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Volume 29, August 2014

The Back to

School Issue

SOLDIER & FAMILY TOOLKIT 1/34 ARMORED BRIGADE COMBAT TEAM

NHL Players coming

to Camp Ripley

Page 4

State Fair

Page 7

Healthy Money

Habits

Page 12

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The intent of this toolkit is to provide you with available events, deals, resources,

and important information. Please take a

IN THIS ISSUE

The intent of this toolkit is to pro-vide you with available events, deals, resources, and important information. Please take a few minutes to glance at these re-sources and visit a few sites!

3 BEYOND THE

YELLOW RIBBON

EVENTS & DEALS

4 NHL AT CAMP RIPLEY

5 EARLY CHILDHOOD

SURVEY

6 RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL

7 STATE FAIR

8 TWEEN OVERNIGHTS

9 20 WAYS TO

RESET A BAD DAY

10 ACT PREP & TUTORING

11 MILITARY ONESOURCE

12 HEALTHY

MONEY HABITS

17 RESOURCE LINKS

18 FAMILY ASSISTANCE

CENTERS

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Check out the Beyond the

Yellow Ribbon website and

sign up for exclusive email

updates on monthly local

Beyond the Yellow Ribbon

events and deals.

HOME FRONT EVENTS & DEALS

www.BeyondTheYellowRibbon.org

Web.com Small Business Summit When: Aug. 1, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Where: TPC Twin Cities, KQRS tent, Minneapolis

About: You are invited to join the Web.com Small Busi-

ness Summit. This interactive summit will focus on help-

ing local small businesses learn how to successfully mar-

ket their business online.

More Info: Website

3rd Annual Military/Veterans Appreciation Night When: Aug. 3, 6:05 p.m.

Where: Franklin Rogers Park, Mankato

About: Servicemembers, veterans, and their families can

enjoy a baseball game (Mankato Moondogs vs Willmar

Stingers) for only $5 per person. Tickets also include the

Moondog Dog Pound with food, beverages, and more!

More Info: Flyer

MACV Stand Down When: Aug. 5 - 6, 2014

Where: Boy Scout Base Camp, Fort Snelling

About: The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans

(MACV) is hosting a Stand Down! This event of-

fers many free services for veterans to include meals,

clothing, legal assistance, haircuts, employment assis-

tance, counseling, and much more.

More Info: Flyer

RecruitMilitary Job Fair When: Aug. 7, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: The Earle Brown Heritage Center, Brooklyn Cen-

ter

About: RecruitMilitary is the top full-service military-to-

civilian recruiting firm in the United States and is hosting

a job fair to connect veterans with companies that value

their talent and experience.

More Info: Pre-Register

Military Make-overs When: Aug. 9, 9:45 a.m. RSVP by Aug. 7

Where: MK Pink Studio and Beauty Bar, Burnsville

About: Grab a friend for a morning of fun, prizes, and free pamper-

ing. Servicemembers receive a special 15% discount off any order

placed during the pampering session.

More Info: Flyer

St. Croix Festival Theatre - Military Discount When: Aug. 9 through Sep. 7, 2014

Where: St. Croix Festival Theatre, St. Croix Falls, WI

About: Sip a glass of wine and watch professional theatre in a his-

torical building. The St. Croix Festival Theatre is offering a 10%

military discount to the performance of "The 39 Steps".

More Info: Flyer

Rod Stewart and Santana Concert When: Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m. Discount offer expires on July 31, 5

p.m.

Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul

About: The Xcel Energy Center is pleased to offer a special dis-

count ticket offer to the upcoming Rod Stewart and Santana concert.

Discount tickets are available online only and may be printed out

immediately upon placing the order. There is a ticket limit of 4.

More Info: Website

Lynx Military Appreciation Game When: Aug. 12, 7 p.m.

Where: Target Center, Minneapolis

About: The Minnesota Lynx is hosting a Military Appreciation

Game beginning with a pre-game gathering in the Party Zone from

6 p.m. to 7 p.m. where there will be free popcorn for Servicemem-

bers, veterans, and their families. Stay after the game and gather

near the bottom of section 132 for a special thanks and Q & A ses-

sion with Lynx Star Monica Wright.

