They have big dreams, but the plans aren’t backed up.

This is a whole different category of alleged impropriety.

Any economic improvements aren’t helped by his actions.

It’s been frustrating to watch more moderate positions be characterized as solely driven by political calculations.

There might not be room for creativity when everything “new” is crowdsourced.

When growth slows, Trump doubles down on old tax cut ideas.

Punitive Medicaid work requirements are being rolled back.

The administration has cracked down on all migrants, even those with the most to contribute.

Kicking people off food stamps this late in the business cycle makes no sense.

Public officials today could take a lesson from the former Federal Reserve chair.

Maybe it’s irony. Or maybe it’s her latest attempt to pinkwash her father’s anti-family agenda.

Studies prove that resettlement benefits communities as a whole. So why are some governors still balking?

Every single one of them is supposed to be exercising oversight of the executive branch.

New cuts are actually expansions, according to Mike Pence.

A new policy is keeping hundreds of families from obtaining visas

It’s another way in which the president’s supposedly narrowly focused tariffs have trickled down.

Now immigrants can be denied green cards partly because they’re applying for green cards.

How the president has proved himself a more successful socialist than Sanders is likely to ever be.

Republican incompetence and heartlessness are again coming to Democrats’ rescue.

The Trump administration continues its war on consumers

And now, we’re woefully unprepared.

A framework for how Congress should be thinking about the immediate economic challenges ahead — and the tools available to address them.

Save that funding for smaller businesses, and let carriers declare bankruptcy as they have in the past.

Money needs to get spent fast. Money needs to get spent well. To some extent, those objectives are in tension.

Economists are in agreement that returning to business as usual too soon could have devastating effects for GDP as well as human lives.

As demand at food banks has surged, donations from local grocers and supermarkets have plummeted.

And how Congress can rein him in.

Archaic computer technology is hampering the effort to combat the effects of covid-19 in the United States.

Young medical students and health-care workers simply want to keep contributing in the only home they know.

Reopening the country may be bad from a public health standpoint, but the president is pushing for it anyway.

The administration’s crackdown on immigration makes it harder to staff a health-care system facing chronic worker shortages.

Tax cuts are the GOP’s all-purpose remedy. Even for the coronavirus.

Trump's own industry — leisure and hospitality — saw all its job gains since 1988 wiped out.

Spring is here, and many of us are practicing social distancing by staying home. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a garden that allows you to keep a safe distance from others, now is the time to […]

There are several things which go into successful video marketing on YouTube. One of these things is the very often neglected YouTube SEO that’s so vital for getting viewers to actually find your video. Too many YouTube marketers are concerned with what’s going on in their videos to really push for better SEO, and it […]

The post How Web Media Developer can use YouTube SEO with Better Search Marketing to Rank Their Videos appeared first on SpyreStudios.

It’s rather unfortunate that the best some of us can do in a time of a global pandemic is to stay at home in order to help. Quarantines for that matter, are tough challenges for the regular person. However, they don’t have to feel like an unproductive slog, why not treat yourself to some self-improvement […]

The post 12 Free Web Development Courses to Take While in Self-Isolation appeared first on SpyreStudios.

Staying fit these days is now more important than ever with the global pandemic having no cure or vaccine yet other than a healthy body. It just so happens that being active is also more difficult because gyms are closed in affected areas. Home workouts like yoga, in that regard, are golden and yoga website […]

The post 12 Yoga Website Designs for Inspiration appeared first on SpyreStudios.

ECommerce is undeniably a buzzword. Many people have been discussing this term for a long time since the Internet was opened to commercial use. Through its history, with many advantages over brick and mortar stores as well as mail-order catalogs, eCommerce has become one of the fastest-growing industries.  Did you know that 25% of the […]

The post What Will An Ecommerce Website Need To Stand Out In 2020? appeared first on SpyreStudios.

The option of cryptocurrencies or electronic currencies for websites is increasingly stronger as a mechanism for the purchase of products and services, not only on the Internet but also in some businesses that have begun to accept this means of payment. If you’re working on a crypto-related project or a client who accepts cryptocurrency payments, […]

The post Tools You Should Know To Protect Bitcoin Transactions appeared first on SpyreStudios.

One of the biggest mistakes a business owner can make today is ignoring social media marketing or treating it as an afterthought. This is even more so in an increasingly competitive space like the web design niche where small businesses have to strive to leave the shadows of more established brands with years of history […]

The post How to Use Instagram To Grow Your Web Design Business appeared first on SpyreStudios.

Blast from the Past: This blog entry was first issued on June 30, 2014 and was reissued on March 28, 2020. As I re-introduce this piece, we are sheltering in place as is so much of the world. That means schools are closed in many places and teachers and parents are concerned about what is being lost from children's education. As with many of you, I've been trying to help protect children's learning during these fraught times. Which brings us to today's blog entry, this one about how I taught my own children to read at home.

Last week, I began a multi-part series on how I taught my daughters to read. My oldest daughter wryly replied to that entry, suggesting I could have saved a lot of pixels if I had just said that I hired a tutor…. And her son who just had his third birthday (and who did not read that entry) informed me that his goal for being three years old was to read words.

So far, I have explained the literacy environment, print awareness, and sight word teaching that were part of teaching my daughters to read, but phonics also played an important role.

Previously, I described how I taught my daughters about print, sight vocabulary, phonological awareness,

Have you ever thought that your home might provide areas of learning experiences for your child? As a teacher of young children, I would ask parents to look at their homes as a unique way of engaging children with their immediate and daily environment. Doing so not only prepares the children for school academic learning, but also for physical, social and emotional growth.

Establishing daily and weekly routines provides a structure for learning at home. Parents and children know how the day will unfold; routines create predictability and also anticipation for the fun and comforting things that will happen throughout the day. It can be helpful to identify a learning theme to explore together over the course of two weeks. You'll find a sample daily schedule below, with ideas for how to bring in the theme into every part of the day, from breakfast to read alouds to art and science activities. 

This month’s school closures have forced families to become teachers at home overnight. 

Teaching students to read is the first job of our schools. How can we help all students become strong, confident readers? Literacy for All: Equitable Practices for Reading and Dyslexia was held on February 20, 2020 in Annapolis, Maryland. The event was hosted by National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL), Decoding Dyslexia Maryland (DD-MD), and community partners. Reading experts from NCIL shared best practices in early screening and interventions supported by decades of reading research.

Yesterday, I helped a parent find books for her five-year old whose dog had just died. I suggested Judith Viorst’s The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (Atheneum) in which a child remembers the best things about his much missed and greatly loved cat.

Illustrator, writer, and filmmaker Mordicai Gerstein died earlier this month. He leaves behind an amazing body of work which is sure to be read and appreciated; several have already been anointed as modern classics.