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Moms Gone Wild-ish: Taking Time Out to Celebrate with Friends (with $100 Giveaway)

December 20, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

This post is sponsored by Serve from American Express. Sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account!

This past year has been crazy for me.  It’s been full of amazing opportunities like Mom Congress, the launch of KidzVuz, spending the day with Sony and photographer Brian Smith at BlogHer, being on ABC News Now and speaking at the 140 Edu Conference and She Streams.  But none of these events would have been possible – or nearly as fun -  without an amazing support system of family and friends.  As I’ve gotten busier and busier this year I’ve had less time to spend with many of my non-work friends – and I miss them!  So when I got the opportunity to try out a new payment system called Serve from American Express, and take out a bunch of my girlfriends, I jumped at the chance.

We are lucky to live in NYC where there are so many fab restaurants and we headed to Landmarc at the Time Warner Center, which not only does a great lunch but overlooks Columbus Circle and Central Park.

And did you know their bacon is so good even vegetarians are allowed to eat it?  True story.  It was great to pile into a big round booth, be together for a couple of hours swapping stories and catching up, and most of all taking time out during this crazy season to just hang out.

I can look around this table and see women who I have known – some for the last 7 years and others for just the last few – and feel grateful to have a group of women who I know I can rely on to grab my kids at pick-up if I’m late, be on my emergency blue card at school, have my back at contentious Parents Association meetings, and really just have a great time with complete with a lot of laughing and honest talk.  And to me that’s worth celebrating.

At the end of the meal everyone paid their share and then I paid them all back via Serve, right on my Android phone.  (They had all signed up for Serve accounts prior to the meal – see what I mean about being able to rely on them?)  And now they can either use their Serve card to shop and use the balance that way or move the money into their bank account.  Though knowing this group I think the shopping route is the more likely scenario.

And I am so excited that now I can pass on the same opportunity to one of my readers!

First: Remember to sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use.

WIN $100 FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS! Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found by clicking here. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

How to Enter: Leave a comment below describing your fave girls night or guys night out activity or location – just keep it clean, this is a parenting blog after all!  Contest ends at 11:59pm 12/27/11.

Posted in clever girl collective, giveaway, life in nyc | Tagged , , , , , | 29 Comments »

When it’s OK to Work For Free (Really!)

December 19, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

There have a been a flurry of articles in the mom blogging space over the past year about mom bloggers who work for free and how you should never, ever do it.  I wrote one myself for Mom Blog Magazine.  You’ve heard it before: You cheapen everybody’s work; you make it harder for anyone to be taken seriously and get paid; you are a chump building someone else’s business without getting anything in return.  And, all of that is true – sometimes.  One of the things that bothers me about this dogmatic approach to the topic of being paid is that often it is hurled by people I know have worked – and continue to work – for free in some instances.  The other thing is, it’s not so clear-cut.  I’ve written previously about why you shouldn’t work for free – but taking stock of my year and really my last four years since I started blogging – I think it’s important to talk about when it’s okay to accept work that doesn’t come with cash compensation.

  1. YOU ARE NEW TO BLOGGING – It’s a big, wide blogosphere out there and building readership and traffic is daunting.  Joining a blog community where you are posting with a group of other women can give you an automatic group of colleagues and support.  You will not drive a ton of traffic from these sites – no matter what they say to the contrary – but you will start to feel like you belong, meet other bloggers and build links back to your site.  I started out writing for Silicon Valley Mom’s NYC Mom Blog site and then for the Yahoo! Motherboard and those two communities gave me the connections and friendships that are far and away the most valuable I have today – both personally and professionally.  I don’t regret writing for them for free for a moment.
  2. YOU WANT TO BUILD YOUR EXPERT REPUTATION:  There are sites that can provide a much bigger soapbox for your views than your blog.  Again, they will not throw you tons of traffic, so don’t fall for that, but they can give you a platform and a legitimacy that your blog alone will not.  When the Washington Post asked to re-post an education piece I had written I did not hesitate to say yes.  It enhanced my standing as an education writer and advocate and gave me a great byline to point to when applying to paying gigs in the field.  As long as you own your content and you are seeing the benefit then you should consider it.
  3. YOU WILL GET EXCLUSIVE ACCESS TO EVENTS OR INTERVIEWS: Let’s face it, you are just one of many bloggers trying to get press passes, invites and other access to brands and events.  If you don’t have the clout (or Klout) to obtain those on your own then having the byline and credentials from a much larger site can help.  I have attended many conferences, expos and events thanks to my affiliation with Yahoo! Motherboard.  It’s a name those outside of the blogging world understand.  To me, that was valuable.

