With 3 months off from the rigor of school, extracurricular activities, and that dreaded homework, plan time for your kids to discover new interests.
Just because your kids prefer computer games, that doesn’t mean that you need to stuff them into computer camps all summer. Try giving them new experiences to possibly tap a hidden passion.
Merit Academy builds summer programs around each child to encourage this type of exploration. Think: robotics, aquaponics, arduino, stained glass, environmental science, and more! We also have unique academic programs that focus on writing essays, reading comprehension, and math foundation building.
Our one-on-one classes are scheduled around your other summer plans and vacations. It’s time to find that niche class to spark your child’s interest in something new!
Learn more about specific classes and the many ways we can make your child’s summer the turning point in their academic careers!
With 3 months off from the rigor of school, extracurricular activities, and that dreaded homework, plan time for your kids to discover new interests.
Just because your kids prefer computer games, that doesn’t mean that you need to stuff them into computer camps all summer. Try giving them new experiences to possibly tap a hidden passion.
Merit Academy builds summer programs around each child to encourage this type of exploration. Think: robotics, aquaponics, arduino, stained glass, environmental science, and more! We also have unique academic programs that focus on writing essays, reading comprehension, and math foundation building.
Our one-on-one classes are scheduled around your other summer plans and vacations. It’s time to find that niche class to spark your child’s interest in something new!
Learn more about specific classes and the many ways we can make your child’s summer the turning point in their academic careers!
STEALTHING is sexual assault, and it is unconscionable! What kind of perverted and selfish person would remove a condom during sex without consent (or awareness) from the woman? Reporters and legislators are discussing how to prove that removing or purposefully tearing a condom was done and whether or not the act is illegal because it occurs during consensual sex. I believe the best way to stop stealthing now is to shame the man.
Yup! Remember what happens every time a prostitution ring is busted and the madame or pimp threatens to make public their “blacklist” of prominent men who frequented their prostitutes? That fear of public shame is a more powerful deterrent than criminal prosecution.
Men who stealth would have a short list of dates if everyone knew about their unethical practices. So why make women wait until the government spends months, or years, trying to label the act, define it, and then decide whether or not it is actually illegal? Women could put an end to it immediately by simply posting who “stealthed” on social media and telling everyone they know. Right?
After all, the sex was consensual so the man and woman knew each other. They probably hang out with the same friends and acquaintances; their sexual activity was probably not secret. So when women don’t come forward, they are actually condoning stealthing AND they are putting other women at risk. This infuriates me.
Removing a condom puts the woman at risk of unwanted pregnancies, STDs, and emotional distress. It’s a violation of the woman’s body and it’s a betrayal of trust and respect. This has to stop now and women need to come forward to call out stealthers. When women expose men for stealthing, we need to embrace them because they are the real victims here.
Still pondering the vaxing vs not vaxing question? Here’s a new study that just came out 2 weeks ago.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found that at least 75% of the children who DIED from having the flu between 2010 and 2014 had NOT been vaccinated with a flu shot. Hmm. That means that 3 out of 4 children died because their parents didn’t protect them.
Brendan Flannery, an epidemiologist with CDC’s influenza division, said “This is more evidence for the flu vaccine providing protection against disease and the severe complications that lead to (flu-related) deaths.”
It’s time to get our kids vaccinated!
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Seems like we’re all on edge because we really don’t have control of our future due to the lunatic in the Oval Office. As I flip channels, the news centers around uncovering lies and announcing really scary scenarios about him on the brink of starting a nuclear war, building oil pipelines, and restarting the coal industry.
Our tension fills the air and unfortunately our children often feel our stress. When parents have such uncertainty, it leads to self doubt in our children.
Here’s a list of 10 books (compiled by Melissa Taylor) for preschoolers to help them get to know and love themselves – despite the world around them.
Be Who You Are!
by Todd Parr
The Things I Love About Me
by Trace Moroney
I’m Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem
by Jamie Lee Curtis
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon
By Patty Lovell
Elmer
By David McKee
Giraffes Can’t Dance
By Giles Andreae
The Sneetches and Other Stories
By Dr. Seuss
You’re Here for a Reason
By Nancy Tillman
Red: A Crayon’s Story
By Michael Hall
Stephanie’s Ponytail
By Robert Munsch
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Did you know that you can check your social security benefits online? It’s easy to do.
I never understood social security benefits because I always thought that is was something that “old people” without retirement plans relied on. Now with the new administration seriously tampering with taxes and benefits, I checked into it.
You can see what your social security benefit will be (after retirement) right now! You can see what benefits you will receive based on retiring at ages 62, 66, and 70. You can even see disability benefits and what your children can expect to receive.
You can also update your information on this site. Good news: it’s free to use.
After announcing her plan to address overpopulation on KSCO radio a few weeks ago, Pascal joined the Merit Academy environmental science projects booth at Earth Day Santa Cruz to do her first event.
With her new message: THREE’S A CROWD!, Pascal is encouraging couples to have no more than 2 children.
