Posts filed under ‘Uncategorized’
Cheap, Easy, Fun! The Scavenger Hunt Reinvented
Whether it’s for a birthday party, a holiday gathering or a group bonding event, scavenger hunts are fun for people of all ages.
Here’s a new take on an old favorite!
The Inverted Scavenger Hunt
DESCRIPTION: Play at any large store like Target, Walmart or K-Mart.
RULES:
- Split into 2 teams of at least 3 people each.
- Each team gets 1 shopping cart.
- Establish a home base (could be the front of the store, near the restrooms, etc.)
- Each team is allowed 10 minutes to gather 10 items from around the store (the more obscure the better!) Meet back at home base and switch carts.
- The team that puts all the items in their new cart back in their original locations the fastest wins! You must take a picture to document that the item is back on the correct shelf.
- Whichever team is back to home base first with all ten pictures WINS!
Other rules: No running! No disturbing other shoppers! No asking the store staff for help!
Back to school, back to healthy habits!
Summer is officially over and the school year brings an entirely new set of challenges for kids and parents. While your kids are learning about writing, science and math in school, why not teach them other important skills and habits at home?
Kids can gain independence in their organization and personal care by establishing simple routines. Here are a few tips for guiding your children to form healthy, helpful and independence-building habits:
- Send your children to school and after school activities with sunscreen (TruKid Facesticks are especially convenient!) Though recess is only for a short time, children can get sunburnt being outside in this hot September weather. Remind them to lather up before recess and soccer practice!
- Remind your children to wash their hands before and after each meal and regularly throughout the day. Children’s immune systems are much less developed than those of adults, so they’re more susceptible to germs. Washing up regularly can help prevent colds and other illnesses.
- Give your kids a very simple list of chores and reward them for completing tasks.
- Encourage them to gather everything they need for school and their activities the night before (make lunch, pack backpack, lay out clothes, etc.).
- Convening as a family every morning to go over the day’s activities and appointments can make your days less stressful.
Not only can these simple tips teach children to take care of their bodies, but can also help them develop a sense of independence and proactivity at home and in school while taking some stress off of you parents!
Stay tuned for more TruKid tips for building healthy habits to last a lifetime!
Snow, Sun and Fun! Oh, and a coupon code too!
Most Americans are aware of the dangers of ultraviolet (UV) radiation during summer. Yet we often forget that winter activities such as snow skiing or snowboarding also pose a high risk of sunburn. UV is more intense in alpine regions because the atmosphere is thinner due to altitude, letting more UV reach the earth’s surface.
Snow is very efficient at reflecting UV radiation, which puts exposed areas such as the face at increased risk of sunburn. Don’t be fooled by cold and cloudy days – you can still get sunburnt in the snow. Always cover up with clothing, eye protection and sunscreen.
Protective clothing and hats
Suggestions include:
- A balaclava or beanie that covers your ears, will keep your head warm and reduce the risk of sun exposure.
- Scarves and jackets with high collars do a great job at keeping you warm and dry but also protect your skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Apply sunscreen
Suggestions include:
All exposed areas of skin should be covered in water resistant, broad spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen. Sunscreens can block out 80% of harmful rays
Apply sunscreen about 20 minutes before venturing outside to allow absorption time.
Put some sunscreen in your jacket pocket and reapply every two hours.
Eye Protection
Always wear wraparound sunglasses or goggles. Aim for a snug fit, so that UV can’t get through the top or sides of your eye wear.
Choose eye wear that will block 95 per cent of UV radiation.
Sunglasses and goggles can be fitted with prescription lenses. See your optometrist for more information.
For one week only Trukid is offering 25% off all Sunny Days SPORT water resistant/unscented SPF 30+ sunscreens, both our 2oz size and 3.5oz size. Also our Sunny Days water resistant Face and Body stick!
Now is the time to stock up for the whole family for your winter fun trips. Remember, the 2oz also comes in a 3 pack, the 3.5oz also comes in a 2 pack and the face & body stick comes in a 3 or 5 pack. All this saves you even more money!!!
To get this fabulous offer just use the coupon code: winter25 at checkout. Visit us at www.trukid.com
Stay warm, stay dry and stay safe.
The TruKid Team
Shopping Tips for this Holiday Season!
I am very lucky to have many smart friends. This time of year I feel even more lucky to know Philip Tirone, CEO of www.720.credit score.com. His experience and advice on ways of keeping good credit or improving credit is invaluable. But he also offers up shopping advice (from his sister) that I will use this year. I tend to “rationalize” my extra purchases for variety of reasons, but at the end of the day, gift giving does not have to be a guilt ridden event (when I get the credit card bill, UG!) it can be made just a bit easier and stress free. Read on . . . . .
