Welcome to Winning Wednesday, a one-stop-spot for you to list and enter giveaways on the web! Please take a look at the giveaways we have going on here at Busy Mommy Media, then feel free to link up.

Giveaways on Busy Mommy Media:

• Pizza Mania Early Math Game, ends 2/15
• Alpha Catch Phonics Game, ends 2/21

Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest gift buying holidays. It has also become a time to tell the one we love how much we love them by showering them with gifts. I think the old saying, Money can’t buy love, should make you think twice about how much you need to spend to let the one you love know it. Some of the most popular gifts for Valentine’s Day are cards, a romantic dinner, candy/chocolate, flowers, and jewelry. I have a frugal option for all of those items that won’t break your budget and still show your loved one how much you care.

Valentine Cards

Premade Valentine cards in the store can cost you up to $6 (or more). Why buy those? You can easily make your own for a lot cheaper. Sit down and write a love letter to your loved one. These letters are more meaningful than a card someone else has written. You could also try to write a poem. These handmade cards and letters will become cherished keepsakes. You can also send your loved one an e-card. There are a lot of different places online to send free e-cards. I have also printed cards that I have made online. These are a lot more personal because you can write what you want on them. If you just really are not very crafty then Dollar stores offer cards for fifty cents, so you might try there.

Romantic Dinners

Going out for dinner is another popular way for couples to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It can also cost you over $100. One thing you could do to save money is go out to eat for lunch instead. Lunch will cost about half of what dinner would have and since my kids are in school, I do not even need a babysitter. Another option would be to go out for dessert only. If you have never gone out for dessert only then you have try this. I am always too full to order dessert and this way I do not have to worry about that. This also allows for more time talking since you are not eating as much. Lastly, you can make dinner at home. This can be really nice with candlelight and all. There are however some drawbacks . . . you will actually have to cook and cleanup. If you are willing to do that you could save money and still have a nice evening. There are a lot of nice restaurant copycat recipes online. One of my favorites is the Alice Springs Chicken from The Outback. I have made this several times. So there are several options to have a romantic meal and still save money.

Candy/Chocolates

Have you looked at the store and noticed how much chocolates are now? You can pay $20 or more for a nice box! There are a lot of easy recipes online that you can make yourself to give. Some of my favorites are chocolate covered strawberries, coconut balls, truffles, and even chocolate chip cookies. You can also make your own conversation hearts and write something on them that you want. Homemade foods are always a hit for Valentine’s Day.

Flowers

Flowers can cost you up to $100.  If you really want to give flowers, think about buying a plant or even a rose bush.  These will give your Valentine the gift of flowers for a long time and may be a better use of your money.

Jewelry

Jewelry is another item that men usually like to buy women for Valentine’s Day. This can be expensive. If you still really want to get something special for your loved one in the jewelry department you can try Free Jewelry.com. They have a great selection of jewelry for free or low cost. The only thing you have to do is pay $6.99 for shipping per piece. Believe it or not the quality of the jewelry is really nice. Just make sure if you order from there to note how long shipping will take.

Any moms of boys can tell you that they learn better when they are free to be active. This can be a struggle when you are trying to teach basic skills like phonics. The Alpha Catch phonics game from Educational Insights makes it easy to practice letter recognition and phonics skills with even the most active preschooler.

Alpha Catch comes with four sticky catchers mitts so you can play with a nice little group. A set of 26 balls featuring the letters of the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase, can be used to play a huge assortment of games. A few ideas are included but we’ve had fun coming up with our own games.

My 4 year old loves to play catch by hunting down the letters of his name, since that’s what he’s working on right now. He has so much fun tracking down the right letters and then throwing them into a teammate’s mitt. My 6 year old loves to stick the balls together to make simple words.

The open-ended nature of this game makes the options for play nearly endless. If you need a way to jazz up your phonics education, this game is a great way to do it!

Enter to Win

Educational Insights is giving one Busy Mommy Media reader their own Alpha Catch game!

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I am not a crafty person by nature so the crafts we do around here are foolproof. I love the look of homemade Valentines cards because they are so much more personal than the generic little cards you buy at the store but with my options are limited by my crafting skills.

I love this super simple idea for creating homemade Valentines and the best part is you can make it from supplies you probably already have around the house!

Supplies

• Camera
• Pipe Cleaner
• Multi-colored cupcake liners

Instructions

These homemade Valentines are so easy that your kids can actually do most of the work. My son made these in our co-op preschool last year and he was so proud of the end result (You’ll have to excuse the photo. I couldn’t find the original at the moment so this was just a quick snapshot that was take of the project last year).

The first step is to take the photo. You can either take a snapshot in your backyard or create a solid background by having your child stand against a painted wall. If you don’t have a solid wall in your home, try hanging a solid color blanket or sheet behind your child.

Lighting is the key to getting the best photo. If you have a wall next to a window that brings in a lot of natural light that will work the best. Outside photos are a great alternative as well.

Have your child make a fist and hold his arm out. For younger kids, you may have to tell them to pretend that they are holding something in their hand. It’s best if your child’s thumb is on the side of their fist so that the end result looks more realistic.

