Episode 105
notes
Banter:
Welcome to
the DADDYCAST
Went Shopping for my wife’s birthday present. We live in a small town, near a big college
town where everybody has to go shopping.
Discovered ‘WOW’ week…week of welcome. The campus welcomes its new students back for
another year of keggers and traffic jams. I’d forgotten all about the traffic and young
drivers. I remember thinking to myself –
WOW this really is a nice place to live, now I just think WOW – where the heck
am I supposed to park, or WOW – where are all the shopping carts, and WOW – you
mean it’ll take you 3 hours to giftwrap a teakettle?
3 weeks
into the school year, my son has already been introduced to the school
principal! 3 weeks! I think he set some kind of record! And believe it or not, it was the inspiration
for yet another use of the venerable baby wipe!
More on that later…
I was on
MSN earlier in the week, and I guess they are partnering with American
Greetings. I had no idea there were so
many significant days on the calendar! Here’s some examples I found;
1) September 8th is “nose hair
maintenance day” – cue nose hair trimmer
2) September 6th – Back Hair
appreciation day! I wish my wife would
celebrate that one! My hairline is
slowly creeping back, down my neck, so soon my back will be the closest hair
will be to the top of my head!
3) September 13th – Junk
Drawer Day – whaddya supposed to do on Junk Drawer
day? I need “sock drawer day” personally
4) September 14th – “Hug a
crabby stranger day” – yeah – there’s a good safe thing to do!
5) My favorite – I’ll be observing this
one – “Talk like a pirate day”!! (tell
the pirate joke)
{cue newstheme}
In this
weeks dadycast headlines-11 kids found sleeping in
cages, Botox for infants, kids instead of adults
tending to the elderly and infirmed, Students coping with tech overload, and
{cue sample_17}
{cue PSA}
{cue synth news intro}
News:
Eleven
Children Found Caged in Ohio Home
(09-12)
21:20 PDT Wakeman,
Sheriff's
deputies found 11 children locked in cages less than 3 1/2 feet high inside a
home, but a couple denied they had abused or neglected the children.
A judge on
Monday put the children — who range in age from 1 to 14 and who have various
disabilities, including autism — in foster homes.
The
children were found in nine cages built into the walls of the house near this
small city in northern
The
children told authorities they slept in the cages — 40 inches high and 40
inches deep — at night. Doors to some of the cages were blocked with heavy
furniture.
Sharen
and Mike Gravelle are adoptive or foster parents for
all 11 children, officials said. Prosecutors were reviewing the case, but no
charges had been filed as of Monday night.
A
children's services investigator saw one of the children in a cage Friday, Sommers said. The sheriff's office obtained a warrant and
returned to the house that evening and removed the children.
At a
hearing, the judge placed the children in the custody of the Department of Job
and Family Services, and officials placed them in four foster homes.
Appearing
with a lawyer at the hearing, the Gravelles denied
they had abused or neglected the children.
The Gravelles claimed a psychiatrist recommended they place the
children in cages.
Investigators
believe nine of the children slept in the cages that were stacked two-high on
the house's second story. Two mattresses on a bedroom floor also showed signs
of recent use, Sommers said.
One of the
boys said he'd slept in the cage for three years, Sommers
said.
Wakeman,
with a population of about 1,000, is some 50 miles west of
Neighbors: Kids in home with cages
were polite
By Jim Bobel, The Morning Journal via AP
WAKEMAN,
Ohio (AP) — The 11 children removed from a house where authorities say some of
them slept in homemade cages are polite, well-behaved, well-dressed and appear
to have been well-fed, neighbors and authorities said Tuesday.
Their
adoptive parents, Michael Gravelle, 56, and Sharen Gravelle, 57, denied in a
custody hearing Monday that they abused or neglected the children, who are ages
1-14 and have conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.
No charges
had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon, and messages left with the couple's
lawyer were not immediately returned.
The Gravelles have said a psychiatrist recommended they make
the children sleep in the cages, Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler told the Norwalk Reflector. The parents said the
children, including some who had mental disorders, needed to be protected from
each other, according to a search warrant on file at Norwalk Municipal Court.
Neighbors
said they often saw or heard the children playing, and the family yard was
littered with toys — plastic cars, tricycles, slides and an overturned
skateboard near a wooden ramp. Seven bicycles were piled in a storage shed.
"Those
kids were dressed better than some of the kids who
live in
At night,
authorities say, eight of the children were confined in 3 1/2-foot-tall wooden
cages stacked in bedrooms on the second floor. The cages were painted in
bright, primary colors, with some rigged with alarms that would send a signal to
the downstairs when a cage door was opened. One cage had a dresser in front of
it, county sheriff's Lt. Randy Sommers said Tuesday.
A pig,
roosters and other animals shared the yard outside Wakeman,
a city of about 1,000 people 50 miles west of
The
children have been placed with four foster families. A social worker investigating a complaint
contacted authorities.
