The love affair humans have with dogs is among the oldest of stories. It dates back some 15,000 years ago when our ancestral cavemen recognized the special relationship they had with gray wolves and chose to domesticate them.

And now through genetics research, we know that the friendship is more than skin deep. Studies of the DNA sequence aimed at determining what makes a dog a dog have shown that it is amazingly close to what makes a person a person. So it’s not surprising that dogs share many of the same gene-related health conditions as humans, including cancer and obesity.

But for dog owners, that is hardly the issue. For them, it's all about love. And like all lovers, they are keen to share their feelings. That's why dog-lovers have been writing about their relationships for years--and in the process, giving us some interesting insights into the human condition. Here are some you might enjoy:

Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job. ~Franklin P. Jones

Man is a dog's idea of what God should be. ~Holbrook Jackson

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.~George Eliot

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. ~Phil Pastoret

Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails. ~Max Eastman

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons. ~Will Rogers

Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you? But when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window. ~Steve Bluestone

They never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation. ~Jerome K. Jerome

The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's. ~Mark Twain

if dogs could talk, perhaps we would find it as hard to get along with them as we do with people. ~Karel ÄŒapek

Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ~Roger Caras

To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs. ~Aldous Huxley

From the dog's point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog. ~Mabel Louise Robinson

Any member introducing a dog into the Society's premises shall be liable to a fine of one pound. Any animal leading a blind person shall be deemed to be a cat. ~Oxford Union Society, London, Rule 46

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does. ~Christopher Morley

One reason a dog is such a lovable creature is his tail wags instead of his tongue. ~Author Unknown

Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot little puppies. ~Gene Hill

I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward. ~G.K.Chesterton

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience. ~Woodrow Wilson

To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace. ~Milan Kundera

I named my dog Stay so I can say, "Come here, Stay. Come here, Stay." ~Steven Wright

When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog along to see the sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten. ~Robert M.
Pirsig,

When a dog wants to hang out the "Do Not Disturb" sign, as all of us do now and then, he is regarded as a traitor to his species. ~Ramona C. Albert

Dachshunds are ideal dogs for small children, as they are already stretched and pulled to such a length that the child cannot do much harm one way or the other. ~Robert Benchley

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. ~Rita Rudner

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And as always, love pays off. It has been established that people who own pets live longer, have less stress, and have fewer heart attacks.

Posted by Marion Blank at 03:46 AM
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A parent recently wrote to me saying, "My 8 year old daughter has motor difficulties and cannot handwrite. She can use a specialized keyboard to write on a computer. I saw that Phonics Plus Five involves a lot of writing activities. Can I use the program with her?"

Happily, the answer is "Yes." It will require that the parent modify some of the materials, but the changes are readily achievable. For example, one of the writing activities involves showing words with missing letters and the child has to enter the correct letters to complete the word. So a word such as some might appear as _o_e.

In adapting this sort of activity, a parent might:

enter the incomplete word on the computer and the child could then type in the missing letters.

Alternatively, the kit includes an alphabet chart. Instead of having the child write the letters, he or she can hold a pointer and use it to identify on the alphabet card, the letters that need to be inserted.

There is still another avenue that should be considered. Many children with motor problems can achieve handwriting if their hands are supported during the writing process. This does not mean that the adult moves the child's hand; all the adult does is to support the wrist and if necessary, the fingers and the child executes the entire movement. The support removes some of the many demands that writing imposes (such as how to steady one's hand) and it thereby frees the child to devote full attention to creating the shape of the letters.

Motor problems have often created obstacles that have kept children from achieving their potential. Now through a combination of new technology and modifications in traditional techniques, their future can be much brighter.

Posted by Marion Blank at 06:16 PM
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We steadily hear the message that kids must build up their language skills if they want to go to a good college; if they want to get a good job; if they want to be successful in life. All true.

But "good language" is also a tremendous source of fun. Where would jokes be without it? And, as the following one-liners show us, a remarkably few words have the power to make us smile:

Why is "abbreviation" such a long word?
We have enough youth. How about a fountain of "Smart"?
He who laughs last thinks slowest.
Borrow money from a pessimist -- they don't expect it back.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
Campers: Nature's way of feeding mosquitoes.
I don't find it hard to meet expenses. They're everywhere.

Ninety-nine percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
The severity of an itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it.
Always remember that you are unique; just like everyone else.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.
You can't have everything; where would you put it?
Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home.
I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
Nothing is fool proof to a sufficiently talented fool.
I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not too sure.
If everything is coming your way, then you're in the wrong lane.
Gravity always gets me down.
They told me I was gullible...and I believed them.
Nobody's perfect. I'm a nobody.
Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else get your way.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.

Posted by Marion Blank at 04:39 PM
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Some years ago, a bestselling book appeared with the priceless title Chicken Soup for the Soul Since the inevitable problems of life leave all of us hungry for this type of nourishment, a whole range of materials has subsequently appeared using this theme.

Now, an appealing new resource has been added to the list. It is geared for parents of children with learning difficulties and it is available at a website called Soul Support: Connecting Lives One Click at a Time You can find it at www.soulsupporter.com.

It offers a variety of resources including ways for parents to connect with other parents, lists of useful resources and a forum for posting ideas.

Posted by Marion Blank at 09:36 PM
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Now that school has once again started, children and their parents face the pressure that comes with wanting to do well. That means completing homework, studying for tests, and all the related activities. These are necessary, but they can be somewhat joyless.

In all the pressure, we should never forget that learning can provide some phenomenal experiences. So if you have a bit of time and want to share some fascinating material with your child, material like this:

You can go to a site where you can see the "ten most amazing pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope." You can find it at: http://groups.msn.com/SailingWithDevious/toptenhubblepictures.msnw

How did these pictures come to be?

