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Boxing and Kickboxing
For a lot of people, boxing paints a mental image of two individuals beating each other into a square ring on national TV. Recently however, the sport of boxing has become more available and tapered to any kind of individual. Kickboxing first seemed to spur the initial boxing trend, but then eventually, boxing and kickboxing clubs started popping up everywhere. On social media, you began to see your favorite stars donning boxing gloves and posing by bags. It’s all for a good reason too, boxing has some major mental and physical benefits that can burn a ton of calories as well.
Boxing helps lower stress levels. The amount of adrenaline you get from punching a bag after a long, stressful day is incredibly rewarding. The hormones and chemicals released afterwards are a great way to boosting your mood and feeling incredibly productive.- Boxing is a great workout, and works the entire body. Not only does it work your arms and shoulders. But continuously hitting the bag, and rotating your body, works out your entire core, and makes your heart rate skyrocket. All of this results in a killer workout for your entire body, and ends up burning a ton of calories. This is also great for keeping a healthy heart and mind.
- Boxing is a great way to improve hand-eye coordination. Many of the moves in boxing require a focused eye and a good mind and body connection. Constant drills, and routines that have set moves are great for this, and continuous practice will really help improve these skills.
Now that boxing has become more available, and friendly for everyday people, it is a great way to mix up your workout routine, and get yourself in a friendly environment with people who are trying something new, and trying to improve themselves.
Remember to check with your doctor before trying anything new like boxing or kickboxing. You want to be sure you are ready for a good workout and you do not have any issues that might be made worse by the repetitive motion or the types of movements you will be making. Most clubs ease you into the sport and make sure you are ready, so do not worry that you are going to be fighting people. You move at your own pace.
8 Ways to Keep Your Home Cleaner Every Day
Keeping your home clean can be challenging, especially in cooler weather. Most of the year, you are tracking in leaves, snow and slush, dirt, mud, or germs from the outside. Keeping your home clean throughout the week takes more than cleaning once a week. It takes
The number one idea for keeping your home clean with less effort is to lean speed cleaning techniques. This is when you can quickly clean something in a couple of minutes or less. These activities do not make deeper cleaning unnecessary, but they do keep the house cleaner, longer and reduce the need to deep clean as often. There are many websites where you can learn speed cleaning techniques, and you can easily learn how to keep your home exponentially cleaner in a few minutes a day.
The second thing you can do to keep your home cleaner is to have a place for everything. Shoes should be taken off and all kept in a mud room or a closet. Coats should all go in a closet. Books should go on shelves, so they do not build up. The more clutter you have, the more dust and dirt will build up around stuff. Having a minimal look to your coffee tables and counters will make it easy to dust and wipe things down.
A third recommendation for keeping your home cleaner is having high-quality floormats in the home at all entrances, both inside and outside. Shoes are what track in the most outside grime and wiping your shoes on a good floormat will greatly reduce the rest of the home needing cleaned as often. Keeping wet or snowy shoes on a rubber backed floor mat will also protect your flooring. Even ceramic tiles might have grout come out if salty snow weakens the grout when shoes are left to defrost directly on your floor.
As our fourth suggestion, we recommend keeping your cleaning tools and supplies handy to make it easier to keep your home clean daily. If you can buy a broom hanger and put it inside of the door but with easy access, you can quickly clean your floor each day. If you have a bucket with wipes and cleaning supplies handy, it is faster and easier to wipe down a sink.
Tip five for keeping your house clean is to make sure your garbage can is full every week. Often, you may have a half full garbage can on garbage pickup day. Take a few extra minutes to find things in your home that you will never use, and have low or no value, and throw them away if you cannot donate it.
Our sixth recommendation for maintaining a clean environment is your basement. Especially if you do laundry or have other reasons to go down there frequently, if you have a basement that is wet, mildewy, or dirty, you are tracking dirt and allergens back upstairs each time you come back up. Getting your basement waterproofed, or even hiring someone for basement finishing is a great way to clean up the space, create better storage space and make your whole home cleaner.
If you still need more ideas, our seventh strategy for a cleaner house is to not ignore your garage, porch and shed. These areas can get dirty and if you do not clean them regularly, you will track in dirt from them. This could even include things like oil or other fluids from your car. Things like antifreeze can taste good to a pet and make them sick, maybe even killing them.
