Stephanie’s tips on helping your child succeed in school

EOG testing is sneaking up on us fast. It is hard to believe that March winds are already blowing. I am fortunate to have many wonderful educators as friends and clients. So I asked one for some tips on how we as parents can help our kids do better in school and on the EOGs.

I asked Stephanie Eddings to share some of her tips. Stephanie is a fifth grade teacher at Ball Creek Elementary School.

David Letterman has his top ten, but we have Stephanie’s top nine on how to help your child succeed in school. Thanks Stephanie for your tips. I know I will be using them with Sarah.

Stephanie’s top nine tips on helping your child succeed in school:
1. Get a good night sleep and eat breakfast every morning.
2. Have your child explain their homework to you. It is a good indication on whether or not they understand what they have learned in school. If they have no homework, have them explain what they have learned that day.
3. Read all the time. Magazines, newspapers, books, etc. and ask questions about what they read. It's also a good idea to set up times to where everyone in the house reads. This helps your child to develop a love for reading because they see their parents wanting to read also.
4. Be on time to school everyday and keep the absences to a minimum.
5. Communicate with your child's teacher on a regular basis.
6. Have high expectations of your child and make sure they know your expectations.
7. Make a place where your child/ren go every day after school at the same time to do their homework and read.
8. Limit the amount of TV and video game time to provide opportunities to use their imaginations.
9. Play math games with your child to help them master addition/subtraction facts for the lower grades and multiplication/division for the upper grades.

What happen in Durham…

Last week I attended the Professional Photographers of North Carolina (PPNC) convention in Durham. The theme this year was a play off Vegas – Viva PPNC!

Like my time in Vegas, there was very little sleeping that occurred, but a whole lot of learning and getting inspired. There were some great times with some of my photography buddies as well. Around 400 of them attended the convention.

PPNC is one of the strongest photography associations in the nation. We always have on of the best conventions each year with the top photographers from the country speaking.

But the learning and inspiration I get while at the convention is just the start of what I receive as being a member of PPNC. The greatest treasure I receive from being part of PPNC is the friendships I have developed with other photographers.

To be a member of PPNC you must be a professional. So if for some reason I am must refer you to another photographer, then I will refer a fellow PPNC member. I know they are a professional and not just someone with a camera and that they will do a quality professional job for you; just as I would do.

But back to the convention. While at the convention I was honored to be sworn in as a Board member for PPNC. I take this position with the greatest honor and the vow to do the best job I can.

PPNC has meant so much to me and has helped me develop into the photographer I am today. I am reminded of a quote by W. Clement Stone; “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” Hopefully I can give back to others what I have received.

On to more fun things. I did get a lot of ideas that I want to play with. Yes play – ‘cause we are going to have fun with these. At the same time we (oh btw, I volunteered you to help me with this) will be creating images needed for me to earn my Masters. To do this I must earn merits in print competition.

I have lots of ideas already of images to create. Some will be during regular sessions, some I will be doing model searches for and some I may even run special limited time only sessions for. We have less than a year to create the images and have them ready for the print competition. Guess we better end this blog post and get busy.

Thanks for your help with this.

Time for the contest again

Last year the studio participated in the America’s Cutest Kid contests and had a great time. The contest raised $164,775 for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. This year, we are going international!

The International Charity Model Search to select North America’s Cutest Family and to raise funds for the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS.org) is going on.

I know I photograph the best and cutest families. Now is the time to prove your loved ones are North America’s Cutest Family? Many exciting prizes will be awarded, and the grand prize winner receives a new car!

Model Search Special:
$25 entrance fee includes a model session and one image submitted to the national gallery. Saturday sessions are available and receive 10% any portrait order from the model session.

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Each vote is $1 (no limit on the amount of votes you can cast), and all proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org).

Grand prize international winner will be determined from the 52 city finalists. The winners will be selected from the finalist gallery by photography and modeling industry experts.

Call 828-397-6055 or email me now to enter your family in this exciting contest. Entry into the contest ends April 5th.

*Contest open to residents of the US and Canada. For more information, visit http://sandypucmodels.com/.

New website new blog

Just wanted to let you know that I am building a whole new website and the blog will be moving to the actual website. I will leave this one up for all of the archived posts and will let you know here when the new site is up and running.

The old website was down for a little while last night and today, thanks to an oops on my part. Hopefully that won't happen again, but if you go to the site and it looks weird or it gives you some error you will know I did something again. I know it gave me a nice headache today. But when the new site is up; it will be so worth it.

Hang with me and enjoy this winter weather.
Thanks
Denise

It's Party Time Again!

That’s right the first facebook party was so much fun that we decided that night to do another one. We had thought about July or August, but we all had visions of sand between our toes and the cool breeze coming off the ocean. Ahhhh… now I want to go back to the beach.

So we are going to have another facebook profile party on Thursday, Sept. 17th at the studio from 6-8 pm. Come by and stay as long as you want. We will do a mini-session and from that you will get an image file to use for your profile portrait on facebook, myspace, linkedin, twitter or whatever you are online on.

Nancy Hunt will be back with all her pretty bling, bling! Nancy is an independent distributor for Premier Designs High Fashion Jewelry. They have some great new fall pieces.

This time we are going to have your Avon lady, Renee Bradshaw here. Renee will have some Avon samples for you to check out as well.

It is going to be lots of fun. Since it is a party, you know there will be food.

There is no admission charge, but if you could bring a donation of dog or cat food that would be great. During the month of September DCP is working with Catawba County Humane Society by collecting donations for their food pantry. With the economy the way it is, some families are struggling to be able to afford to feed their family pet. Many of these pets are brought to the shelter or worst abandoned. The food pantry gives food to families in need so they can feed their furry family member and not have to give them up.

Let me know if you have any questions and don’t forget to bring a friend!