By Christina Cheddar Berk, CNBC.com
Consumers - especially women - are ready and willing to spend this back-to-school season, they are just holding out for bigger deals, according to IBM's third-quarter spending forecast."Consumers are ready to shop," insists Jill Puleri, global retail leader for IBM Global Business Services. She expects shoppers to buy the things they need now, and then earmark other products for purchase later in the season when they expect they will get them on the cheap.
So-called skinny tights are expected to be a hot item for the fall, according to social …
"Consumers have been trained to wait for better deals later in the season," she said. But if IBM's forecast holds true, buy they will.
[Related link: Parents Shift Spending to Cope With Back-to-School Costs]
IBM is expecting to see a 9.2 percent increase in sales of women's clothing in the third-quarter, as women release some of the pent-up demand that has been building. Sales of men's apparel had been strong earlier in the year, but now that the men have replenished their closets, it's time ...Read More »Kids can be the biggest mess-makers, so don't mess around when it comes to teaching them good organizing habits! The sooner you can empower your kids with these concepts, the better. Preparing our kids to be independent adults will be much easier if they've been taught these skills and habits, and it can make your life easier now, too!
Put Limits on KeepsakesPut Limits on Keepsakes
Some children let go of things more easily than others, but for those who are stubborn about wanting to save every little thing, give them what we call a "limiting container." They can keep all of the keepsakes they want, as long as they fit in this box, or on this shelf.
Related: 10 Biggest Organizing Mistakes
Have Morning and Evening Routines
You may know your everyday habits, but be more deliberate about verbalizing the steps of your morning and evening routines with the kids. You can even post a checklist on a bathroom mirror or bedroom wall for things like packing your lunch, gathering your papers, gettin
...Read More »- By Chef Meg Galvin, Healthy Cooking Expert at SparkPeople.com
In summertime, many of us moms feel like the kid in "Home Alone"--or at least we feel like making that face! The kids are hot, hungry, and tired, and so am I! What do I feed them that is healthy and quick. It only adds to the drama if you're at work and you have teens at home alone or a babysitter with limited cooking skills.
Everyone will smile with these simple and easy healthy lunches for your tots, pre-teens and full-blown teenagers that eat like adults (I have three of those myself!). Bonus: Most of the meals can be made ahead and changed slightly to yield a new lunchtime menu.
Get your summer kitchen ready and organized!- Hold a family meeting on Friday for the next week's menu choices. That way you can hit the farmers markets or supermarket on the weekend to get the freshest produce
- Post a menu selection on the fridge or use a wipe off board to post the choices for the day/week.
- Purchase some clear glass
- Hold a family meeting on Friday for the next week's menu choices. That way you can hit the farmers markets or supermarket on the weekend to get the freshest produce
- For our family everything that we do and everywhere we go is part of the classroom of life. We're always learning, and we like to include a lot of field trips in our homeschooling. And field trips can be many different things -- you don't have to go far to find them.
The Duggars
Read More: Duggar Homeschooling: The Advantages of Online College Courses
One of our trips was to an eye clinic where we took a tour and then watched a video of an eye surgery, and it was pretty fascinating. It was so cool to have experts explain how our eyes work and learn about all the different diseases of the eye. Of course you can see videos of eye surgeries on the Internet, but for us it's exciting to visit experts in person, and it's fun to learn together as a family.
Read More: Michelle Duggar's Clever Strategy for Motivating Kids
Our favorite field trip in the U.S. is to Washington, D.C. -- you could spend weeks there if you had the opportunity. It's just so amazing to go from building to building a
...Read More » - Summer opens up an entirely different type of classroom to homeschooled students and their parents. No longer is it required to sit inside a room full of books, paper and pens to learn a lesson. There are many different summer activities that promote learning and growth.
Camping is an excellent way to teach children about the world they live in. It is also a good way to teach history. Comparing the way people lived one hundred years ago to the way we live now is definitely an eye opener. Surviving a weekend or one night at a campsite with no game system, television or computer is a true life lesson. Instead of sitting in front of a tv or playing video games, children can be taught the different types of trees and plants and what they are used for. Forest plants were used for medicinal purposes before the development of our modern medicines. Cooking on an open fire is a skill that can be used in case of power outages.
Parents: What Does It Means to Be Responsible?
Hiking in
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