And lastly, do not forget if you want to keep your home cleaner, you can keep your pet cleaner. Brushing and bathing your pets more often will cut down on hair, dust and dander that your pet can generate and leave all over your home. Having them groomed and bathed more frequently will reduce this and make cleaning your home faster and easier. Also remember to wipe off their paws after a walk if it is wet or snowy, before releasing them to run about the house.
All of these things, along with having a regular cleaning schedule and habit, will keep your home sparkly clean and create a much healthier environment for your family. And it should not take long if you plan ahead and do things more regularly.
Kids Art In and Around Akron Ohio
The educational system in the United states has for many years now shifted resources to teach and test children in common core areas like reading,writing and math, while leaving art and music education behind. And while many people do not appreciated the impact music and art education have in a child, these teachings constitute some of the most important building blocks in their development. From motor skills, decision making, and language development to visual learning, and cultural awareness, art and music education provide the child with the tools necessary to succeed in life. That said, this is a list of art instructions facilities in and around Akron that can be of interest to you and your family.
Canton Museum of Art
Address: 1001 Market Avenue North Canton, Ohio 44702
Tel: 330.453.7666
Website: http://www.cantonart.org/
The Canton Museum of Art offers classes weekdays and weekends throughout the day and evening to fit your busy schedule. They offer classes geared to all ages, and all budgets. They offer classes in drawing, jewelry,painting and textiles. If you are planning ahead and want to enroll your child in a summer art camp, then the Canton Museum of Art is a very good choice for you.
Palladian Palette
Address: 106 N Main St, Akron, OH 44308
Phone:(330) 730-0334
Website: http://www.palladianpalette.com/open-studio-membership.html
A beautiful place where memberships can be tailored to the individual or families, and walk-Ins are welcome. A place where five days a week offers you a 2-3 hours of painting, clay, wood working, or stamping experience with a local artist. Do you have questions or want to visit their site to learn more? Then follow the link above.
Akron Art Museum
address: One South High, Akron, Ohio 44308
Tel: 330.376.9185
website: https://akronartmuseum.org/calendar/list/demos-workshops-classes/10/
Cuyahoga Valley Art Center
Address: 2131 Front Street, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44221
Tel: (330) 928-8092
website: http://www.cvartcenter.org/classdescriptions.html
The Cuyahoga Valley Art Center is a wonderful place for adults to learn a variety of art expressions. From acrylic, mixed media, collage journaling, drawing, ceramics and painting, the center truly offers a wide range of art instruction. They seem to geared more to the adult population, although they do say they can accept responsible 12 year olds, and do have classes for 13-18 years old. But, if you are looking for a younger child art instruction class, this may not be the place for you.
All fired Up
Address: 30 Rothrock Loop, Copley, OH 44231
Tel: 330-865-5858
website: http://www.allfiredupakron.com/ contact: allfiredupakron@gmail.com
All Fired Up is creative studio located in the Akron/Montrose/Fairlawn area.They have called this area their home for the last 15 years, and they offer classes for all ages and all skills levels. When considering classes for your young ones, this is a bit of information you appreciate when researching art classes and studios in the area.They offer painting, pottery, glass fusing and canvas painting classes for you and your children to explore.
Art in Action
http://artinaction.org/#pricing
Art online? You bet! If you don’t have the time to take your child to an art class outside the home? No problem. Art in Action provides an online curriculum with a nine level program, and age appropriate lessons for your child. From Kindergartner to 8th. Grade, this place is sure to provide some alternatives for you and your child.
We sincerely hope you have found the art place you’ve looking for, and to email us if you would like to be included.
Kid Proof Your Home Office
Here are a few tips to kid proof your home office if you are a work from home mom:
1. Keep as few wires as possible reachable to little hands. That means position your furniture to cover outlets so wires are not exposed and inviting little hands to pull at them. Also, you can get cable covers and wire clips to hold several wires together.
2. Keep as much away from the edge of surfaces where little hands can reach. For instance, keep your computer monitor far back and when you are not using your keyboard put it above your monitor if possible. Also, unplug your printer and fax machine when not in use so that even if little hands get on them they can’t do much damage.
3. Your file cabinet will be hard to keep organized if your little one keeps getting into all the papers. The easiest solution is to get locks for the drawers. However, be careful that they cannot lock themselves in the drawers.