Like I said in the beginning, nothing is black and white.  You have to go with your gut and you have to feel like what you are contributing is being respected and acknowledged accordingly – cash or otherwise.  You also have to be realistic about your worth.  Only you know what is right for you.  What do you think?  Would you or do you work for free?

Posted in blogging, social media | Tagged , , , , , | 26 Comments »

Educate to Eradicate Poverty – ONE.org 12 Days of Change Campaign

December 15, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

The education reform debate in the US focuses on testing, achievement measurements, teacher evaluations and data driven discussions that often miss the one major point – our education “problem” is a class and equality problem.  If we dig down deeper into the causes and obstacles facing many of our students poverty is more often than not the deciding factor in whether or not a child will succeed in school.  But, imagine if you had to dig down even deeper than that – to the point where not even having a school or access to education was the issue – and then you start to understand the challenges facing developing nations in Africa.  How can you possibly tackle the greater issue of poverty without taking on the issue of education?

According to ONE, The Advocacy Non-Profit founded by Bono and his wife, education not only provides children and families with a pathway out of poverty, but it can also yield even bigger returns for the world’s poorest countries through its impact on areas such as health and the economy. Educated mothers, for example, are more likely to have smaller families, and have their children immunized and send them to school. Education can also provide families and countries with more economic opportunities and help promote the civic participation that is critical to building democracies.

Less than 1 percent of the US budget goes towards foreign aid.  But look at this infographic, which shows the effect that small amount of money has on an area like education according to the US Aid website:

What ONE small thing can you do today to make change happen?  Watch the video below by ONE member Katie Meyler, about a young African girl named Abigail.  It’s a story about how education is the most powerful change agent there is.  Abigail is now in school and at the top of her class because of More Than Me.  The video was produced by the What Took You So Long foundation.

Watch it and share it – on Facebook, twitter and beyond.

Posted in charity, education, society | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments »

The Yule Log – An NYC Wordless Wednesday Fireplace

December 14, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

Nothing says holidays in NYC like the Yule Log.  Because who builds a fire in an NYC apartment?  If you grew up in the 70′s and 80′s in NYC the answer was WPIX (channel 11).  Now it’s available on demand on TWC channel 1006 – in HD.  So much better than hauling wood – and greener too!

Posted in Christmas, holidays, life in nyc | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Behind the Scenes at Mary Poppins – Disney Magic In Times Square

December 7, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

A few weeks ago we were invited to take a backstage tour of the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street, current home of the Disney Broadway musical, Mary Poppins.  The New Amsterdam is a particularly rich historical theater – it housed the Ziegfeld Follies and the fabulous Fanny Brice and is haunted by the ghost of Olive Thomas.  Like most of Times Square in the 70s and 80s The New Amsterdam had fallen apart, become decrepit and rat ridden and showed Kung Fu movies.  I remember when Disney purchased the theater and announced their intention to restore it and bring The Lion King there.  Most New Yorkers were skeptical at best.

What occurred is one of those extraordinary New York and theater moments.  The restoration of the theater – most of it helped by the memories of original Ziegfeld Follies girls then in their 90s – is glorious.  All of the original details were restored or rebuilt from the crowned sconces, to the Shakespeare friezes, to the beautiful murals in the downstairs lounge that depict the history of New York.  It’s hard to imagine the lounge with 2 feet of dirty water filling the floor as it was 15 years ago when they began the restoration.

On our tour we not only saw the beautiful details but also had a backstage, hands-on experience with props and set pieces from all of the Disney musicals.  Sitting in Ariel’s scallop shell bathtub was a definite highlight.  That evening we saw Mary Poppins – for the second time I should say.  But, now that my girls are 9 they had a whole different appreciation.  It also was pretty amazing to see the show after standing on that very stage that morning.  There is nothing like walking on a Broadway stage!  Except, maybe, seeing yourself on one of the giant screens in Times Square.

