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Sanford Airport Opting Out of TSA

November 18, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

I love using small airports, and Sanford is pretty close to where I live. It’s much more convenient than MCO, especially when flying to Knoxville on Allegiant. Now, it could be even more convenient to fly out of there, since they are asking TSA to “go back“!

Orlando’s Sanford International Airport believes they will offer passengers “better service at a better price and more accountability and better customer service” by doing away with TSA screenings.

I predict a movement is beginning here. Not surprising, considering the professionalism I’ve noted by the TSA in the past.

Weaving Literacy Into Learning Numbers

November 18, 2010 / Scott / 3 Comments

Here’s a fun way to help your child expand their vocabulary when you aren’t even “working” on reading.

Chick Pea is working on a weekly art project that is geared towards helping her learn the numbers that are multiples of ten. Each week, she gets to glue the appropriate number of objects onto the numbers, counting them out (with Ana’s help when needed). There’s also a corresponding sentence that accompanies each number that describes what’s going on in the picture. These will later be put into a book that she can look through on her own for review.

She loves to do art projects, and it’s really helping her get a concrete idea of amounts of objects. That alone makes this a great activity. But while I was admiring her work last night, Ana pointed out something very interesting about the project that I hadn’t picked up on. Can you see it?

Notice that the words “speedy” and “fierce” are used to describe the animals in the project. This is important because Chick Pea doesn’t know what these words mean–at least she didn’t before. She knows what “fast” and “angry” mean. Those are words she can naturally understand because they are used so often. And even though she may not make sentences with the new words on a daily basis, just being exposed to them is helping to expand her vocabulary.

Another activity Ana has planned once an entire book is finished is to point out to her that all of the sentences start the same: “I am as…”. Notice how those small words are one line by themselves. This can be used to help her expand her bank of sight words and also introduce the concept of similes.

Some Linkage for Lookage

November 17, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Ironman – The Inner Revolt and Busting Out – I think there’s even more to this. Part of it is convincing yourself that you are as tough as you’ve convinced everyone else you are.

An Even Tougher Deficit Plan – Sounds good to me, except for the VAT

Dr. Drew on Obamacare: ‘You will see a massive flight of physicians from the field’ – But he only plays a doctor on TV, right?

Stay Worried – “One way or another, it was worth having Microsoft Word with the expectation that the zillionaire Bill Gates’ shower is still no hotter than ours, and his private jet goes not much faster than our own cut-rate Southwest Airlines flights. All that seems simple enough — until now.”

The Parallels between Today and the Great Depression – To quote the great Jackie Martin Jr., “You all know the rules, they’re very much like Pyramid, but different.”

A Throwback To Reading In The Car

November 17, 2010 / Ana / 2 Comments

I saw something today while driving that I haven’t seen in a while…kids reading books in the backseat of a car. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. So many cars have dvd players in the backseat now that it’s become the normal activity for road trips.

Our little ones are in the early stages of learning to read, but we’ve adopted this in our car as well, even for short trips. We’ve been checking out read-along books from the library, and the girls really seem to enjoy them. Our oldest understands the concept of turning the pages of the book when prompted by the CD and following along looking at the pictures, while the little one just enjoys listening to the stories.

If your kids are fans of the Disney movies, they will especially enjoy the Disney read-along books because they include audio clips of the memorable voices of the characters from the movies.

Literacy Lowdown – Some Helpful Resources

November 16, 2010 / Ana / 0 Comments

Today’s Literacy Lowdown is dedicated to sharing some online resources that can help you teach reading at home. Happy reading!

Help With Spelling! Spelling City is a cool free site that lets you make your own spelling lists – a great way to combine vocab words into spelling lessons. Your kids can practice their words, take tests, and play games with the words you choose. They also have some cool vocabulary games that your kids can play using the same words. Check out this site for a fun way to do spelling!

StoryNory publishes weekly audio stories for kids. Our three year old LOVES to hear stories, and these are well told, entertaining, and FREE. You can listen to them right on their website or download the files as .mp3s and make CDs–a lifesaver in the car!

The Reading Tub is a site dedicated to promoting literacy. They have great suggestions for children’s books and great tips on literacy and reading with your kids.

Fun and Easy Word Family Review Cards

November 16, 2010 / Ana / 0 Comments

Here’s a great idea from the Frugal Homeschooling Mom for creating your own word family review cards. It’s a great way for your toddler/preschooler to work on their letter-sound correspondence!

Word Group Hunt

November 16, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Chick Pea loves to play hide and seek, so we made up a fun game to help her with her word groups. Right now we’re working with the “-at” words (cat, hat, mat, rat, etc.). The game is pretty easy–make up cards with the words on them and put them in various places around the house. Next, we go to “base” and look at a group of pictures that represent the various words. For each picture, we send her off “hunting” for the word that goes with the picture.

The words don’t really need to be hidden. In fact, it’s probably better if they can see the several different words as they are looking for a single word, just to become familiar with the differences. It’s also a memory exercise since they can spot words they aren’t looking find them quickly when the appropriate picture shows up.

If you have a group of kids, you can make it a contest–send them all out hunting and see who can find a word first. It’s a great game for outdoors as well!

Jailhouse Movies Are Torture?

November 15, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

This poor Brevard County inmate thinks so.

“Like the old Chinese water torture, the inescapable sounds of these movies over and over works on nerves and psyche.”

I’ve watched Smoky and the Bandit and Swingers too many times to count, so I can say from experience that kicking back on the couch memorizing dialog isn’t exactly the toughest thing someone can force you into. Maybe this guy should become more familiar with the business end of a shovel to help ease his nerves and psyche. You know…when the body suffers the spirit flowers.

