Not one to give up easily, I decided to create my own game.  I took inspiration from the cards I liked and then racked my brain to come up with more questions.  In the end I had 100 clean, laughter-inducing, conversation-provoking questions that were perfect for my girls’ weekend.

On the night of the party I passed around the questions and had each friend draw three – one to answer themselves, one to ask to anyone in the group, and one to put back.  We started the game around 8 pm and we were still playing it at 3:30 am.  The ladies loved it!  We laughed about prom dress descriptions, commiserated about house-cleaning woes, and shared stories about our lives that would never have come up in regular conversation.  It was exactly what I was hoping for.

A few months later, I created several more sets to use at a Relief Society (a LDS womens’ group) dinner.  I placed a set at each table and had the women play while they ate.  The effect was fantastic.  Women of all ages and backgrounds were able to laugh and relax together.

After the dinner, several of the women asked me where they could buy their own copy of the game.  That’s when I decided to make it official and add ChatterBox (titled after the nickname of my oldest daughter – who has been a fountain of questions from the time she could speak) to the MeckMom Etsy store.

As of today, you can purchase both the boxed set (handmade by me) or a printable set (to be handmade by you) in my Etsy shop.  The sets come with my original 100 questions but if you’d like to customize your set by adding a few questions of your own, just let me know and I’ll add them in for you.

I know I’m a bit biased, but I really do love this game.  If you’ve got a mom, sister, or good friend on your Christmas list this year, I highly recommend giving this game a try.  It would make a perfect gift!  Or better yet, buy one for yourself and share the fun at your next baby shower, girls night, or women’s meeting.  I’ve even used them at visiting teaching appointments and presidency meetings.  You just can’t go wrong when you get women talking.

I’m planning to create more sets in the future –  a group date set for teens is in the works and a family reunion set will be coming soon.  I may even create a supplement pack (25 more questions) for the Women’s Edition since it’s been so popular.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Remember, if you want to win your own boxed set of ChatterBox you still have a few days to enter the “Best of MeckMom – Chatterbox Giveaway”.  Just comment on your favorite MeckMom idea on last week’s Talk To Me Tuesday post to enter.  The deadline is Tuesday night (Nov 10th) at midnight CST.  Thanks everyone, for your support.  I hope you enjoy ChatterBox as much as I have.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

To be honest, I never really expected anyone to read it – and I’m pretty sure that, at the beginning, very few were.  But thanks to the prodding of my super-supportive husband and my ever-enthusiastic sister, Mindy, I kept posting.  Now, several years later, there are loads of you out there.  Some of you have been around for years and a bunch more pop in for the first time every day.  It’s that last group I’m trying to help out with today’s post.  I know it can be a bit difficult to know where to start when you first happen upon my blog.  So my goal is to create a ‘best of MeckMom’ post that can hang out at the top of my blog and give new readers a great introduction to the MeckMom way of doing things.

For today’s Talk To Me Tuesday post I’m asking for your help to find the best MeckMom posts of the past 3 and a half years.  Which MeckMom idea have you tried at your house?  Were there any posts that jumped out at you as a particularly helpful or creative?  If you were going to recommend MeckMom to a friend which post would you mention?  I know it seems like I’m begging for compliments here but I’m really not.  I’d just like to create a great little quick-reference list for new readers to enjoy.  Additionally, your feedback will really help me know which type of posts you guys would like to see more of in the future.

I know it’s a lot to ask, but your feedback is really important to me.  So even if you’ve never sent in a comment before, I hope you’ll add your vote to this post.  Remember, it doesn’t have to be your all-time favorite, just a quick note about a post that has helped you make your everyday life a little easier.  As a little incentive, I’m offering the winning commenter a MeckMom exclusive – a great new conversation game I’ve created called Chatterbox.  I’ll be posting more about Chatterbox later this week but trust me, you’ll want to get in on this giveaway.  How’s that for a teaser?

The giveaway will be open all week and the winner will be chosen at random next Tuesday (Oct 11th) at midnight CST. I’ll contact the winner via email and post the winner’s comment name here.  Good luck, everyone!  As always, to those of you who comment, thanks for passing it on.

*This giveaway is now closed (but please feel free to keep commenting).