These are a few inexpensive tips to help you if you are trying to earn extra money at home. Of course the ideal would be to lock your office door when you are not working and only work when your little one is not around. However, this is not always practical and therefore I hope these simple tips are helpful as you set up your home office.
Suzuki Piano – Musical Instruction
We began our journey in the Akron area with the Suzuki method by pure chance. Finding a piano teacher I believe is quite simple. Finding one that can inspire, nurture, and teach a child is quite difficult on the other hand. For us, finding a Suzuki trained teacher for our daughters was the beginning of a learning experience that encompassed many other areas of their learning.
The Suzuki method believes that every child can learn. Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, the creator of the method was a violinist himself that believed parental involvement, repetition and loving encouragement from parents and teachers could teach a child how to play an instrument beautifully. The idea that by listening to the music taught, and practicing it every day, the child could acquire skills that no other method could teach.
Every child is different and learns things differently too, but I believe the Suzuki method approach is for every child that wants to learn to play an instrument, and play it well. The misconception that Suzuki students do not know how to read music is only that, a misconception. Before reading music, children learn how to play the instrument of their choice first. By the time sight reading and music theory are introduced, the child has learned how to play his instrument, and is ready for another skill to learn.
A Suzuki trained teacher knows these steps, and knows how to teach them. They have special Suzuki teacher training, and they put their training to use when teaching young children. Your job as a parent is to find a good teacher, but the hardest part I believe is to encourage your children to practice daily. Parental involvement is a very hard and important part when using this method, but the rewards are worth it.
What are some of the benefits of learning to play an instrument or to listen to classical music? There are many. A myriad of studies have shown the direct link between playing a musical instrument and better performance in math. Even listening to a Mozart Piano Sonata improves a students ability to perform reasoning and spatial skills right away.
For our daughters, the Suzuki method taught them how to play piano beautifully, but most importantly, it taught them that with consistency and daily work they can achieve almost anything.
If you are interested in learning more about this method or to find a Suzuki teacher, click on this link to take you to the Suzuki Association of the Americas to learn more.
Tax Advantages with Home Based Businesses
Tax advantages with home based businesses are plenty that there is no reason not to take the income opportunity home based business provides. Tax advantages include equipment deduction, deductions on office supplies and furniture, and travel needed to provide service.
Employing yourself to the income opportunity home based business basically means that you may have a certain area in the house dedicated to the business. The IRS regards this as the work space and allows deductions for any needs that will support that area of the house.Equipment including computers and service equipment needed to start the business can be deducted from taxes and allow ample opportunity to purchase what is needed. Thinking big in your business can be an excellent way to kick start the career from home but it is generally recommended to start small and then work up to more expensive equipment depending upon the area of expertise.
Deductions include furniture and office supplies for your income opportunity home based business and can provide the office space with enough to feel comfortable. Working from home should be a comfortable experience in order to provide enough space and arrangement for furniture to work within the area. Creating a theme in the workspace is highly recommended for the career from home minded individuals for a pleasant working environment.
Traveling, entertaining, and fuel expenses can also be deducted from the taxes of a home based business. These are plausible opportunities to gain further clients and provide service or products for the growth of the business.
Protect Your Family – Home Dangers
Carbon Monoxide – The silent killer
During the winter months, doors and windows remain closed at all times and the chance of fresh air circling in your home in great quantities is null. Not only is fresh air a problem during the winter months, but the furnace in constant use makes Carbon Monoxide gas in your home a bit more likely.
A very inexpensive carbon monoxide detector can cost you less than $10 dollars at your local Target, Walmart, Lowe’s or Home Depot store. You can purchase a battery operated detector or an electric one, but either choice is an inexpensive safety choice that can be a lifesaver for you.
Smoke Detectors
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends testing your smoke detectors monthly to make sure they are working properly. They also recommend changing the batteries in your smoke detectors yearly. Keeping a regular schedule-say every October, or every thanksgiving-to change the batteries in the smoke detectors of your home should make it an easy thing to do every year.
Every ten years, the National Fire Protection Agency recommends changing the smoke detectors in your home. Every floor in your home should have a smoke detector, including the basement and the attic. The smoke detectors should be installed in the hallways, and outside and inside the bedrooms. Make sure to place a smoke detector close to the kitchen as well. For more information about fire prevention, check your local Fire department website.
