Bradley thoroughly enjoyed what we found, and in fact, so did Connor.  And I thought we’d share 3 of the websites that we really liked in our searches… because they ended up being fantastic for all sorts of subjects and I’ve bookmarked them for future projects!

1.  Learning about Rainforests - what a perfect site for kids to learn!! Simple information, that was easy to read with enough information for him to give a full report back tomorrow about sloths.

Pompeii ended up being a little trickier, mostly because the first sites we found were far too complex for a 7 year old to read easily.  After searching with kids in the keyword, I found these 2 sites that I thought were really awesome…

2.  Kidipede – History for Kids.  Very easy to digest information, that told us about Pliny the elder

3. Discovery Channel – just WOW!! The whole history about Pompeii is on the site, and simply written, and it has a video that narrates Pliny’s story (he’s the only guy that wrote about Pompeii fateful day).  The kids just loved it!! We even went and built our own volcano and watched it erupt online!! Very cool, and it illustrated the point so very well.

Then we went from Pompeii and looked at a few of the other things on the site, and under Explore by Subject, we found the Dinosaur channel… awwwssssumm (as Connor said)… there’s a Dinosaur viewer that shows you so much about each dino… just perfect for 2 dino mad kids!!

We’re definitely going back there to explore some more!

Connor: “Next time when I’m a dad, I’m going to marry you mommy.  And daddy is going to marry you.”

He says “next time” when he refers to time going foward, he hasn’t got the notion of a few years or tomorrow yet.

Me:  “Aww that’s lovely my boy, that makes me happy”

**Silence***

Connor:  “And Bradley… ummm… Mommy, can boys get married to boys?”

Oh wow, wasn’t sure whether to tell the truth, because a lie would just have been so much easier.

Me:  “Yes, in South Africa, boys can marry boys”

Connor looked a little shocked at that, before he asked why.  I then explained that sometimes boys don’t like girls, and only like boys.

And there was a little more silence while he digested this.

Connor: “I don’t like boys that much.  I think I’ll marry Jade.”

This however, raises a few issues that I feel need to be aired.  Local bloggers are not as “wise” as overseas bloggers yet, when it comes to being sponsored by corporates and brands, and we need to start getting wise… FAST!

Local bloggers normally do this for the love of it, they’re not earning a lot of money from blogging, so the vast majority have full time careers.  Those careers are important.  They’re what brings in the main revenue in the household.  My message is the following…

Don’t jeopardise your day job because of a carrot that is being dangled in front of you by a corporate.

Be aware of the impact of what you blog about.

This might seem logical, but seriously, please think about the company that is asking you to advertise on your blog.

If the company is in any way a competitor of the company that you work for, don’t do it!  It’s not worth the little bit of money they’re going to pay you for your sponsored blogpost or the banner they’re going to stick on your site.

When you sign your contract of employment, one of the clauses normally stipulates that you cannot earn money outside your workplace, and if you are allowed, it says that it can’t be a conflict of interest.  In addition, your company may or may not have a Social Media policy which defines what you can or cannot say in a social space about the company, your work and your industry.

Therefore, if a company approaches you and offers you money for you to write a blog post about one of their products, and that product is similar to something that your own employer sells or provides as a service… don’t even go there!! It’s a conflict of interest… you can get disciplined or even fired for it.

Now some of you are probably saying, who is she to say this?  How on earth are they going to find out?

Part of what I do, in my day job, is monitoring social spaces for mentions of my company.   More and more companies are doing ORM (online reputation management) to monitor mentions of their brand online, they have to. Companies run software (or they outsource it) that pick up mentions of certain words in all social spaces and they get tracked and reported on.

Companies are becoming aware of the power of social media locally.  They understand that your blog/tweet is being watched by plenty of people, and not only that, it can be shared.  So what you say is not only being heard by the people who follow you, but potentially by the people that follow your followers too!  And that’s power.  That can affect a brand.  It can affect buying patterns.

Understand, as someone taking part in social spaces, that you have power.  People are listening to you all the time.  Understand why you can’t blog about a competing product… it can possibly damage the brand you work for.

That will jeopardise your job.  Just be careful.

This post is mostly about blogging, but this could be said for other social spaces too.  Let me know in the comments if you want me to explain a little more.

