4 Ways to Supercharge Your School Fundraising Project and Keep Kids Safe

Did your last school fundraising program fall short of your expectations? Do you know why this happened? There are many contributing factors to the success or failure of any fundraising campaign. Some factors occur from things that are out of our control like hurricanes and other disasters. Barring any of these unfortunate events, here are 4 tips to help you get the most out of your school fundraising efforts.

1.) Prizes / Incentives with ValueYour incentive program is the single most important factor when determining the success or failure of your fundraising campaign. It almost could be said that you could sell the most horrible product in the world and do real well if you motivate your students correctly. Of course no one is going to do that, but I'm trying to make my point by being absurd.In order for your prize program to be successful in motivating more of your students to participate, you must target your prizes for the specific demographic that makes up your school. In short, your prizes need to be age appropriate AND something that the parents of the younger students can get excited about too. Most school sponsored fundraisers don't target the parents with the incentive plan. However, if you want to get their attention, do a prize program that will knock their socks off.Simply put, if your school is filled with 5 - 12 year olds, then your incentive plan should include items that would appeal to that group of students that would also impress their parents. While trinket type prizes might go over well with the kids, moms will look at them and simply trash the brochure

Choosing the wrong type of incentive for your target group can have a huge negative impact on your school fundraising campaign.

2.) Make Sure The Word Makes It HomeIt is not enough to simply have a great incentive package for the students. Remember, many of your students are so young that they will have a hard time communicating to their parents just what is being offered for certain sales levels. As a matter of fact, you might just say that your prize brochure and parent letter are the things that "sell" your parents on the incentive program.One of the best things you can do to get the message home about your fundraiser and prize program is to show the prizes at school on the same day that the sales brochures go home. Also, have a parent letter or prize brochure that pictures the prizes so the students can show them to their parents. Dong both of these things will pretty much guarantee that the moms will get the idea that this is not your ordinary fundraising prize program."

3.) Sales and Safety CoachingMost fundraising salespeople are little kids who are either going to have to sell Grandma and family friends some of the products that they have in their sales brochure, or they are going to have to convince Mom to do it for them. If you have a worthwhile incentive program, your students will turn on those big brown eyes and get it done! One of the best ways is to coach your students to ask mom and dad and mom's best friend and an aunt or two to take turns taking the sales brochure to work with them. If you coach your students to do this, you will go a long way on overcoming safety issues in fundraising.

4.) SafetyPersonally, I favor structuring the prizes to motivate every student in the school to sale to 20 items max. Beyond that most students are going to have to go beyond family, friends of the family and people they know real well to make those higher sales numbers. That to me is a child safety issue.We have been structuring incentive programs for years that are geared toward rewarding students heavily for just selling 5 - 15 things. For a school with over 250 students, especially if they have been plagued by low participation in past school fundraising efforts, this approach to the prize program will usually double your previous sales. Simple as that!In fact if you have been having 25% participation in past fundraisers, a 15% increase in your participation will double your sale. I know this sounds odd, but that is the power of the numbers in large groups.Safety is important no matter what age group your students are, but even more so if they are small children. I personally prefer to give prizes that are worthwhile for simply selling a few items to family, friends and people they know. Then mom or dad can carry the brochure to work to help out too.

Use these simple fundraising tips to make your next school fundraising event a complete success.

Helping To Safeguard Your Holiday Home

Those people fortunate enough to own a holiday home will most certainly have a property that provides a regular income stream and hopefully an increasing capital value. The rent payable by a holidaymaker is much more than that paid by a tenant for a let property and as an added bonus the holidaymakers need to pay their holiday rent in advance. You also have the freedom to use the property yourself for family holidays and weekend trips plus the option let a few friends and family enjoy it.However, unlike a standard let property, a holiday let property is often empty for short and long periods of time depending on the season and possibly the weather.

As much as you might try it is inevitable that there will be some empty periods. During these void periods it maybe difficult to determine whether there are any problems with the property unless it is regularly visited and how would anyone contact you to let you know? If you live a good distance away it may not be practical for you to make regular visits.A good number of holiday home owners do not live near their property, it is used as a weekend and holiday getaway in another part of the country. It would therefore be prudent to use the services of a friend or family member who could visit the property to see that all is well.

