I was reading another parenting article and it was about how to prevent yourself from spoiling your kids. At first when i thought about this topic i was thinking that it really wouldnt be that hard to spoil your kids, when i thought of "spoiling" what first came to my mind was just dont buy your kids what they want when they want it or giving them money whenever they need it but as i started to read the article on spoiling your kids it got interesting and i leared a lot. Teach your children the difference between wants and needs, for example every child needs a pair of shoes. There is no reason to get a new pair of shoes every time you go shopping.

Teach your child to save and budget.

Donate items that are not needed or played with.

I didnt realize that simple things like donating toys that children dont need could be a part f spoiling your child.

I was reading a article on preventing childhood obesity, i learned a lot from the article. Child obesity rates are rising. According to the American Obesity Association, obesity among children ad teens is reaching epidemic levels. Around 30% of children and teens are overweight and about 15% are obese in America. I think this is a issue that needs to be changed, Personally i think parents need to set a good example for their kids and they should eat healthy, and right from when their children can start eating real foods they should be eating food that are good for them and they should eat foods that are low in fat. Also i think that exercise is a big issue also, children and teens should be involved in activities and should be exercising daily, like taking the dog on a walk to playing sports. By doing those things i think children and evan adults would be a lot healthier and in better shape. 

I was reading about cancer research, i'm reading about this topic because its very important to me, both my grandpa and grandma passed away from cancer, and my mom has skin cancer, and we have family friends who have cancer and who have passed away from cancer. I think that cancer is a very sensitive topic, well it is to me. What i read about cancer research today was interesting, i read that they are finding everyday changes to prevent breast cancer, it said thatAlong with age and family history, diet and physical activity are important risk factors for breast cancer. And cancer experts say it’s important to focus on the factors you can control. 

“We know that for breast cancer that develops after menopause -- which is by far the most common type -- maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding weight gain, being physically active every day, and limiting or avoiding alcohol, all seem to lower risk substantially,” explains AICR Nutrition Advisor Karen Collins, MS, RD.   

I read the fishing report for Leech lake with my little brother because he likes to fish a lot. For ice fishing this winter has been very good on Leech lake. When the lake isnt frozen its a great lake for muskie fishing, there are a lot of people who go up to Leech lake to go muskie fishing. 

I read something about fun facts about gymnastics and some of the questions were:

Where did this sport begin?


What's the estimated number of participants of this sport in the USA?


How old is this sport?

• Gymnastics, as an activity sport, has been around for over 2000 years but as a competitive sport it is a little more than 100 years old.
  
  
• In the 1830s, the sport of gymnastics was introduced to United States and its school systems by such immigrants as Charles Beck, Charles Follen and Francis Lieber.
  
  
• The first large-scale competition was the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece. There, Germany have been the dominant team by almost sweeping every medal. Five countries have participated in this event. Men's competitions included horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse, rings, and vault.

I was reading a article about USA junior diving and the program is for divers who are 18 and younger, and you can start from learn to dive to the gold team which is the team that travels and competes in different states and sometimes even different countries. In the spring there are 10 region championships, from there divers will qualify for other big diving meets, like the speedo invitational. 

I was reading about cancer and i found out that about 1.4 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2005, and more than 550,000 people will die of the disease. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in this country. However, improvements in cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment have increased the survival rate for many types of cancer. About 64 percent of all people diagnosed with cancer will be alive 5 years after diagnosis.

I also learned that cancer is a disease that begins in the bodies cells and that you can get cancer in almost every body part of your body, i thought that that was really interesting. 

I was reading a article from the Star Tribune and it was about how in small towns they dont have very many doctors or even  none. In Waseca in the emergency room there are no physicians for the ER in this small town, so they have hired "midlevels" which are nurse practitioners and physician assistants. They do all sorts of things like cut fingers to heart attacks. I thought this article was really interesting because i didn't know that people a step lower than nurses did all the same work that doctors can do. 

I was reading about strange facts about animals and here are some facts that i came across. crocodiles are not able to stick out their tongues. Hedgehog's heartbeats beat over 300 times per min. A snail can sleep for 3 years. cats pee glows under a black light. camels have three eyelids to protect their eyes from blowing sand. The longest flight record for a chicken is 13 seconds. elephants are the only animal that can't jump. Porcupines float in water. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. Slugs have four noses. Robins eat 3 miles a earthworms a year. Worms have ten hearts. Goldfish have a memory span of three seconds. Snakes can see through their eyelids. Kangaroos cannot walk backwards. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. A woodpecker can peck a piece of wood 20 times per second. Tigers have striped skin, not striped fur. The praying mantis is the only animal that can turn its head 360 degrees. Hamsters blink with one eye at a time. A full grown bear can run as fast as a horse. 

I was reading facts on sharks and i came across a lot of cool facts bout sharks. Sharks have the most powerful jaw out of all the animals in the world! Sharks bit with their lower law first then bit with their upper jaw. Then the shark tosses its head back and forth untill a piece of meat come loose the it swallows the piece of meat whole. In a sharks lifetime they will grow and use 20,000 plus teeth. Sharks have been around for over 400 million years, they have been around evan longer than dinosaurs. 

I was reading about frogs and i came across a few interesting facts about them. I learned that frogs are carnivores, which means they eat meat. Small to medium size frogs usually eat insects like flies, mosquitos, moths and dragonflies. Large frogs eat worms, and grasshoppers. Some large frogs will eat small snakes, mice, small turtles, and evan smaller frogs.

I also learned that frogs and toads are totally different from each other. Frogs need to live near to water, have eyes that bulge out more, smooth skin, have longer hind legs, take long jumps, and have many predators. Toads don't need to live by water, bumpy skin, football shaped eyes, and will run/walk or take small jumps because they don't like jumping.