Oh and to end off, please also remember that if a company has asked you to blog about their product, it’s good blogging etiquette to have a disclaimer at the bottom of the post stating that fact… or else you will lose credibility pretty quickly.

Angel asked: Before you started taking pictures, did you have a hobby of some kind?

I did fabric painting (I’ll post a few photos of what my work) and decoupage and cycling… I’ve cycled the Argus twice, and the third year we were going to do it, I broke my arm by falling off my bike… and then I fell pregnant so that was the end of that.

Angel asked: How do you manage to fit in parenting, work, and your photography sideline?

With difficulty, but I seem to be managing, only just, for now.  I’m not getting enough sleep though.  And I’d like to fit in some exercise as well, but there are just not enough hours in the day. I’m actually considering getting an admin person or someone to help with editing for a few hours a week

Laura asked:  WHEN are you going to stop doing what you dont want to and start doing what makes you happy? (workwise)

Funny thing is, I like what I do during the day, so it’s not that easy   I like the people I work with, I’m learning LOADS, and my thoughts are valued (this point is the biggest point of all).  I’d like to at some stage reduce my hours at my day job, but that won’t happen this year, because I’m working on a monsterous project or two.  I’ll explain a bit about what I do in another post tomorrow.

Cat asked:  1.   What dress did you wear to the launch and show it?

I’ll take a pic the next time I wear it, but it’s a satin dress/tunic and flowered leggings

2. Are the puppies being good and did you train them?
No to both, they desperately need training.  Kimo is worse than Kitara, and still takes stuff from the house to chew… he still loves clothes and toys of any shape or form.  One of my summer tops has a new hole in it thanks to him, and I’ve only worn it twice!

3. Is Lance happy in the new job?

No, he was very very unhappy, so much so that he has yet another job and started yesterday.  Hopefully this one is better.

Sharon asked: What makes you happy? Something that puts that silly grin on your face and you cannot wipe it off because it has made you happy from deep within your soul?

When someone loves something I’ve done.  Like this morning, when Beauty got her prints, and she had tears in her eyes and told me “that you know just how to shape me, and I’m not fat. I was thinking about why I bother dressing up when I come to work in the morning, but you’ve made me see myself differently”
That made me cry, and smile all the way to work this morning.

Tara asked: I dare you to share 3 guilty pleasures. Like, that chocolate you buy at the shops and then scoff before getting home (not that I do that. Much.)

1. Putting on the TV for the kids, so I can read some blogs
2. Plant shopping at Lifestyle cos it’s just so nice, and I should rather spend the money on the kids. I haven’t had much time to do that recently.
3. Buying new lingerie every few months… I just love it.
Seriously, if I buy myself a chocolate to have on the way home from the shops, I’ve normally bought some for the kids and Lance too.

Laura asked:  What is your favourite sweet?

Definitely chocolate, as long as it’s not Beacon.  I hate Beacon.  My favourite chocolates are Crunchies, and Cote d’Or Noir chocolate.  I love a good dark chocolate.  Or Caramello Bears, now those are also yummy!

Laura also asked: If you had just R150 to spend on YOU – what would you spend it on?

Only R150? That’s tricky. Probably a pedicure, summer is coming.

Getting value out of it takes time, you need to build a network.  It only makes sense, and you get value out of it, when you have a network of people that talk about topics that interest you, AND you’re following people that follow each other.  The reasons are the following:

1.  You can only see replies to someone if you follow the person being replied to and the person who is sending the reply.  For example, if I follow A, and A sends a reply to B, I’ll only see it if I follow B too.

2.  People share/tweet information all day about topics they’re interested in (and random stuff too), so if you’re not interested in the topic they’re talking about, you’ll just think it’s noise.  But there’s value in that for someone… Twitter is how I learn.  For example, Cat would probably be interested in design (just guessing here) and parenting, so she’d get value by following other twin moms and some designers and architects.

It’s cool because you end up knowing about things happening in the world way before the news item hits regular radio or TV news, but it’s not overpowering, so you end up learning how to filter out the noise (the random drivel about what people are eating… which could actually be interesting if you’re hungry and need ideas for a meal).  You also get to learn about where people are shopping, and what they’re buying, and what they’re finding cool.  You’re learning from your peers.