Alternatively, a holiday letting company would undertake these visits for a charge.A holiday let property is no different to a property that you or I would live in. It still needs to be maintained and repaired on a regular basis. So what would you do if your holiday home was flooded or burgled whilst you were not there? Hopefully one of the neighbours or the emergency services would be called to see if they could help. But how do they contact the owner of the property?Unless you leave your contact details with a neighbour then this could be a problem waiting to happen.

There are a few tips that could help with this problem:Leave your contact details with a neighbour in case of emergenciesLeave a note inside the property, in a prominent place, with your contact detailsLeave details of the letting agent with a neighbour or inside the propertyNow these options rely on the emergency services having access to the property so they can then find your contact details. Many problems can occur externally and so the Police would not have a reason to enter the home.What you don't want to do is alert people to the fact that the property is empty.

If possible arrange for the post to be collected and removed from the doormat and ask people to pop in regularly to check all is well. A few lights on timers would also give the impression that the property is being used.Your holiday home is a precious asset so do all you can to make sure it stays safe.

Divorce ' Your Children Come First

There simply isn't a way to embrace the idea that divorce is just great fun because it isn't. It's a horribly painful experience to go through. No one in their right mind would want to go through this experience and would do all in our power to avoid it. We all want our marriages to work.And yet, divorce continues to happen. We're decimated by it and we're adults! Consider this: with all the years we've been alive, with all our schooling, and with all of the experiences that have taught us, we are still decimated by divorce.

Can you imagine what very little education, very little experience, very little living does for our children when they have to go through a divorce with us?Divorce is horrible for children. We are our children's caretakers. Their needs must come first. It's awfully nice if there is both a mom and a dad to care for the children. But when a divorce makes that impossible, their needs must still come first and the parents must make their welfare a priority.All kids need both parents and they need to rely on them with full trust.

Squabbling between parents is just too difficult for a growing-up child to endure and it wounds them emotionally. Please consider not fighting with their mommy or daddy in front of them. Please consider not badmouthing their other parent in front of them. Please be there for them 24/7. If your ex has a tendency not to be there, write him a note and explain how you see this affecting his children and could he please plan to be there for them?Together with your ex, write a Parenting Plan that you can both agree upon. Your attorneys can devise a plan for you, if you are not capable of doing this with your ex yourself. Both of you should have input into creating it and tweaking it until it suits both of you. The internet contains many ideas to be incorporated into a Parenting Plan. Discuss the feasibility of sharing your Parenting Plan with your children's caregivers or babysitters.When you first decide that you have to get a divorce, craft a way to telling your children without placing blame on either you or your soon-to-be ex. This kind of news is not easily absorbed by your children because they don't handle change well if they are quite young.

And this change is life altering. Give them time to absorb it. Revisit the discussion and try to help them to understand how necessary it is, even if you aren't happy about it yourself. Work toward a way you can all live with the fact that a divorce is going to happen, like it or not.Once the divorce is underway, give your children an explanation of the court agreement. They won't appreciate the legality of it, but they want to know how it's going to affect them. Make a list of those things and let them ask lots of questions. When you answer them, work hard not to place any sense of blame on their other parent.Don't force your children to take sides. They deserve to have a mommy and a daddy if that is at all possible. They are entitled to continue to enjoy a relationship with their other parent, even if you can't.

Try to keep their needs at the top of your list.Most kids have fears that somehow they caused the divorce, that they're going to be abandoned too, or that something painful will happen to them as well. Listen to their questions and fears with empathy, and keep asking them questions until you are sure they're okay with the discussion. They'll be losing a key member of their family from the home. They may have another family to integrate into their lives. There's a lot of trauma involved in this for kids and they deserve to have their fears addressed.At this link http://www.divorcesource.com/info/checklists/childbehavior.shtml You'll discover a great tool to determine just how your child is handling your divorce. It can help you help them through their sadness and sense of loss.

See How Easily You Can Find a Meaningful Name For Your Baby Girl

How do you come up with a meaningful name for your baby girl? How do you know that your choice is a good one?

Aside from having a nice sound, one of the important considerations in coming up with a name for your precious baby girl is the meaning behind it. You want to come up with a meaningful name that will suit your baby.

There are a million names for a baby girl and all of them have their own meanings. If only you can give your baby more than 50 names, you must have done it already. Unfortunately, you can only give her a few. So your problem is how to come up with it in the most creative way.

