Did you know that by simply participating in the Box Tops for Education^® program, America´s schools can earn over $50 million this school year?

Box Tops for Education was created by General Mills in 1996 as an easy way to help make a difference for kids and schools. Since then, schools have earned more than $375 million through the program to help get the things they need-from books and school supplies to playground equipment and computers.

To kick off another year of helping communities raise money for education, BTFE held a special celebration.

Help make a difference in schools by clipping Box Tops from more than 240 brands, including Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Hamburger Helper, Kleenex, Ziploc, Hefty, Juicy Juice, Avery, Welch´s, Land O´Lakes and Brita. Find out how much your school has earned and learn other ways to earn cash for your school at www.btfe.com.

Become a fan of Box Tops for Education on Facebook

Follow Box Tops for Education on Twitter

Journeys to outer space, talking animals, enchanted castles – the world of reading has no limits! Books can offer a child imaginary and thought provoking experiences unlike any other, and there is so much reward in helping a child discover the joy of reading.

To help grow kids’ love of reading at a young age, this fall Cheerios^® is once again inviting families to start the day with a nutritious breakfast and a new book. As part of its ongoing commitment to nurturing young bodies and minds and helping families connect by fostering a shared love of reading, Cheerios will provide more than six million children’s books, free inside Cheerios boxes, through its Spoonfuls of Stories^® program. Over the past nine years, Cheerios has distributed almost 50 million children’s books in-pack.

This year’s free in-pack book offerings, appropriate for children ages three to eight and written in both English and Spanish, include:

• All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Marla Frazee, which discusses the many wonderful things a child can encounter in the world as well as the commonalities all the world shares.
• Chaucer’s First Winter, by Stephen Krensky and illustrated by Henry Cole, follows a bear named Chaucer, who knows he is supposed to sleep through the winter but feels it’s much more fun to stay up and play.
• Jump!, by Scott M. Fischer, chronicles the adventures of a bug, a frog, a cat, a hound, a crocodile, a shark, and a whale, who all love to jump!
• No T. Rex in the Library, by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa, is a story about a little girl named Tess and her adventures in the library with a boisterous T-Rex.
• The Purple Kangaroo, by comedian Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Peter Brown, which is a vivid and humor-filled story that tricks the reader into thinking about a purple kangaroo.

As studies have consistently shown, children with greater access to books and other print materials are more successful in school and in life. However, one recent study revealed that in low-income neighborhoods, there is only about one age-appropriate book for every 300 children,* a statistic that exposes one of the biggest barriers affecting literacy today – lack of access to books. In an effort to help combat this issue, Cheerios, as part of its Spoonfuls of Stories initiative, will also make a $300,000 financial donation to First Book, an award-winning national nonprofit that helps get books into the hands of children in need. Cheerios has donated more than $3.5 million to First Book over the past nine years.

To learn more about the Spoonfuls of Stories program or to donate to First Book, visit www.spoonfulsofstories.com beginning November 1.

WIN A CHEERIOS SPOONFUL OF STORIES PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY WHICH INCLUDES:

A $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble, all five of the new in-pack titles and a box of Cheerios.

Answer any of all of these questions for 1 entry each: how often do you read with your children? What is your favorite children’s book? If you could be a character from a children’s book, who would it be? You must answer at least one question and leave the answer in the comments below as your first mandatory entry.

EXTRA ENTRIES

1. Blog about the giveaway as a separate blog post. – 5 entries

2. Add a relevant comment to any non-giveaway posts on my blog or Enter any of my other giveaways  – 2 entries for each blog post you comment on

3.  Follow me, @StacieinAtlanta  on Twitter and then hit the Twitter Share button below to Tweet out about this contest. You can do this no more than once every four hours each day for extra entries AND you MUST have more than 100 followers on Twitter. Leave your Twitter comment link in the comments section below. Take an extra entry for each person who RT’s you! – 1 entry

4. Subscribe by email or RSS Reader. Add the Divine Miss Mommy button to your blogroll or post my button in your sidebar (badge is on the bottom, right side of my blog) Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect – Click “Join this site”. Like The Divine Miss Mommy on Facebook. If you have already done any of these things, you still get the entries – 2 entries each

Contest ends on 11/21/2010 at 11:59 PM EST. Winner be notified via email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

DISCLOSURE: The information and giveaway were given to me from General Mills through MyBlogSpark. I was provided with a gift pack for my participation.