Now building the network is the trick, and here’s one way to get there:

1.  If you’re following blogs, chances are that the blogger also tweets.  You already have some kind of interest in what they talk about, so follow them on Twitter too.  Their Twitter handle (name) will be somewhere on their blog… hint… a button that looks like a blue bird.

2.  Find your friends that you’re linked to on Facebook on Twitter… by searching for their names or linking to Facebook to find them.

3.  Now you need to find people that they’re linked to.  There are 2 ways to do this.  One is to go through their “following” list to see who they like to listen to, and start following those people too (don’t go through their follower stream because they might not find those people interesting).  Secondly, open their twitter stream, see who they’re replying to, or retweeting (like forwarding an email which means that they like that that person is saying), and if they’re talking to someone about something that interests you too, then follow them as well (by clicking on that person’s name and pressing the follow button).

4.  Look at the lists that are on your tweeple’s twitter page.  Most people’s lists are made by topic.  If you look at mine, I have one with mom-bloggers, and another with photographers.  If you’re interested in those topics, then start following some of the people on those lists.

5.  Don’t be scared that you’ll offend someone by following them.  It’s not like Facebook where you only link to people you “know”.  No-one on Twitter really cares that you’re following them, they just like their voice being heard.   And if they end up speaking a load of rubbish, unfollow them… again, you won’t offend them.  It’s not as personal as Facebook.

6.  Upload a photo of yourself.  Don’t have a blank avatar because no-one will take you seriously and people will think you’re a spammer.  You have to be real in the space.

7.  Start sharing.  Start tweeting links to sites that you like, or blog posts that you’ve read and think other people will like.  Talk about something.  Reply to someone.  Retweet something you like that someone else has said.

8.  Make sure that you give credit to people. If you’re retweeting something, make sure that the first person who tweeted it is in the tweet.  If you’re tweeting about someone, be sure to add them into your tweet with their handle with the @ sign, that way they’ll see it in their stream even if they don’t follow you.  If you want have a private chat, use the Direct Message format (or DM).

9.  If the website irritates you, like it irritates me, then use a tool to follow your streams like Hootsuite (I use this) or Tweetdeck.  Load a Twitter app on your phone like SocialScope, or Hootsuite or countless others.

And that’s how you do it   And if you want to link to me, then my handle is @jenty

I’ll get to your questions tomorrow night, but tonight is about regrouping. In fact the whole of today was.

I spent the morning with Madelein at Body Sense Day Spa.

Love that place!! We had an hour long hot stone massage (which was to die for) and a Guinot facial… and ended the morning with a glass of amarula and a chocolate

If you plan on going there, look at their specials first… make so much more sense than their full price individual treatments… we went on a package called “Woman’s wellness” which was a package for Woman’s day.

It was just perfect… and I just have to do it more often.  In fact, we’re planning our next trip already

I’ve hit a blogging slump, I can’t think of anything to write that you might want to know… so I thought I’d open the floor to you all

Ask me a question in the comments, and I’ll answer over the next few days.

I got from work this evening, and he proudly showed me his new “tattoos”…

He wasn’t happy with transfers today, he got hold of stamps from somewhere in Bradley’s room, coloured them in with koki (coloured marker pen), and then stamped them all over his arms.

LOL!  Hopefully it’ll come off in the bath, Lance has no idea which type of koki was used.

And this in a week with all the strikes… which means that he’s not even going to be able to run off that energy at school because we’ve been told today that his school is closed until Monday because the primary school down the road was threatened.

That happened to me this morning, and in fact happens every time I eat Otees cereal.

Otees’ cereal is one of Connor’s favourite type of cereal, and I had a few while I was getting his breakfast ready this morning.  Not the fancy strawberry or chocolate flavoured one, just the plain one.

Just the taste of them sets off my memories.

I immediately remember being on holiday, as a child, at my grandmother’s house in Harare, Zimababwe.  I thought it was a huge treat to eat that type of cereal when we visited her that time (no idea when that was, but I’m sure my mom will give the answer in the comments to this post). I loved it, the cereal that is

And every time I eat it now, I immediately picture myself eating them in her diningroom.  I also remember the cuckoo clocks, and the kitchen, and the enormous garden with big trees… and the private road that they lived on, that for some reason fascinated me.

Isn’t it funny how such a simple taste can bring back so many memories?