We had an extra dose of Disney Magic that day when the girls got to experience a virtual Disney Park experience by posing with a beamed-in Daisy Duck and having their pictures projected on the screen above the Disney Times Square store and then again and again on within the “castle” that covered the building across the street.  I think they could have watched themselves forever…

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Posted in kids, life in nyc, theater | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Finding Cyber Deals in an Instant This Holiday Season (and a giveaway)

December 5, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

One of the things that drives me crazy is the constant tab and window hopping I do to compare prices across websites.  There are sites that will aggregate an item across sites but I never have much luck with them.  Often they show wrong items in their search or don’t really find the best deals.  So this year I tried out a new browser extension called Drop Down Deals, which conveniently does exactly what it says: drops down a little teaser that tells you about deals, coupons and free shipping for the site you’re on.  Right there – no clicking away endlessly, Googling “free shipping” or any of the other time-consuming bargain hunting tactics that make cyber shopping a chore.

For example, if you went to Macys.com or BestBuy.com and these merchants currently had coupons or deals available, Drop Down Deals would pop up a small box in the corner of your computer screen to let you know.  When clicked, a menu will literally drop down to show you all the current coupons or deals or promotions for the site.  No freaking out wondering if there is a magical coupon out there that you missed.

They also have their own deals on the Drop Down Deals site and free shipping offers too.  To kick off this week of 5 Days of Deals they will be sharing exclusive deals to users through their site, facebook page and twitter.  One caveat, the browser extension only works on Firefox when on a Mac, though on most browsers on a PC, but you can follow on their site, facebook or twitter from anywhere.

To kick off the spirit of giving and getting a deal this holiday season I am hosting a giveaway for a fab nylon messenger bag to give to the techie in your life. (or the mom ’cause the nylon makes this a great diaper bag too!) After all, what’s more fun than cyber bargain hunting on the go?

To enter to win the messenger bag you must do one of the following actions:

1. Follow Drop Down Deals on Twitter: @DropDownDeals 
2. Like Drop Down Deals on FaceBook: Drop Down Deals
3. Google +1 Drop Down Deals page: Here
Happy Bargain Hunting!
The contest ends on 12/14/2011.  Winner will be chosen by random.org.  Open to all US Residents 21+.  Drop Down Deals is the sponsor of this giveaway and is responsible for all fulfillment, winner validation and shipping.  Beccarama is not responsible for prize fulfillment.
I was compensated for this post and the giveaway by Drop Down Deals.  But all opinions are my own, as always.

Posted in giveaway | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Creating a Magically Priceless Holiday Season in NYC

November 28, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

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It goes without saying that I love raising my kids in NYC.  One of things I love the most is the incredible opportunities that are available to us just by living here.  We’ve gone behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Opera (this actually fulfilled one of MY biggest wishes), been to the Origami Tree Lighting at the American Museum of Natural History, skated in Central Park and watched the giant Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloons get inflated a block from their school. I’m always looking for the unique and special experiences that will be memorable and make my girls fully appreciate where they live.

This year I’ve discovered the Mastercard Priceless NY events to add to my must do holiday list.  I had the seriously fun pleasure of going to FAO Schwarz at 7:00 am – BEFORE it opened – to tour the store, get a first-hand look at all of the hottest new toys this season (many of which are featured in the KidzVuz Tween Gift Guide) and finally stock up on an awesome bag of candy!!  I didn’t take my daughters since they had to be at school – but really, being an adult at an empty FAO Schwarz was plenty fantastic.  I grew up in Brooklyn, and FAO was one of those magical places – like the Met, Lincoln Center and Broadway – that was reserved for a very special occasion, or a visiting relative.  I am so happy that they did not close it and have maintained much of what makes it magical.