More Info: To receive a discount, use special offer code LYNX-

MILITARY Website

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Defending The Blue Line

Come Meet and Greet

NHL Hockey Players

Get Autographs, Photos

8 August 2014 at the Bull Pen at 1500-1600

(Across from the Snack Bar @ Camp Ripley)

Hockey Players Attending: Keith Ballard (MN Wild)

Stephane Veilleux (MN Wild) Chris Butler (Calgary Flames) John Curry (MN Wild) Mark Parrish (FMR MN Wild)

Mike Shibrowski (MN Gophers) Jake Parenteau (MN Gophers) Gigi Marvin (US Olympic Team) Matt Hendricks (Edmonton Oilers)

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Next Tween Overnight September 6-7th

at the Sea Life Aquarium

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20 Ways to "Reset" When Your Child is Having a Hard Day By MNBEL, Thursday, April 5, 2012, www.isyourchildready.com

Ever have one of those days where everyone (child, mom...whole family) is on edge, whiny, can't calm down...? Here is a great list of some perhaps new and some old tricks for turning those frowns upside down, thanks to The Pennington Point. 1. Deep breath. Call out, “Deep breath!” Then everyone stands up and takes long, slow breaths and raises hands over

heads. Then let the air out slowly while lowering your arms. 2. Jumping jacks. Stop what you are doing and do 20 jumping jacks. 3. The color game. Take a stack of different colored construction paper, and some tape outside. Tape a whole piece

of paper to trees, the car, a bush, the front door….making sure they are spread out. Set a chair in the middle for mom to sit and gather all of the kids around and say, “Ready……RED!” Then they have to find the red paper and run to it. Once the kids return to the middle call out another color.

4. Play stations in the kitchen. Fill the sink half full with water & utensils, fill a 9×13 pan with rice, another with straws, a plastic bowl with beans. Set the timer for 5 minutes. They play at each station for only 5 minutes then they switch.

5. Emergency toys. Keep a stash of toys in a closet to pull out for such an occasion. Set the timer for 30 minutes. Once the timer goes off, the toys get put away.

6. Play a game. Play something like Go Fish or a simple board game. Sometimes all they need is for you to stop and give them your full attention for 15 minutes.

7. Music. Turn on some fun kid music and dance around to one song. One song can reset everyone’s attitude. 8. Tear paper. Give each child 3 pieces of construction paper and stand in a circle. Say, “GO!” for everyone to start tear-

ing up paper and throwing it on the floor. After 5 minutes say, “STOP!” and everyone has to clean it up as quickly and silly as they can.

9. Lie on the grass. Everyone takes turns telling what they see in the clouds. 10. Drink something green. Put green food coloring in either lemonade or water for “Green Goop.” 11. Crawling. Have everyone put shoes on their hands and crawl around until you say stop. Then they have to freeze like

a statue until you say go. 12. Baths. These are not get-clean baths. These are play-baths. 13. Read a book. If everyone is tired, grab a book and read it aloud in an unusual way…with an accent, like a monster,

while acting it out, hanging upside down off of the couch….something that makes it different. 14. Hold hands. Sometimes everyone just needs Mom for a few minutes. So hold hands and walk around, outside if possi-

ble but inside works too. Say something like, “Tell me what you liked about today." 15. Quizzes. Line the kids up in front of you and zing them with questions. They have to answer really quickly and if they

take too long say, “Zing!” and they have to fall down and get back up again. 16. Color their name. Write their name in really big, puffy letters and they get 3 Crayons to color it in. No sharing, no trad-

ing…just 3 colors…GO! 17. Have a snack. Sit with them and talk for just a few minutes. 18. The Whisper Game. Say, “Let’s play the Whisper Game!” and set the timer for 5-10 minutes. That whole time you sit

and talk but everyone has to whisper. 19. Animals. Sit on the couch and and gather the kids around, with an arm length between them. Then call out animals

and they have to act like that animal until you change the animal. 20. Slow down. This one is good to do after any of the other activities. Everyone move and talk in slow motion. You be the

leader and have them do what you do...all in slow motion. Then give them turns being the leader.

