Extra entries seem to pay off, so I’m glad when people do them.  The winner of the Voice Lessons To Go CDs is Mannequin.  I will be contacting her shortly to get her address.  Congrats!

We often travel to Wisconsin to visit my family. It is a 4 hour drive, so are always looking for ways to keep the kids busy and entertained.  Bill hates to stop, so it is a long four hours.  A great item to check out for car rides, bedtime, and really any time is the Giddio Audio Adventures.  We listened to the Billy Brown Goes Hiking CD on our drive home, and it was a life saver for us.  Will was super crabby, and the only thing that made him quit screaming was this CD.  It definitely holds your children’s attention.  It is geared towards kids aged 3 – 7 (though it worked on my 1 year old too!)  This is actually pretty cool.  Instead of a narrator reading a story, there is a full cast.  Everyone has their own voice.  I love that it makes my kids use their imagination.  I’m not the only one who likes this either — it has won several awards (Dr. Toy’s Best Products 2007, several iParenting media awards, and Creative Child magazine’s Seal of Excellence).  We ended up having to listen to it more than once, because they like it so much (run time is between 30 – 45 minutes depending on which CD you are listening to).

I love that you can even try this out.  If you go to their site, you can download Billy Brown And The Mystery Package for free!  You can also print off the CD covers and have your kids color them!  I highly recommend checking this out as a great alternative to TV!

With the economy the way it is, one of the many things parents have had to cut from their children’s lives is music training.  With all the shows on TV now like American Idol, Nashville Star, and America’s Got Talent, you can understand why kids want to improve their voice.  Your kids may not even be reaching that high — they may just want to get a part in the choir or play.  Private lessons have always been pretty costly, and depending on where you live, may or may not even be available.

Ariella Vaccarino has changed all of that.  Ariella is an opera singer and an experienced teacher based out of Los Angeles.  She is also the creator of Voice Lessons To Go.  Voice Lessons To Go is a 4 volume CD box set.  You can buy them as either a set or singly.  Volume 1 is called Vocalize and Breath.  It shows you singing warmups and breathing excercises.  Volume 2 is Do Re Mi Ear and Pitch Training.  It filled with vocal excercises.  It will improve your sense of pitch by concentrating on scales and chords.  Volume 3 is Pure Vowels.  It is compiled of vocalizes seperated by ah, ey, ee, oh, oo, and i.  Volume 4 is Stamina.  This is a group of vocal exercises to challenge and strengthen your abilities.  She also offers on her site the ability to submit your voice and receive a vocal assessment.  For $9.99, you can submit one minute.  If you spend $39.99, you are able to send 3 songs!  She will give you her full assessment and recommend song choices and exercises.  She’ll also get back to you within one week with that!

With the range of products and pricing, there is definitely something for everyone.  This makes a great stocking stuffer or Christmas gift for the aspiring singer in your life.  Since I think this is such a great product, I had a set of these sent to me to give away to one of my lucky winners!  The winner of this giveaway will receive all four CDs!  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this or why you like the site.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

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This giveaway will end on November 25st at 8:00 pm and is available to US residents only. Good luck!

Why do I love Dragon Naturally Speaking? Let me count the ways . . . .

Ok, so the video doesn’t tell you all ways I love Dragon Naturally Speaking. However, it does show you how easy it is to use the software. Literally, all you have to do is plug in a noise canceling headset to your computer and download the software. You place your cursor where you want to type and away you go. Now, you do have to train the software to your voice. I tend to talk fast, so it had to correct for that. Plus, if you find that it is typing same wrong word, you can train it on that specific word. This isn’t rocket science to figure out (which is good because I have a tendency to NOT read the books or pdf files that comes with software).

I was able to create that video while my kids were up and playing at my feet (and you can tell when they grabbed my leg, because the video starts wobbling. You can also hear them a little too.) However, I did want to show that you can still be involved in doing other things and be able to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This more than triples my typing speed when I am typing and dealing with my kids (Take the Dragon NaturallySpeaking typing test if you don’t know what your typing speed is). I am actually writing this blog post using the software too. Here is the official video on how this all works:

As I stated in my video, I am finding that I can get a lot more in the little snippets of time I have during the day plus I am able to get way more done at night. I love being able to go to bed before midnight. I love being able to answer emails and do blog posts when I have Will sitting on my lap drinking from his sippy and watching cartoons. I have five blogs, so being able to write more content in less time is a huge plus for me. Plus, anyone who knows me, knows I have no problems talking. I am able to do my freelance work and reports using this also. I will be recommending this to my boss. Beside blogging, I have used it to make my daily lists of what I have to do each day plus some grocery shopping lists too! I am not the only one who thinks it is great, check out this New York Times Review.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is really for anyone who works on a computer. If you talk faster than you type, you need this. If you want to be more efficient in your work, you need this. If you just want a new toy to play with, you DEFINITELY need this. Time is money, and the time you save from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes it worth every penny.