You know it's Back to School when you hear the joyful tune of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" blaring during the infamous commercial. With the first day of school still looming, it's hard to think about the end of summer, the arrival of colder weather and, gulp, one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year - Christmas! I always get a little stressed about Christmas when I think of all the presents I need to buy. And I often end up with that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach over how commercialized it has become. It's so hard not to get caught up in the materialistic frenzy caused by the anticipation of good ol' St. Nick. This year, however,  I have high hopes that I will be able to come up with some homemade and personalized gifts in lieu of buying pricey items that may never be used for their intended purpose. I will also be sending out a personalized and stylish Christmas photo card to my family and friends thanks to Storkie Express.

Storkie Express was established 20 years ago by a creative group of business and artistic professionals who shared the goal of providing quality printing and outstanding service at a great value. They currently offer an incredible variety of customizable birth announcements, invitations for baby showers, baptisms/christenings, birthdays, and weddings, in addition to their beautiful collection of Holiday cards and Christmas cards.

Snowman Photo Holiday Card - $1.49 per card You can even change the colours of the snowman's accessories!

I love sending out pictures of the kids for the holidays but I'm always rushing last minute to get a picture of them taken with Santa. So for this review, I decided to try out one of Storkie's Christmas photo cards using a family photo that we took just recently. We were all dressed up for a wedding and it was one of those rare opportunities to have our picture taken of the whole family while looking pretty fancy shmancy. My husband's facial expression looks a bit... well... sour. But it would have to do.

Screenshot of photo card in iDesign

To begin, select a template that you would like to use and click on the green button that says "Click to Customize". On the next page, you will be prompted to add your family's last name and then the name of your family members. This is also where you can browse for a picture file to upload. You may opt to save it for later or continue to customize using their design tool. Here you can make changes to the saying/header, text, layout, ink colour, and typestyle/font. Once in the iDesign tool, you can click on any of the existing text boxes to edit the text. What's really neat about it is that a toolbar will pop up once you click on the text box which makes editing and formatting very quick and efficient. Alternative wording suggestions pop up on the right as well which makes it super easy to customize the photo card the way you want. When you click on the picture, the toolbar that appears above it allows you to change the size of the photo, rotate it, change the colour filter to black and white or sepia, or upload a new photo altogether. If you're not sure what each icon on the toolbars stand for, just hover your mouse over them and a little description will appear. You can also scroll through some tips on the top right of your screen. Doncha just love applications that are so user-friendly?

Holiday Wrap with Photo - $2.39 per set I really like this stylish design.

Once you are happy with your customized photo card, click on continue and select a proofing option. You can approve it exactly as shown on the preview, allow Storkie to make stylistic/grammar changes or pay for and place your order and approve a final proof that is placed in your Stokie.com account, which may delay the shipping of your order. I went with the second option. I ordered it on a Sunday, the package was shipped on the Tuesday of the same week and it arrived the day after. No wonder they call themselves Storkie Express.

When I opened up the carefully packaged cards from Storkie, I was truly impressed with the quality of the recycled (yay!) card stock and the digital press printing, too. It came in a nice matte finish so I didn't need to worry about finger prints. The 5" x 7" photo cards really turned out beautifully and I am excited to share them with my family and friends. I even had my return address printed on the envelopes to make my life just a little easier come Christmas time. You can add that option for an additional cost or inner lined envelopes if you so prefer. You can even add 3D bling gemstones, too! One other item that would really tie it all together nicely would be a set of holiday stamps from their pre-designs or customize your own by uploading a photo of your choice. How fun is that!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. I received a set of 20 photo cards for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated in any other way. The thoughts expressed above are strictly my own honest opinions.

Do you ever struggle trying to find a way to get your little ones excited about math? Are you looking to supplement their learning in a way that is fun and engaging? Getting your child interested in playing interactive games on the computer is easy and now, so is getting them exited about learning math thanks to DreamBox Learning.

DreamBox Learning offers an online gaming experience for your kids that provides an effective means of learning math while having fun. It is interactive and individualized based on your child's level of ability. It's "serious learning that is seriously fun!" Here is a summary of why it's learning and fun all rolled in to one adapted from DreamBox.com:

It’s serious learning because:

• DreamBox individualizes learning through continuous assessment and adaptations during lesson game play.
• It’s a robust math curriculum, with over 500 lessons built on the math learning Focal Points from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
• It builds understanding and confidence in math fundamentals being taught in the classroom, through in-depth focus on Number Sense and Computation, and Algebra.
• To improve conceptual understanding, students use virtual manipulatives to “show their work” rather than just clicking on an answer.
• DreamBox has online Teacher and Parent dashboards that report on each student’s progress in real time.

It’s seriously fun because:

• Kids choose from 4 adventure themes (pirates, pixies, dinosaurs, and pets), each with 8 stories, and hundreds of choices for activities in the online adventures.
• DreamBox makes math lessons fun and interactive, so kids build confidence and a sense of accomplishment!
• Kids can choose from 36 characters to represent themselves on screen.
• Positive audio and visual feedback encourages progress.
• Kids get rewards such as collectible Adventure Friends, tokens to play Carnival games, and Achievement Certificate awards that can be printed out and proudly displayed.

