Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Play the Judge Judy Game

In order to play this game, you must watch Judge Judy. The object of the game is to decide who will win the case when the litigants enter the courtroom. You are judging from appearances only before the parties are introduced and the case is presented. Watch the proceedings for Judge Judy’s verdict. After playing this game a few times, would you agree that Judge Judy is a perfect example of why minorities do not trust the U.S. legal system?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Copying Security Words

I just finished posting an email on Facebook and I wondered if anyone else gets irritated with the security words you must copy. It’s not that I mind copying the words but I do mind feeling like a lunatic trying to figure out what some of the letters are. Why must the letters you’re copying be written as if some alien alphabets were created to blow your mind? I’m not a computer expert, so someone tell me, is this some cruel joke many sites use to give you a false sense of security when using the program?

Economic Status in the U.S.

This past weekend while talking with my sister in law, I told her of a comment made while my husband and I were out walking. The comment was that he wished we could find a money sack that fell off the back of an armor truck. Her response was that she had the same thought that week. The thought that went through my mind was, “Damn! Are things so bad off in the U.S. that we all have to share the same fantasy? “ Can we not at least afford our own fantasies?

Monday, September 14, 2009

Disrespect for the Commander-in-Chief

If FOX Network did not carry the Presidential speech on education directed to the children, and selected to show So You Think You Can Dance or some other extremely educational show as such, should FOX be allowed to dominate the Armed Forces Channels as they do? Given that the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, this should not be acceptable and military personnel should be outraged at the level of disrespect FOX presented toward President Obama. If a soldier disrespected an officer, it would cause the soldier severe penalties or even their career. FOX should be treated accordingly. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing but disrespect is never tolerated in the armed forces; why begin with FOX?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Helping Your Child to Succeed in School

Parents, you can jump start your child’s educational experience by simply assuring your child has successfully learned some simple lessons. At the preschool age, make sure your child learns to count and recognize the numbers to twenty, know their colors, recognize shapes and can cut and paste. By age four, teach your child to write their name. Go online to one of the following sights and begin teaching your child to read and spell the words on the list. The sights are www.english_zone.com/reading/dolch.html (Dolch 220 Basic Sight Words) and http://estabrook.ci.lexington.ma.us/Curriculum/Sitton/Wordbank.html (Sitton Spelling Word Bank).

The Dolch 220 basic sight word list consists of 220 most commonly used words at the basic level in the United States. The Sitton list consists of 1000 words children must know between kindergarten and fifth grades.

As for math, the best thing parents can do after teaching their children to count and recognize numbers is to teach them basic addition facts and basic subtraction facts using numbers one through ten during their first grade level. At second grade level, increase the numbers to twenty and begin teaching the timetables through the threes. At third grade, increase the timetables to ten. Afterwards, there are only a few remaining to learn since the timetables repeat themselves. Children knowledgeable with the basic facts are armed with the ammunition they need to do well in school. In closing, I leave you with a few websites I recommend. I am not associated with any of the sites and do not have any gain financially or otherwise for submitting the recommendations. The sites are: coolmath.com; magickeys.com/books; sheppardsoftware.com; storyplace.org; storylineonline.net; and kinderwebgames.com.