Of course, this has nothing to do with torture or legitimate complaints. It’s really just an attempt by this guy to further extend his stay at Hotel Taxpayer.

Poulin was arrested by Palm Bay police in January 2007 for allegedly driving and crashing his car while intoxicated, an accident that killed his female passenger.

There have been 14 motions for continuances in his case and six federal lawsuits against the jail, all of which have been dismissed

Great. Just great.

My Next Great Idea – The USPS Stimulus Package

November 12, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

After reading this article on the USPS losing $8.5 B (yes, that’s $500 million AFTER THE DECIMAL PLACE!). With all the hyperbole over evil corporations, at least their management has to answer to shareholders…at least they have to answer to someone. I was talking about it with a couple of people on Twitter:

[blackbirdpie id=”3124711739363328″]

[blackbirdpie id=”3116082235711488″]

Obviously, they aren’t huge fans. Come on…what’s a few billion amongst friends? But then I saw these articles about the Swedes storing emails and texts and our own government getting ready to grace us with an Internet Czar and a light bulb went off…

USPS Stimulus package!

Just set up (yet another) federal agency to track and log every single piece of electronic communication. This will have the (un)intended consequence of forcing…err…encouraging people to go back to sending coded messages through the USPS and hoping they are delivered within a few days. Think of how many USPS jobs this could save or create!

IKEA Homemade is Best Cookbook

November 8, 2010 / Scott / 1 Comment

What does IKEA mean to you? To me, it means flat packaging, easy to follow assembly instructions with pictures instead of words, and stuff that is so cool and affordable that I usually end up buying something I hadn’t planned on.

Check out IKEA’s “Homemade is Best” baking book.

Flat? check
Easy instructions with no words, with beautiful photos by Carl Kleiner? Check
So cool and (presumably) affordable that I’ll definitely be buying one on my next trip to IKEA, even though I hadn’t planned on buying a cookbook for the rest of my life? Check

The Facts and Science of QEII

November 5, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

The newly announced monetization of debt…ERRRRR…devaluation of the currency…ERRRRR…quantitative easing announced by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday has many Americans confused and baffled. What does this really mean for us? After all “facts and science and argument does [sic] not seem to be winning the day” with the collection of hilljacks that is the American people.

Maybe what we really need is an easy to understand analogy to explain in terms that we can relate to.

Let’s say the money supply is a big pile of rich, high-grade manure we are using to to fertilize our gardens. Now, imagine that a big stud horse (the Fed) comes along and, with increasing frequency and volume, adds to our supply of manure. I guess the theory is that we’ll respond by just planting more crops. But how long would it take for us to stop calling this big stinking pile of crap “fertilizer” and start calling it “a big stinking pile of crap”?

Over time, the manure’s value to us would be greatly diminished, and we’ll be lucky if we can load a bunch of it up in wheel barrow and trade it for a loaf of bread from our neighbor. Meanwhile, no one knows who owns the damned horse that keeps adding crap to the pile.

Oversimplified? Maybe so. But it’s pushing the limit of what our government educated brains can handle. Best to leave it to the horse to decide what is best.

Mexican Standoff In Congress?

November 3, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

There’s a possibility we could be looking at two years scripted by Quentin Tarantino. Maybe the standard finger pointing that we’re used to seeing is about to be replaced by something far more complicated.

Democrats have lost a lot of their Blue Dog numbers. I’ve actually read some people spinning this as the people in their districts were frustrated that they weren’t taking a “progressive enough” stance. If you really believe that, go pop some popcorn and enjoy what’s about to happen amongst Democrats as their leadership tries to pull them even further to the left. That would be disastrous for the Left and good for the country, so I’m not going to discourage it at all.

And, unless they get co-opted by the “Trent-Lott-Carl-Rove” Republicans, we’re probably going to see some infighting on that side of the aisle too. Again, probably bad for Republicans, but good for the country. Marco Rubio’s speech was dead on–last night wasn’t an embrace of the Republican Party, just a second chance.

If things don’t change, we could *gulp* be looking at a serious third party next time around. And if the establishment Democrats and Republicans aren’t careful, they may actually be that third party–on the outside looking in.

I’m generally happiest with a federal government that’s not doing much of anything. The less they try to create jobs (that’s a function of government?), bail people out, spend our money on our behalf, impose morality (love the irony), prop up favored industries, etc. the better off we all are. This usually happens when we are lucky enough to have opposing parties in the executive and legislative branches. Maybe now we’ll have so much debate of ideas going on that only the really good ones that have been properly vetted can float to the top.

“Yolanda, it’s cool baby. It’s cool! We’re still just talkin’. Come on point the gun at me. Point the gun at me.”

Stuff You Should See– October 13th through October 28th

October 28, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

‘Stranger Danger’ and the Decline of Halloween – "We can kill off Halloween, or we can accept that it isn't dangerous and give it back to the kids. Then maybe we can start giving them back the rest of their childhoods, too."

Amazing Beans: Black Lentils/Kidney/Garbanzo – Giving this a shot soon.

YOU are Superman – Mamapedia™ Voices – “If eight park moms and one visionary principal could pull our little neighborhood school out of its twenty-five year nose-dive, surely others could do the same thing. If Waiting for Superman could spark a national grassroots school reform movement that would pull us all out of the giant mess we’re in, now wouldn’t that be something?”

A ‘Do-Over’ on the Mortgage Market? Project Mayhem Fallout – I won't even entertain the idea, but it's an entertaining read.

If Every Website Got A Dramatic Movie Adaptation – Damned clever.

3 Simple Ways You’re Missing Out On Mobile – Great post by my buddy Gavin!

Scott Adcox