According
to the search warrant, the cages had mats and the house smelled of urine. One
boy said he slept in a cage for three years, Sommers
said. A baby slept in a small bed, and two girls used mattresses
Deputies
said they were called to the home last year when a 12-year-old boy was upset
and ran away for several hours. He was found not far away.
Although
the family has lived in
Botox being used for children with excessive drooling
Last
Updated
CBC News
A doctor at
the McGill University Health Centre has become the first person to treat an
infant with Botox because of excessive drooling. Dr.
Sam Daniel decided to experiment with the drug when the baby started to drown
in his saliva.
This marked
the first time a child under four years had this kind of treatment.
Dr. Daniel
said the infant suffers from a rare disorder called Charge Syndrome. The
child's parents were distraught because he was drowning in his own saliva and
was being kept alive on a ventilator.
Dr. Daniel
suggested they try a Botox injection in his neck.
"I
wasn't sure it would work," Dr. Daniel said. "I wasn't sure of the
side effects but I knew if it did work it would mean something for this child
and the family."
The infant
is now eight months old and doing well. His parents did not want their child
identified.
Doctor
Daniel has treated another child, age 7, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
Students cope with technology
overload
Dependence
on digital tools a distraction and no promise of success, educators say.
By Greg
Sandoval
Associated
Press
Alex
Lam-Niemeyer couldn't care less that Google can churn up millions of Web pages
when he's researching homework assignments. Typically, he researches his
reports by scouring library stacks, just as students have done for generations.
"There's
too much stuff on the Internet," said the 12-year-old middle-schooler in
But Alex's
perspective -- shared by many educational technology analysts -- is that many
big-bucks digital tools won't give the haves an advantage over classroom
have-nots.
"The
biggest problem that students have is that technology often ends up being a
distraction," said Robin Raskin, the founder and
former editor of FamilyPC magazine. "In an
information society, the smart person will be the one who can shut out all the
distractions."
He cites an
example of a student who searches the Web for information on the French
Revolution -- and comes up with French toast, French music and French kissing.
"A child can spend half the night searching for an answer to one
question," Raskin said.
The
Internet age has ushered in some valuable digital learning tools, some
educational experts say. But parents must be choosy to find truly useful
software programs, handheld devices or educational Web sites.
Parents
should consider whether a product really addresses a child's weaknesses and
strengths, and be sure the software is compatible with their computer, said
Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology
Review.
Try older
packages
They should
also take advantage of older software packages, which can be found at Web sites
such as Planetcdrom.com, eBay.com and Kidsclick.com, and cost far less than
current off-the-shelf products, he said.
For
students wrestling with algebra, geometry or calculus,
Mindful
that many school administrators have tried to ban cell phones because teenagers
use them to play games, chat and share answers to tests in the classroom, some
companies are creating software that can make the devices more than tools for
entertainment and cheating.
San
Diego-based Vocel loads study material and sample
questions for the Scholastic Aptitude Test on cell phones so students can study
as they wait for the bus or head to school. For $3.99 a month or a flat fee of
$9.99, the phones ring with pop quizzes and timed tests. Parents can track
their child's progress at a secure Web page on Vocel.com.
Microsoft
effort
Microsoft
Student 2006 attempts to become a homework help destination for middle- and
high-school students.
It combines
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Encarta Encyclopedia and a graphing calculator,
summarizes major books and suggests topics for book reports. But the software,
which retails for between $80 and $100, has received less than enthusiastic
reviews; critics have called the search function imprecise and the amount of
new material in the program low.
Among some
of the sites Raskin recommends for students wishing
to bone up on science, math or spelling are Askjeevesforkids.com, Mathforum.org
and Kaboose.com. Other useful sites include Hotmath.com and Scienceguy.com.
But don't
overdo it -- parents should limit a child's Web surfing to three or four sites
a day to keep their focus on studying, not searching, Raskin
said.
Some school
districts actually recommend portable electronic devices, such as digital
dictionaries, spelling correctors and translators.
Franklin
Electronic Publishers has competed in this sector since 1986, the year it
launched Spelling Ace. Kids can look up words by spelling them phonetically --
type in g-e-r-a-f and the $20 handheld device up with the correct spelling,
"giraffe," along with synonyms and antonyms.
These kinds
of tools should be considered as only supplements at best when it comes to
learning, said Pat Ackley, principal of
1 million
By Janet Kornblum,
More than 1
million children in the
The 1.3
million to 1.4 million child caregivers, ages 8 to 18, have responsibilities
more suited to adults, the national survey says. It will be presented at a
conference Friday by the National Alliance for Caregiving
and the United Hospital Fund, with financing from the U.S. Administration on
Aging. (Related story: When
child cares for parent)
"This
is a failing of our health-care system," says Gail Gibson Hunt, president
of the alliance, a non-profit coalition of family groups.