And the winner (randomly chosen by the iPhone app, iChoose) is… #21– Mikelle! Thank you so much for all your feedback.  I loved reading all the comments this week!  It’s so fun for me to know that you guys are actually getting something helpful from all my ramblings.  I’ll be creating the Reader’s Favorites page with all the links soon.  Congrats on your big win, Mikelle.  I’ll be contacting you via email today.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to drill a hole or hammer a nail and had my kids beg me for a turn.  Unfortunately for them, most home-repair projects aren’t great “practice” opportunities.  Pumpkin carving, however, is a perfect time to let my kids loose.  Last year, after hollowing out our pumpkins on the deck, I gave them each a turn with their favorite tool – the power drill.  I inserted a wide, paddle-style drill bit and set them free to make whatever polka-dot pattern they wanted.

You should have seen the excitement in their eyes!  Maybe you can get a feel of it from the picture above.  They absolutely loved it!  There was no struggle with sharp knives or cheap plastic saws, no worries about following a pattern, just pure fun.  We even grabbed a hammer and some fat nails and let them pound some smaller holes in their pumpkins while they waited for their turn with the drill.

Overall, it was a great family fun experience.  By the end of the night we four happy kids and a bunch of charmingly-spotted Jack-o’-Lanterns for our front steps.  What more could I ask for?  Just thought I’d pass it on.

Earlier this year, when my daughter’s forfeited their old bunk beds for a new big bed I decided it was time to give their room an inexpensive mini-makeover.  The girls loved their new color scheme, but the room was a little bottom heavy – it needed some color at the top.  That’s when I came across a cute Martha Stewart tissue paper pom-pom kit in the craft section of WalMart.

The kit came with several do-it-yourself pom-poms in varying shades of pink.  They looked so adorable and easy to make that I decided to pick up a few other colors of tissue paper from the wrapping paper section and make a few pom-poms of my own.

Honestly, the project couldn’t have been easier.  In less than 30 minutes, I had 5 big, fluffy pom-poms to hang chandelier-style in my daughters’ room.  I took a bunch of pictures to show you but I think Martha’s tutorial is a little easier to understand so I’ll add that for you here (you can see her original post by clicking here).

Step 1: 1. Stack eight 20-by-30-inch sheets of tissue. Make 1 1/2-inchwide accordion folds, creasing with each fold.  *I cut mine to several different widths so they would vary in size.  For smaller balls, you’ll want to use fewer sheets of tissue paper.

Step 2: Fold an 18-inch piece of floral wire in half, and slip over center of folded tissue; twist. With scissors, trim ends of tissue into rounded or pointy shapes. *I actually found that it was easier to trim my paper before folding it – once it’s folded it’s kind of bulky and hard to cut.  For spiky pom-poms cut your edges like in a zig-zag, for rounded pom-poms cut your edges in curvy or scalloped pattern.

Step 3: Separate layers, pulling away from center one at a time. *Be gentle with this step – the tissue paper can tear easily.  If it does, don’t worry about it, the little mistakes won’t show once they’re finished.  I also found that my little container of ‘Take Hold’ (that pink sticky stuff sold in office supply stores to help your fingertips sort through paper) came in very handy.

Step 4: Tie a length of monofilament to floral wire for hanging.  *I trimmed the remaining wire ends to about 3″ and formed it into a hook shape inside the pom-pom.  Then, I tied a piece white sewing thread to each pom-pom wire hook (I varied the length so they would hang in a cluster).

To attach the pom-poms to the ceiling, I inserted a small, white cup hook into the drywall and tied the strings to the hook.  The pom-poms were lightweight so I didn’t need to worry about pre-drilling or anchoring the hook.  I just twisted it in corkscrew-style.  Viola!  A bright and cheery addition that added the perfect pop of color to my daughters’ room – all for less than $10!  Just thought I’d pass it on.

As I mentioned in my last post, when my husband and I hosted our Halloween party last year we made a few changes just to keep things new and exciting.  Here are a few of the ideas we tried…

Team Bonding

One thing I love about this party is the opportunity it gives for you as a hostess to get new groups of people together.  There’s something about three hours of working as a team that really helps people get out of their shell and get to know each other on a whole different level.  Last year, we wanted to start that process a little earlier by encouraging my teams to get together before the night of the party.  When we sent out our Team Roster (a list of all the teams and the assigned captains) to all the party attendees we also issued a challenge: bonus points to any team that performed a harmless prank on another team in the week leading up to the party.  The rules were: 1 – it couldn’t cause any real damage, 2 – it had to involve at least 3 of the 6 team members, and 3 – they had to send us pictures of the prank for evidence.