While this event was great, even better is that I have now learned about all of the incredible Mastercard Priceless NY events and I’m hooked.  The NY Botanical Gardens Train Show before it opens to the public?  Yes.  A day spent with New Yorker cartoonists?  Definitely.  And there are so many more.  I’ve become addicted to the site actually – checking off all of the experiences I want to do and trying to figure out how to make them all work in our holiday calendar!  I think living in NYC is priceless – but it’s easy to lose sight of it sometimes.  So, I’m loving a site that helps me remember why I choose to raise my kids here and help us take full advantage of all there is to enjoy!

Check out the unique offerings at Mastercard.com (they’re doing London and Toronto too – so if you live there check those out!)

I received a gift card and a whole lotta candy at the FAO Schwarz event but it in no way influenced this post (except for the sugar rush, which contributed to the rambling)

Posted in Christmas, events, Hanukkah, life in nyc | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

The KidzVuz Gift Guide for Tweens is Here!

November 25, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

I’m all for bargain hunting, though Black Friday is pretty much my least favorite event in the world.  Nothing is worth the crowds and madness (and pepper spray) in my book.  But I do love to figure out exactly the right gift for the people in my life.  There is nothing better than watching someone’s face when they open your gift and it’s PERFECT! Of course some people are easier to buy for than others – and one notoriously difficult group to buy for are tweens.  Too old for your typical kids gifts, too young to be completely jaded and want only gift cards, you have to hit this group right on target or risk the eye-roll, or worse.

So, with that in mind we actually went to the source and asked our KidzVuz reviewers want they want this holiday season.  Then we did some pretty cool scouting ourselves at Toy Fair, from our friends at The Big Toy Book, and at all of the cool tech and toy previews we’ve been to this year.

We made our list, we checked it twice (actually about 50 times but we don’t want to make Santa feel like a slacker)  Then we threw in a whole bunch of amazing giveaways and came up with our gift guide.  It’s so big we’ve broken it into three parts rolling out today, Monday and Wednesday.  So hop on over to the KidzVuz.com parent blog and start making your list and entering our giveaways so you can be the gift giving champion of the season!

 

Posted in Christmas, giveaway, Hanukkah | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Cheating on the SATs? I’m Shocked – NOT!

November 23, 2011 by Rebecca Levey

This week’s revelations that students in Long Island paid other students to take the SATs for them has the media all lathered up.  Is it a result of high stakes testing?  Is it a sign of our now hyper competitive world?  And of course they want to know how could this happen?  Well it happens pretty easily, and like all massive test cheating, it’s been happening forever.

When I was in high school – ahem, 20 some years ago – I knew kids that took the SATs for other kids.  At one private school in Brooklyn it was well-known that one boy took the SAT for his friend – for free because he was terrified of not doing well.  His dad figured it out and turned him in.  Nothing happened.  Cheating on the SATs was and is easy because you’re dealing with kids who don’t necessarily have real government issued IDs.  In NYC so few kids get a driver’s license by 17 that you end up using a school ID.  Getting a fake school ID was easy back then before Photoshop, I can only imagine how easy it would be now.  Then the kids sign up to take the SAT at a different high school where no one would know them anyway and that’s it.  There’s no way the College Board hasn’t known this has been going on for years and years.

There were a lot of cheating scandals when I was in high school in NYC in the late 80′s.  I had a friend whose mother was a guidance counselor at another high school and rumor was she used to give her daughter the science Regents exams beforehand to study and learn.  The more infamous of the Regent Exam cheating was the local Yeshiva where teachers gave the students the tests and answers beforehand since they put little stock in state exams, and then those kids sold them to the public school kids.  Really.  The year of my Chemistry Regents Exam in 1989 the New York Post published the answers on the front page to expose the scandal.  Imagine walking on to the subway at 6:45 am to go to school and take the test you’ve been studying for five weeks and see the answers staring you in the face as people read the morning paper.  And they still made us sit and take the test, while pulling kids out one by one for suspected cheating.  So bizarre.

We can all pretend we’re shocked by these new allegations of cheating, or we can admit that as long as these tests matter while at the same time not mattering much at all, kids will find a way around it and chances are there will be adults helping them along the way.  Don’t you wonder how the kids with fake scores fared at the college they attended under false pretenses?  Isn’t the whole joke about Harvard that the hardest part is just getting in?

