Playing the Numbers Game

It’s dinnertime and you’re frantically scrambling to get your three kids under six years old fed before you have to get the oldest to his soccer game and the middle one to the barber.  You swing into McDonald’s, order, squeeze into a booth, divvy up a 20-piece McNuggets amongst your offspring, and then quickly shove the first meal of your day down your gullet. What’s the last thing you’re thinking about during this manic mealtime? Well, other than wondering if Kate Middleton is breastfeeding Prince George. That’s right; calories. Those numbers, which are now posted on many restaurant menus in … Continue reading

Genealogy By The Numbers

I have never been much of a numbers person. Math was never my strong suit in school, and still I shy away from all things numerical. Imagine my horror when I was reading about methods for organizing genealogy research and came across – gasp – numbering systems. It turns out that many genealogists use numbers to organize the information that they collect about their ancestors. There are established numbering systems that help genealogists organize their research so that they can easily follow any line of ancestors through their family tree. The numbering systems identify individuals and their relationships to each … Continue reading

Insurance Blog Week in Review – Week of March 4 – 11, 2012

Each and every week, there can be anywhere between twelve and fourteen different blogs appearing on the Insurance Blog. Keeping up with the Insurance Blog is a good way to stay informed about insurance changes that can affect your family. Use the Week in Review is a quick way to “ketchup”! Examining a Potential Health Insurance Plan I am, once again, attempting to find an affordable health insurance policy. In this blog, I go over what some of the abbreviations, phrases, and numbers in the health plan I am looking at actually mean. The Insurance Podcast Roundup went up on … Continue reading

Recycling Plastics: By the Numbers

One day in my office, we received a new recycling bin. It has one side for aluminum cans and the other side simply said “plastics.” I can’t remember what it was, but my boss wanted to toss something in the plastic side when our business manager said, “No, you can’t do that” and explained whatever he had that was plastic couldn’t be recycled with things like water bottles. His argument was the bin only said “plastics,” which rather makes sense. How do you know what plastics to recycle? You have to go by the numbers. If you look on the … Continue reading

Do You Blog About Your Homeschool?

Do you have a blog? And if so, do you blog about your homeschool? When you go online and type “homeschool blogs” into a web search, you have a wealth of information at your fingertips. Just a quick search in Google yielded me 4,110,000 results – wow. Think of all the resources those four million blogs could hold for me. Think of all the inspiration, the lesson ideas, the motivation I could get by tapping into that completely free resource. With all those blogs already in existence, is it still important for you to add the topic to your blog … Continue reading

How to Start Your Own Genealogy Blog

Ready to start your own genealogy blog? There are plenty of good reasons to do it. Genealogists need to be careful not to steal content, or break copyright laws on their blog. It is also wise to make sure that your blog doesn’t contain information that can lead to identity theft. Many people think that the best way to start creating a brand new blog is to jump online, put together a WordPress blog, and think of a catchy title. In reality, your blogging experience will be much more successful if you take the time to think about what you … Continue reading

Genealogy Websites to Stop Listing Social Security Numbers

Some genealogy websites have decided to stop listing Social Security numbers online. Those numbers can be really useful for genealogists who are working on their family trees. Unfortunately, those numbers can also be used by thieves who want to commit identity theft. One of the resources that genealogy websites use is something called The Social Security Death Index. Insurance companies use it too, but not for the same reason that genealogists use it. Insurers who sell life insurance use the Death Master File database to determine if policyholders have passed away. Genealogists use it to locate the Social Security number … Continue reading

Crunching Thanksgiving Numbers

If you add the hours it takes for a 16-pound thawed turkey to cook with the amount of minutes it takes four hungry teens to devour an entire pumpkin pie, and then subtract the number of times you have to walk over to the kids’ table to break up a fight during Thanksgiving dinner, what do you come up with? In our house you get some cool holiday-inspired math activities. Just because kids are out of school for Thanksgiving break doesn’t mean their brains shouldn’t be exercised. Turn Turkey Day into an educational opportunity by encouraging your children to partake … Continue reading

Home School Blogger Spotlight: Ready. Set. Read!

Teaching a child how to read can be a daunting task. As a homeschooler and writer about homeschooling topics, one of the most popular questions behind teaching math is teaching how to teach a child to read. Many are intimidated by the task. It does not make things easier that a student is to reading as a leaf to the wind. I had one child who taught himself how to read, one who struggled and currently one who gravitates to numbers, and one more who can “read” her name at two. So where’s a homeschooling mom to turn for advice … Continue reading

Parents: There’s Power in Numbers

Subtitle: Katy Gets Kicked Off “Sesame Street” Last week I shared my enthusiasm for Sesame Street’s latest round of celebrity guests. Among them my childhood crush, Jason (yes, I think he’s hot) Bateman, Colin Farrell and Katy Perry. An eclectic mix for sure. Well, it was. For all of you moms and dads who have been living under a… mountain of dirty laundry, dishes and your kids’ strewn toys, I’ve got some bad or good news: Katy Perry will no longer be joining Elmo in the hood. Thanks to parental outrage that took the form of letter campaigns, emails and … Continue reading