Life Delights

When shopping for educational software for your child, it is important to realize that not all educational computer games are created equal. For example, Donkey Kong Jr. Math is still known as one of worst selling games in the Nintendo Entertainment System empire. Built on the same concept as the popular game Donkey Kong, many children found it belittling and boring. This game forced players to answer math questions before they could proceed to the next level. The problem was, the educational component was so obvious and so intrusive to the game that most players simply put the game aside after a few attempts.

More recently, Jerusalem, part of the Adrian Blake Trilogy, has come under fire from players and reviewers alike for being one of the more didactic and uninteresting educational games on the market. This game attempts to teach players about Christianity, Islam, and history by talking players on a role-playing game. The problem is that the acting, scenes, and plot lines tend to be stilted in order to fit in the educational content. Many players simply find the game uninteresting.

Parents can learn valuable lessons from these manufacturer letdowns. When shopping for educational computer games, it is important to always try out games and to select games that are fun to play as well as instructional. Better yet, parents should have their children try out games in order to ensure that the games are fun for children to play. Parents will want to stay away from games that interrupt play in order to ask questions. This is often too much like a “test” in school and makes players give up games quickly.

Buying Educational Games

Once you have decided to buy some educational computer games, shopping will not be difficult. Most computer stores and major toy stores now carry large selections of educational titles. Many online retailers now carry educational games as well. Ebay, for example, always has a good selection of unopened and unused educational computer software at great prices. Parents can order any title they wish online and have the games shipped directly to their door.

When buying computer games, it is often best to buy new games and unopened games. While used educational games are cheaper, they are also riskier. Used games often carry no support and no technical help. If you have trouble installing the game, you may simply be out of luck. Many used titles may also be damaged or older versions that will not work well on a newer computer. Worse, used versions of educational games may be illegal, pirated copies which could expose you to legal risk. Illegal versions of games may even carry viruses or bugs that can affect your computer. The small savings are not worth it. For inexpensive games, try online educational games or wait for sales on popular titles at your favorite store.

In general, when shopping for educational titles, you will want to try games before you buy. Ideally, you will want to ask your children’s opinions about which games to choose. That way, your children will be able to select games that they will actually enjoy playing. You will also want to select games that will build a variety of skills. You may want to buy several titles that build several skill sets and give your children some variety as well.

Dr Simon Ronald is the CEO of RocketReader(http://www.rocketreader.com), the company that makes reading improvement software for all ages. For more information about effective reading strategies, visit http://www.speedreading.com Also check out http://www.freeonlinebooks.org for a free online books collection that makes reading practice fun!

Yield: 4 servings

1 1/2 c Frzn hashbrown potatoes

-savory leaves -partially thawed or 1 1/2 1 ct 8 oz (1 c) frozen fat free -c grated potatoes -egg product thawed (or 1 c Finely diced cooked turkey 2 eggs 1/2 c Sliced green onion 2 tb Coarsely chopped ripe olives 4 ts Lour 1 ts Dijon mustard 1 tb Parsley flakes 4 ts Olive oil 1/2 ts Dried chervil or summer 1. In a medium bowl combine all ingredients except olive oil; mix well. 2. In a large nonstick skillet heat 1 tsp of the oil over medium- high heat until hot. Spoon 1/4 of the potato mixture into the skillet; spread slightly. Cook 4-5 min without stirring until bottom is brown. Flip pancake and cook other side for 3-4 minutes or until brown and thoroughly cooked. 3. Slide pancake onto serving platter and keep warm. Repeat with remaining oil and mixture. Garnish with additional parsley and green onion if desired. Per serving: 1 starch 1 lean meat. Calories per serving: 210
Source: Pillsbury Fast and Healthy Magazine Nov/Dec 1993 Typed for you by: Linda Fields Cyberealm BBS Watertown NY 315-786-1120

About the Author

For more information on cooking guidelines & recipes visit http://www.RecipeStation.com - Search for Quick Recipes

Tired of the same old zucchini bread recipe and want to try
something new? Here is a standard zucchini bread recipe in
addition to three variations your family is sure to love.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups peeled and grated zucchini
3 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup nuts
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Stir together eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini. Sift together flour,
soda, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Add to zucchini mixture.
Stir in vanilla and nuts. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. May
need 15 minutes more. Cool completely before freezing. Makes 2
loaves.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

2 cups grated zucchini
3 eggs
1 cup applesauce
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/4 cups flour
6 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup cocoa

Grease and flour two loaf pans. Stir together zucchini, eggs,
applesauce, sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the rest of the
ingredients. Divide batter between the loaf pans. Bake at 350
degrees for 45 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and
bake an additional 15 minutes. Makes 2 loaves.

