Today Is ‘Focus The Nation’ Org – Kid’s Environmental Events

Looking for kids environmental events?

Today is the day that Focus The Nation Organization’s blog webcasts are being played in over 14oo schools and colleges around the country. Events are planned for January 31, 2008 (tomorrow/Saturday) at those schools & colleges to educate children, families and teachers about

“Global Warming Solutions for America”.

Events are being attended or supported by folks such as Barak Obama, Arnold Schwarznegger, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Inglis, Richard Cizik, Winona LaDuke, Edward Norton, Woody Harrelson. Want to find out who in the political headlines is

“The Green Canditate” — go to www.LiveEarth.org and check out who is on board.

You can find an event near you at    www.focusthenation.org

If you don’t think you have time to organize this event at your school; then discuss it and plan to hold a viewing of “The 2% Solution” in the next two weeks and register your public/private/non-profit/church school to download the films from Focus The Nation.

For extension curriculum materials go to www.ClimateChangeEducation.org to find materials suited for K-12, colleges, and universities. 

The sponsor is the same group backing last summer’s  ‘Live Earth’ round the world concerts. CDs and film shorts are available from the original 2007 concerts and the new ‘Focus the Nation’ educational events at www.liveearth.org , so check them out for material to use for kid’s enviromental awareness curriculum.

Time Off for Good (?) Behavior

Hey now! Don’t get sassy with me! I have had my nose to the virtual grindstone for months (even during Christmas holidays) — so I deserved a little break, and i finally took it! 

I confess that I spent a huge chunk of yesterday sitting at our local La Madeleine’s gorgeous place, sitting at the biggest table ( we grabbed it right before the lunch rush hit) and right by the wonderful (and warm) old-world two-sided stone fireplace. We probably sat through 4 or 5 sittings of other lunching folks — that is precisely why we go there. La Madeleine is the one resturant (at least in the U.S. I think) where the staff DO NOT RUSH YOU!  They don’t use all the current shenanigans which many establishments use to get the customers in/out as quickly as possible. La Madeleine KNOWS their customers are multi-culural and want the typical slow European/Near East style of dining with their family or friends. Their food is excellent, ditto on the service from the staff & magmt.   Hence the place is almost always full with ladies sharing pleasure lunches, folks on business lunches, families with several children in tow, and of course those folks grabbing quick to-go-bags. I wish other dining establishments would take a page out of their playbook!

My old friend and I delighted in the fabulous food and French coffee with the heavenly aroma swirling all about us as the windows frosted up nearby. We took turns regaling each other with “other life” stories of that time when we were young and stupid and did not know each other. Both glad to express the relief and true thankfulness of knowing we (both) had survived horribly abusive relationships with a significant  other; laughing now about the absurdities of it all. Grateful to currently have better lives built on inner strength and love.

This person is a true friend – the call in the middle of the night kind of friend – and we try to carve out regular time to spend together without anyone else around. We laugh, cry, wonder, pray and cuss.  We are both avid readers and self-learners and self-teachers. We have spent the last 5 years investigating different spiritual pathways; sorting, catalogueing, considering the merits and information of first one, then another.   I, having some Native American ancestry – firmly accept many concepts of universal spirituality which do not conform to the mainstream ideas of organized religion. She grew up going to school with and having many Native American friends (often Catholic) in New Mexico. So together we journey through life and universe as team buddies who have each other’s back. Kinda neat to know she doesn’t have to since I don’t “belong” to her nuclear family circle of DNA; but she would be there for me without question during a crisis, and I would do the same for her. We have  both been there for each other at those hard times, we don’t have to wonder about that, we already know.

Any way;  as we sat there luxuriating (sp?) in our little warm bubble over a third cup of that fabulous coffee, which I enjoyed with Brown sugar and a scrumptous Eclair with chocolate filling  (ooh so decadent!) we mourned the loss of our occasional daytime get-togethers like this. We have both worked from home for the last year and a half – alas — she has gone back to work in a outside-the-home job which will make it harder to schedule these wonderful soul-filling events.  Sniff-sniff! Today was her first day on the new job. I will get a report as soon as she hits the door by phone this evening; but i think this post is my hallmark card to let her know how much these “only for the two of us” energy-renewing lunch dates have meant to me. We will just find a new way to meet-up, with new times and locations most likely; but I just need to tell her how important these blow-outs have been to my psyche.  That’s what friends are for!