The Climate marchers, UCSC students, and local Santa Cruz residents were 100% supportive. They signed her pledge list and promised to tell their families and friends to do the same. Besides, who can afford to raise 3 children and take care of their parents, too?
With over SEVEN BILLION people on this planet, she plans to make sure we don’t hit TEN BILLION!
Sometimes the most obvious solutions are best discovered by our kids. At Earth Day Santa Cruz, Hannah Faris debuted her plan to reduce CO2. With ONE BILLION internal combustion engine (ICE) cars on the road worldwide, Hannah is proposing that we all convert our ICE cars so they can use either Metrol (liquid hydrogen and nitrogen) or gasoline (until there are Metrol pumps at every fueling station).
Makes sense! The earth is warming up and we’re fast approaching 2 degrees, and soon after 3 degrees – when life as we know it won’t exist anymore. And as much as electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars are wonderful solutions, realistically it’ll be 100 years before they replace every ICE car on the planet.
So what do we do with the ONE BILLION ICE CARS that are spewing CO2 every day? We convert them! By replacing spark plugs with Smart Plugs and adding a few minor devices to your existing engine, your cars will be able to use either Metrol or gasoline – with a flip of a switch! At the cost of just a few thousand dollars that could be financed so nobody would have to dip into their savings, this conversion could take place in just a few hours.
So what is Metrol? It’s a fuel that has net-negative emissions – which means that it actually cleans the air as you drive! The really amazing part is that it is made from anything that rots or burns. They take the methane and pull out the carbon to make hydrogen. This is where Metrol is different from biofuels. By adding nitrogen (and other proprietary ingredients) to hydrogen, it creates a liquid hydrogen that can be stored at room temperature. This is revolutionary.
Hannah is opening Kids 4 Hydrogen chapters across the US to share this amazing solution to our energy needs. She is just finishing a whiteboard video that will answers questions as she works with the developers to – well, save civilization. Join the movement: www.Kids4Hydrogen.org and sign the waitlist for conversions. It’s free and there’s no obligation.
We can’t rely on our government (don’t get me started!), corporate America, and even our own EPA. So, join Hannah and the youth as they stand up to the oligarchy that runs our nation and create an infrastructure that will reduce CO2!
If ever we needed the community – and country – to gather to find environmental solutions, it’s now. Kids 4 Hydrogen will be there to debut Metrol and Smart Plugs. Come learn about this fuel that cleans the air as you drive! It’s made from anything that rots but it’s not a bio fuel because we remove the carbon – cool, right? No CO2! And, until the rest of the country (world) catches on, it’s also a flex fuel, which means that you can use gasoline with a flip of a switch!
The best part is that you don’t have to buy a new car. You can convert your internal combustion engine (ICE) car by replacing your spark plugs with SMART PLUGS. Yup! The conversion takes about the same time it takes to tune up your car. Amazing. Come learn more about Metrol and Smart Plugs at our booth at Earth Day Santa Cruz. We’ll be at San Lorenzo Park from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm.
Here’s another “GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND” moment. Just because we had lots of rain this winter doesn’t mean that our drought is over and everything is back to normal.
2016 was the HOTTEST YEAR EVER RECORDED according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Global warming is a direct result of human activity and we have and will continue to see climate-related disasters.
Remember in 2016:
- Vanishing artic and polar sea ice
- Bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef
- Flash floods in the United Kingdom
- Droughts in India, Southern and Eastern Africa, and Central America
- Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti
- Heavy rains and floods affected Eastern and Southern Asia
This year and every year will bring on more severe weather because our oceans are heating up which causes the ice caps to melt. Atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to rise because we keep spewing CO2 from our cars and factories.
Sign petitions, call your representatives, donate funds, march with the masses. It’s time to unite to save our civilization. We’re facing unprecedented climate-related catastrophes.
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You’ve heard about the savants who can’t brush their teeth but can tell you the day of the week each of our presidents were born. It sounds ridiculous that a savant could memorize or calculate complex formulas in just seconds. While having this skill may seem enticing on first blush, unfortunately savants can’t do this with other more practical applications.
Martin Dresler, cognitive neuroscientist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, looked at the anatomy of memory champions to compare their brains to average people. One of the memory champions, Konrad, also co-authored this study. He uses visual memory to help him remember names. If a person’s name is “Miller,” he might visualize the person’s face looking at a “mill.”
For more abstract memory challenges, he builds “memory palaces” in his mind. By picturing a familiar place like your first home, he takes the list of numbers or objects and places them along the path through his house. If he were memorizing numbers, he might transform the numbers into images. Because these images would be personal, it would stand out along the path through his house.
Dresler and Konrad found that people who learned how to use the memory palace, could use that skill months later. While this is very interesting, it is not conclusive. There are many studies of people who have memorized the Bible or historical dates. When asked to memorize other things like a list of groceries or phone numbers, they perform just like everyone else. So far, these intense memory training programs don’t cure normal forgetfulness.
I find these studies to be fascinating. The more we discover about the way we learn and retain information, the better teachers we’ll be to our children and students. And, if we could find a way to improve memory for our aging population, that would bring relief to millions of people.
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