I was amazed at how quickly the teams got to work.  Within 24 hours the pranks were on.  Houses were covered with balloons, cars were saran-wrapped, photos were photoshopped,  outdoor decorations were held for ransom…I could go on and on.  The effect was great.  By the time the party started, they’d already had a week of bonding and their team unity was much higher.

Buried Clue Packets

In the past we’ve had a problem with clues being disturbed or damaged when they were attached to the ingredients.  We decided to save ourselves a little trouble by giving the teams all their sealed clues at the beginning of the party instead.  We didn’t want to just hand it to them, so we gave each team a picture clue that lead to the same destination (a big water tower in our town).  The clue told them to look at the base of the water tower for their clue packets.  At the water tower, my husband had buried the plastic-wrapped clue packets in shallow graves and marked them with glow sticks and fake headstones (pictured above).  The teams had to locate their headstone and then use their hands to dig up their packet.  It was kind of a fun and eerie way to kick things off.  *One word of caution – you should have an extra set of clues on hand, just in case.  One of our teams was unable to find their clue packet in the dark and it caused a big delay for them.

Double Destinations

One of the tricky parts about hiding ingredients is that you have to find a place that is both easy to write a clue about yet hidden from outsiders.  We combated this problem last year by creating double destinations.  The clue from their packet lead the teams to a small film canister (we called these Hint Canisters).  Because the canister is small, it could be hidden in relative plain sight.  Inside the canister, there was a paper that lead them to a black box holding their actual brew ingredient (we called these Clue Boxes).  The boxes were larger so they were hidden within walking distance of the canister but in a much more discreet location.

For example, at one ingredient location the clue lead them to a large rock in a dry riverbed (it was painted with glow paint).  The film canister was hidden under the rock.  Inside the Hint Canister, the clue (again, written in invisible ink) told them to find their Clue Box at the back of a nearby cave.  Similarly, at another spot the Hint Canister was hidden in a knot of a tree near the parking lot while the Clue Box was hidden under a nearby bridge.

Blacklight Fun

Last year we had kind of a glow-in-the-dark theme to our party.  At the beginning of the party we gave each team glow bracelets and lanyards in their team color as well as one hand-held blacklight flashlight (purchased online for about $6 each).

They used the blacklights to read clues (written in invisible ink) and to find ingredients throughout the night.  For example, one ingredient was hidden on at old, abandoned waterslide park.  The clue from their packet  and the corresponding Hint Canister lead them to the top of a set of three waterslides.   They used their blacklight to find a large X painted at the top of the the correct slide and then followed the slide down to find their clue box.  *A little tip – blacklight paint can be really expensive online (the tiny bottle pictured above was about $12).  You can find glow-in-the-dark spray paint in the craft area of WalMart and it works just as well.  Fluorescent paint also glows well under blacklight but it is visible in the daytime so you have to use it carefully.  Also, whitening laundry detergent glows really well under blacklight.  I kept one of the blacklights in my purse for the month leading up to the party so I could check how different things would glow in the stores without having to purchase anything first.

Alternative Clues

Because we didn’t have to worry about attaching the clues to ingredients or having everything color-coded, we had more freedom when it came to creating clues.  Here are a few things we tried…

A rubbing on parchment of a famous town monument

An origami cat with a clue written inside to lead them to a pet cemetery

A chopped up picture of a riverbed that they had to assemble and read

A word search with all the party guests last names – the remaining uncircled letters spelled out the clue

A Google Earth satellite picture of a park with a highlight over the red train where the hint canister was hidden

A play on words with a street sign – the clue said to find the intersection of these two roads “A Pretty View” Ave. and “A Thiefs Child” St. – the actual intersection is called “Beuna Vista” Ave. and “Robberson” St.

Tiny Trophies

One last change we made was to give the winning couples a small ceramic witch hat trophy (sorry I don’t have a pic of these).  We created them by spray painting a inexpensive halloween candle holders gold.  We also had the winning team members sign our traditional GWC golden broomstick.  Since we plan to host this party every year, the broomstick should be pretty crowded with names soon.