Poisoning
According to National Council Safety’s website, unintentional poisoning is one of the leading causes of deaths in the adult population in the United States. Gases, households chemicals, lead poisoning and button batteries are some of the dangers lurking in your home that can be fatal for your young kids. Have you childproofed your home lately? Household cleaning products pose a risk to small children if they are not kept safely away from them. Some of the products that experts recommend you check are laundry packets, paints, drain and toilet cleaners, and all cleaners you use in and around the home and keep in the house or garage.
Medicine kept in the bathroom cabinets are easily available to your child and can be abused. A Scholastic study found that children self-medicate as early as 11 years old. And according to the study, more than 10,000 minors are admitted into hospitals for overdosing on over the counter medications. Keeping an eye on what you have and making sure you talk to your kids about the dangers of self-medicating can go a long way in preventing an overdose.
Keep your family safe by being proactive.
Basement Waterproofing Your Akron Home
The basement of our homes has become another extension of livable space for our families for many years now. It has become a very functional entertaining space for children and adults alike. It is no longer relegated to store unwanted furniture and boxes full of toys that are no longer needed, but instead, it has become a very enjoyable space for the entire family.
If you want to finish the basement of your home, waterproofing it before you start can be a very wise decision on your part. Water seepage or leaking pipes can become a big problem if you leave them unattended and can eventually jeopardize the structure of your home.
For many families, waterproofing the basement of their home is a very expensive home maintenance upkeep to make, but can be devastating if you ignore the problems that can arise if you have an older home and ignore obvious water sign problems.
What are some of the easy signs that you can spot that can mean you need to waterproof your basement?
Water seepage can occur through the walls, the seams and up through the floor. Digging around the foundation may not fix your problem if the water is seeping up the floor, the build up you are seen may be groundwater and digging outside the foundation won’t solve your problems. If this happening, you need to call a professional to come evaluate the problem and offer a solution for you.
- Smelly musty odor
- Water pooling on the floor – The humidity in the basement of your home may give it the musty odor you are experiencing and it may be caused by water seeping through the walls.
- Mold or mildew –Condensation and the dust or other debris mixed can be the beginning of mildew in the basement.
- Dampness –The dampness in the basement is a clear sign water is seeping into your home
- Paint bubbling, walls bowing in, and cracked walls are all concerning signs that you have water problems in the basement and should be addressed quickly.
Choosing a basement waterproofing company to work in your home is too important to leave it to chance. Research the companies in Northeast Ohio with a long history in the community and that time and again offer great workmanship along with great customer service.
South Akron Elementary School Choices
Families in South Akron have options when it comes to their children getting a publicly funded high-quality education. Main Preparatory Academy is one option that continues to make a difference in the lives of Akron youth. Main Preparatory Academy is located at 1035 Clay Street. This Akron community school serves Kindergarten through Fifth Grade students.
The location, situated in South Akron, services low income families by providing free lunch and breakfast as well as free before and after school care. Main Preparatory Academy maintains small class sizes and employs a full time social worker in order to provide all their children with individualized attention. All their teachers are highly qualified and dedicated to the diverse population that makes up the school. The classrooms are bright, inviting and student work is displayed throughout.
This year the school is starting a program named “The Leader in Me.” This program is designed to empower students to own their learning and see school as a place where they can be successful.
“We rarely send children home or suspend as a consequence for behavior. Instead, we teach our children to problem solve through difficult situations. Every moment is a teachable moment at Main Prep,” says Principal Rebecca Holthaus.
Main Preparatory Academy is a public charter school. Charter schools are available to all parents and provide school choice when considering their child’s education. Thousands of Ohio families choose charter schools when traditional schools are not meeting their expectations. Main Preparatory Academy offers their students both free lunch and free breakfast programs as well as free before and after school programming. Transportation is available for families two or more miles away from the school. Main Preparatory Academy is held to the same standards as traditional public schools. Students are required to take the Ohio State Tests and to achieve at the same level as other students in the public school system. With a staff of caring professionals, Main Preparatory Academy has seen much student success.
CALL 234-738-1925 TO SCHEDULE A TOUR OF MAIN PREPARATORY ACADEMY OR YOU MAY GO HERE TO SUBMIT A REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION.
MAIN PREPARATORY ACADEMY TAKES APPLICATIONS FOR ENROLLMENT ALL YEAR LONG.