It’s that time of year when just about everyone is going to plan a trip or two to the mall, so I want to change the tone of my emails a bit and give some financial tips!
Here’s an idea I got from my sister …
Before heading to the mall, set a budget for each person. Then pull out some plain old white envelopes. Write the name of each person you are going to purchase a present
for—one on each of the envelopes.
Within each envelope, place the appropriate amount of cash you have budgeted for this person—no more and no less. Each of these envelopes represents the “wallet” you
have for each person on your list.
Though you might want to bring a small amount of extra cash for parking and lunch, leave all credit cards at home, including your debit cards. That part is critical, so
it bears repeating: Leave all credit and debit cards at home. Take on the wallet/envelopes and cash for parking and lunch.
When you purchase a present, use the money from the appropriate “wallet.”
This method will create a psychological barrier to impulse shopping. If you are tempted to splurge on a gift, you will be dissuaded when you consider whose wallet you will withdraw money from in order to cover the impulse shopping. How could you short your daughter just because you found a great—but pricey—gift for your sister?
If you have any other holiday shopping tips, hit “reply” or post them on my blog.
Make it a great day, Philip Tirone.
I also figured out that I can use the same strategy for on-line shopping this weekend. Creating my “wallets” but then using only my debit card. By using coupon codes, discounts and free shipping my budget will go that much further.
Happy Shopping
Jennifer, Founder and Mom of 6
Reaching Women Everywhere. One Voice at a time!
One of my far reaching goals for Trukid/TruVillage is to encourage conversation with moms/women everywhere about our families, lives, challenges, successes and dreams.
I love our moms that blog about us, our fans on FaceBook and Twitter, and how we are building community together.
I have recently begun to spend some (a little bit) of my time exploring organizations that are engaged in really important work around the world. Women love to share and talk and listen and take action and we care greatly about the health of our families and future of our kids.
From time to time I want to share about organizations that I come across, that are mobilizing women on a global scale. We too can be involved on a global scale. The world is a big place but even “hearing” just one voice, can often be the beginning of a difference in someone’s lives.
One such organization is World Pulse. WorldPulse.com. I was able to join the World Pulse Technology Conference at Stanford University earlier this month. It was wonderful to meet engaged and incredible women who have literally overcome all odds to be part of the internet age in their villages and have the chance to hear their stories. I was able to meet leaders like Martha, Beatrice and Sarvina, from Colombia, Uganda, and Cambodia.
Check out: http://worldpulse.com/about/events/world-pulse-live-2011
Women from remote villages with out easy access to technology, that have been able to make change in their communities by connecting with women in other similar villages. Such as re-teaching the value of girls and how important their education is. Seems odd that this would be a challenge doesn’t it? Girls in many countries are still not valued.
World Pulse WorldPulse.com has a network of tens of thousands of women leaders speaking out from 185 countries, and are intently focused on building a stable foundation to scale up their work so that they can unite a critical mass of women and amplify them into a powerful force for change. In order to achieve this goal, they have developed a national network of partners and philanthropists who are fueling their expansion – including many unique men and women from all over the United States.
I would love for all of you to have the chance to check this organization out. WorldPulse.com. If you like what they are doing, share it.
We all have something to give in support of World Pulse and our global community of women, even it is just listening or reading about them and sharing their stories.
Women are dynamic forces in their communities, and are uniquely positioned to help transform the world. We need to turn the volume up on their voices, and provide them with the tools, training and encouragement they need to step into their full potential as tomorrow’s leaders.
Have a Great Week!!
Jennifer Founder and mom of 6
TruKid Social Media and our Mission!
TruKid is now fully engaged in the social media community. It was a long time in coming. In the beginning I did not realize how important social media was in relation to growing a company and becoming connected.
I was able to bring on a fabulous gal that now helps us communicate and be involved in this new way of involving our customers.
I now find it fun. I really like to see what everyone is up to, what they care about, what they are looking for, for their families. What I see is that social media is a platform or place where community is built and cared for.
In that, we are hoping we can continue to create a place for moms, dads, families. A place everyone can come and collaborate, share ideas; suggest new products.
We have such a wonderful network of moms who blog about our products, and our contests, which continue to share our goals of community and global sustainability.
We had fun this last month with our Facebook contest tying to reach 5000 fans. It has been amazing to see our fans grow. The best part of this contest is that we are giving out months supply of TruKid to the winners and the referrers. So Everyone Wins! Well not everyone, but you get the idea.