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 cups zucchini, grated
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)
1 8-ounce can pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat eggs until
frothy. Stir in oil, sugar, vanilla, and zucchini. Add baking
soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. Add nuts and pineapple.
Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour.

Zucchini Cheddar Bread

1 c. chopped onions
1/4 c. butter
2 1/2 c. Bisquick
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. basil
3 eggs
1/4 c. milk
1 c. grated cheese
1 1/2 c. to 2 c. shredded zucchini

Saute onions in butter. Cool a little and then add remaining
ingredients. Pour into an 8×8-in. baking pan and bake at 400
degrees for 40 minutes.

About the Author

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. Download her
free booklet of zucchini recipes from
http://www.creativehomemaking.com/download.shtml. For
recipes, tips to organize your home, home decorating, crafts,
holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at
http://www.creativehomemaking.com.

A delicious chicken meal for you to prepare at home. The lemon sauce is fresh and tangy and somehow I always end up eating too much :-).

It takes a bit to prepare but is worth the effort. And ending the meal with a fortune cookie is great fun - especially if you write your own fortune and make your own cookies (see below).

Fortunate Lemon Chicken
Chicken
4 whole boneless chicken breasts, skin off
cup cornstarch (corn flour)
3 tbls water
4 egg yolks - beaten
salt, pepper
shallots - chopped

Lemon Sauce
cup lemon juice
2 tsp powdered chicken stock
2 tbls cornstarch (corn flour)
2 tbls honey
2 tbls brown sugar
1 tsp grated ginger
1 cups water

For the sauce combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until it boils and then thickens.

Cut chicken breast fillets into 3-4 pieces, lay flat and pound slightly.

Place cornflour in a bowl and slowly add the water and egg yolks. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Dip chicken pieces into this batter, drain well.

Place a couple pieces of the battered chicken at a time into deep hot oil and fry until lightly browned.

Drain on absorbent paper.

Slice chicken further if required.

Arrange on plates, sprinkle with shallots and spoon over hot lemon sauce.

Enjoy!

Then end the meal with these home-made Chinese Fortune Cookies.

About the Author

Author of the original chinese-fortune-cookie.com site. Free recipes, articles, fortunes and more…

I just happened to stumble on a pretty interesting tool today.

I was trying to find a word for “People that are behind the times” for my previous blog post. I did a couple of searches in Google without avail and eventually started scouring for a tool that did a reverse lookup on a word. A tool where I would give the definition, and it would give me some words that matched that definition. What I discovered was Onelook.com’s Reverse Dictionary.

Reverse Dictionaries allow you to “Describe a concept” in order to find words that match that description.

Cool Stuff, especially for all of us non-harvard graduates.

What I find the most interesting though is all of the uses for this tool. It is actually a very smart search engine. You would be suprized the sort of answers you could get from asking a variety of questions. Here are some of potential applications that OneLook describes:

- Find a word, when you know its definition, [or a portion of the definition].
- Explore related concepts. Baseball, clouds, cities.
- Generate a list of words in some category. I.E. Large Birds, Green fruit, Canadian authors.
- Answer basic indentification questions. What is the capital of Vietnam, Who is big birds friend on Sesame Street. What is the longest River in the world

In actuality Onelook is indexing much more then just dictionaries to find these answers. They index encyclopedia’s and other reference sites as well.

I dont know about you guys, but if I had a very large amount of money, I might consider trying to buy their technology. There are a lot of times I wish the major search engines could do some of the stuff that they are. Ask.com (askjeeves) does some of this, but you cant get lists from Ask, its usually websites that come up that require you to sift through several pages to find your answers.

For all of you content mongers out there, this sort of technology could feed some very interesting sites.

I would love to see some sort of API.

http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

Jarrod Hunt is the CEO of www.textlinkbrokers.com. Please do place an active link when publishing this article.

