About the Product

Marlee is a school guidance counselor and a designer, who wants to save the world and make it more beautiful at the same time (peaceista). Amy is a special education teacher, who is a self-described word nerd (wordista or nerdista?) who loves the idea of creating new words with a clever sounding suffix. Between us, we have 5 children to put through college, I mean, who we are raising. Marlee and Amy have been friends since they met in the “transfer student” line at Clemson University in 1986.

Their kids are tennisista, zombieista, spikeista, artista, and pizza-ista (which is just fun to say—try it).

How It All Started

Dig if you will this picture, over a glass or 2 of the house merlot, the two founders lamented the current state of the economy and our husbands’ job prospects. Someone said something like “Forget fashionista, I’m a recessionista.” Next thing you know, they were all throwing out other ista ideas. They got to thinking that it would be fun to create Ista T-shirts.

Part of their mission is to be generous with others. They know that many organizations have been suffering from a lack of donations. They know that passionate people like their customers will have their own pet charities. They want their customers to suggest charities and they will donate a portion of their profits.

My Take on the Shirts

What I love about the shirts is that each one is unique to the person is wearing it. So no matter if you are a bookista (my wife) or artista (my daughter), you can have assured that is perfectly aligned with your personality. My wife and daughter loved it there shirts as you can see in the pictures and I can say that it was fun giving them the gift as well. The website for the company is well laid out and there is so much there for someone to choose from. On top of this if you can’t find something the company states that you can even make your own ista as well. I highly encourage everyone to check out this company and the shirts that they provide and find your own unique ista!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site’s Disclaimer  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.

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What you’ll need:

1 couch

2 dining room chairs

1 broomstick (with the broom head detached)

2 blankets

1 fitted sheet (the easiest and best resource for a living room tent or couch fort!)

Pillows (optional for added comfort)

The Blueprints:

The results!

Ever build one of these? What kinds of designs or materials do you use?

That’s why I was really amazed at the necklace Erica made for Ella.  I had never seen one before in all my life.

How was it made?  I had to ask.

So while this is just part of Erica’s childhood (“Did you invent this?” I asked her.) it was really amazing to me.  I’m very glad she can pass on something as simple as a dandelion necklace to her daughter, and one day maybe Ella will make one for her kids.

I really rely on Erica for a lot of the creative stuff we do as a family.  She loves to make the everyday stuff fun.

Sprinkles in waffles spice up any morning.  And this Easter she had some really great ideas, like the Jelly Bean Garden, or Resurrection Rolls

(It was a little weird comparing Jesus to a marshmallow at first, but after you put him in the ‘tomb’ and pull them out of the oven to show that “he’s” not there, it was pretty neat)

Even just getting tips like this on how to successfully decorate Easter eggs without using that tiny egg holder that is impossible for anyone to balance an egg on.

And you wouldn’t believe how excited they were to have the same lunch they usually get, served in little plastic egg containers…

I’m in awe of what she does, day in and day out, as a stay at home mom.  I know she is passing on a love for life to our kids, teaching them to stop and celebrate the small things in life as well as the big things.  And I will hopefully pass on more than mudballs…

He was dressed all in green, cute and quite tiny. But he’s six, they do that. The agenda of the day was on repeat and by the third time through, between bites of oatmeal and large gulps of orange juice, I believe I had the gist of what he was saying. First, they were doing a flash mob on the school playground, and then they were walking to the park for a leprechaun hunt.

“You’re hunting leprechauns?” I asked.

“Mr. Magic Leprechaun lives in the park,” he said. “My teacher saw him.”

“Is this a catch and release thing or do you plan to eat him?”

“We’re not going to eat a leprechaun!” he said. He seemed insulted.

“Then what are you going to do? Make a rug?”

“A what? They don’t make leprechaun rugs!”

“They should,” I told him. “Although I’m not sure how big of a rug you can get from a leprechaun hide. Maybe we can make a doormat.”

“Daddy! We’re not making a leprechaun doormat!”

“That’s a good idea. If a rainbow ended on our porch we’d get all kinds of crazies. Maybe we could have him mounted, like a trophy. We could hang lucky charms from his antlers.”

“Leprechauns don’t have antlers.”

“Are you sure about that one?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure they have antlers.”

“Leprechauns aren’t animals.”

“Then why are you hunting them?”

“We’re LOOKING for Mr. Magic Leprechaun,” he said. “We just want to say hello.”

“Oh,” I said. “So tell me about the flash mob. Do you need to borrow a trench coat?”