Print enough photos to create the number of Valentines that you need.

Poke a small hole in the photo at the top of your child’s hand. If you want to be fancy you can poke a second hole at the bottom of their hand so it looks like the stem of the flower is coming out the bottom.

Poke a hole in the center of a stack of cupcake liners. Don’t make the hole too big of they’ll slide down the stem. A toothpick works great for this.

Have your child thread the cupcake liners onto the pipe cleaner to make them look like a flower. You can use tissue paper cut into interesting shapes for this too if you want to be a bit more create.

When your child likes the way their flower looks, fold over the top of the pipe cleaner to keep the cupcake liners in place then feed the other end through the hole in the photo.

Optional: If your child doesn’t want a flower in his Valentine, you can use a lollipop instead.

While it is true that couponing takes time, effort and fair amount of work, to be a successful couponer, does not mean you have to devote every waking moment to it. If you haven’t read the first part of this post click here: Successful #Couponing: Part 1

Planning Ahead

1. Plan out your couponing shopping trip – to the penny if you can. Use coupon matching sites to help you know what the best deals are. The more you plan it out, the smoother it will go in the store, so be as detailed as you can listing product name (and variety if necessary), size/ct., retail price, sale price, coupon value, and price you expect to pay.
2. Look at your calendar and shop accordingly. After major holidays you can find items that might have holiday specific packaging, which will be marked down with the rest of the holiday items.
3. Understand the coupons and sale prices usually coincide for free or near free pricing only twice a year. So if you CAN, buy enough to last your household six months.

Opportunity Awareness

1. Never go into a store that accepts coupons without your coupon binder. You never know when a store may be putting an item on sale – due to overstock, or package damage – that was not advertised.
2. When you have time, walk the outer perimeter of the store instead of the inside aisles. These endcaps often have items marked at clearance pricing.
3. Expand your store horizons – shop for cleaning products at home improvement stores, or hair products at a pharmacy.

Niceties

1. While you are a customer – like everyone else – your transaction may be a little more involved than others. So be polite and patient to both the other people in line and the cashier.
2. Never take more than a few coupons that are available in a store – peelies, tear pads, hangtags, booklets, recipe cards, etc. It is rude and will ultimately result in stores not putting them out as frequently or requiring you to ask for them at customer service.
3. Be the coupon fairy sometimes – if you have more coupons for an item than you plan to use or they are expiring soon, place them on the shelf next to the product. It’s a nice way to share the wealth, and make sure that a coupon doesn’t go to waste.

Stockpile Management

1. Rotate your products regularly. If you have a large amount of something, write the expiration date on the part of the label that will be visible while stacked on the shelf with a big marker, this will make it easier to see which to use first.
2. Do not get a large amount of an item that your family would never ever use – even if it’s free – unless you truly and honestly plan to donate it. For example – don’t get 30 bags of cat treats, just because they are free, if you don’t have a cat! Also consider the life of a product. If you have worked out a deal to get 20 pounds of strawberries for free or close to it, you need to be sure you have a means to use them all or freeze them.
3. Store items properly – cool dry place for most items, and freeze all of the freezable items.

There are some movies that just never go out of style. Amazon has a great deal going on right now for the Back to the Future trilogy on Blu-ray. This normally sells for $79.98 but it’s currently on sale for only $19.99. That’s a steal at 75% off.

This would make a great gift or Valentine’s Day treat but you’ll have to move fast. Amazon prices change quickly.

{guest post submitted by Mina of Mina’s Journal}

It is that time again when we remind those special to us that they are thought of and loved.

Make these easy stand up Hearts for Valentine’s Day, a quick project that almost anyone can do, and a nice alternative to the regular Valentine’s Day card.

Materials:

• Stand Up Hearts download (*NOTE: You need Adobe Reader to use this file. Save it to your computer for future use. Design by Mina Keenan.)
• Card or paper
• Scissors
• Glue

Technique

• Just trim around the outer edges, and fold along the tab lines where indicated, and as shown in the photo.

• Apply glue to the end tab and bring it to the back of the heart, letting it ‘naturally’ find it’s place where to stick, approximately two thirds of the way up the back of the heart.

I start math education early around here. Most parents do, they just may not realize that’s what they are doing. Counting, sorting, and matching games are perfect for teaching valuable skills that will help kids learn more advanced math later on. Pizza Mania from Learning Resources is a great game for kids ages 4 and up that teaches early math skills, including basic addition and subtraction, listening skills, and matching.

Pizza Mania is a fun little game that will entertain kids so much they won’t even realize that it’s educational. The little pizza chef is batter operated and shouts out commands to his tiny pizza chefs in training to let them know what they need to add or take away from the pizza.

The game comes with cute little pizza toppings, including pepperoni, peppers, olives, and mushrooms. Sometimes the pizza chef tells you to add toppings to your pizza and sometimes he tells you to take some of them away.