Sponsored By

Cheerios® is giving you the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, your ultimate family vacation. As part of a paid promotion for their “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, Cheerios® is sponsoring my post today about what my ultimate family vacation would be. Read mine, Enter the Sweepstakes for a chance to actually win your own fantasy family trip or one of a bunch of other great prizes.

My immediate family consists of my husband and our three children, ages 7, 5 and 3. For years we have been trying to plan our own “ultimate” family vacation. We spent a couple of weeks this year in Orlando, Florida because my husband had a month off of work. Still I wouldn’t call it the “ultimate” vacation.

To me, the ultimate vacation would be a Disney cruise with my family. I would love to go with my entire family. My father and his wife. My sister and her kids.

The destination would definitely be Europe. Disney offers several European cruises for 10 or more days. There are so many activities for parents and kids to do on the cruise that I just know there is something for everyone.

They have activities for kids and they keep the kids entertained all day. They offer babysitting at night. They have some unbelievable shore excursions and with destinations across the entire world, you could probably go on four or five cruises and never see the same place twice.

My kids really want to go on a Nickelodeon cruise so we would probably consider that as well.

So I am thinking that next year may be our year for our very own “ultimate” family vacation.

Where would you go? What would you do on your ultimate family vacation?

Don’t forget to enter the “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, for a chance to win your own ultimate family vacation. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Want to get a jump on back-to-school savings? Box Tops for Education and Sam’s Club want to lend a hand with their BIG CLIP campaign.

I am a Boxtops junkie. In this house, if a Boxtop comes in, then the chances are it gets clipped. I am actually planning a trip in a few days to tour General Mills for myself and I couldn’t be more excited.

From August 15 through September 4, you can get more Box Tops coupons on your favorite back-to-school brands at Sam´s Club and maximize your earnings for your school.

As a double benefit, your savings on these favorite brands will pay for your membership. At Sam´s you can save over $40 on these brands compared to grocery store prices.

Participating brands include: Cheerios, Ziploc containers, Ziploc sandwich bags, Honey Nut Cheerios, Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookies, Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bars, Nature Valley Bars, Scott Paper Towels, Huggies Baby Wipes and Kleenex Facial Tissues.

The fabulous folks at Sam´s Club and Box Tops for Education sent me a One Year Membership to check out Sam’s Club for myself plus to see how many Boxtops I could collect in one visit. I was able to collect almost $6 in Boxtops for my son’s school in one trip and that is AMAZING.

Box Tops for Education is giving away 1 million Bonus Box Tops to America´s schools! You can also enter The Big Clip sweepstakes for a chance to win the Grand Prize of 500,000 Bonus Box Tops or one of two first prizes of 250,000 Bonus Box Tops!

One lucky reader will win a $25 Sam’s Club Gift Card and a One-Day Pass to Sam’s. Four more readers will each win a One-Day Pass to Sam’s Club. Enter today.

HOW TO ENTER:
1. Do you collect Boxtops for your school? Share your best savings tip or the goal for the number of Box Tops that your family will try to earn for school. Leave this in the comments below.

EXTRA ENTRIES (only available once #1 has been completed):

2. Fave my blog on Technorati (2 extra entries – leave a comment for each entry below).

3. Blog about this contest linking back to the Divine Miss Mommy and The Big Clip (5 extra entries).

4. Follow me on Twitter and Tweet about this contest with the text below (you can do this once daily). Post the link to your Tweet in the comments below.

Win a $25 Sam’s Gift Card and a One-Day Pass from The Divine Miss Mommy and – Enter here:  http://bit.ly/11fQpf – Please RT

5. Follow me publicly through Google Friend Connect.

6. Subscribe to The Divine Miss Mommy via Reader or via Email (3 extra entries).

Giveaway ends September 15, 2009. Winner will be chosen from Random.org, will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. Thanks for entering!

A special thanks to My Blog Spark for this opportunity.