Photo

1. Make them earn their time.  Kids love the iPad almost as much as their dads do. Many kids enjoy playing games on the iPad and doing other fun things.
   They are absolutely amazed by the touch screen and other capabilities of this
   Apple tablet. (The younger kids will grow up believing that every screen is a touchscreen) But you can’t let your children hog the iPad or else you may
   never get to use it. You can help them appreciate their time with this great
   tool by making them earn the time they spend on it. You can make rules that say
   they get 10 or 20 minutes for every chore they do or for every time they get
   their homework done.  Many dads allow their children to earn “play time” on their
   iPad by playing educational games first. You can do an even trade – one minute
   of playtime for every minute of educational games played – or however you
   choose to do it. Either way, your kids will have a good balance of fun and
   education.

2. Play games together on the iPad.  If you want your kids to get the most from the iPad, don’t use it as a virtual
   babysitter like many parents do with the TV. Instead, use the iPad alongside
   your kids. Play some interactive games with them that they will enjoy. You will
   enjoy the quality time and your kids will learn and practice some new skills.  Some head-to-head games for kids probably 5 and up would be Fruit Ninja and Tap Tap Revenge.

3. Download Educational Apps  In addition to learning about money and playing games that enhance your child’s
   skills, the iPad is a great resource for using educational apps. There are apps
   that will help teach your kids how to add, subtract, multiply, divide and so
   much more. And since they are doing it on the iPad, your kids will look forward
   to doing these educational things. Apps like AceWriter
   help teach ABCs in a fun way, but that’s just one of the thousands of
   educational apps designed for kids. Create a personalized folder for each of
   your children that uses you iPad with their very own apps, games and videos so
   they feel like it is partly their iPad, too. Besides, you don’t want all of
   their things cluttering up your iPad’s main screen.

4. Let Them Read.  Reading can be a lot of fun on the iPad. You can find a long list of children’s
   books online that you can download complete with full-color pictures and more.
   You can even find a variety of interactive books from Dr. Seuss to Alice in
   Wonderland and more to help make reading much more fun for the kids.

5. Download and Stream Videos.  There are few things that will hold a child’s attention more than an
   interesting or funny video. With the iPad, there are endless possibilities when
   it comes to video entertainment. If you have a Netflix account, you can stream movies
   that your children will love from the company’s online database. There are
   dozens of cartoons and children’s movies streaming on Netflix which is ideal
   for those long car rides with your kids. You can even download your family’s
   home movies onto the iPad and also movies from websites like Youtube
   and others that you children can enjoy anytime.Learn a New Language.  One of the most beneficial things you can do for your children when they are
   young is to encourage them to learn a new language. Studies show that learning
   a new language is much easier when a child is young compared to adolescents and
   even adults. The iPad can help make it fun and you can work together on
   learning a new language like German, Spanish or even Chinese.  There are many different apps to choose from if you want to
   do this. For example, if you want your child to learn to speak Chinese, the Chinese
   for Kids app by 321Speak offers vocabulary and listening programs
   designed for children of various ages. For more in-depth study of the Chinese
   language, the iLearn
   Chinese Characters Lite
   app teaches children (and their fathers, for that matter) how to write
   various numbers and other characters in Chinese. You can find several apps
   (many of them free or very inexpensive) for the iPad based on the language you
   and your child want to learn.

6. Get Them Interested in an Instrument.  Music is a great way to keep children entertained and it’s even better when the
   children are interacting to make the music themselves. There are apps that
   allow kids to mimic
   playing music with instruments ranging from the piano to drums and
   many in between. This may create an interest in music that will last a
   lifetime, or at least though their toddler years and beyond.

7. Download Coloring Book Apps.  Are you going on a long trip and going to spend hours in the car? If your kids
   are coming along, you should bring the iPad complete with a couple coloring
   book apps. Kids can color virtually so you don’t have to bring along several
   books and boxes of crayons along with all the other things you need for a trip.
   And if your kid messes up on a picture, they can erase the colors or start over
   on the same page.

Letting your kids use your iPad
from time to time is a great way to teach them how to use technology and how to
be careful with fragile things. But it can also have educational benefits.
Video game developers in recent years have created games that are both fun and
educational for children. These days, playing video games isn’t as mindless as
it was when we were kids 10 or 20 years ago. They aren’t all about shooting
zombies or jumping over mushrooms like they were in our day. If you choose the
right games and activities that your children can participate in on your iPad,
you can use this tool to enhance their life skills and have some fun at the
same time.

Okay, guys, I’ve got to admit that I used to
be pretty down on libraries.  
This is what I pictured:  little
old ladies punching out library cards, smelly, obscure books no one really
read, and worn-out beanbag chairs that had lost a few too many beans.  And being an internet surfing addict
& a bookstore/café regular, I thought, who needs a library?  