Here are some techniques on how to do come up with the best name for your baby:

• Pick a meaningful name based on seasons

Some parents name their babies based on the season they were born. Baby girls born in summer can be named Summer or Sunny. Donoma is also a Native American name meaning sight of the sun. If born during spring time, names like Chun (Japanese) or Maayana (Hebrew) is also a good choice. Should you choose winter, you can pick Koleyn (Australian) or Istas (Native American).

• Pick a meaningful name based on the time they were born

Another option in choosing a meaningful baby name is to base it on the time they were born. Aurora is a nice Latin name for your baby girl if she's born during dawn. Another Native American name is Awendela which means morning. You can also use Laila, an African name meaning born at night.

• Pick a meaningful name based on angels and saints

If you love your religion, religious names might be a good pick. You can name your child after angels, saints and biblical characters. Among these names are Michelle (Hebrew-like God), Angel (Greek- heavenly messenger), Gabrielle (Hebrew- God is my strength) and Samara (Hebrew- guarded by God).

• Pick a meaningful name based on remarkable people

There are people that you encounter on stories and situations that you can't help but admire. In their honor, you can name your child after them. You can name your child based on your favorite author or your favorite journalist.

• Pick a meaningful name based on what you want your child to becomeEvery parent has a dream for their children.

You can name her based on it. If you want your child to be a peace maker, give her the Hindu name Shamita. If you think your child is a brilliant one, give her the Persian name Roxanne.To make the search for baby names extensive, you can surf the internet and try visiting sites that offer a list of baby names with their corresponding definitions. This will make your search more interesting and fascinating.There are so many way to come up with a meaningful baby name for your baby. All it takes is just a little imagination, creativity and research. So grab a pen and find the perfect name for your precious baby girl.

The Foundation of Having Right Brain Kids - Brain Development Form Birth to Six Years Old

The first period of my baby is one of extremely important, her rapid growth and great development in her early year. For a young born baby, she cannot speak, she cannot hold herself erect and she constantly needs attention from me. However during 3-6 months, she learns to roll over and her hand is free to move around. By 6-9 months than she learn how to sit up and crawl. When she is about 12-15 months she will practice stand up without holding and practice walking. At the end of the first year my baby's weight is three times its birth weight. This weight was increased again by third during the second year and subsequently the rate increase becomes proportionately slower each year. This is the most important stage that greatest care should be provided emotionally. I have provided her plenty of sleep and food that contained all the proteins, minerals and vitamins that are necessary for such her rapid normal growth. I am very careful and protected as far as possible from infection, as fever are more likely to be serious in very young children.Giving a quality early learning program such as the right brain education is very important. I have given her many right brain stimulation program from black, white and red flashcards, image flashcards, word flashcards, Tweedle Wink math flashcard, phonics flashcards, perfect pitch recognition, brain gym, kinder gym exercise, brain wave music, touch cards, match card, observation training, memory linking, photographic memory, mental imaging , Wink photo eyeplay, Wink eye exercise, Tweedle Wink Multi Languages, Tweedle Wink DVD 1 to Tweedle Wink DVD 4, Wink speed reading, word and image.In this first period, it is a form of mind which is quite different because at this stage the baby mind and the only right brain is wide open. I would recommend you to provide many variety of quality stimulation if you would like to right brain kids. The right brain education such as Tweedle Wink DVD program had help me a lot and I found out that it is very suitable for me. I have took up the Tweedle Wink and Wink course for parents and it had help me a lot from that sense.The baby development brain can be divided into two stages which is the unconscious mind from 0-3 years and the conscious mind from 3-6 years old. The baby brain development is from right to left. The brain development is slowly progressing to more left brain dominate from 3-6 years old. During the unconscious mind from 0-3 years of age the right brain mind is wide open. The child is constantly absorbing any information from the environment that you feed her and yet does this without knowing that it is doing so, she can learn anything because No filter in happening. This is the kind of mind the adult cannot understand and approach.In the second phase from 3-6 years of age the child begin to become susceptible to adult influence. The left mind is coming in play with great influence from their parents. During this stages the learning ability and personality undergoes great changes. Than school life start to set in with more reinforcement on rules, regulation, expectation, pressure and discipline. The child is yet a social being in the full sense of the world, the individual's energies being still largely directed to the acquisition of perfection of new functions. In this stage, the prepared environment is every important for her to act freely on her own initiative without intervention of the adult in which he can choose her own actions and make social contacts. Set free to live her own independent life in this prepared environment she not only learns to do things by herself and acquire new moral and social aptitudes but also makes swift and surprises progress main because of the early education I have introduced in her is from right to left. Given her many moral value and Tweedle Wink and Wink Right Brain education program. She is a right brain kids because she has very strong learning ability and intuition.As such, we can see the emergence of a higher type of normality, a process which has been often described as "the revelation of a new type of child right brain kids"