To see the full article, visit The Pennington Point.

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MILITARYONE-SOURCE ARTICLE

Extending Your Child’s Learning Beyond the Classroom

Summary

Teachers work hard to give children a fundamental education during the school day. Is that enough for your child? Here are some things you can

do at home to enhance your child’s learning.

Find the fun in learning

Know your child’s curriculum and reinforce it at home. Each grade level’s content is likely to include core courses such as language arts, math,

science and social studies. The teacher can provide a list of grade-specific skills and monthly units that your child will be working on. If you

don’t know where to start, ask the teacher for ideas for activities to extend learning. Be sure to choose activities that fit your family’s interests.

Perhaps you can start in the kitchen. Baking cookies together can be a tasty way to teach math skills:

Talk about various measurements as you prepare the dough.

Count the cookies as you place them on the tray.

Teach multiplication by comparing rows: 4 x 6 and 6 x 4 both equal 24

Teach division when it’s time to eat the cookies: 24 cookies divided by a family of 6 =?

The whole family can think up fun, creative ways to explore a school subject. You know what’s best for your learner as well as what’s available

in your area, but here are a few more suggestions:

Language arts—Teach a new vocabulary word each night at dinner.

Science—Plant a flower in a window pot or collect/identify bugs together.

Social studies—Visit local museums and historic sites.

Fine arts—Take your child to plays and concerts.

Technology—Look online at trusted websites together.

The power of the word

The activities suggested may depend on your child’s core skills. Traditional learning requires listening and language skills. Teach your child to

love reading and you’re off to a great start! Read to younger children daily. As you read, point to pictures, follow the text with your finger and

ask the child to identify pictures.

Encourage older children to read to their younger siblings. Schedule family reading time for 30 minutes on the weekend. Read the paper together.

Visit the library regularly.

Homework is not optional

The need for reading skills is evident when your child starts to bring assignments home. Teachers already provide a way to extend learning be-

yond the school day—it’s called homework! Most schools are very structured environments—regular schedules and routines, assigned seats, ser-

viceable desks and tables, consistent rules, etc. Try to create a homework space at home that resembles your child’s school environment. If possi-

ble, set aside a homework desk or table stocked with school supplies. Also, designate a daily homework time and stick to it!

Be positive

As homework piles up and tests get more challenging, your child needs not only your support, but also an encouraging attitude from you about

learning in general. You may not always see the relevance in a school subject or assignment. Just remind your child that learning how to learn

opens the door for all sorts of fun and adventure.

Resource

Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Ready for the Pleasure and Empowerment of Reading by Emma Walton Hamilton. Beech Tree Books, 2008.

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Have friends/relatives collect them for you.

Consider buying/selling points/codes on Ebay as

laws allow.

Count all the costs when buying something just

for the points.

Consider redeeming them for things that are easy

to sell or gift like gift cards

Have a station set up at home to save them. I

keep mine in an empty Ziploc bag box with a

pair of scissors.

Figure out the cost of acquisition and the re-

demption rate. This will show whether a particu-

lar system is a good deal.

Learn what the Return on Investment (ROI) is for a

particular system/items are. For example, $100 in pur-

chases might yield a $2 gift card with one program and

a $15 gift card with another.

Find the offers that have the best ROI. Not all gift

cards/items require the same amount of points.

Set aside one day a month (1-2 hours) to look for free

codes online and keep up on the promotions like double

points.

Beware of expiration dates and reward limitations.

Programs may also have a per day entry limit.

Programs usually only last a few years, so be sure re-

deem all points before the end of a program.

I have a confession. I am in love with rewards/frequent programs. When I read that the average consumer signs

up for fourteen programs and only uses six of them, I thought about the ones I use and stopped counting when I

hit forty. There are lots of frequent programs available for people to participate in. Some are more advantageous

than others. The goal of these programs is to build customer loyalty and change their behaviors. Sometimes,

consumers are able to use the programs in a way that generates more goods and services than the costs of the

merchandise itself.

