Math was my favorite subject in school. As soon as my Kindergarten teacher started talking about numbers, I was intrigued. All through high school and college, math was the subject that kept me interested and motivated throughout the school year.
Over all those years, I had one teacher who was not a good teacher. He probably didn’t even want to be teaching Algebra but it was his job, so he showed up every day and assigned us a lot of homework. I didn’t mind the homework, but I wish he had displayed some enthusiasm for the subject.
Thankfully, the following year, my Geometry teacher was outstanding. She explained the Acute triangle and the Isosceles triangle on the very first day of class and we hit the ground running. It was all smooth sailing after that.
Understanding a Line segment is also vital to learning and using Geometry. Kids who have a problem with the basics can at least get help online if their own parents are not a good resource for homework help. Many parents took Geometry in high school but have forgotten how to work with Indices and other critical math skills. Rather than let the kids get frustrated and develop an aversion to math, I hope their parents will try online homework help and free math tutoring for their kids.
When I was a teenager, no one I knew had even heard of teen rehab or teen addiction statistics. Sure, we had a health class in middle school where we watched videos about the dangers of drinking and doing drugs, but it was nothing like the DARE program that so many of the schools use now.
I think it is a really sad state of affairs that we are putting so much pressure on our teenagers nowadays to study so hard to get into college, telling them that if they don’t get into a good college then their lives will be ruined. I think that is the main reason for so much substance abuse and teen suicide! Of course, the social media now creates more intense peer pressure, too. Geez, life was so much simpler when I was a teenager!
At least I’m glad to know that there are teen drug rehab facilities for our struggling families. I do think that things would be a lot easier, though, if schools focused more on dealing with stress in healthy ways instead of putting so much pressure on them to succeed.
This was a great story to read on Yahoo about a little girl born on the date of 8-9-10. The birth occurred at 11:12am. Too funny, right? What an easy birthday to have to remember each year. I was going to post the video about the special birthday girl but apparently there are copyright issues going on right now.
Recently our oldest son decided that he wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Naturally, the places that give lessons require that the students buy musical instruments instead of loaning them out. Fortunately for me, I still had my old acoustic guitar from when I was going through that “I want to learn to play the guitar” and I lent it to him for class. The teacher told him that he needed a new bridge, so I took it to the local music shop where the owner repaired it for free.
He continued with the guitar lessons for only about six weeks, and then decided not to continue after that. I sure was glad that we didn’t spend a lot of money buying him a new guitar! And now the guitar is packed away for the next time someone decides to give it a try!
Many of our friends have been raving about the new Mandarin Japanese buffet and sushi bar restaurant that opened in town recently. So I decided to take the family there for dinner last Sunday evening. The atmosphere was nice enough, but the buffet was smaller than I would have liked. Our sons enjoyed the sushi bar (no raw fish for me thank you very much!) and my wife and I found plenty of food that we liked. But when the bill came for about $20 each, I was not impressed. I’ve had better meals at other buffets for much less money. I don’t know if this restaurant is going to be able to compete with the others if they keep their prices so high!
Our youngest son has finally graduated from college and has returned home to stay for a few days while he looks for an apartment to rent closer to his new job. He’s actually looking for a place to share with other young folks, so sharing a house is also an option. Today we went into town together to look at a few places. I was amazed to see how many of the places seemed to have a really big screen lcd tv in their living rooms.
I would have thought that with the economy as rough as it is, that people would be pinching pennies harder and spending their hard earned money on survival items, not luxuries like a brand new wide screen lcd tv!
I mentioned that to my wife, and she laughed at me! She told me that these young adults seem to think that all of the electronic devices that we think of as luxuries, such as a laptop computer and a lcd tvare considered a necessity to them!
One of the things that I think is exceptional about the Internet is how small it has made the world. News that used to take months to travel around the globe now only takes seconds. Competition between businesses has increased many times over. And educational opportunities abound. I think that the educational opportunities is one of the most important aspects of today’s Internet and technological advances.
We’re going to need all the help we can get to solve the world’s troubles down the road. And many of those problem will require math skills to solve. There was a time when common belief was that girls were not good at math. But now anyone who is struggling with Math Problems only need to go as far as their nearest Internet connection to get the Math help that they need. There are many educational websites that are geared up to assist the struggling math student. With just a few clicks on the mouse, Algebra help is easily acquired. In many cases, the help is free!