What is Mosaic Tile

Mosaic tile is the use of glass or porcelain that is mounted onto a backing that will be installed somewhere else. The glass or porcelain can be unglazed or glazed. That is the definition of what mosaic tile actually is, but it does not give justice to the effect that this lovely art form can give.The people that create designs from mosaic tile are true artists. There are a number of ways that this type of tile can be used in the home. It can be used in kitchens for a lovely backsplash, around the pool, on floors and it can even be used for spectacular murals. When you choose to have this lovely design element in your home, it will add a degree of elegance that you will not find with any other decorative touch.The quality of the piece will depend on the quality of the tiles and stones that are used. When you are going to use mosaic tile in your home, you should try and use the highest quality materials that you can get.If you are having mosaic tiles installed in your home,the contractor should be familiar with the installation of the tiles to be sure that they are installed properly.The murals that are created with mosaic tile can be incredible works of art that you can use in your home. There are companies that will create a mosaic tile mural for you and ship it to your home, ready for installation. Whether you choose to use the mural in your home or outside of the home, choose your contractor wisely so that you get the best installation of your artwork.There are a wide variety of materials that can be used in a mosaic tile piece. Artists have used many different types of stones in one piece to obtain the color and look that they are after. If you are trying to create a piece on your own, you should buy the highest grade materials that you can find. Many people are discovering mosaic tile as a way to express their creativity.There are a great deal of websites online that specialize in mosaic tile pieces. You can order a piece that is especially created for your home and have it installed by a contractor in your area. If you are interested in creating your own pieces, there are many resources online for materials as well as instruction. Do some research on the website before you decide to purchase. Make sure that the company that you choose is an expert in mosaic tile. It can become very expensive to have pieces created for you.Mosaic tile is one of the most beautiful ways that you can add to your home's décor. Just one look at all of the creative pieces that have been made from simple stone and tile is enough to convince you that this art form is truly amazing. Take a look at some of the websites and browse through their creations. Adding a mural or a simple backsplash to your home is a wonderful way to experience these works of art.

Excellent Art Galleries to Visit in London

With excellent galleries, great shopping and wonderful sights, London is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the world.London has a genuinely diverse population and over three hundred languages are spoken within the city. According to 2006 statistics, it has a population of 7512400, which means it's the most populous municipality in the european union and the 2nd most populous in Europe.London has been chosen as the host of the 2012 olympics.London has a rich history that covers more than 2000 years, so it would be impossible to talk about it all. However, the city was particularly badly affected amid world war 2.During world war two, London was bombed heavily. kids were evacuated to the countryside to escape the bombing. the people who remained hid from from bombs in the london underground. However, almost 35 000 the people of london were killed, & approximately 50,000 were seriously injured.One of the most popular places to visit in London is Buckingham Palace, which has been the official london residence of the british monarchy since 1837. The palace was initially opened to the public in 1993 & the changing of the guard has proved especially popular with them. This ceremony takes place in front of the palace at 11.30 every day in summer & every other day during the winter.Buckingham Palace is located in Westminster & its accessible by tube & bus.London boasts some of the finest shops in the world. Whether you are are you looking for designer fashion, souvenirs or tasty food, you are sure to find the things you want here.One of the city's most renowned outlets is harrods in knightsbridge. This department store is one of the world's most famous and was formed in 1834. now run by Mohamed Al Fayed, it employs over five thousand people and boasts countless designer concessions.London boasts fabulous history, which we are sure that all of us will find exhilarating. From fabulous eateries, to elite night clubs & wine bars, there is things for everyone to enjoy in London.One of the most renowned night clubs is the Embassy, which is a members club on Old Burlington street. The nightclub is relatively pricey, but it is full of celebrities & fabulous for star spotting. in addition to this, it serves fabulous food by michelin starred Garry Hollihead.Because its such a enormous location, London is extremely simple to get to. in fact, its well-connected by rail & has some large train stations, containing London Bridge, London Victoria, London Euston & Liverpool st. in addition to this, the city also has 3 major airports, Heathrow; Stanstead & Luton.Driving in London can be tricky due to the congestion charge, but the city has a wonderful underground & bus network to help people get about.