Today’s libraries are really different than
from what I remember.  They’re on
twitter. They’re running cool programs and partnering with local businesses
& cultural institutions. 
They’re doing stuff for autistic kids.   They’ve got online book reservations and local
neighborhood pick-up/drop-off.  One
library I talked to is even letting members borrow fishing poles.

If you haven’t been to your local library in
a while, now might be the time to do so. Summer reading programs and prizes are
everywhere.  I talked to 2 people
in the library business: Eric Robbins, Assistant Director of Northbrook Library in suburban Chicago (where you might find us on a Wednesday
afternoon), and Ruth Lednicer, Director of Marketing of the Chicago Public Library.  What should we dads
know about libraries?

1. Libraries are filled with passionate staff:  Lots of the staff
   are passionate, helpful, and knowledgeable (one of my favorite combos!) to help
   answer your questions.  In fact,
   when I contacted my local library wanting to interview them for this article?
   Their response was, “send me your questions – answering them is our business!”  They
   pride themselves in being trusted to find what you need.

2. Libraries have a lot of data that others don’t:  Libraries have
   access to proprietary databases and other resources that would be too expensive
   for me or you to purchase on our own. Much
   of the best of the Internet is information that can only be accessed through
   subscription databases that libraries purchase on our behalf. The same is true
   of book collections: free access to hundreds of thousands of works locally, and
   if they don’t have it, they’ll probably be able to get it through interlibrary
   loan.

3. The Internet has actually made libraries more relevant. Maybe this one’s counterintuitive,
   but stay with me.  Libraries are
   training people to be more discerning information consumers. There is a lot of
   good information that can now be found very easily online.  Libraries educate people to filter the
   junk from the nuggets. Robbins of Northbrook Library said so succinctly, “We
   teach people to use the technology that we’ve been told is going to replace us,
   but they keep coming back, year after year with more questions.”   In fact, the Chicago Public Library provided 3.8 million free, 1-hour Internet sessions to the people of Chicago in
   2009.  What’s often ignored is the growing digital divide in the U.S. – one
   of the key ways to bridge it consistently is through public libraries. Check
   this: ~60% of the individuals
   who use public computers at Chicago’s libraries are searching for and applying
   for jobs. 

4. Try it before you buy it, baby.  Hey we’re paying the taxes, might as
   well use it, right? As the economy has tightened, many
   libraries have noticed a definite increase in the number of people coming to
   get that new bestseller, rather than buy it at $25-30.  The Library offers
   a great opportunity to “try it before you buy it” on books you may want to own
   eventually (cookbooks are a great example).

5. Libraries
   aren’t really about books at all.  What we often forget is that libraries often have movies, audiobooks,
   sheet music, and video games.  It’s
   never actually been about books as it has been about information. 

14 Things Dads Can Do With Their Kids at the Library

1. Look for DVDs, videogames, books,
   and manga with them
2. Attend a family-friendly movie or
   other children’s programs
3. Join the summer or winter reading
   clubs – lots of times there are neat prizes when for kids who read throughout
   the season. Ironically, the toy my 4yo loves the most right now is not the $50
   customized car (yeah, I know) we bought him during our trip to Disney. It’s the
   free beach ball we got from our local library after reading 4 books.
4. Come to a storytime
5. Work on homework together using
   their many databases
6. Look at the art exhibitions and
   talk about the pictures
7. Attend one of the weekend activities
   sponsored by the local YMCA or other community organizations
8. Participate in the Detective club
   or Newbury Club
9. Come in for Bedtime stories
10. Check out fishing poles (yup – at 9 locations at the Chicago
    Public Library locations near public parks)
11. Play computer games
12. Make up a knowledge search game where kids race to find the answer
    to 10 questions.  Sort of a
    scavenger hunt for information.
13. Check out the library for exclusive deals they may have with local
    cultural institutions.  For
    example, the Chicago Public Library also has a limited number of passes for the
    great museums around in the city.
14. Oh, almost forgot! Read with them! Studies have shown that
    children who were read to for 20 minutes each day, starting from birth, start
    school able to read and ready to learn.
15. What other things can you think of?  Comment below.

Here’s one story about libraries & families that’s
worth sharing again:  A few years
ago, a family decided to show their two sons all of Chicago’s neighborhoods by
visiting the library branch in each and then eating lunch in that neighborhood. 
It took them more than a year to do so (74 locations), but they succeeded.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen happen at your library?

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Other Resources:

Chicago Public
Library’s Blog for Small Business Owners

Chicago Public Library: Resources for Parents