I don’t condone cheating at all, but I also detest the hypocrisy around this latest scandal.  Until they figure out a way to really measure a student’s abilities and academic promise – and stop putting so much importance on these giant one-off exams, kids and grown-ups will be looking for a way to game the system.  If this puts focus on the College Board and why they are allowed to wield such power in the this space all the better.  Our testing culture is only going to get worse as standardized tests become more prevalent and cover more and more subjects all in the name of “measuring” teacher effectiveness and ranking schools.  And more and more parents and school districts will pour money into test prep classes and workshops.  How many times have you heard that kids need to not just learn the material for the test but learn how to take the test in the first place.  It’s what the Princeton Review started 20 years ago and they fostered an entire industry around it.

Ideally, parents, teachers, administrators and students will stand up and say this one day of sitting at a desk with a number 2 pencil is just a tiny piece of the puzzle instead of 90%.  Until then, we will have to live with these tests and teach our kids that while the results may not accurately reflect their abilities and potential by cheating they are doing more damage to their character than any score ever could.

Posted in education | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Is that a Browser in Your Pocket? The Kingston urDrive Review and Giveaway

November 11, 2011 by Rebecca Levey


Thank you to Kingston for sponsoring this review. Please click here to learn more about Kingston. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own – as always.

I have a lot of projects to juggle.  Between Beccarama, the Blogging Angels and KidzVuz I have files all over the place, browser bookmarks that make my head spin and audio and video files mucking up various clouds, desktops and inboxes.  Keeping track of all of it is not easy.  But, worse is when I’m somewhere without my computer and all of my saved preferences and bookmarks at my fingertips.  Is there anything worse than being on a foreign computer and not being able to access the files you need?  No.

So, I was excited to try out the Kingston urDrive Data Traveler and see if this itty-bitty USB drive could really help me sort this all out and give me some miniature portability for all of these projects.  First, I should mention, that it only works on a PC.  Second – it’s tiny. Really tiny.  But, it fits on a key chain so you can easily have it with you at all times.  The urDrive is a free, pre-loaded application for organizing and exploring apps, games, and music. It transforms Kingston USB drives into active storage devices– rather than the “old school” device used only to store and transfer data. It has some interesting programs and apps like Facebook, twitter, YouTube and a whole kids section called Fooz Kids which allows for all sorts of parental controls and games.  Now, picture this – you get to your in-laws’ house and instead of getting on their PC and having to use their version of IE or Firefox you plug in your urDrive and it launches your personal browser – with your Twitter and Facebook accounts so you never leave a password or username behind. You aren’t being cookied on their browser or leaving an internet history behind.  Cool right?

Or better yet – your kids go over to grandma’s house and who knows what they’ll get up to on her computer – but instead they can plug in the urDRive and have their kids’ sites already there – plus photos and videos they want to share with grandma.  All on the little drive, easily organized and easy to use.  The urDrive is really perfect for sharing with family when you’re traveling since it’s all stored on one small drive, and you have your personalized features too.

There is definitely some time you have to spend on the set-up.  Like all new devices, the more time you put into personalization the better it will work for you.  The kids section is for younger kids – older than 8 will most likely find it too restrictive and babyish – but for younger kids it’s a great piece of mind when they use other people’s computers that most likely have no parental controls set up at all.  Now you want one right?

Win a 5-pack of Kingston urDrives. They’re such an obvious stocking stuffer for family and friends too! 

To enter:

Mandatory entry: leave a comment below telling me how you currently share photos and videos with friends and family.

For additional entries:

Follow me on Twitter (click the widget) and let me know you did with a comment below.

Like the KidzVuz Facebook Page: Just click on the widget in my right sidebar, and let me know you did!

Only open to US residents, 18 years or older.  Giveaway ends on 11/20/2011 at 11:59 pm.  Winner will be chosen by random.org and has 2 business days to respond and verify their eligibility.  Kingston is the sponsor of this giveaway.  Beccarama will in no way be held legally responsible for any disputes, claims, unreceived shipments or other legal issues arising from this giveaway.

Posted in clever girl collective, giveaway, review, technology | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments »

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