That’s about it.  Overall, it was a great night!  I can’t wait to do it again.  Speaking of which, if hosted a party of your own last year and  tried new ideas last year that you’d like to share, please feel free to add them to the comments below.   I’m in the midst of planning the Haunted Halloween Challenge 2009 as we speak, so I’m sure I’ll have more ideas to post for next year.  Until then….just thought I’d pass it on.

Since I didn’t have to stress over keeping my identity hidden, I had a little more time to experiment with new clue ideas and new challenge options.  Some things worked beautifully, others… not so much.  Over the next week or so I’ll be posting some of the most successful stuff from last year’s party.  Many of you have emailed me over the last few weeks for clue ideas and party advice – hopefully the next few posts will help spark the creativity of those of you who are in the middle of your Wanda planning right now.

To kick things off I thought I’d share my invitation idea from last year.  I planned to invite a lot of guests so I needed an invitation that was easy and inexpensive to create.  I designed the invitation in my graphics program, printed it silvery vellum and then mounted it on a simple square of black cardstock with glue dots.  Specialty vellum can be kind of expensive so I designed the invitations to fit two to a page so I could use as little as possible.  I purchased the vellum (and the 6″ square envelopes) at Michaels and the black cardstock WalMart.  Overall, each invitation only cost me around fifteen cents and took less than  five minutes to create.  I must say, I think it’s my favorite invitation so far.

Unfortunately, I created the file in my Adobe design software, so posting it on the site wouldn’t be very helpful.  However, you are more than welcome to click on the pictures above and duplicate the idea.  Of course, if you’d like to save yourself a lot of time, you could also just order the printable file in my Etsy store.  All you have to do is place the order and send me an email with your party information.   I’ll edit the invite details for you and then send the finished file to you via email within 24 hours.  Just think, in less than two days you could have a set of fabulous, inexpensive invitations right in your hands.  It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Don’t forget, if you haven’t had a chance to comment on the MyNurseOnCall post, you’ve still got time.  There are still three $25 Target gift cards up for grabs so hop on over to that post and join in!  More Haunted Halloween Challenge details to come soon.  Good luck to all you Wanda’s out there!  Just thought I’d pass it on.

My little ten month-old son has had a nasty cold for almost two weeks; complete with constant fevers, a cough, and a stuffy nose.  So, when a strange rash appeared a few days ago I decided to give his pediatrician’s office a call.  They were busy – as always – and promised me someone would be calling me soon.  Five hours later, the rash was getting worse and I still hadn’t heard back from the nurse.  Thankfully, I had another option.  I called Nurse On Call.  It’s a 24/7 medical help line, available through my husband’s company.  In a matter of minutes, I was able to speak to a friendly, experienced Registered Nurse about my son’s condition.  She listened patiently to my situation, answered all my questions, gave me home-treatment advice, and told me what to watch for in the future.  She also sent a fax to my son’s doctor reporting everything we’d discussed so he could be kept in the loop.  Thanks to her advice, I was able to help my son while saving the time and expense of a trip to the doctor’s office or urgent care.

I love Nurse On Call!  I use it all the time.  It’s such a great, mom-friendly service.  I’ve used it for everything from advice on my daughter’s ear ache to questions about what medicines were safe to take during pregnancy.  It’s a fantastic resource.

As I mentioned in February, my husband’s company had been offering this service to businesses for years and was considering opening it up to individuals and families.  Great news!  Thanks in part to the fantastic feedback they received from the surveys my readers submitted, they have now launched a new family-friendly line of service called MyNurseOnCall.  It offers all the same benefits as the business version I’ve been using, it’s just designed to be used by individuals and families.

My husband’s company liked my previous post so much that they asked me to do a video testimonial for their new website.  I was happy to do it because I really do like the service, but I must admit the whole idea of being recorded made me a bit nervous – next time I’m going to request a hair and makeup consult (I’m also going to hire a babysitter because they had to edit all the times my kids popped into the window behind me to tattle on each other and ask for popsicles).  Here’s my big web debut…

So, anyway, on to the great giveaways.  MyNurseOnCall is offering a special deal to all MeckMom readers.  You get to try their awesome, budget/time-saving service for free for 30 days.   Yep you heard me, free.  All you have to do is go to the MyNurseOnCall website and sign up for an account.  You will be asked to enter your credit card or PayPal information, but you will not be charged for 30 days.  During those 30 days you are welcome to call the help line as many times as you like – there are no limits or restrictions.  After your free month, if you like MyNurseOnCall as much as I do, you can continue your service for a low rate of $5.95 per month.  However, you are under no contract and can cancel your membership at anytime.  There are no penalties or fine print to worry about.  Just enter the coupon code MECKMOM during checkout to be eligible for the free 30 day trial.

