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.

Coffee, music, YouTube channels, and procrastination— only a handful of things can make your day when it comes to increasing productivity but none of them are as complete as having a home office setup. It makes a world of difference where and how you work especially if you work from home. Hence, some home office […]

The post 12 Home Office Setup Ideas for Web Designers and Developers 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.

With the lockdown across nations, you are probably spending more time reading. Whether it’s for pleasure or for work, we’re here to help you fill your time with some reading material. These web design articles are not only about best practices, deals, and trends in the niche but also include feel-good stories that we all […]

The post Roundup: Web Design Articles May 8, 2020 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.

Humor is very subjective and I know that I’m a tough critic. Recently, however, I shared a book with my 5-year old niece and I could barely contain my own giggles.  But it was her “ooohs” and laughter that made me giggle even more. But no one enjoyed the book more than my sister who now wants her own copy. I decided I had to find out more about who created Llama Destroys the World (Holt), a husband–wife creative team.

I experienced two very different things this week: I revisited some speeches by the incomparable Toni Morrison after I learned of her death. And I watched a recent video about education. I hope not only the timeliness but also how these two intersect will become clear as you read on. A recent video that is posted on Colorín Colorado focuses on English language learners (ELLs) in Dearborn, Michigan. It is entitled You Are Welcome Here.

A recent article from Edutopia suggested that we’re rushing young children through childhood.

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.

Kevin McCloskey delivers fascinating information in digestible, user-friendly formats, which appeal to not only young readers but experienced ones as well.

We hear a lot about diversity and inclusion these days, often as it relates to books for young readers. Just as publishing for children and teens has evolved over the years, so has adults’ perception of youth and what is appropriate for them.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a feeling I’m not alone. My cabin fever is getting worse the longer I’m staying home. The only thing keeping me sane is a pile of books that stimulate lots of ideas and inspire various activities. I’ve just gone through some recent books for kids and thought I’d share a few thoughts about how books can encourage creativity and help build a sense of community, right there at home.  

The Washington Post’s rules for comments, reader discussions and communities.

O’Reilly has long been a leader in fostering community and building a direct sales channel. This week we took the next step in enhancing the customer’s direct buying experience by offering German editions for many of our ebook titles. Take …

I know from talking to many of my clients that most have read Jim Collins’ book ‘Good to Great’. I have also been inspired by his research into what makes great companies great. Many of you will recall an article …

Digital vs paper: ink on paper may still have the advantage In a recent edition of Scientific American, Ferris Jabr took a look at how technology is affecting the way we read and the differences between reading on screens and …

My favorite number at the first TOC buchreport in Berlin on April 23rd was 20, as in 20% of the 2.4 million ebook buyers in Germany in 2012 had not bought any books in the previous twelve months, according to …

I’m drawn to LinkedIn now more than ever before. The rate of connection requests I’ve been receiving there has also been accelerating over the past few months. Maybe it’s due to all the uncertainty of the publishing industry but I …

Back in college, I took a class on statistics and never forgot the first lesson my professor taught us, which was, “Anyone can manipulate numbers to make them mean whatever they want.” I see this point magnified today by the …

As an industry I think we’re getting weary of all the various “rich content” experiments and products floating around these days. I have to admit that most make me want to yawn and move on to the next item in …

Perhaps you’ve also wondered why the publishing industry produces and distributes all the major climate science information available but doesn’t read it. If it did, publishing could become the standard bearer for global reduction of carbon footprints. This business challenge …

O’Reilly has been publishing books since 1986, but I’ve often said that we consider ourselves more of a technology transfer company than a typical publisher. Twenty years after our first book, Unix in a Nutshell, we realized that the insights …

Apple has released the third beta versions of iOS 13.5, iPadOS 13.5, and MacOS Catalina 10.15.5. Separately, watchOS 6.2.5 beta 3 and tvOS 13.4.5 beta 3 are also available for testing. The third beta versions of iOS 13.5 and iPadOS 13.5 are actually reversioned from iOS 13.4.5 and iPadOS 13.4.5, so if you were testing ... Read More

