Read-A-Thon Kick-off!!

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday (3/2) and Read Across America going on this week, I am hosting a read-a-thon fundraiser at several schools and kicking them all off this week! Today was my first kick-off event. I did a brief read-aloud session with a large group of preschoolers and explained to them how the read-a-thon works (I'm hoping their parents will take the time to read the letter I sent home explaining it as well).

I am SO excited about this fundraiser! SO excited! My new friend, Elise, with Usborne/Kane Miller books helped me plan it. The reason it's so awesome is that

1. It encourages reading
2. The participating children are rewarded for their reading with new books of their choosing
3. The schools all get new books for their classrooms (also of their choosing)
4. We get money to put into our adoption fund!

The kids all seemed excited about the event at the kick-off today. Although, it was disappointing to only see a few children raise their hands when I asked how many of them read with their parents everyday. :( Perhaps this read-a-thon will help change all that. That's the goal at least!

I really think I'm going to try to make this an annual thing. It's so much fun. I'm hoping the families all take part in it and take the time to read and collect pledges. How fun for all the kiddos!

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I have 3 more schools to kick it off at this week! Yahoo!!

Handmade Kid Lit Art Canvases For Sale!

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (Bernard Waber) - $20

Cinderella (K.Y. Craft) - $15

I've been wanting to begin making these treasures for a while now. The swiftly approaching holiday season provided the perfect inspiration for me to carve out some time in my schedule.

I'm selling these canvases to raise money for our Ethiopian Adoption! All the money earned from sales will go directly into our adoption fund.

The canvases are made using up-cycled kid lit books. :) A great way to celebrate a story and its art! Email me at watsonadoption@gmail.com if you would like to purchase either (or both) of these. They're ready to find a great home! I have priced the Cinderella canvas slightly lower since it was the first one I made. It's beautiful, but not as "polished" as those that followed.

Check back for more art to be posted soon!

And visit here for more beautiful handmade items (and coffee!) that all helps our adoption!

Promote Literacy... Buy a T-shirt!!.

They're here!!

A while back I was reading a blog post about promoting literacy. There were ideas of how to this (promote literacy) being thrown around in the comments section. The idea of putting the message on a t-shirt was suggested and so... here you go!

Front

Back

What's so great about these shirts is that there is a three-fold benefit to purchasing one:

1. You get to wear it around, look super cool, and make everyone else jealous!

2. You're promoting literacy to everyone who sees you sporting this bad boy!

3. 100% of the profit from the sale of each t-shirt will be put into our (my husband's and mine) adoption fund. We're currently in the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia! You can read all about that by clicking here. And subscribe while you're there, so you get all our awesome updates! :)

These are standard t-shirts. They're not fitted or anything, so gals AND guys can wear 'em! Since it costs money to have these made (of course), I only have a limited number to sell in this first batch. More will be ordered when supplies start to get low. So get yours NOW, and spread the word!!

ATTENTION (10/110): We currently only have smalls and 2XLs.

Sizes

Small $20.00 Medium $20.00 Large $20.00 XLarge $20.00 2XLarge $20.00

We Have Some Winners!!

A big thanks goes out to all who donated to our adoption fund during our raffles. And thank you to everybody who helped spread the word through Twitter and Facebook! Between our Wii raffle and our Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum raffle we raised almost $600!!

Here are the winners of the Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum:

- Bobette Thompson

- Heather Normand

- Dawn Detweiler

- Melitsa Avila

- Therese Sattler

Congrats to all the winners!! Please email me at watsonadoption@gmail.com with your address so we can get your prize to you! :)

T-shirts Are On Their Way!

There were votes for both t-shirt graphics, but this one had the most! The font is bolder than it was in the original sample, so hopefully that will help it pop out more from a distance, which was something some people liked better about the other graphic.

They will be printed on brown tees (or at least the first batch will be). I'll post the cost once I have the t-shirts ready for sale, because I'm not sure what the final printing cost will come to. I'm guessing I'll price them somewhere around $20 each. All the proceeds will be going toward our adoption fund.

The Literacy Launchpad logo will be printed small on the back of the t-shirts.

You'll be looking good and spreading a great message!!