As an added bonus, MyNurseOnCall.com is also offering three $25 Target gift cards to a few lucky MeckMom readers.  To enter the gift card giveaway you simply have to add a comment about a time when you could have used a nurse’s advice  - you know, like the time you hauled all your kids to the urgent care and paid $50 in copays, only to find out that your daughter’s chest cold could be treated at home with a humidifier?   Okay that was me, but you get the idea.  All blog comments will count as one entry in the giveaway.  If you go to MyNurseOnCall and sign up for a membership with my coupon code, you’ll automatically get an additional 3 entries in the gift card giveaway.  Oh and yes, for those of you who are wondering, if your number is chosen multiple times you can win all three gift cards.  Won’t that be a fun shopping spree?!

So remember, not only do you get to try out this fantastic service and get expert medical advice from Registered Nurses free for 30 days, you also get a chance to win free stuff at Target.  C’mon, it’s hard to resist that.  I wish I could enter!  This giveaway will be open for the next two weeks (until Oct 1st, 2009 at midnight CST).  The winners will be selected randomly and be contacted via email.  If a response is not received within 72 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

Good luck, everyone!  As always, to those of you who comment, thanks in advance for passing it on.

*This giveaway is now closed.

And the winners (chosen randomly by the iPhone app iChoose) are … Kathy, Meredith, and Sarah.  Congratulations!  I hope you enjoy your gift cards.  I’ll be contacting you via email today.  If I don’t receive a response within 72 hours another winner will be chosen.  Thanks for playing, everyone!

I purchased this plastic cart at WalMart for around $12.  I think it’s designed with scrapbookers in mind.  It has several small drawers on the top and three larger drawers below.  I keep it stashed in my front closet – just around the corner from the kitchen table where most of our homework happens.

The smaller top drawers are dedicated to housing school supplies (I labeled them with my P-Touch labeler).  The first holds scratch paper and lined writing paper.  The second and third hold random school supplies like pencils, markers, crayons and erasers.  I also keep a few teaching aides in there such as timers, dice and post-its.  The fourth drawer holds all my dry-erase supplies because I love using dry erase boards to help my kids practice math and spelling.  I bought each of my kids a small Expo dry-erase board at WalMart for around $4 each.  I love them because they’re small enough to fit in the drawers and they’re lined on one side for easy handwriting practice.  You can find them near the Crayola stuff in the office supplies area.

The three larger drawers are the kids’ “homework boxes”.  They each have their own and it’s labeled with their name.  Inside I have them keep their reading logs, spelling lists, library books, and any homework supplies that are specific to them (for example, they each have a set of math flash cards that are specific to their grade).

I love the homework boxes because they’re so easy for my kids to work with.  Everything is at their height and it’s all in one place.  When they’re scrambling in the morning to find their library books my first question is always “Did you check your homework box?”  When it’s Friday morning and I’m trying to give my son a quick spelling refresher before his test, I have him grab his list from his box.  When I’m trying to get dinner going and there’s a mess of homework covering the table, I have them bring their boxes to the table and dump their stuff in.

I can’t say it’s the prettiest system in the world, but it works!  Remember, the goal of organization when it comes to family life is not to achieve perfect order.  The goal is to teach your kids to keep track of their own stuff and to see the benefits of staying organized.  In my opinion, it’s our job as a parents to provide the tools and training.  It’s their job to do the rest.  This inexpensive homework box is a great example of how you can do just that.   Just thought I’d pass it on.

I’d pretty much resigned myself to living with my husband’s hoarding habits when I got a great email from a clutter-busting company called Campus Quilts (perhaps you heard about them on the Today show or Rachel Ray). They’ve come up with a great solution for t-shirt stockpilers like my husband.

In a nutshell, the experts at Campus Quilt Co. specialize in taking your treasured t-shirts and transforming them into fun, functional, and durable memory quilts. They sent me a quilt kit to sample and I must say I’m really impressed with their process. The kit contained detailed instructions so I can get the exact colors and layout I want, as well as all the materials I will need to ship my shirts back to their facility (the shipping was even pre-paid for me). Their turn-around is generally only two to three weeks, so my Ohio State T-shirt memory quilt should arrive just in time for football season – go Buckeyes!