An example of this is David Phillips. He purchased $3,150 of pudding and turned it into 1.2 million frequent

flyer miles and an $825 tax write-off. Google his name for more information.

Here are some ways to maximize code/points programs.

HEALTHY MONEY HABITS REWARDS

PROGRAMS CRISTY HOUSE

NORTHERN MN FRSA

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Kellogg’s has so many offers, it can be difficult to keep track of

them. Some of the offers are money makers meaning that they

generate more points, coupons, gift cards, and merchandise than it

takes to buy them. Each Kellogg’s item has a code inside that is

good for points and possibly some additional merchandise/gift

cards. The points can be used for gift cards and redeemed for

high value coupons. A good example was the recent Eggo Waffle

special at Target. Specially marked boxes were on sale for $2

each and the 4 codes could be redeemed for a $5 Target gift card

in addition to their points. The points could be redeemed for ad-

ditional coupons and gift cards.

The best part about their frequent program is that they are con-

stantly sending out free codes, so you don’t have to purchase any

of their products to get rewards unless you want to.

Office Max: Once upon a time, Office Max allowed customers to

turn in 20 empty ink cartridges per month for a store credit of $3

each. Participants could receive a maximum of $720 per year.

That has since changed to 10 cartridges per month at $2 each for

$240 per year. It is still a great deal and once a month, they usu-

ally offer double rewards with the purchase of $59 in ink (up to 5

cartridges). To qualify, a participant must be enrolled in their

MaxPerks program and have the same amount of qualified pur-

chases in a given time period. Qualified purchases are items not

purchased with store credit. They also offer a $25 gift card per

$500 in qualified purchases. Prior to their merger with Office

Depot, they offered many free after rewards items as well. Com-

bined with the other offers and discounts, a strategic shopper

could easily get $1,500-$2,000 in office supplies with their $500

in annual qualified purchases.

Driscoll’s Berries: On the bottom of each package is a code to

take a 5-10 minute survey that earns participants $.50-$1 off ber-

ries. This is time consuming, but such coupons are rare. This

would be a great project to do while watching TV or for elemen-

tary schoolers. They just switched printing software and their

were lots of glitches early on, but customer service was helpful.

HEALTHY MONEY HABITS REWARDS PROGRAMS

CRISTY HOUSE –NORTHERN MN FRSA

Redemption

Rates

$10

Starbucks

Card

Other

$10 Gift

Card

ROI

Range

Huggies $500 $2501 2-4%

Pampers $77 $701 5-20%

Club

Carlson

$56 $402 10-

120%

Lean

Cuisine

- $120 8%

Shopkick 100 Scans 100 Scans $2/hour

Gymboree - $5002 2%

OfficeMax - $2002 5-50%

CVS - $5002 2-50%

Kellogg’s $264 $672 5-100%

Driscoll’s

Berries

- $252 $2/hour

or 40%

Starbuck’s $60 $602 8-100%

REI - $1002 10%+

Sephora - $50-$100 10-20%

1. Discovery Toys

2. In-store Credit/Merchandise Coupon

Free Kellogg’ Codes

BACKTOSCHOOL2014 AMAZINGSPIDERMAN

EARNSWEETREWARDS EARNGREATREWARDS

GIFTOFMUSICBONUS NUTRITIONINABOWL

SPRINGONTHECOLOR HOWITWORKS20PNTS

KFRSHARETHANKS20 SPIDEYEXCITEMENT

CRAZYGOODCONCERT

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HEALTHY MONEY HABITS REWARDS PROGRAMS

Pampers Gifts to Grow points yield about 30 points per $10 retail purchase.

This varies a lot and all of the points values are posted on their website. They

also regularly offer double points on variety of purchases and offer free bonus

codes. Someone that is savvy with coupons and watches for their points spe-

cials could easily get 100 points per $10 purchase. Codes are also available on

Ebay.