After it was launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope began relaying back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the heavens. Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by this floating laboratory. The end result, as one reporter put it, is a display of our universe that "is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful."

The photos are truly breathtaking. And should you and your child want to have some discussion about the content of the images, the site offers some interesting comments. On the other hand, you can just sit back in awe--and be inspired by beauty that goes beyond the magnificent.

Posted by Marion Blank at 09:47 PM
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A parent recently asked me the following question. My six year old son had educational testing. I was told that he has an "auditory processing disorder and weak phonological awareness." It was suggested that I start him on some pre-reading programs that are designed to address these problems. I was wondering if Phonics Plus Five would be appropriate for him and would it address these issues?

The short answer is, Yes, Phonics Plus Five is ideal for helping children with these problems learn to read easily and effectively.

There is also long answer for those who would like to understand what is meant by "auditory processing disorders and weak phonological awareness" and why these realms have come to play such a key role in reading education.

Over the years, educators have become increasingly aware of the many children who fail using traditional phonics instruction. Unfortunately, they did not use this information as a call to develop alternative methods of teaching reading that would offer the children success. Instead they chose to ask the question, "How can we change the child so that he can handle the only reading system we are able to offer him?"

Then they answered this question by saying. "There must be precursor skills for phonics that the children have not developed. What we need is to identify these precursor skills, train the children to do them and then they will be able to deal with traditional phonics instruction."

That is where "auditory processing and phonological awareness skills" come in. These are a cluster of skills that are deemed to be the essential precursor skills to later phonics ability. They are language related, but are not, by themselves, language. For the most part, they are skills that allow a person to talk about language, think about language or play with language.

For example, one of these precursor skills commonly used in kindergartens is to have the children clap for each syllable in a word--so Christ/mas gets two claps while el/e/phant gets three. Keep in mind that the children were likely to have been saying these words perfectly well before they learned to segment them into syllables. But "saying" of the words is not the goal. The idea is that activities of this sort will get the children ready to read words.

You are likely to have seen other sound analysis skills in activities where children are taught to rhyme (e.g., “Give me a word that rhymes with man.”) or to dissect the sounds of words (e.g., “What would lend sound like without the ‘l’?”). Ironically, while these tasks are being offered to help the children, those who are deemed to need them most (i.e., those with auditory and phonological processing problems) find them onerous and frustrating. It's not hard to figure out why. They are steadily being required to do what is most difficult for them. So often the major outcome of well-intentioned teaching is a strong negative reaction.

Unfortunately, there is an even greater problem. After the training in phonological awareness and auditory processing has ended, the children are still left to confront the visual sequence of letters in real printed words and figure out what those squiggles are saying. But nothing in the auditory-based activities has prepared them to deal with the unique and complex demands associated with the visual components of reading nor with smoothly linking those components to the auditory world.

Phonics Plus Five, by contrast, has been designed to enable a child to achieve these, and all other, vital skills. Further, it has been designed to do so in a way that is fun. In place of the frustration of failure, the child, from the outset, gets the pleasure of mastery.

Posted by Marion Blank at 03:03 PM
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The message you just read is, at the very least, disturbing. And coming, as it does, from a reliable newspaper, the Guardian in England, it's not one that can easily be dismissed.

But knowledge is power. And the article offered lots of valuable information for parents on what is happening and what they--and you--might do.

·

The newspaper article reported the results of a major study that was carried out in England. It showed that hyperactivity and disruptive behavior are linked to children's consumption of drinks, sweets and cakes containing specified artificial additives.

In the research, scientists studied the responses of 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight to nine year-olds to different products; containing various additives, such as artificial colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate, which are commonly used in soft drinks. They found that these substances had "deleterious effects" on the children's behavior.

As a result of the study, the government Food Standards Agency has significantly changed its guidelines about which food parents should avoid giving to their youngsters. Their action has resulted in a debate that is familiar to us on this side of the Atlantic. Some claim that the government should have taken a tougher line by banning the additives completely. Others say that parents should be informed and left to make their own decisions.

This controversy will continue for a long time to come. In the meanwhile, parents face a difficult, but important, challenge of getting their children to abandon the tantalizing food and drinks that, like the Pied Piper, have been leading them down a destructive path.

Posted by Marion Blank at 10:28 PM
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These days, it’s common to hear people voicing a sense of hopelessness about their power to influence what is happening in our nation. At the same time, the complaints are somewhat ironic since so many of our fellow citizens do not use the power they do have. For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only sixty-four percent of the eligible population voted in the 2004 presidential election.

You can see the importance of voting if you have been following the debate on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. NCLB was enacted in 2001 with overwhelming bipartisan support. It was designed to bring every student to proficiency by 2014. It did so by requiring states to administer standardized tests and by punishing schools where scores do not rise.

It has led to an incredible number of problems.

One--of the many--stems from what happens when schools are forced to focus the bulk of the teaching on rudimentary skills aimed at bringing up the lowest students. One of the first things that happens is that parents, in large numbers, pull the best students out of the public schools since so few of the activities are ones that the children need or can benefit from. That’s the bad news—for the schools and for the nation.

But the good news is that last November, hearing the growing dissatisfaction, dozens of Democrats campaigned on promises to change the law. They were elected, and this year, joining forces with some significant Republican defections, they are now working hard at re-working its provisions.

It’s unfortunate that the legislators have waited till this point to take action. Had they given careful consideration to the original law, they could have anticipated—and prevented—many of the difficulties. And it’s too early to tell if the changes will be productive or not. This is certainly a work in progress that will require steady and careful attention.

Still, in all the complexity, it’s important to recognize that people can make a difference —when they choose to use the power that they have available.

Posted by Marion Blank at 06:37 PM
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