It
estimates that 44.4 million adults in the
"We
know that children have always played a role in assisting their families,
especially in minority communities where they frequently act as interpreters
and care for their siblings," says Josefina Carbonell,
Assistant Secretary for Aging in the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Yet this report reveals that a significant percentage of these children
are providing much more personal and complex tasks."
Most care
for parents and grandparents who have ailments such as Alzheimer's disease and
cancer. At least 75% get some help, but half say they spend a substantial
amount of time caregiving. And even those who are not
the primary caregiver perform many tasks by themselves.
According
to the study, 58% of child caregivers help with at least one routine daily
activity, such as bathing, dressing, getting in and out of beds and chairs,
eating, and using the toilet or changing adult diapers. Nearly all help with
shopping, household tasks and meal preparation, the report says.
No
kidding--Des Moines leads U.S. in children's clothing sales
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published September 14, 2005
DES MOINES,
Families here spend an average of $298 a year dressing their children, edging
"We,
too, were somewhat surprised to see
The bigger spenders were mostly northern cities, where parents must clothe
their children for freezing winters and warm summers.
AND THAT WIPES OUT THE NEWS
{cue drop_2}
{cue song 1 and intro – Justin Hopkins, “Last In Line”}
{cue goofy speedway and explain}
I’ve spoken
before on the podcast about the great online game
from the folks at Disney, toontown! They just opened another addition to the toon-universe, called Goofy’s
speedway! It’s a collection of virtual
race tracks, where cartoon characters, or toons, can
compete for trophies, prizes, and you even drop anvils on your opponents!
Its brand
new, it makes you feel like you’re really a cartoon character,
and it’s a lotta fun.
So head on over to toontow.com, and get your 3-day free trial. Its fun, its designed
for kids, its SAFE, it’s a whole toon-iverse in one
place! Toontown
- Are you toon enough?
{cue drop_1}
{cue “evan – dad I’m gonna make up a song”}
{cue song 2 – Stone Melodies, “This I Know”}
{cue “evan rainbow song}
{cue baby wipes use #18 – splinter remover}
My son, who
is only five, and has only been in kindergarten 3 weeks, has already committed
a social sin egregious enough to get sent – do not pass go do not collect 200
dollars – to the school principal for a “discussion”.
It seems he
felt that he didn’t need to be in school, and the kid sitting behind him was
teasing him about his wardrobe choices (talk about peer pressure – its already
happening in kindergarten!) – and so, to defend his
honor, I suppose, he gathered up some spit and let the kid have it. The teacher caught all this action, and
decided that my son earned a ‘time-out’.
He complied, and sat quietly. He
knows the procedure from drills at home.
But once released from the penalty box, or wherever they put the kids
during time-out, he headed straight for the teacher and gave her a swift kick
in the ankle. That earned him a place in
infamy as the youngest kid to go see the principal at this esteemed learning
institution.
Some dads
might be proud of this achievement. I am
unamused.
I was
working my boring, tedious, thankless day-job, so I missed all the
excitement. But mommy instinctively knew
to pull a timeless classic out of the old mommy playbook, “wait till your
father gets home”. I had been briefed
via cellular phone – man, what did parents do before
cell phones – so I knew what the plan was.
My son, however, had other ideas.
He committed yet another sin against humanity and hit his mom across the
butt, telling her to go to her room!
OK,
{cue Evan – NEVER!}
he was
smart enough and didn’t need to go to school.
He said school was boring.
I really
figured I’d be having this discussion when my son was in HIGH SCHOOL, not
kindergarten! We need to get this under
control quick, I thought to myself, but how?
Then it
dawned on me…if he didn’t wanna go to school, let’s
show him what kind of work he’ll have to do without an education!
We had just
received our delivery of winter heat – about 2 cords of chopped firewood, still
laying in a pile where the dump truck had delivered it. But it wasn’t stacked yet! Here’s just the opportunity I need to teach
my boy about physical labor and the benefits of a good education.
I was
pretty hard on him, actually. He was
doing what a 5-year-old could, which wasn’t much. He can barely lift a log, let alone stack
one. But I made him think he had to
stack the whole pile by himself. We were
working about 2 hours – which was better stamina than I thought he had in him,
frankly – he stopped suddenly, took off his gloves and showed me his hands. He had some small bark splinters. Baby wipes to the rescue again! They work really well at getting oak bark
splinters out of a kid’s hands. And wood
stacking makes a great teaching aid when trying to emphasize what NOT to do in
class.
I figured
he learned his lesson and he left. I
spent the next 6 hours stacking the rest of the wood.
{cue drop_1}
{cue The Brothers – “
That’s it –
we’re all wiped out. Thanks to Garageband.com’s Justin Hopkins, Stone Melodies, and The
Brothers for the great music. Questions,
comments, suggestions! Please! Send ‘em in! submit at
101usesforbabywipes.com! See ya!