Creating A Small Business Online Co-op

I have spent the last week working on a co-op idea for our company’s Indpendent Consultants. Here at Barefoot Books, we call them Stallholders (for the  gorgeous little bookstalls in Paris, along the River Seine).   I guess I should first explain that Barefoot has Stallholders all over the place, on both sides of the “pond” and even in some really far off countries.

The point is that for many of us in the Southwest area of the U.S.; there are issues which are a little different than in other parts of the country, or even the world (except maybe for Australia – yes – we are there, too!). In our geographical area — towns are far between and sometimes sparsely populated; making it hard to advertise, market community events, drive (fuel expenses are killing us) to hold bookfairs or deliver easily. Add that to the high cost of advertising on our tiny WAHM budgets; and you will begin to get the picture of our unique issues.

To remedy those problems; a colleague and I are starting a private blog for our group and we are creating our own website to bring more internet traffic directly to our group, to share local training & workshops, to communicate more locally within our states/region; plus, use co-op advertising to share the burden of costs for our small businesses.  

Of course; as with any business tool: the blog and website will evolve with how the group uses it. I would be interested on feedback about your use as a WAHM (or WAH-DAD) with similar tools or ideas. Have you found any great ways to advertise with a co-op (not a corporate-linked site – we have those)? Or do you have any other tips? Please post here if you do. Thanks!

Edit: For those Barefoot consultants who are trying to find the SW sites – they are now listed in my blogroll! 

2nd Edit: 2/17/08 Well Game On! We have sent the co-op information out to our home office managers to see how it is received! Will report the next stage as we get the info! I have to say that our new co-op website looks crisp, clean and professional.

3rd Edit: 4/11/08 I just realized that I had never updated the news on the co-op and am here to remedy that. It took a little tweaking and re-arranging content to satisfy the home office and the Regional Mgrs. but I am happy to announce our co-op site is going over wonderfully. It is constantly evolving with fresh content, and we are adding several new members to the group listings weekly.

We have added lots of customer friendly content first and foremost, since it is mainly for exposure to help our group who can’t afford their own websites. So, of course; we have member links for Barefoot Stallholders in geographical lists, by state. We have links to help parents and teachers find great information, and lots of fun ways to show our newest products and most recent breaking news. That is just on the public side.

On the password-protected side we have tons of content to cover business tips, product reviews, training, marketing, web-function info, literacy links, colleague site samples, company trivia, message boards, and a private Stallholder group blog.  Check us out at www.BFBSW.com I would love to hear some feedback if you would like to send me comments about the public content.

Talula has a new look!

TALULA’S BAREFOOT BLOG HAS A NEW LOOK!  

Was looking for a cleaner look to my site and decided to try this style for a new ‘do! Swing by and tell me what you think!

I want to up my quantity of posts in the start to a new year and felt a makeover was in order to inspire me! I am also considering some collaborations outside this blog to build traffic to my online children’s bookstore and new marketing/advertising situations.

In the spirit of interactive blogging – IF (?) I have any regular readers — I have a question that I would like to have some feedback on.

An issue/discussion has arisen about security banners on a website with e-commerce capablities. My questions is this – Is there anyone out in cyber-world who would or has made a purchase from a website recently which DID NOT have any kind of secure site banner? If so; why?

My query stems from a realization that a vendor’s site which I have been constantly reassured that it is/has a secure ordering system; but which  actally has no banners, buttons, etc. which announces the state of security or anything about when it is updated. It probably does have a secure ordering system still; but would you trust the site enough to purchase from it online, in light of today’s current identity theft mantra? This site has ben receiving tons of great hits all over the country; but has very few actual buyers of the product through their online system. This has been going on for about a year; while a migration to a new server & mgmt. company has been going on.  Could this have been caused by an oversite, maybe?

