contests

Win Tickets to See ANNIE Before it Hits Theaters (Seattle) and a Gift Pack (US)

Win Tickets to See ANNIE Before it Hits Theaters (Seattle) and a Gift Pack (US)

On Saturday night, Nate was hanging out at a friend’s house, and we were looking for something to do.  We saw that the original Annie was on Netflix, so Super-Dad, Kitty, and I  cuddled up on the couch and watched.  Kitty LOVED it.  She maybe didn’t love the vocal accompaniment that SD and I provided (I thought we were pretty good), but she is *so* into Annie.
I’m glad she got a chance to see it before the remake of ANNIE hits theaters on December 19th.  Totally coincidentally, two days after we watched the original Annie, the folks over at Columbia pictures asked if I’d like to offer my Seattle readers VIP tickets for an advance screening of ANNIE on December 13th at 10:30 AM at Pacific Place.  There will be three winners!  Two of you will win passes for four, and one runner up will win passes for two.  Your passes will enable you to enter the theater and choose your seats before the rest of the line.  To enter, use the first rafflecopter form below.

Don’t live in Seattle, but still a fan of ANNIE?  Don’t fret!  Columbia Pictures has a gift pack filled with collectible ANNIE items that anyone in the U.S. can enter to win.  The pack includes: an ANNIE T-Shirt, fuzzy socks, a poster and a plush Sandy.  To enter to win this pack, use the second rafflecopter form below.

Enter to win either a 4 pack (2 winners) or a two-pack (1 winner) of VIP Tickets to the preview screening of ANNIE on December 13th at 10:30 AM at Pacific Place in Downtown Seattle (Seattle and vicinity only)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter to win a Promotional Gift Pack of ANNIE Merchandise (open to all residents of the US)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Written by a Kid Creativity Camp

Written by a Kid Creativity Camp

Have you checked out Written by a Kid on Geek &Sundry’s YouTube Channel?  It’s exactly what it sounds like – a story, written by a kid and brought to life by funny adults.  They are running a virtual “Creativity Camp” for the next 8 weeks, and your kids can participate!

From the Written by a Kid Blog:

WHO: Kids 0-18, and their parents, guardians, and/or friends and family!
WHAT: 8 weeks of fun activities to do with a parent, a friend or on your own, inspired by episodes of Written By A Kid!
WHY: A little bird (OK, it was the internet) told us that you are LOVING Written By A Kid and you want to know how you can participate and tell your own stories. So we came up with WBAK Creativity Camp to satisfy the longings of your inner storytellers. We can’t wait to hear what your imaginations have in store, no matter how big a kid you are!
WHERE: Creativity Camp is wherever you are! All you need is some paper, a pen or pencil and crayons or markers.

Both of my kids are going to participate (thanks to the very inclusive age range) and I’m excited to see the different takes they bring to each project.

For more info: http://geekandsundry.com/creativity-camp/

Be prepared for an emergency.

Be prepared for an emergency.

Nate just completed his fifth grade project.  He goes to an alternative school and this project has been part of the 5th grade promotion requirements since before the school was part of the school district, when it was *really* alternative.  There is no structure, no guidelines, no grading rubric; the teacher told them “pick a subject and make a project”. 

Nate originally wanted to do his project on wilderness survival, but figured that with the amount of time he had (and with his camping-phobic mother) he wouldn’t be able to do anything that people would want to learn about.  So then it morphed into survival kits for camping trips kids his age would take – survival for kids.  That was pretty narrow in scope so I suggested that he work on family emergency kits.  He liked the idea and got started researching on the web and making lists.

The sites he referenced were 3days3ways.org which is a resource from the King County (where Seattle is) office of Emergency Management.  He recommends this one because it has a calculator.  You can plug in the number of family members you have and the number of days you’d like to be prepared for and it will give you the specific amounts of food and water you should have.  When developing our family’s kit, he used the list at redcross.org for non-food emergency items like first aid items.

When he was done we were left with a pretty complete kit.  Nate’s advice to the parents at the presentation night was “an imperfect kit is better than no kit”.  If you have some of the stuff gather it up in a box or back pack, keep a copy of your list with you and add and item to it each time you shop.  It’s also suggested that you keep at least $200 in small bills with your kit.  This is easy to accumulate if you put aside a few dollars a week.  Thanks to his advice, I empty all of the singles from my wallet each night and put them with the emergency supplies.  It may not be the full amount that is recommended, but if there were an emergency tomorrow I’m better off than I was yesterday.

As part of the project Nate and I wrote a survey.  We wanted to know who had a kit, and what types of disasters people had survived.  It was really, really interesting to read the responses and they really emphasized that being prepared for an emergency is important.

The survey was more popular than we thought, and due to the large number of responses we wound up having to pay to access them.  So, since I have access to that account for a month, I created a Parenting Geekly reader survey.  I’d love to know what you think about the site so that I can tailor the posts to things that interest my audience the most.  I’d also like to start handling my own advertising soon (to hopefully ditch the giant Google ads) and some of the demographic info I ask for will help me secure quality, independent advertisers who fit the interests of this group. 

More info and a link to the survey is on the Survey! tab at the top of the site.  You can also click here to get to it.

And since I’m not above bribery…two respondents will each win an Amazon gift card.  Once you fill out the survey return to the Survey! page and enter using the Rafflecopter widget.

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