You may have noticed that we now have 2 other brands shown on our Blog and FB page. We are finally launching our TruBaby line this Spring. We understand that expecting moms are looking for products that are specifically made for baby and then moms of toddlers are looking for products for their growing children. Having brands that serve the specific needs of our customers no matter the life stage is our goal.
So, with that, we will be rolling out our parent brand TruVillage. It will be the arms that hug and keep safe all of our growing brands. TruKid, TruBaby and TruBuddy (pet) and more.
We recognize that social media is the best way to communicate changes in our company, new product launches and community outreach, contests and more.
We look for feedback on how we are doing this and we hope you (our customers) will let us know how we can improve.
For now, thank you for being a part of our TruKid community and supporting our little enterprise.
I leave you with our mission statement: TruVillage: The trusted natural family brand committed to children’s health, product integrity, sustainability and the well being of our local and global communities.
Jennifer Founder and mom of 6
Jennifer Has A Tip!
Being a mom of 6 I have had time to learn and adjust my parenting over the years. I would love to start sharing my tips with you! Every week there will be a new Parent Tip from me for you to watch. They are always extremely easy but pay off in the end.
Enjoy!
Jennifer
TruKid gets a little visitor! and It’s Sunny out!
Little Visitor comes to TruKid
We are so lucky here at TruKid. A few weeks ago (when it was nice and sunny out), we had a visitor. A few visitors in fact. One of our dedicated TruKid customers came to visit us at our offices. It was a really cool dad, named Eric, who carried sweet Esme (shown here below) and her little sister Arrow, via backpack. ).
To get to our offices they took the bus, and walked a bit along the way. It was such a wonderful surprise. Since we are now mostly sold online, Eric could not find us at a local store so decided to make the trek to see us in person and get their TruKid fix.
Little Esme applying her TruKid Stick
I was so taken with Esme, she loves trains, and airplanes and buses. And . . she loves to apply her TruKid Face & Body Stick and made a big effort to get some on her dad and baby sister (many times). So if you happen to be in the area, stop by. We will also probably open a little store (at our offices near Jack London Square) in the summer time so TruKid can be available on the spot. Stay tuned.
Here Comes the Sun! and Sunscreen.
This past weekend was so fantastic! The sun was out, warm and cozy on our faces. Whenever the sun really comes out for the fist time, I always find it hard to get back into the sunscreen swing again. I always put it on in the morning when I am at the office, but now I have to get back into the habit of reapplying all during the day. A reminder, my friend kept saying, wow where did you get that tan? Um, watching my kids play Rugby and Softball out in the sun. I am so embarrassed!
Now I have to get my kids in the same habit. I have made sure they all have TruKid SPF 30+ Face & Body Sticks and a 2.0 oz Sunny Days SPF30+ lotion in their backpacks. Each with their names on them. They have the task of reapplying before recess and lunch at school. But starting off in the car on the way to school, it is a sunscreen applying fiesta. The Face & Body Stick is great for on the go application (no accidental messes).
At our house it is a considerable offense to come home burned from any event. (though, it happens from time to time). I try not to go ballistic knowing that childhood sunburns may result in skin cancer later in life. There is also concern over general tanning (the telltale little brown arms and legs resulting from not enough sunscreen during the day). My little guy, Rowan, has an official farmers tan, and I am horrified I did not catch (it’s sunny out) soon enough. Thank goodness he is not squirmy for sunscreen application so now he gets his turn at the sunscreen dance too.. Time to get a big supply of it to the school and some instructions for the teachers too.
It’s not too late to get your kids and yourself into a habit of daily application and reapplication of sunscreen. If it helps, tie the “habit forming” task of putting on sunscreen to a fun thing. Like, earning a gold star every day to earn a frozen fruit popsicle. It is never to late to learn a new healthy habit.
Check out our easy Earn-A-Star Checks lists and how to put on Sunscreen on our website.
http://trukid.com/index.asp?page=kids
Meanwhile have a great week!
Jennifer Founder and mom of 6
Trukid List of Retailers
Finally we have a list of retailers that carry TruKid products so you can find a retailer near you.
We want you to be able to walk into a local retailer and find our products. Do you have a local store that you would like to carry TruKid? Let us know and we will contact them in hopes that the will want to join the TruKid Retailer Team!!!
Also stay tuned for new TruBaby product introductions. We will be launching our Bubbly Baby Body & Hair Wash and Sweet Baby Daily lotion soon. And . . .check back soon for our new Rock’in Rash Relief (the “fix everything” rash ointment from diaper rash to eczema and more).
trukid.wordpress.com 