Yes, the Internet has opened up many options to the world. I hope we make the best of it.
I’ve noticed that in some families, the brothers seem to get along extremely well, whereas other families the sibling rivalry and jealousy seems to go on forever. I can’t help but wonder if this rivalry is something that is actually nurtured by the parents, whether the parents realize it or not. Or if it has to do with birth order, and whether there are any sisters in the family.
For example, in my own family, on the surface it looks like the siblings all get along very well and love each other dearly. But the sibling rivalry runs deep, and there are a lot of hurt feelings and competitiveness, even now that we are all well into our middle age. Sometimes I think that the only thing keeping the peace between us is our mother, and I wonder what will happen to our family when she passes on. I’m afraid that the gloves will come off and it will get nasty. I dread that.
When J was between his junior and senior year in high school, we encouraged him to take a college course in statistics during the summer. We reasoned that since he was so advanced in his courses (taking college level courses) and statistics was not available in his school, that he would have a leg up and head start in college this way.
And, since my wife had taken statistics herself at the same college, and still had her statistics books, we figured that she could act as a Statistics tutor if J should need any Statistics help during the course. There were a couple of times that J asked for help with some of the Statistics problems that he had as homework, and my wife was glad she had kept her book! The book she had for her course was a lot easier to understand than the textbook J had been assigned! So it was good that he had her old one to reference when he needed help!
My niece is expressing an interest in various Musical Instruments these past few years. Next year she will be entering middle school and will be able to take music lessons with real Flutes and Clarinets like the big kids. I’m sure my sister will be happy with any wind instrument, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with Drum Sets. There is nothing worse than having to listen to a kid on a loud instrument like the Drums, the Cymbals or God forbid something like the Trombone.
We used to have a nice basement in the house that we grew up in. It was pretty much sound proof and we did all kinds of crazy and loud things in that house. But the house that my sister currently lives in is pretty small and really couldn’t hold anything large in size anyway. Of course there is always the garage though………….
We do come from a very musical family, so there is hope that she will be accomplished in some type of musical instrument of some sort. It’s all good.
One of the things that I think is great about the age of the Internet is how easy it is now to get services that once were hard to find. For example, when my kids were in school, they were often making and receiving phone calls after school from other classmates who needed Math help. Our youngest son even became a Math Tutor in his senior year in high school!
Now I understand that students can access Free Online Tutoring when they need help with their studies. I think that is a really wonderful thing, as long as the students have access to the Internet! You would not believe how many people I meet around here that tell me that they don’t have Internet access at their house! I don’t think my family could survive without it at this point in time; it is so heavily intertwined in the running of the family!
Today is my niece CR’s 14th birthday! It was only a few weeks ago when she and her mother moved into the house, and it has been very interesting having a young teenage girl in the house again! Although I raised a daughter from my first marriage, my current wife only had boys, so it has been a very interesting time to watch and see how my wife has been handling having her in the household.
My wife is planning on cooking a nice chicken dinner for the birthday dinner, since CR’s favorite meal is chicken. Looking at the clock I think I’d best get out in the kitchen and see if she needs a hand!
Surprisingly enough I can’t seem to find the answer to this question on Google! I can remember many years ago listining to Paul Harvey’s “The rest of the story” radio broadcast. The gist of the story was that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was originally supposed to be named Adolph. But at the time of his creation Adolph Hitler became infamous for his outrageous crimes and the creator of the reindeer decided to change the name.
I was retelling that story to my daughter the other day and she didn’t believe me. I thought for sure that I could find the answer on Google and show it to her, but so far I haven’t found it. If you can find it, let me know!
It has been many years since we needed to use any of our baby gates that we now have stored in the basement. I’ve been teasing my wife for years that we have no need for any of them any more because our youngest baby is twenty one years old now! But she reminds me that they are also handy to use to keep the pets from going into room that we want to keep them out of if the need arises. The last several times we needed to use anything like that we tried a couple different pressure gates - we didn’t want to ruin the walls by drilling holes in them.