The redemption rate is about 1000 points per $10 item. Currently, Discovery

Toys $10 gift cards are available for 700 points, so a savvy shopper could get

one with $70 in out of pocket purchases. They used to offer diapers.com gift

cards and I bought as many as I could using codes purchased on Ebay for

about $2 for every $10 gift card. I used the cards at their sister site soap.com

to send my husband care packages with their free shipping. It was very time

consuming though since I had to enter 40 codes per gift card.

Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards program has much better rewards than

Pampers and offers an assortment of gift cards to places like Starbucks and

Amazon, but they are much more expensive. A $10 purchase yields 10 points.

Most gift cards cost 50 points per dollar and are limited to one per rewards

member. A $5 Starbucks gift card requires $250 in purchases.

To compare apples to apples, both sites offer $10 Discovery Toys gift cards.

Huggies requires $250 in purchases and Pampers requires $70.

For those that don’t regularly purchase diapers, a simple rule would be that it

takes about $10 in brand name diapers per week for a baby. A year’s supply

would be around $500 and that would yield a $10 Starbucks gift card.

The Huggies Rewards page is regularly down, so it may take several tries to

actually get into the site.

Starbucks is simple and straight to the point. For every 12 items you buy, you

get a free drink or food item. Members also earn a free item on their birthday.

There are codes on bagged coffee too. Last fall, they ran a promotion where

the first and second two codes entered earned free food items. I bought four

bags of coffee for $7.49 each minus $6 in coupons from the newspaper and

earned a $10 Target gift card & $10 Starbucks Card. Had I remembered to en-

ter the codes in time, I also would have received the two free drink/food items.

That is $40+ worth of Starbuck’s stuff for a net cost of $4. The one catch is

that your points (stars) are erased annually unless you earn 30+ every 12

months. In April, there were codes for 20 free Stars. There are promotions

regularly, so wait to enter codes until bonuses are offered.

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HEALTHY MONEY HABITS REWARDS PROGRAMS

Gold Points/Club Carlson:

Gold Points was a system that

has since ended and changed

over to Club Carlson. I would

receive points for purchases for

staying at Country Inn and

Suites and for eating at TGIFri-

days. Back in 2006 we purchase

a Sleep Number Bed and their

company was a participating re-

tailer. I took advantage of the

special and ended up with a sub-

stantial amount of points. When

the system ended, I turned all of

my points in for free appetizer

certificates at TGIFridays. I

ended up with 48 and less than a

year to use them all. Since their

nearest restaurant was about 3

hours away, I was unable to re-

deem them all. It must have

looked silly seeing a table order

8 appetizers for dinner, but it

was a lot of fun.

Club Carlson is a terrific frequent travel program. There are several ways to earn points. The first two ways are to

spend money at their hotels or partners. They also offer many promotions to earn points. The final way to earn points

is by earning elite status in their rewards programs and earning bonus percentages of 15-75% based on the number of

stays per year. This builds brand loyalty. Because of the tiered system, the cost to acquire points generally goes down

during the year. Generally, there is at least one promotion for a free night per year (30,000-50,000 points).

If a person participated in the free night program (50,000) and stayed four nights a year ($125 each), they would earn

about 60,000 points per year ($8 per 1,000 points). At the base level, a member would earn 2,500 points for their $125

stay ($50 per 1,000 points), at the Silver Elite level, 2,875 ($43 per 1,000 points, at the Gold level 3,375 ($37 per 1,000

points), and at the Concierge level 4,375 ($28 per 1,000 points).

If an average hotel room costs $125 per night, a member would also have the option to redeem 28,000 points for a free

night’s stay, or use 5,000 points and pay $75 cash. The first way saves a member about $5 per 1,000 points and the

second way saves $10. I was planning a trip to Florida and there were hotels that offered free nights for 14,000 points

each. Another hotel I was looking at in Paris charged $518 a night and was free with 70,000 points

Gift cards to stores are also available and range in cost from 7,000 points for a $10 gift card to 66,000 for a $100 gift

card.

