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My Gift to You: A Kindle! (a Freely Educate Gives Back Giveaway!)

UPDATE:  The winner that Random.org chose is Comment #271, Jennifer McConniel!

271

Jennifer McConniel said...

Love all the stuff you find for us homeschooler you make it easy for me and my kids ty If we won the kindle that would be great since I cant a ford one at this time and my daughter wants one for homeschool stuff :)

Reply November 27, 2011 at 12:18 PM

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Our family has been so blessed by Freely Educate readers this year!  We want to give a gift to you!  We're giving one of you the new Kindle ($79 value), shipped right to your door, in time for Christmas!

As you probably noticed, the Kindle is one of my favorite ways to homeschool our children, for these reasons:

• It is inexpensive, because all the free books make up for the $79 purchase price
• There are thousands of free books, mostly classics, available for it.  I've purchased only a handful of books in the 3-1/2 years of owning a Kindle. 
• You can get free library books onto the Kindle (new feature!)
• With a prime Amazon membership, you'll have access to the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, where you may borrow books (even bestsellers) for free

Freely Educate Gives Back: We Need Your Help to Give 2,500 Books to Children in Need

Every now and then, I'm blessed to find a way for Freely Educate to give back. Today, we all have the opportunity to give away 2,500 books to children who may not otherwise own a book at all.  I'm going to need your help for this one!  It's easy, easy for you to help...

All you'll have to do is come to a chat I'm hosting tonight  at 8pm EST with Random House Children's Books.  If you can't come then, you'll still be able to help!  For each reply in the chat discussion, Random House will donate one children's book to First Book, a non-profit organization that gives books away to children.  Our goal is to give away 2,500 books.  With your help, we can do it! 

Here's more about how you can participate:

1. At 8pm EST on August 18th come to our  discussion in the Read & Play Summer Fun Community to participate in the live chat.
2. During the chat, join in the conversation we will be having around the question "If you could spend a summer day living inside a children's book or novel what would it be?"
3. If you can't make the live chat, then you can come back to the discussion anytime until August 26th with a pledge of how many hours per week you'll commit to reading to your children.
4. Tell you friends and spread the word!  Send them to our First Book Chat Discussion.  Random House will give away one book per reply. 

While you're there in the Read & Play Summer Fun Community, remember to enter to win an iPad2.  All you have to do is let us know your favorite children's book.

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Our December Charity Project: Giving Away Toys with Random Acts of Zhu

Several years ago, our then-4-year-old daughter had her fourth ear surgery just before Christmas. Although it was an outpatient surgery, our daughter became too ill to go home that night. While we sat in her hospital room, watching silly cartoons as she healed, someone came to our door and asked if he could give her a Christmas gift.

I don't remember what the gift was, but I remember that the kindness of a stranger lifted our sad spirits that day. Our daughter, now 13, remembers it well, too. 

So this December when Cepia LLC, the makers of ZhuZhu Pets asked if I would give away 104 ZhuZhu Pets for them, I immediately thought of that day at the children's hospital.  It was an opportunity for us to pay-it-forward.

We were blessed to be part of Random Acts of Zhu, a program created by Cepia LLC, in which 100 bloggers were asked to give away 104 pet hamsters in our local areas.  The choice of charity/ies was up to us, so our family decided to:

• Give a few away to the Angel Tree project in two local churches
• Give a few away to a homeless family
• Give a few away to The Lighthouse, a local abuse shelter
• Give the bulk of the pets away to the local hospital's children's wing

Unfortunately (but for good reasons), the hospital now won't allow us to give the gifts directly to the children, but we were able to place them in a gift-giving box at the nurse's station, ready to brighten a child's day.

Thank you, Cepia LLC and your ZhuZhu Pets, for giving us the gift of being part of Random Acts of Zhu in 2010. 

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FreelyEducate.com's Charity Projects in 2011

I haven't yet figured out exactly how to do it, but I'd love for FreelyEducate.com to be more charity-focused in 2011.  If you have any ideas, please share them in the comments.  Meanwhile, I can't wait to see how other companies respond to the Random Acts of Zhu program.  It would be so exciting to give away even more toys in 2011!

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