Want to use iCloud Photos on Mac? In its simplest form iCloud Photos is a sync service that makes sure your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Mac all have every photo you’ve taken, all ready at a moment’s notice. That means you can access the photos from any other device with the feature ... Read More

How would you like to switch AirPods between iPhone, iPad, and Mac? Or what if you’d like to switch AirPods from iPhone to Apple Watch or even Apple TV? If you have a pair of AirPods and multiple Apple devices, you can easily switch AirPods and AirPods Pro between any of your other Apple products, ... Read More

Need to use WhatsApp from the web? Using WhatsApp Web offers a way to use WhatsApp chat on any device at all with a web browser, regardless of what it is or where it is . WhatsApp is perhaps one of the most popular instant messaging platforms globally, and although it’s a messaging app designed ... Read More

Need to open a Numbers file but you’re on a Windows PC? No problem, you can use iCloud to access, edit, and open Numbers files, even if you don’t have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with an official Numbers app handy. Today, we live in an era where people own multiple devices that are powered ... Read More

You can easily connect external storage drives to iPad and iPhone, providing easy access to all the files and data on those drives via the Files app. This includes connecting flash drives, USB hard drives, SD cards, and just about any other storage medium to iPhone, iPad Pro, and iPad you can think of, as ... Read More

Cisco Webex Meetings is a business-oriented video conferencing solution that currently offers a free way to set up and organize video calls for remote meetings, work or online classes during this social distancing period. Webex makes video conferencing quite easy, so whether you’re telecommuting, working with people remotely, or stuck at home in quarantine, if ... Read More

If you use Cisco’s Webex Meetings to make or join video conference calls for remote meetings, online classrooms, or social events during this self-isolation period or otherwise, you’ll be interested in the Virtual Backgrounds feature that this service has to offer. Webex’s Virtual Backgrounds feature allows users to mask their actual backgrounds using an image ... Read More

Zoom is a popular video conferencing solution that allows people to participate in remote meetings, online classes, or even just social events. One of the fun ways it stands out from the rest of the video chat competition is by letting users change their backgrounds while they’re in a video call. The virtual background feature ... Read More

Do you own both a Windows PC and macOS device like the MacBook Pro or iMac? If so, you might run into file compatibility issues while you switch between your computers or software. More specifically, if you utilize software like Pages which is a part of the iWork productivity suite, you might not be able ... Read More

Apple has released the fourth beta versions of iOS 13.5 and ipadOS 13.5. Additionally, Apple also released the fourth beta builds for watchOS 6.2.5 and tvOS 13.4.5. As of writing, macOS Catalina 10.5.5 beta 4 is not yet available for testing, but presumably will arrive soon as well. iOS 13.5 beta 4 and ipadOS 13.5 ... Read More

Do you work with presentations on different platforms like Windows PC, Mac, iPad, or iPhone? If so, you might run into file compatibility issues while you switch between different computers and software, and this scenario is quite common with many work environments, schools, education settings, and even just when emailing back and forth between people ... Read More

Did you know that you can make video calls with Facebook Messenger? The next time you want to reach out to friends, family members, or colleagues, you might consider using Facebook Messenger to initiate a video chat, and it works for easy video calls on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows PC too. There’s no doubt ... Read More

MacOS Catalina introduced a handy way to tile windows for multitasking, improving upon the split screen multitasking features that were available in previous MacOS releases. These new simple tiling window multitasking options are available from any window, and now you can easily choose to tile a window to the left or right side of the ... Read More

Portrait Lighting is a powerful photography tool available on newer iPhone models cameras. Apple aimed to bring studio-quality effects to the camera app by analyzing light on a subject in real-time while in portrait mode, and the result is the portrait lighting mode feature. There are five different studio-like effects to choose from, in the ... Read More

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