The whole solution is such a win-win for me. He gets to hang on to his favorite shirts from his alma mater and I get to free up a bunch of space in our closet. It’s too bad they can’t make quilts out of old engineering text books. I could really use the extra space in my basement.  Oh well, I guess you can’t win them all.

So here’s the great news, Campus Quilt Company has generously offered to give away a Quilt Kit and a $150 gift card to one lucky MeckMom reader. The winner will receive a $150 gift card and a quilt kit with order form, layout guide, fabric swatch card, bag to mail the clothing, and a pre-paid UPS mailing label. You’ll get to choose your own layout, quilt details, and colors. They’ll even email you multiple times throughout the process to let you know the status of your order and to give you peace of mind that your treasured t’s are in good hands.

A memory quilt like this would make a great Christmas gift! In fact, you should hop on over to their site to check out their sample quilts and read their customer testimonials. They’re customer service ratings are really impressive. Here are a two sample quilts from their site to give you a few ideas on how you could put the gift card to good use.

To enter to win, you simply have to leave a comment on this post with your favorite clutter busting tip. It doesn’t have to be related to closets. It could be on any clutter-related area. The giveaway will be open all week and the winner will be chosen at random next Tuesday (Sept 8th) at midnight CST. I’ll contact the winner via email and post the winner’s comment name here. Good luck, everyone! I can’t wait to read all your clutter-busting solutions. As always, for those of you who comment, thanks for passing it on.

*This giveaway is now closed.

And the winner (chosen randomly by the iPhone app iChoose) is…Commenter #8, Mindy.  Congratulations!  I hope you enjoy your gift card.  I’ll be contacting you via email tonight.  If I don’t receive a response within 72 hours another winner will be chosen.  Thanks for playing, everyone!

Check-In Chart

Have you ever noticed that just as your kids head to bed, their memory cells kick in?  All of a sudden they remember the book report they were supposed to write or the diorama that’s due tomorrow.  Save yourself from these late night surprises by using a check-in chart.  Purchase a large dry erase calendar and several colors of  fine-point, dry-erase markers.  Hang your calendar near your drop zone or on your fridge and assign each child a color.  When your kids come home from school, make sure they “check-in” by updating their homework status on the calendar.

T.V. Timers

Nothing can hinder homework like a glowing television.  Most of us set rules at the beginning of the school year but enforcement of those rules can be a struggle.  After all, who has the time to hang out in the family room and police the remote?  Save yourself the trouble by putting your T.V. and game console on a timer.  Designed for lamps and Christmas lights, these handy timers allow you control over when the electronics can be turned on and when they shut off.  A more advanced mode (available at online retailers) allows you to predetermine how many minutes or hours your T.V. can be on each day.  When the time allowance is up, the device shuts off the power.  Time allowances can be adjusted for each day (allowing more T.V. time on weekends, if desired).  Manual override switches are available beneath the tamper-proof lock.

Mobile Homework Hub

Talk to a professional tutor and they’ll tell you that having a location dedicated to your kids’ homework is critical.  Talk to parents and they’ll tell you it’s next to impossible.  You simply can’t guarantee that the kitchen table will be free every night or that you’ll even be home when homework time hits.  Help your kids manage their supplies at home or on the go by picking up an inexpensive storage clipboard.  The sturdy clip on the top holds notebooks and worksheets tightly, while the storage compartment below gives kids a place to stash their homework essentials like pencils, calculators, scratch paper and flash drives.

Give ‘Em a Break

Time management is a critical skill for kids.  So how do you encourage it without hovering, nagging or pushing?  Try this little trick.  First, purchase a small kitchen timer for each of your kids.  Next, determine a rough estimate for each child’s attention span.  Generally his or her age multiplied by two to five minutes is a good place to start.  When your child sits down to work, grab a post-it, and have him jot down what he thinks he can accomplish in the alloted time.  Stick the note next to the timer and encourage your child to meet his goals.  When the time runs out, have your child check his progress, take a short break, and start the process again.

*This post is an excerpt from an article published by Organize Magazine, Sept/Oct 2007, Volume 02, pg 42-49, written by Maria Eckersley, photos by Lanola Kathleen Stone.