My sense is in the negative — but I want to be fair and ask John or Jane Q. Public for their input. Am I being unreasonable to expect ANY company I do business with online to at least show the proof in the banners (preferrably with daily dated entries), instead of behaving as if I should just turn over my money and confidential info; because they SAY they run secure systems and servers? Please jump on and leave your comments. As always I will moderate all comments before uploading them — due to the fact that i seem to have a blog name which draws some readers with quite colorful tastes in adult viewing — I smile to think of their shock to find this a tame, quiet little blog about childrens books and small business.

 See Ya later; Talula.

Barefoot “Winter Sale” List

 

Today I want to give a list of the 70 or so Bargain items on the Barefoot Winter Sale. This sale goes through February 18th. I will make this message to the point with none of the proverbial icing on the cake. Here is the list!

Winter Sale Item List     <link to list deactivated on 2/18/08.

Sample of List Format:

Title                                                  Retail Price            Sale Price                Format

BunBun At Bedtime                     $ 6.99                       $ 1.99                      Board Book

Bunbun the Middle One                 6.99                          1.99                      Board Book

Cerdota Grandota                            6.99                         4.99                       Board Book

Cleo & Caspar                                   6.99                          4.99                       Board Book

Un alce, veinte ratones (Spanish) 6.99                          4.99                      Board Book

_________________________________________________________________________

ALL SALE ITEMS CAN BE SEEN ON MY BAREFOOT BOOKS WEBSITE; JUST CLICK ON THE BLUE “WINTER SALE”    “NEW fOR SPRING” BUTTON  ON THE LANDING PAGE.                                                  

For U.S.Teachers: Barefoot Books”Accelerated Reader” List Jan/2007

 

See Barefoot Books On AR List Below!

 

 

 

 

 

I have finally gotten around to the list – sorry, it was quarterly tax time last weekend; so was a little busier than anticipated.  Since there were a ton of hits on Monday — I felt sufficently  guilty enough to jump on this today (Tuesday). So with no further ado; here it is! 

Barefoot Books Titles and the AR (Accelerated Reader) level = books on the list are worth 0.5 points per quiz.

Thanks go to another Barefoot Stallholder (Jennifer A. of Tacoma, Washington) for this list. Jennifer also supplied a telephone number to Renaissance Learning customer service in Wisconsin (parent company of the AR).  Books on the list can be seen & purchased here on my Barefoot Books website; and your school librarian can order them through normal channels for use in your class, along with the quizzes.  Corresponding Activity Sheets for some of the books can be found on the Barefoot sight to expand the visual and kinesthetic learning modes. You can email me or leave a comment for any questions on these  activity sheets. I will go check to see the actual page and then place it here with an edit:    Barefoot ACTIVITY SHEETS .  <click here for the activity sheets PDFs.

Here are 2 examples:  A) Creepy Crawly Calypso       B) Fun With Thesaurus Rex

Renaissance Learning customer service number (1-800-338-4204) to answer any questions on the AR program. 

Level/Title

0.6 Cleo The Cat

0.7 Cleo and Caspar

0.7 Cleo on the Move

0.7 Where’s The Cat?

0.8 Cleo In The Snow

1.1 Catch That Goat

1.3 Bear’s Busy Family

1.4 I Dreamt I Was A Dinosaur

1.5 Bear In Sunshine

1.8 Bear At Home

1.8 Thesaurus Rex

1.9 We All Went On Safari

2.0 Secret Seahorse

2.0 Daddy Island

2.1 A Dragon On The Doorstep

2.1 I Took The Moon For A Walk

2.3 Bear About Town

2.3 Creepy Crawley Calypso

2.4 An Island In the Sun

2.5 My Granny Went To Market

2.7 What’s This? A Seed’s Story

2.8 Bear On A Bike

2.8 Shrinking Sam

2.8 The Animal Boogie

2.8 The Little Red Hen and The Ear of Wheat

2.8 We’re Sailing To Galapagos

2.9 Off We Go To Mexico

When I find more, I will try to add to the list; however your librarian may be the first one to have information on new books being added to the list. Our Barefoot Books Spring & Summer 2008 catalog (usually available in late March/early April ) will have many new titles to add to the list. Hope you have lots of fun & success using Barefoot Books in your classrooms!            Ta-Ta! From Talula!