What you think does matter

Encourage child to Read More Children need a reason to do anything. Ask them to read and they may have a look that undoubtedly says “must be crazy”. But if you ask them to play a video game, now that they will love to do - don't even have to ask them twice. It’s instinctive, fun is usually not related with reading, with learning and that may be a difficult thing to change in a child. Working in the school system I have learn a few tricks to share here today. Visit Our YouTube Channel: Mr Medina TV Be a leader. The natural instinct of a child is to follow, so in order to a child to follow, there must be a leader. The younger the child is the easier it is in the long run, but reading should be part of the whole and should be cheered on by other. By this example of reading, being the instigator of reading or by simply reading or creating stories before bed time will create interest and help foster the idea in a child’s mind that if everyone likes it – it must be fun. Read ...

SEBRING - When Caitlin Sinness bagged the Jr. Heartland Idol last year, she thought the best thing had happened that day, not realizing she was just getting started. Tween singer is 'up' and about At that singing contest was a friend of Playback Records producer Jack Gale, who was impressed with Caitlin's singing ability and stage presence. Soon after the February 2013 win, mom, Candy Sinness, got a call asking if her daughter would like to audition. Sinness thought it was a joke, figuring people don't get "discovered" that easily but have to pound the pavement a bit. Gale was impressed not just with Caitlin's voice and her personality, but her ability to understand the songs she's singing even though she is very young. "She's amazing," he said. "She really has the dedication and the passion. All she has to do is to keep singing." When Gale told Caitlin she was going to get her own country/pop album, "I just kept ...

Anastasia State Park - camping in St. Augustine, Fl. vacation St. Augustine, Florida vacation – having as much fun as you possibly can with as small a budget is possible. Well, no – that is not going to happen. It’s been a long time coming and my wife finally gets her 'St. Augustine' vacation. Sure I live about four hours away and I somehow had an extra body (the daughter of a friend of the family) who unbeknownst to me, was invited to come along with us, of which I had not factored into my already ballooned budget, but all is good. I have to say I was very excited as well; it’s been awhile since I have been camping with my family and I wanted to see how the kids reacted, especially Wanda our friend’s daughter (she has never been camping before). St. Augustine – Anastasia State Park, the campground site my wife finally decided on is a wonderful camp site indeed. Not like my favorite place "Kelly Park in Apopka Florida", but it is nice, clean and has a beac...

St. Augustine, Florida Vacation fun activities. St. Augustine, Florida vacation – having as much fun as you possibly can! St. Augustine, Florida must be the ghost capital of the world; there were more ghostly haunted sites than you could shake a stick at, again something my wife loves. With so many ghoulish haunts to choose from my wife settled on ‘Ripley’s Haunted Castle Adventure’. It took some coaxing but my scared little boy said that he would do it – for me and only if I held his hand as I walked with him. The tour was at night, which made it fun for me. Who doesn’t want to go into places like these at night – that alone was worth the price of admission but that is just me? The tour takes you through the whole building; you watch a 3D movie about a ghost hunting company’s documentary: I will let you be the judge, if you ever see it. The story is about the troubled history of Ripley’s castle and finding Mr. X. Mr. X murdered two women in the castle when it was run as a...

My reluctant Super Star baby So its spring break and I happen to have some free time on my hands – great! But with free time comes great responsibility – I mean, I’m bored and I currently had nothing better to do. So what did I decide to do? Well, I decided to make my little girl the main character, the face, the ‘Super Star’ of my promotional efforts. I am always looking for ways to promote my blog, my book and my Facebook page and so – I created a marketing plan for my FB book page using some interesting pictures of my daughter. Of course, I did not ask for her permission (why should I – am I not Dad?) Besides, the pictures are in public places making it copy right free - Just joking. Please remember friends: I need FB likes. I need G+, I need your comments below and I desperately need you to share this blog with your friends and family. After all, that is what friends do for each other, right? But like I was saying, I had a bit of free time and I decided to set up a mar...

Follow the money – you must be joking, teen makes how much! Sometimes it never ceases to amaze me. What is that old saying: get good grades, go to college and get a great job – you’ve got a wonderful future ahead of you. Sometimes I think the universe has a sick sense of humor. It just has to be joke, what else can it be? I guess this is why I work hard at trying to teach my children how to think out of the box. Not that learning, school and all the traditional methods don’t work. But you have to admit – children today have more opportunities than ever before. All they have to do is open their eyes, focus their thoughts and shoot for the moon.

Have Grit: if you want to have success? Intelligence and creativity are great but you can’t quit when the going gets tough if you really want to accomplish anything big. Published on May 9, 2013 Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success. That’s grit . Perseverance. And it’s one of the best predictors of success there is. Via Dan Pink’s excellent book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us . The best predictor of success, the researchers found, was the prospective cadets’ ratings on a noncognitive, nonphysical trait known as “grit”—defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference...