There is a great new math site that is just getting started. It already has a lot of good information and tools to help your kids learn math. There are plenty of worksheets and worksheet generators to provide your children with problems to strengthen their math skills. While the site is still under construction, it is still very useful. Check it out at http://www.mathmix.com

http://www.mathmix.com

The other morning I was watching a story on CNN about college drop out rates among NCAA athletes. They had suggested that they were too high and something needed to be done. One of the suggestions on the table was penalizing schools that didn’t meet a certain quota as far as keeping their athletes in school.

While I realize education is important, I think the idea of penalizing a school for their athlete dropout rates is one of the most ridiculous I’ve ever heard. Top caliber athletes have a lot of opportunities that most of us don’t have. Some may go to the Olympics, while others eventually go professional. These opportunities should not be taken lightly and I know this seems wrong to say it, but they shouldn’t let a college education get in the way.

I do believe everyone should get a college education, but my thought is college will always be there. Let’s take the phenom basketball player who comes from a lower middle class family. They don’t have a lot of money so they must rely on the scholarship that is handed to them for playing basketball. Lets say this basketball player is projected to go 10th overall in the first round of the NBA draft after only 1 year of college. A lot of people may say to stay and finish college, there is plenty of time for basketball. I disagree. If the player is that good to go that high in the draft and have a guaranteed contract, he should go for it.

If he goes for it and is a huge success, he is an instant millionaire and is set for life. If he wants to, he can go to college after he retires or during the off season. If he fails at playing basketball he still has that guaranteed money which he can probably live off for a great while and use to pay for a top notch education.

Lets say this same athlete stays in college where one of three things could happen. Number one, he could play out his college days and become an even better basketball player and eventually and even better NBA player. Number two, his skills could decrease and perhaps he drops down to a second round pick or is not drafted and ends up in the d-league. Finally there is the third option. He gets injured on a freak accident and never gets a chance to play ball and is now stuck footing the bill for his education since he cannot contribute to the basketball team any longer.

So my thought is, why not drop out? College isn’t going anywhere. You won’t have a harder time with college as you get older; if anything the maturity and wisdom you gain will make it easier later in life. You can only be a top caliber athlete for so long before your body starts to shut down. In my opinion if you have the chance to make millions of dollars, but it means putting off college for a few years, so be it. Go take advantage of the wonderful gift that God gave you and get that education once that gift goes away.

Our son enjoys learning and loves to take part in a variety of physical activities. Often times we find there is just not enough time to get all of this in. He wants to play basketball at night but also needs to do some academics as well, here is our solution to those busy nights.

Our son has a small basketball hoop in his room. He enjoys shooting the ball over and over again and could go on for hours if you let him. He enjoys it very much when we play with him as well. Over the last couple months we have created a learning game out of basketball. Since our son loves math, we often play a game to where we will ask each other math facts. If we get it right we get to shoot and get a point if we make it. If we get it wrong the other person gets to shoot to try for a point. He enjoys the competition of the game and is practicing those math facts at the same time.

Concerned that he was getting too good at math and not focusing enough on reading, we decided to switch the game up and use flash cards with words on them. We play by the same rules. Over the last 3 weeks he has learned approximately 30 or so words while playing ball.

The best part about this is he is really having a great time doing this. He is getting the exercise he needs and preparing for school at the same time. I think this balance will help him in the future allowing him to grow up into a well rounded individual.

This past friday my father had a triple bypass surgery done. This is the second time he has been though the procedure, however that didn’t make it any easier on any of  us. The one attribute that I’ve always associated with my father is strength. It seems that he always fights as hard as he can to overcome the situation. This time however I was very afraid that he wouldn’t have any strength left to beat the odds.

The surgery overall went well, however it was a very long and tough procedure. The fact that he made it through was a huge relief as I woke up that day fully expecting to lose my dad. He tends to not eat as healthy as he should and he knows it. I have been preparing myself for the day to come where his body just wasn’t going to be able to handle it any more. As I see my dad grow older I can see how his body can’t take the abuse and punishment that he bestows upon it. After the surgery, he man who always showed a great deal of strength was lying in front of me with a bunch of machines keeping him alive. He was completely helpless. He is beginning to recover and  has been given a third opportunity at life. I really hope that he seizes that opportunity and learns to live a healthier life and is around to enjoy watching my kids grow up just as my grandparents watched me grow up.

At the same time, I found out my mother has been in and out of the hospital on an outpatient basis for a variety of tests, and my mother-in-law is battling a cancer that has already taken other family members from us. It seems that while we are trying to grow into adults and raise kids of our own, our parents are slowly being pulled from us. The safety net is on its last string and eventually there will be no one there to catch us when we fall.

The hardest part, however, is the idea that all of this stuff is just part of getting older. Everyone is getting older, it’s a fact of life. Seeing the effect it has on our parents throws a great deal of worry, frustration and fear into my life. Will I suffer the same fate as my father? Will my wife eventually fall victim to the cancer that struck her mother and grandmother before her? Unfortuantly we just don’t know. The one thing we can take from our parents troubles is the fact that all of these events serve as a warning to us. We need to take what we are experiencing with our parents and do everything we can to avoid the same situations happening to us. We need to remember how we feel seeing our parents age and do our best to make it as easy as we can on our kids. We can choose to live healthy life styles and stay active and aware of our changing bodies, taking as many preventative measures as possible. While there will always be unexpected illnesses that we couldn’t prevent if we took every precaution, we can still prevent those in which we do have control over.

The last couple weeks I haven’t been posting as much because my wife, son and I have been anxiously awaiting the birth of a new baby boy. On Saturday morning that birth finally happened. I am pleased to announce my second son Connor has been born. With my first son, my wife was induced so the labor was a slow process that lasted around 14 hours. This time around was the complete opposite. Her water broke around 1:25 am and Connor was born at 3:43.

When my wife woke me up we started to get ready to go quickly, but didn’t rush things. We made sure that everything was ready to go, called my mother in law to come watch my son and waited for her to arrive. About 20 minutes after we woke up, my wife said the contractions were around 2 minutes apart. At this point I really began worrying. Luckily my mother-in-law got to our house and we were headed to the hospital.

For those of you who haven’t done this yet, the drive to the hospital was one of the strangest and terrifying experiences. Since I was obviously driving I had to weigh in so many things such as how fast should I drive? Should I run a red light? Are we going to make it? I wanted to drive safe, but I had a bad feeling this labor was going much faster than expected. The last thing I wanted was to be delivering my own son on the side of the freeway at 2am.

We made it to the hospital and I could tell my wife was starting to experience a lot of pain. It seems like the hospital staff was just moving so slow. We had to get checked in, wait for someone to get us in to triage, wait for the examination, etc. While sitting in triage, all I could think about is the pain my wife was going through. I would feel so much better when we got into the room and she received the epidural. Unfortunately we had to wait to get a room and she needed to get a whole bag of fluid in her through the iv before she could get the epidural. Looking at that bag and seeing the amount of pain she was in, I felt that things were just moving too slowly by the hospital staff and too quickly with the labor.

Finally we got into the room and my wife was begging for the epidural. First she had to sign papers and consent forms. It was awful for her to jump through so many hoops to get the relief she needed. I stayed back trying to make her as comfortable as I could knowing my hands were completely tied.

Eventually the anesthesiologist made it to our room. Just as he was prepping her, she felt the need to push…..Looks like we….she had to do this the old fashion way. I was mortified as was she. It felt awful wishing there was something I could do, but once again my hands were tied. I stayed by her side and just said everything I could to encourage her. I looked at the anesthesiologist and felt bad as I could see he wanted to help but at this point there was nothing he could do. I thanked him for trying and turned back to my wife.

About 3-5 min later she gave birth to our son. After a couple minutes of intense screaming and pain it was over. I was so proud of my wife. I will admit that I had a tear or two in my eye, not from the birth, but more for the courage that she displayed. She didn’t like the idea, and did everything in her power to avoid it, but once she knew she had to do it, she gave it everything she had and fought through the pain.

In the end it worked out as she actually recovered a lot faster than she did with our first son. Once the baby was out things were downhill. To all of those future fathers out there, do everything you can to support the future mother. You may not feel like you have a lot of control, and you don’t, however make sure you are at their side and give them as much love as you can. Whether they get the luxury of an epideral or have to do it naturally, they are going through a lot to give you that kid. Make sure you let them know how special they are for doing so.

While some problems with your toilet can be quite serious and require a plumber or even a replacement, one issue can usually be fixed for about $5 and 10 minutes of your time. If your toilet flushes and the stops after the tank fills you are probably dont’ have any issues, however sometimes the quiet doesn’t last. If your toilet begins to run again a couple minutes after it has stopped refilling the tank, you probably have a leak somewhere. If the leak is in the tank itslef, you could have a little bit more expensive replacement on your hands, but 95% of the time you just have a coroded stopper (also called a flapper valve).

The stopper is the rubber piece inside the toilet which lifts up when you flush and then closes down on the drain connecting the tank to the bowl stopping too much water from getting into the bowl. You can get a new stopper at your local hardware store for somewhere between $3 and $10. Once you have purchased the stopper, open the tank, flush the toilet and grab the old stopper once the water has drained. Typically the stoppers come right off as they are attatched to the chain and a couple hooks at the base of the tank. Pull off the old stopper and grab your replacement. Sometimes the replacement has a rubber piece attatching the two arms of the stopper. Remove this piece and rehook the arms of the stopper to the tank and attatch the chain. Flush and you are good to go…..ummm bad choice of words…

About a year ago Nick Jr. launched a new show called Pinky Dinky Doo. Sounds kind of girly, but my son insisted on watching it. After watching it a couple times with him I began to realize what a great unique show it is. Pinky Dinky Doo revolves around a girl named..you guessed it…Pinky Dinky Doo. Typically there is some real life problem or issue that needs to be addressed. An example is what to do if you have to try a new food at a friends house. Once the problem is identified Pinky and her brother Tyler go to the Story Box where Pinky makes up a story and tells it to her brother. The story has to do with the current problem identified earlier and is resolved at the end.

What makes this show unique is its focus on language skills. Each episode features a vocabulary word, which is not your typical preschool word. For example, Tyler was really into playing his video game one episode. Pinky taught everyone that he was “engrossed” in the game. I have always felt it is good to challenge kids like this. If there is an episode they really like, chances are they will remember that word forever.

Each story ends with Pinky thinking hard and having a big idea. She goes through the process of how she came up with the idea and everyone is happy. The nice part about this show is that it doesn’t end there. After the story Pinky quizzes the kid with questions about her story, testing their comprehension. She will ask questions like what event came first; who was this character and what did he do; etc. After a few episodes the kids pick up on the fact that they need to pay attention to the story so they can answer the questions right afterwards. This concept really gets the kids involved and ends up teaching great listening and language skills.

I would definitely recommend this show for anyone with a kid between the ages of 3 and 6. It’s pretty gender neutral as some stories focus on things Tyler likes to do as well. Check out Nick Jr’s Pinky Dinky Doo site to learn more.

Most of us are in debt of some form or another. While debt is never a good thing, sometimes it’s just necessary such as mortgages, cars, school etc. Planning to get rid of your debt can seem very daunting. If you have a lot of it, you probably feel that you have no money to spare and no way to pay it off. There is a technique that you may be able to use to help get you on your way…snowballing.

Snowballing debt is how a lot of people get into trouble. Perhaps they take on more debt to pay off other debts and so on until there is so much debt that there is no escape. However, we can use the same snowball analogy in a positive way. Lets take on the instance where a family has a mortgage, a car loan, a school loan and a couple credit cards. The good kind of debt snowballing says to examine your loans and look to find a balance between the debt that is easiest to pay off and the one that has the highest interest with pay off ease taking priority. Once you have found that first debt, take every extra penny you have to pay that debt off. Continue to make payments on your other debt, but don’t go out of your way to do anything extra.