At the end of the game, the pizza chef tells you what toppings you should have on your pizza. The whole thing is very upbeat and fun for kids. My 4 and 6 year olds love it but even my 8 year old isn’t above getting in on the fun. This is a great little game to play together with your kids or they can easily play it on their own if you need something to occupy them for a few minutes.

This is one of those things that is so much cuter if you see it in action.

Enter to Win

Learning Resources is giving away one Pizza Mania game!

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I love new readers. It’s so much fun to watch as kids grasp concepts that they once thought were well beyond their reach. Reading opens up so many things to kids and reading ability will play a huge role in your child’s future academic success.

As a former teacher and a homeschooling mom to 3 kids, I have found a few favorite products over the years that I think are essential for teaching basic reading skills. Each of these products share one thing in common — they make reading a fun experience for the child and help increase skill level.

Letter Tiles

Letter tiles are the first thing I pull out when I have a beginning reader. They can be used for the very basics, from identifying letters and their sounds, to more advanced skills like building words or creating simple sentences.

My favorite set of Letter tiles is one made by Lakeshore Learning because they are magnetic, which makes them easy to use on any magnetic surface (and makes it harder to lose them) and they are nice and chunky so even younger kids can manipulate them without a problem.

Bob Books

I’ve always heard everyone rave about Bob Books for early readers. Now that I’ve tried them, I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why I didn’t buy these when my oldest son was learning to read. We bought sets 1 and 2 for my 6 year old son a few months ago (and have since bought every other set in the series) and I cannot say enough good about them. The way they teach reading is just so logical and getting kids reading full books right away builds so much confidence that they quickly learn to love reading.

My 6 year old is constantly asking to read his Bob Books with me and I constantly hear him say, “I am SO good at reading”. It makes my heart happy to watch as he really develops a love of reading and now it isn’t uncommon to see him pull aside his younger brother and show off his new reading skills by reading a few Bob Books to him.

Magnetic Poetry for Word Play

 Remember how much fun magnetic poetry was on the fridge in your college apartment? It’s even more fun for new readers who can sound out some words but may not be able to put a sentence together on their own. Magnetic Poetry has a great line of magnetic words for kids and they come in several different reading levels.

I came across an older version of these while looking for something to make writing fun for my older son and was thrilled to discover the first words version for my new reader.

We keep a magnetic wipe board up in our family room because it’s great for all kinds of activities and my 6 year old loves to sit with this magnetic word set and build his own sentences. It’s a great confidence builder and he really enjoys all the silly sentences he can come up with.

For younger kids, Magnetic Poetry makes a large letter version that’s appropriate for kids ages 3 and older.

Rusty and Rosy Reading Softward

LeapFrog TAG Reading System

One of the biggest issues I see with early readers losing motivation is that they want to read, and they want to read NOW. When learning to read takes longer than they think it should, kids get frustrated and decide that it’s too hard. The Tag Reading System from LeapFrog is a great way to keep up the momentum and get kids reading right from the very beginning.

We’ve loved the Tag reading system so much that we have 3 of them, one for each kid, and those were all products that we purchased on our own (i.e. the company didn’t send us a single one). We’ve gotten a ton of use out of our Tag systems and one of my favorite things about them is that they use real books, many of them old favorites.

We started our youngest on the Tag Jr. when he was only 2 and it’s been one of his favorite toys from the very beginning.

Audio Books for Kids

The most important thing you can do to help an early reader is help him develop a real love for learning. If a child loves to read, then learning to read will come naturally. There are some great audio books for kids available, or you can make your own by recording your voice reading some of your child’s favorite books.

Audio books allow kids to read whenever they want to and are a great alternative to T.V. time when mom needs to get something done or perfect for a road trip activity. My 6 year old would go nuts for this set of audio Curious George books.

Rusty and Rosy Reading Software

For early readers, repetition is just a part of the game. Learning each letter and the sounds that they make is an essential first step to reading but nothing about that has to feel repetitive when there are so many great options out there to make learning to read fun.

The Rusty and Rosy Reading Software is an adaptive program that helps teach your child all the basics they need to read in a way that feels more like a game.

Dr. Seuss Books

I’m a firm believer that books for kids should be fun and no one does that better than Dr. Seuss. With so much fun word play going on, it’s hard for kids not to be drawn into the classic Dr. Seuss books and many of the early readers are easy enough that kids can start reading them on their own right away.

I read Dr. Seuss to my kids from the time they were tiny babies because the books themselves are so timeless that I still enjoy reading them. I love the Dr. Seuss beginning book collection because it has so many favorites that are prefect for new readers.

What are your favorite products for early readers?

Welcome to Winning Wednesday for 2-1-12! Anyone know what it’s called when a word, phrase, number, or other sequence can be read the same forward or backward? (pause for those of you who need to hit up Google) That’s right – a palindrome! Today’s date is a palindrome. Just thought I’d put that bit of geeky goodness out there.

Today I would love to hear from you in the comments after you post your giveaway links. We’re glad you come here every week to promote your giveaways, but maybe you can give some help to others and tell us:

where else have you found success listing giveaways online?

Together with your combined knowledge and resources, maybe you can help another blogger find a new way to promote their giveaways online. Thanks for your help!