My 5-year-old daughter has been playing it over the past week or so and you can tell she loves it because it's the first thing she wants to do when she wakes up. I even have to cutback on the length of time during her sessions because she would play it for hours if I let her. (A mere 15 minutes each day is long enough to reinforce math skills while maintaining interest.) It took her a while to understand some concepts and how to complete the activities but I helped her through it and now she is proud whenever she achieves a reward. What I really love about it is the way it covers the math curriculum and keeps track of your child's progress. The visual representation of numbers is a very useful way to explore the abstract concepts of numbers and math. The addition of story lines within the game peak my daughter's interest in exploring and appeals to the Dora in her. As a teacher, I am super excited about continuing to work with my daughter as she plays, learns and explores math concepts on DreamBox Learning. I have created a little vlog to illustrate some of the features including the easily navigable map, a game in play, the built-in reward system and the useful Parent Dashboard with handy resources.



DreamBox Learning has won several awards including the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval, the Parents' Choice Gold Award, and the Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice for Excellence in Design award.
You can purchase a gift plan on DreamBox.com for 6 months for $59.95 (that's 23% off the full price!) or you can always sign up for a free trial for home. Or, if you are teacher, you can specify it is for a school-based trial. And when you refer a friend, both you and your friend will get an extra month added when they subscribe.
One Toronto Teacher Mom reader will win a free one-year subscription to DreamBox.com.

For your main entry, which is mandatory, read what makes DreamBox.com more effective and fun and tell me what you feel is an important feature. Leave a comment on this post along with a way to contact you if you win.

For additional entries, you may choose to do any or all of the following:

• Add my blog button to your site. Copy code is located on the right sidebar. (Worth 2 entries. Please leave two separate comments.)
• Become a follower of DreamBox on Twitter.
• Become a fan of DreamBox on Facebook.
• Become a follower of Toronto Teacher Mom using Google Friend Connect.
• Become a fan of the new Toronto Teacher Mom Facebook fan page.
• Become a follower of Toronto Teacher Mom on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. Tweet daily for additional entries. Feel free to use the following tweet:  

Contest ends September 10 at 11pm EST. Open to Canadian residents only. Winner will be selected using Random.org and must reply to the notification email within 3 days or a new winner will be drawn.

TenMarks is an excellent online resource for parents, educators, homeschoolers and students. It provides each child with a personalized curriculum that will cover all the core math skills required in school. Researchers have discovered that students can lose 2 months worth of math learning over the summer months. For this reason, TenMarks has been designed to help them avoid the "summer slide."



For a limited time, you can take advantage of a one-week promotion on the TenMarks Summer Program. Your child or student can practice their math skills in a fun and unique way while enjoying a $12 discount off the TenMarks Summer Math Program. Start engaging your child with this fantastic summer enrichment program today! Use coupon code Mathten. This offer expires July 16, 2010.

Here's the TenMarks Dad and Kid Friendly video for your viewing pleasure. I think it's such a clever video. Very well done.



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"TenMarks: Building stronger foundations one click at a time."

I wish I knew about this when I taught the after-school math program this year. Yup, we covered area of a trapezoid. Yup, I bored my students to death. Online learning is where it's at!

If you're like me, then procrastination could be your middle name. Yes, I know. Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? It's probably due to the fact that I'm just not as organized as I'd like to be. And this Christmas is no different. Not only have I yet to buy Christmas gifts for my friends and family, I still have to send out about a dozen cards. But seeing as I have very little time to get them mailed out for a Christmas Eve delivery, I may just have to resort to an alternative.


E-card is the name, artistic animation is the game. Have you seen the work of Frederikke Tu? She is the artistic designer behind the beautiful works of art on Ojolie.com which she later turns into animated e-cards. What I really love is that these two elements are both tied together nicely with a wonderful selection of music. Another really neat part of the final product is the incorporation of Frederikke's own watercolor paintings. It adds a striking uniqueness to each card and makes you feel good knowing that you are sending a one-of-a-kind work-of-art to your family and friends while saving trees in the process. Frederikke also has a beautiful blog where she shares her work and her passions as well as her insight on running an e-card business.

Now, while they have a fairly large collection of e-cards that you can send for free, you can also sign up for a paid membership. For a small fee of $10 US, you get a one-year subscription or you can pay $15 US for two years. Ojolie was kind enough to grant me a free one-year subscription to their site which allows you to:

• Personalize and send as many e-cards from their entire selection.
• Personalize your account with an address book, card scheduling and card status.
• Include your own photos with your card message.
• Access their quick and professional customer service by directing inquiries to Timothy Tu.

And they are currently offering the following promotion:


So if you need to send some Christmas cards and are worried about them arriving in time, why not send an e-card from Ojolie.com? It's quick and easy, as well as economical and eco-friendly!

Click here to see one of my favourites.