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HEALTHY MONEY HABITS REWARDS PROGRAMS

Disney Movie Rewards- Inside Disney DVDs, there are rewards codes that can be used to buy merchandise. A

$20 DVD has a code for 100 points, so the conversion rate is $1=5points. The program offers very few gift cards.

One of them is for $5 concession cash for 300 points ($60 DVD purchase). It should be noted that Kellogg’s has a

promotion for the same item with the purchase of three boxes of specially marked cereal.

One of the most expensive items is a $500 Delta Vacation Gift Card.

The cost is 14050 points, or $2,810 in DVD purchases. I have pur-

chased several DVDs at thrift shops and garage sales for an average

of $3, making the cost of the gift card $421.50. Pawn America of-

fers 2/$3 DVDs on Tuesdays and that seems to be the average price

on Ebay for just the codes, making the cost of the gift card $210.75.

This is a great one to ask friends and family for. The other bonus is

that many of the codes also unlock digital copies of their movies, so

it is kind of like getting free movies too. Where it gets tricky is that

Disney only allows one redemption per movie title. So to get the

$500 gift card you have to have codes from

140 unique movie titles. So far, I am up to

2,900 points.

Lean Cuisine- The program ends at the end

of this year. Code entry is limited to 10 per

day and the entry process is a hassle. Gen-

erally, their frozen meals range in sale price from $2-4 and their points’ values are 20-40 points. A $10 gift card

costs 1200 points, translation: spend $120, get a $10 gift card. If time isn’t an issue, the ROI of 8% isn’t that bad

compared to some other programs. These are a common lunch item in many work places, so if you are short on

codes, the company break room may be a solution.

Shopkick: This is Smart phone application that tries to modify consumer behavior by rewarding points for walking

into stores or scanning specific items. Users generally earn 50 points (sometimes up to 150) when they enter a

qualifying store and earn 10-100 points per item scanned. While I am writing this article, Target has 29 scans

available for a total of 595 points. 500 points are required to earn a $2 gift card to Target, Starbucks, and several

department stores. Around major shopping holidays, the point values go up. Scanning reminds me of a treasure

hunt and would be really fun for kids to do, especially if there are two phones involved. The scans don’t always

work and not every store carries the items listed for

scanning. I try to open the app and scan the high value

items in a given store, which is more efficient then

scanning all of the items. Sometimes, scanning causes

bonus scans to appear. There are also lots of other

ways to earn points too. This is a fun app and there is

no up-front cost to it.

Thank You Letters- My Grandma loves

to eat Michelina’s frozen dinners. A few

years ago, she wrote a letter to the com-

pany saying how much she liked their

meals. The owner, Geno Palucci, wrote

her a letter back with several coupons for

free entrees. I have also received cou-

pons for free items when completing sur-

veys or sending compliments/complaints.

This would be a great way for school age

children to practice their writing skills

and send out old fashioned letters to the

companies/products they enjoy.

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RESOURCE LINKS ARMY / NATIONAL GUARD minnesotanationalguard.com armyonesource.com militaryonesource.mil CHILDREN ADAPT: cehd.umn.edu/fsos/adapt operationwearehere.com mnchildcare.org ausa.org/family mdva.state.mn.us/child guardfamilyyouth.org militarykids.org DISCOUNTS beyondtheyellowribbon.org military.com/discounts/category EDUCATION education4military.com gibill.va.gov militaryonesource.mil militarychild.org EMPLOYMENT esgr.org mn.gov/deed FMLA: dol.gov/whd/fmla HEALTH / MENTAL HEALTH tricare.mil militarymentalhealth.org Counseling 24/7: militaryonesource.mil MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIPS Marriage Retreats: strongbonds.org militaryonesource.mil PARENTS OF SOLDIERS bluestarmoms.org operationwearehere.com/Parents.html PET CARE dogsondeployment.org netpets.org guardianangelsforsoldierspet.org SPOUSES & SIGNIFICANT OTHERS militarysos.com spousebuzz.com milspouse.com msccn.org nationalmilitaryspousenetwork.org STRESS MANAGEMENT militaryonesource.mil defense.gov/specials/stressawareness

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