Too Cool for School Giveaway and Sponsor Spotlight: Glass Dharma

Welcome to the Too Cool For School Giveaway Hop hosted by BloggerPR! Summer has come to an end, which means it is time to send the kids back to school. Parents are scrambling to replenish their school supplies collection and get all of the requirements on those supplies lists, so BloggerPR decided to host a giveaway hop to help everyone win some of those back to school necessities!  This event will run from September 1st through 9th, which gives you plenty of time to hop down the linky list below! Each blogger is giving away prizes valued $20 or more, so you don’t want to miss out! Good luck and have a great school year!

I first learned about Glass Dharma on another blog and fell in love with the idea of glass straws immediately. Glass Dharma is changing the planet, one straw at a time! I was so excited that this company wanted to work with Mama Making Changes and they sent me 4 straws to review and keep. Here they are:

Let me tell you a little about the "what" and "why" behind Glass Dharma.

Plastic, which is often made from petroleum, releases harmful chemicals into the atmosphere when it is produced and when it is recycled. Much plastic is never recycled at all, meaning it sits in landfills, where it can take hundreds of years to decay. As it decays, most plastics leach chemicals into the ground, which contaminates ground water and soil. Some never decay because of conditions in the landfills. 

Most straws are not even recyclable! And most are made from petroleum, which is a finite resource as we all know from watching the prices at the gas pump! According to Ecocycle, Americans use an average of 1.6 straws per person per day. That adds up to more than 500 million straws per year in America alone! Nearly every one of those straws goes in the garbage!

Decorative Dots on Glass Dharma Straws

Glass Dharma has a beautiful, affordable, and eco-friendly alternative to plastic straws! Their gorgeous glass straws come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. I received four to review and I loved them all. My favorite is the bent straw! You can also choose whether you want short or long, wide or narrow. Glass Dharma also offers decorated straws, that have colorful dots, also made of glass, attached at the upper end of the straw, just so you can show off a little!  

Worried that your straws will break? Afraid to let the kids use them? All of the straws have a lifetime guarantee against breakage, so no need to worry about that! And if you want to take it with you so that you don't use plastic straws on the go, Glass Dharma sells 100% hemp bags in assorted colors that will keep your straw clean while it travels in your purse, pocket, or anywhere else!

Cleaning brushes come in two sizes.

For washing your straw, Glass Dharma sells a special cleaning brush that you can add to your order. The brush is made of stainless steel with medical grade nylon bristles, so one $5 brush will last through years of cleaning your glass straws. 

Glass Dharma also does fundraisers. What a great way to spread awareness. Talk to your organization about selling glass straws to raise money and you can educate people at the same time. Let's put a dent in that 500 million.

Happy to test the smoothie straw!

Can you sense my excitement? I am crazy about these straws! And the best part is yet to come! Glass Dharma is giving one lucky reader a $25 gift certificate to use for anything on their site! Can we say "YAY!" ? 

Check back September 1- 9 to enter the giveaway, which is part of the Too Cool For School Giveaway Hop, sponsored by Blogger PR. In the meantime, take a look at the Glass Dharma website and tell me what you think. Are you as excited as me about having a glass straw to take with you everywhere you go?

Disclaimer: I received products to keep in exchange for an honest review of the products on this site. I have not received money for this review and all of the opinions expressed are my own. 

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Summer Blog Challenge: Day 74 (Back to School)

Today's Challenge: Talk about what kind of schooling your family does and why.

We are currently a homeschool family. It is a challenge well worth the work. Public school just isn't for everyone. When my daughter was in a public elementary school, she was uncomfortable with other children, had difficulty maintaining friendships, had difficulty with her work, and was in counseling because of the bullying of other kids. She was also being heavily medicated for what the doctors diagnosed as severe ADD.  The medicine made her feel sick.  Even in sports, she was often left out and was very aware of that alienation. She was absolutely miserable and became depressed. I felt like things were spiraling out of control.

We began homeschooling in 7th grade and she is going into 8th grade this year. Here's the amazing thing: her self-confidence has improved, she learns more quickly and more easily, she is not taking any medication, and she even wants to go back to playing soccer. Given the choice, she chose to continue homeschooling. We have joined a local support organization for homeschool families called REACH and she will be participating in more activities this year. REACH also has a sub-group called Co-Op that we have joined and she will be able to take a theater acting and production class and do her research paper at Co-Op on Thursday mornings. I also love that REACH is a Christian organization and that our curriculum is Bible-based. Except for Saxon Math, all of our materials are from Alpha Omega Publishers, although we purchased all of them either on eBay or at Christianbook.com.

Our school year starts Friday and I am excited to dive in. I let my daughter decide what day she wanted to start this month and she chose to get started earlier than the public school starts! So, off we went to buy school supplies (which are much more minimal when homeschooling). That being done, I sat down to start planning and getting organized. While I had a tentative schedule in my head, I have been writing lesson plans all evening, hoping to at least get the first semester planned before we start . Much too far in, I realized I had made many mistakes in my scheduling. Uh oh. Guess who will be purchasing a new plan book and re-writing tomorrow?

I know folks whose children are thriving in a public school setting. But like I said, it just isn't for everyone. Do you homeschool? If your children are in public school, how do you feel about it?