A Doll Comes To Visit

You are a fifth-grade girl who comes home from school to find a doll on your front porch. The doll looks like you, is dressed like you, and there is something about the eyes. Who left it? Why is it here? And what makes this doll so special?

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With a Little Help From My Friend

Jim Jenkins is an ace detective who solves the most difficult crimes. Yet he always works alone. Or does he?

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The Boy Who Could Wiggle His Ears

Learning how to wiggle your ears is really hard. But you can do it if you keep trying. And if you learn to keep trying, no problem is too big. So if you can wiggle your ears, you can do anything!

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Buying Manhattan

It’s a common story in history —  how the Indians sold Manhattan island for a few dollars worth of trinkets. As a history nerd who has done some traveling, I know that history is never as simple as recounted in standard history books.  Therefore, a segment of the May 24, 2015 edition of The Writer’s

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Who Was James Smithson?

You have heard of the Smithsonian Institution?  The man who provided the money for this famous organization was one James Smithson. He is described on page 4 of the June 2014 issue of Smithsonian magazine —   He studied coffeemaking, human tears and snake venom, and published 27 scientific papers.  His brain, a friend said, was “fruitful

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A Poem For Memorial Day

The Patriot Jerry is a patriot, he loves his country dear. He waves the flag on July 4th, he makes his feelings clear. He fancies himself vigilant, his loyalty is defined. But when it comes the time to vote, It tends to slip his mind. He thinks the world of veterans who‘ve come home from

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What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Since I’ve been working as a substitute teacher, and for years was taking almost any job that came along, I’ve caught myself asking that question regularly.  Like the time I had an afternoon job teaching high school Health.  I was there a bit early, at the end of the period before I was to take

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Do You Like Apples?

This afternoon I was out spraying apple trees.  Between me and my neighbor, we have five apple trees of different varieties.  Mine are just maturing; hers are prolific. This looks like a good year for apples.  The complication is about the time my trees matured and started bearing fruit in quantity,  I realized I really

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Some Thoughts on Raising Children

“Teach your children well,” Crosby, Stills and Nash It’s not easy raising children today. Although I don’t have kids myself, I learned all about modern child-rearing by observing my best friend and her offspring. Like when I dropped by and was met at the door by her then-four-year-old daughter.  “Me Butt-head,” she proudly proclaimed, a

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Are You More Attentive Than a Goldfish?

Time magazine is reporting that according to a recent Microsoft study, our average attention spans are now down to about eight seconds.  This actually puts us as less attentive than goldfish, whose attention spans average about nine seconds. Time reports that Canadian researchers surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others using

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More Social Studies Quotes

I’m still working at the local high school while a social studies teacher gets his homelife together.  I always like to post a different quote each day, tying into the lesson if  possible.  Here are some of my recent favorites. “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”  —  Abba Eban “Never tell

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