A great opportunity to take your young kids to the Children's Theater to see If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.

Keep learning fun this summer with activities such as the Children's Theater.

Two books you should read are: Drive by Daniel Pink and The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner Both books sum it up by stressing the importance of having pride and interest in what you do. Most schools ignore career-oriented approaches with combined learning on the job classroom instruction. I read a sample test question from the Common Core State Standards Initiative test that intends to ensure that all students leave high school ready for college or careers: "Give me 8 sheep and then we will have an equal number," said one shepherd to another: "No, you give me 8 sheep and then I will have twice as many as you," replied another shepherd. How many sheep did each shepherd have to start with? Write an equation or inequality that has (a) no real solutions; (b) infinite number of solutions; and (c) exactly one real solution. It is much easier to score factoring test questions than that of language arts. I personally believe that is the core problem with our standardized testing approach.

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Do you want to help your child achieve their goals without the delay from personal road blocks? Today I met the author, Arlene Johnson and her book is titled: Success Mapping; Achieve What You Want ... Right Now!

If you are the parent of a high school junior or senior this is the book to buy for them this holiday season or for graduation! A must read before starting college!

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I just finished the book "Fixing my Gaze" by Susan Barry. This true story is about a neuroscientist who discovered the wonders and beauty of binocular vision at the age of 50.

Sue had strabismus as a child and while 3 surgeries managed to "straighten" her eyes she never developed binocular vision. This is actually very common among those who have had strabismus surgery. Only about 1/3 of all patients who undergo strabismus surgery develop binocular vision. Sue became a very successful neuroscientist despite her so-called disability. She really didn't think she had missed anything by not having binocular vision.

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Books on tape are a great way to pass the time while driving on long road trips. My daughters and I spent two very long days driving to Yellowstone National Park and two days back; one of our all time favorite places to vacation. Since we love road trips we reminded ourselves how important it was to listen to a book on tapes series. Tradition. Having teenage girls they selected the books by Stephenie Meyer the Twilight Series http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html ~ I will admit that I had quickly read the first book Twilight before the movie opened in November 2008. The goal was to get the book finished so I could be up to speed with my daughters before I saw the movie. Speed reading Twilight was really no fun. I could not see what all the excitement was about with this book. I chalked it up to a teen girl story.... Never was I moved to read any of the other books. I believe I have been too busy with work. Not allowing myself the luxury of fiction! However, I must admit I embrace fiction on vacation and this was no different. Keeping connected to my daughters is very important to me and if it means reading fiction about vampire's and werewolves then so be it! Actually, the hours on the road listening to the books on tape, talking to the girls about story plots, character development, vocabulary and writing styles placed me in a great teaching position! Learning made fun! My daughters did not even realize it! The writing process was easy to discuss.... talking about ways to help them find their "writing voice" through the writing process became interesting discussions and hopefully, planted a process they will draw from in the future. The girls taught me so much about the author, the movie scripts and actors.....They taught me how much they had learned about the book series and movie series thus a fun way to keep mom up to speed on current fiction!

Recently in the Dallas Morning News there was an article written by Katherine Leal Unmuth about textbooks in Garland ISD....the link below ..... you will find the article in full.

http://www.quickdfw.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/032609dnmettextbooks.3a33d62.html

The article points out the path of textbooks and the growing problem with publishers bundling the textbooks and on-line access to these books. Publishers force the school district to purchase textbooks if they want to have access to on-line content. Is this more money for the publishers? I doubt it is any of consequence. Teachers in the classroom keep about 30 books in the classroom as reference books but students are not given their own book to use during the school year. It appears the teachers are concerned that the books will not be taken care of. The books are stored away!

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Parents need to take time to review what their child is learning at school and from the textbooks they are reading.

I have listed a few links below that will help you to learn firsthand the issues facing students, parents and educators and the textbooks that are used in schools across the nation.

Check out the textbook (s) your child is reading and let us know what you find.....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,421084,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/21924912/education_reform.htm#q=textbooks

http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Read.aspx?GUID=5E907DF1-DC38-4776-920A-B7AED7040889