down and read. All this plus a several books for both of my boys.

The last time I went to a Scholastic warehouse sale was three years ago when I spent $300. So I'm figuring the $200 worth of stuff I bought today ought to keep me settled for two years. It's hard not to over shop there, but for once I think I did a good job of sticking to gifts, and reference books and computer games which will be good to keep around. I went very very lightly on the fiction since that stuff is easily borrowed from the library.

I was grateful for the table they keep near the registers, where I could go through my grocery cart, weed out the stuff I really didn't need, and simply dump it all off there without feeling badly about making a mess.

The sale in Connecticut has just started, and goes till next Saturday. You can print out a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase.

If you haven't already checked out all Scholastic has to offer, I hope I've convinced you to give it a try!

The Wal-Mart decision

Okay, so a lot of people I know don't shop at Wal-Mart because of their horrible business practicesand the incredibly poor way they treat their employees. I have continued to shop there, however, despite having watched an enlightening PBS show on the subject.



It really was quite good, and I'm going to have to pick it up to show my kids.

Anyway, I knew how awful Wal-Mart is and how I shouldn't be shopping there. But for some reason I had kept going. Even though every single time I stepped into one I hated being there the whole time, despised the messy and crowded aisles, and kept asking myself why I continued to shop there.

I was having a great discussion about this with a few homeschooling moms at a playgroup one day, and one of the women I was speaking with - someone who is always very thought provoking - was saying that we don't always have the choices we perceive we do, that our choices are really quite limited. We discussed this and she tried to explain what it is she meant, and before I knew it, out of my mouth came "well, if I'm going to continue to be able to afford to feed my family grass-fed beef, I'm going to have to buy my hair conditioner at Wal-Mart". So yes, it is a choice whether or not to shop at Wal-Mart, literally speaking. But as my friend said, my choices are really quite limited; I could choose to not shop there, and feed my family crappy beef. Is that really a choice?

Well, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that for my family, it is. I can do both, but for some reason continued to shop at Wal-Mart. Perhaps it's because I simply love a bargain. Perhaps I had started feeling that one person couldn't make a difference. Whatever the reason, I could not bring myself to stop going.

Then my ten year-old and I had a very interesting conversation about the whole thing. I explained about how Wal-Mart employees are not allowed to work enough hours to receive insurance, how Wal-Mart refuses to let unions form, how Wal-Mart bullies companies into underpricing their merchandise so they barely break even, and even covered how Wal-Mart effects manufacturers in China. We even talked about how Wal-Mart had contributed to the closing of Caldor and Ames, and the decrease of K-Marts in our area. So together we decided to stop going there. Maybe I brought the subject up with him because my conscience needed a good kick in the butt?

We went to Target instead (who of course have their own issues). I was momentarily surprised to find a few of the items on my list not available there. We surmised that Wal-Mart must have a monopoly on these brands (Ivory soap, for example). The prices were not all that much higher than Wal-Mart's were, which was good news. We'll continue to shop there for now, and maybe make the drive to K-Mart to check them out too.

Overall I am glad to have "quit" Wal-Mart. And even if they don't feel my absence, I do. And it feels good.