Lets say you typically spend about $200 a month on that first debt. Maybe with an extra $100 a month towards it, you can get it paid off in about 4-5 months. After that first debt, lets say your second debt typically costs you about $400 a month. Well now instead of just having that extra $100 to help it out, you need to take the extra $100 plus the $200 you were paying off the first debt with and put it towards this debt. Once this debt is paid off you now have $700 plus your normal payout for the third debt and so on.

With debts such as car loans, it’s good to pay them off, but make sure to store a little bit of cash in savings in the case that you need a new car. While you can pay off the car loan, eventually you will need another car. Hopefully by that time you will be well on your way to debt free and have some savings to pay for that car with cash, or a very small short term loan.

Many people enjoy annoying their kids. Previously we gave 5 great ways to annoy your kids as can be read here 5 Ways To Annoy Your Kids. Here are 5 more ways to annoy your kids.

• For those of you who have teenagers out there that like to slam doors. After they slam the door tell them they did it wrong and show them how to do it properly.
• Every time you want a can of soda or beer from the refrigerator, ask your son or daughter “Do I have a son, or don’t I have a son”. Of course if you have a daughter replace son with daughter.
• Become friends with your teenager on Facebook.
• Announce that you have to use the bathroom in front of their friends.
• When in the car, turn on your favorite radio station and sing…loudly

Do you have a fun way to annoy your kids? Post it below and we may feature it in our next round of ways to annoy your kids.

A couple years ago I successfully convinced my wife that we should get iPhones. Since then we could not have been happier with them. My wife is now an iPhone junky and I use it often to read books and search the web. It is a great tool especially when you are out and about and you need to look up something, or in those cases when you have a couple minutes to wait and need something to do. I often also will sit on my living room sofa and look up some information or read the news with my breakfast. It is a convenient tool in that I don’t have to get my laptop out and haul it around. The one issue I’ve always had with it, however was the screen is still very small. While very usable, a bigger screen would be nice for those breakfasts or times lounging on the sofa.

A couple days ago Apple announced its iPad. I was very excited as I always though that a lightweight 7-10 inch device would be great for the situations I mentioned above. It wouldn’t be great for those times when you are out and about, but that is what my iPhone is for. I envisioned a device that I could read like I do the paper, or use in the kitchen to look up recipes while I am cooking. Turns out that was what Apple delivered. Great right? Not in my opinion, I was very underwhelmed.

The iPad does allow you to read books, newspapers and websites; it is a great size and very light. The price is good too. I do feel that apple kind of took the simple road when it comes to features. The iPad is simply a more powerful bigger iPod Touch. Not a bad thing, but not what I was hoping for deep down. The first major issue is that the iPad does not support Flash. I personally hate Flash and wouldn’t mind if it didn’t exist. Many sites however rely on it. Flash is everywhere on the Internet. You cannot call a device “the best way to experience the Internet” and not have it compatible with such a large number of websites.

My second issue is the fact that there is no camera. I would have loved to see a forward facing video camera to allow video chat. I really feel this technology is right around the corner from being popular. I’m really hoping the next iPhone includes it and feel the iPad would have been a great way to debut. I understand that cell phone companies do not want it to slow down their networks, however there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to have a feature we can use over wi-fi.

The third issue I have is screen-size. This is probably the one thing that I could live with, but I would have like to seen something a little bit better. I’m not talking about the physical dimensions of the screen, but rather the resolution. The screen is a 1024×768 screen. Not bad, but most websites are at least 800px wide. If you are using the device in portrait mode, the websites will not be able to fit on the screen at full size. Having said that, safari on the iPhone is a very good browser and is good at resizing, but I would have liked to perhaps see something with around 900 pixels on the shorter side.

I really don’t think I will be getting an iPad any time soon. Perhaps the next generation will offer some of these features, but for now, I already have everything I need in my iPhone. I look forward to seeing what other companies do to respond to this. I don’t think the iPad is the start of a tablet revolution, I also don’t think it’s the end of one either.