The problem with those gates, though, was that they frequently fell down. And of course, it’s never a good time for a baby gate to fall down! Come to think of it, we just used one of those two months ago when we needed to keep the basement door open to air out but we wanted to keep the dogs inside! OK, so maybe it IS a good idea we held on to them! I know that my wife would love to get more puppies in the future. She LOVES dogs! But I’ve always pointed out that it would be difficult in this house because of the open layout to keep puppies in the kitchen, where there is no carpeting. Just my luck she found some extra wide baby gates that can be used in different configurations that would probably take care of that problem! That’s just like my wife – she is always overcoming my objections! Probably something she learned in a marketing course!
I can’t believe that my daughter will be turning 26 next week. Before you know it she will be in her 30’s and I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling about that, other than an old man! I’ve all ready picked up a cute and funny birthday card to send to her. It is hard having a birthday in December being so close to Christmas and all, but we have managed to keep the two separate so far, so it’s all good!
When our nephew Travis needs Math help with his homework, he often calls us up and asks us to help him out. We have a scanner and fax machine so sometimes he will fax his homework over to us to review so we can see what the problem is if he can’t explain it well over the phone. Lately he seems to calling us every night, so I’m going to suggest to his parents that they sign him up for Free online math tutoring. I think that with an Online math tutor Travis might actually learn a little bit more than simply running over his homework assignment with us.
I think that having Free online math help is a wonderful service to have for children that are struggling with math. I know that a lot of kids don’t really understand how important math will be to them when they are adults, and I think that the Online math tutoringprograms can make it more fun to learn than just some old coot like me trying to help them to understand the concepts behind the homework problems. I wish that there had been free Online math help for me when I was growing up!
I find it so hard to believe that this is really winter. Yes, we have had some snow, and the temperatures are cool, but when I talk to my daughter in New England she is telling me about how much snow they have had and how cold it is up there. I can remember my many winters up there, and the memories are vivid. Talking to her I can almost see the snow and feel the cold. I’m certainly glad that I’m not dealing with that much of that white stuff anymore! And even though we’ve lived here a few years now, it is still hard to believe that it is really winter. Winter down here only feels like autumn to me. I mean after all, the grass might not still be growing, but it is still green! And I can still see it most days!
My wife is always telling me that if I want something done right, I have to do it myself. I don’t like it when she says that. Usually because it is right after I complain that I wanted something done a certain way by her or another family member and it was done differently. The adage “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” aggravates me as well. Not because I’m an animal rights activist (although I do NOT advocate skinning cats!) But because it implies that there is more than one way to get the job done. And I’m always wanting things done MY way. You know, the old “It’s my way or the highway” applies here.
A few years ago my son forbade me from using the term “bling bling.” He said it just didn’t sound right coming out of an “old guy.” I think I just might buy some of the hip-hop jewelry that’s on clearance on the hiphopbling.com website and wear it the next time that he’s visiting! I can just imagine the expression on his face when he sees me wearing it!
My wife and I have been talking about trying to find some nice Retirement Communities to live in down the road. It won’t be too many years before we will be in our Retirement Living years! I’ve noticed that when we go to the doctor’s offices lately that we seem to pick up magazines that have most of their articles based around the best Retirement Homes and cities to live in. So we’ve been spending a lot of time looking at the senioropolis.com website; thinking that it will help her to figure out where we want to live when we retire.
One of the things that my wife is concerned about when moving into a community full of Retirement Residences is the restrictions that are sometimes placed on the people that live there. Such as whether or not they can baby-sit their grandchildren or whether grandchildren can spend the night or a week’s vacation. There are some communities that ban youthful people from living there. I can see why that would be attractive to some people – young people can be noisy. Perhaps they are afraid that the youth might become physically intimidating as well. I don’t know for sure what the reasons are, but this is an important thing to consider before committing to moving into any community.
Earlier today my wife gave me quite a scare! I saw she was looking at a website that sells maternity clothes! I said “Dear Lord, please don’t tell me we are going to be hearing the pitter patter of little feet around this house anytime soon!” She laughed and said, “No, I’m looking for some cute clothes for our niece. She’s starting to show and I’d like to buy her a cute top she can wear this summer.” She found a nice website that sells trendy and very affordable maternity clothes. She also said that they have a promotion code to save 20% by using the word “blogfriends” at the checkout. Sounds good to me!
My wife is positively thrilled. Our son called her last night to say hello. It’s nice that he does that – I know that there are many kids who are off in college who only call home to ask for money. But not “J.” He just keeps in touch. Anyway he has been offered a summer internship overseas (that’s NOT the part my wife is thrilled about) which is great for him. What my wife is thrilled about is the fact that he told her that he is considering a graduate school that is in-state. That means that he would only be a three hour drive away instead of a six hour drive away. THAT’s the part my wife is thrilled about! She misses him dreadfully, and I know if she saw more of him (like an occassional weekend) she would be a much happier woman!
When my cousin was a teenager, he had acne so bad that the other kids referred to him as “the Pizza Man.” That was a mean spirited reference to how badly his face was marked with his acne. He must have tried every acne Product that the stores sold. They did no good at all. It seemed to me that the poor guy had very few friends, and I don’t know if it was because of his geeky personality, or his physical appearance. Before we hit the teenage years he was a good looking guy! But the acne had to have had an ego-damaging effect on him.
Now that we are older, and science has advanced, we know that there are many products available that could provide a successful acne Treatment for teenagers with that severe type of acne. Which is a good thing because teenagers today are even meaner and more egotistical than they were when I was a teenager! The right acne Solution is not that hard to find anymore; the Internet is a great place to find information about successful products.
One of our nieces is pregnant and has just started “showing.” So my wife has been looking for some cute, trendy, and inexpensive maternity clothes to buy for her. She found a great selection of maternity clothes on the Internet at the kikisfashions.com website. The clothes there are a bargain compared to many other places that she has been looking at! They are holding a big sale, offer several maternity tops for under $10, and are offering a coupon code for bloggers and their readers to use to get an additional 20% off! The coupon code is “blogfriends.”
My wife says that the clothes are very cute compared to the maternity clothes she had to wear back in the 80s when she was pregnant with our kids. Makes her angry that she couldn’t find cute clothes like that back then!
Our youngest son tells us that he has been offered several New Jersey Jobs once he gets out of college. He is going to college in New Jersey now, and he says that he really likes it there. The climate is similar to where we live, and he has made quite a few friends. It is convenient to New York, which he has really been enjoying going to on the weekends. He has been enjoying going to the shows and the museums, and really having a good time enjoying his new found independence. So he is giving serious thought to the job offers.
New Jersey is only a couple of hours from where we live, so although we would really prefer that he live closer to us, we are counting our blessings that at least he is going to be on the same coast!
I was just reading an article on the Yahoo news website that the 33 year old mother who recently gave birth to octuplets, after already having had six children, is not only unwed and living with her parents, but is also unemployed! She had all of the children through in-vitro fertilization; the sperm donated by “a friend.”
I’m really curious how in the world she expects to financially care for all of those children? And who is going to do all of the daily tasks that need to be done for all of those children? This is an enormous task; who is going to do it? I can’t believe that one woman can do it all, she is going to need help. Where will it come from? Can you even imagine having that many teenagers all at once?
I heard that President Obama has mandated that there will be a cap of $500,000 annual salary for the CEOs of the companies that are getting federal bail out money. I think that is entirely reasonable – in fact, I think that should be the cap for ALL CEOs throughout the USA! That is plenty of money for a person to live more than comfortably! It would be nice if some of those big bucks “trickled down” to the non-management laborers and first and second level managers. That would REALLY stimulate the economy!
With the economy going the way it has been going, I have to wonder just how valuable a college education really is nowadays. It seems that there are a lot of highly educated people out there that are trying to find a job, and are not having very good luck at it. When they apply for entry-level jobs, or manual labor jobs, many of them are being told that that they are “over qualified” and can’t get hired because the employer is concerned that the employee won’t stay there very long. It seems to me that it really is a gamble, no matter what you do.
It used to be thought that education is never a waste, but when I see how difficult a time my wife has been having finding a job using her degree in Business Administration, I have to wonder. So for all of those who are thinking about going back to school, I encourage them to try to find as many free scholarships as they possibly can to help pay for the courses. I cannot even imagine trying to pay for a college education in this day and age without being able to count on grants and scholarships! One good place to look on the Internet for ways to earn and win free college scholarships is the scholarshippoints.com website.
I’ve been hearing a lot about the lady who just gave birth to octuplets – she already had six children, and just had eight more – and ALL of them were by in vitro fertilization! I’ve heard that she isn’t even married, and is living at home with her parents. I can understand wanting to have a few kids, but fourteen is a LOT of kids! I cannot even imagine trying to take care of them all; the expense is going to be astronomical! I thought I had my hands full with just our three kids!