There are quite a few lovely islands dotted around the South Carolina coastline. You can even find a number of islands with nice housing developments a short distance from Charleston. One of these is Johns Island, where you can enjoy a lifestyle that seamlessly blends the rural and the suburban. Anyone who is interested in real estate in the area should take a close look at Johns Island, S.C.
On Johns Island you can see that traditional South Carolina values have been carefully preserved. Some aspects of the local lifestyle reflect these old-world practices to this day. Neighbors are not strangers; they are good friends. People host backyard barbecues for all their friends and family in the summer. This helps explain why real estate on Johns Island, S.C. is so uniquely attractive.
On Johns Island you get the best of both worlds: a rural ambience with 21st century facilities. Charming old farms sit right next to modern housing developments. Many residents like to visit the roadside farmers markets every weekend. There you can buy fruits and vegetables that really taste like they have just been picked.
You will not be surprised to learn that boating is a favorite pastime here. The Intracoastal Waterway runs past some of the best real estate on Johns Island. This legendary inland waterway allows boats to sail all the way from Florida up to New England without fear of damage from the elements. Many people enjoy sitting by the Stony River and observing the boats that go by.
Real estate on Johns Island, S.C. is in high demand thanks to the short commute to Charleston, and many people who work in the city choose to live on the island.

Buffalo International Airport, or also known as BUF, is among the busiest airports in the country, and as a matter of fact, almost every traveler in the eastern coast flying from New York would have departed from here at least for once. For that reason alone, the BUF airport parking is always full, and practically impossible to move around during peak hours. The reason being its accessibility not only to the patrons of the airport but also the general public at large; and the BUF airport parking is also quite famous for its security compared to many other common parking lots around the state. There are plenty of discount coupons available for cheaper parking rates, although generally in the standards of New York, the price isn’t that expensive after all. You can also easily reserve for a good spot online via various parking reservations websites, although some of them do not necessarily guarantee the best spot of your choice.

As for flying from the airport, it’s probably just like elsewhere; you can get flights to any city in the US and to many other cities worldwide. It’s an international airport with tens of budget-oriented airlines operating and offering unbeatable cheap airline tickets and travel packages right from their sales counters. Alternatively, you can also try out on the net where you can find hundreds of other comparative advertising to convince you of which cheap airline ticket being the best. You may also try out at travel fairs around the country; but that doesn’t beat the convenience of having to reserve your tickets and hotel rooms within just a few clicks of the mouse via the internet. Cheap airline tickets are unsurprisingly always in demand, especially if you’re flying from a popular airport such as BUF; and for that reason alone, internet booking can always be the perfect solution.

The Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) can be gained and acquired by successfully completing RG146 training courses that will allow you to become a qualified financial planner in the end. A financial planner is someone who guides and directs a client by giving advices and recommendations on matters about finance.
RG146 training courses concentrate in offering skill-based courses which are facilitated by current experienced financial planners in classes consisting of at least 10 students. This course however, provides more than just RG146 compliance training. It is also intended to employ and challenge students so that when the course will be completed, they have the skills to apply the knowledge gained during the course.
Upon successful completion of the 8 day precise training program, you will be able to acquire the Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) which grants you RG146 competency. This makes you have the right to provide personal advice in the area of finance.
RG146 is also required by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission so that you will be recognized as an eligible and competent financial planner. When you have the diploma of financial services, you can be regarded as knowledgeable in the field of industry you have chosen.

You will find that this recipe is very easy to make. And you can prep all of your ingredients in advance. Perfect for the busy mom on the go. Once you have all your troops ready for dinner, you can toss it all together in a matter of minutes.

This is a recipe that is a huge hit with my entire family. Even my picky toddlers!

Fire Cracker Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe

• 1 pound uncooked wheat pasta (be sure to use a fun shape)
• 1 large zucchini - sliced
• 1/2 cup red onion - sliced
• 3 T fresh garlic - chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 Italian sausage links - sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 1/4 cup green onions
• Salt and Pepper

Preparation…

Pasta:
Cook pasta according to package. Drain. Set aside.

Italian Sausage:
Cook Italian Sausage until done. Set aside until it is cool enough to touch. Slice into bite size pieces.

Herbs & Vegetables:
• Zucchini - wash, slice into bite size pieces
• Red Onion - peal, slice
• Fresh Garlic - peal, chop
• Frozen Peas - soak in warm water until no longer frozen, drain, set aside
• Fresh Basil - wash, chiffonade (see tip below)
• Green Onions - wash, slice into small pieces

Instructions…
1. Heat a pan large enough for all of the above ingredients. I tend to use the stock pot I boiled my pasta in.
2. Throw in 2 T. olive oil, zucchini, red onions, garlic, and Italian sausage. Sauté until zucchini is tender.
3. Once tender, toss in all of your herbs and vegetables, and the remaining olive oil.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
6. Enjoy!

Tips from Chef Bek…
• White pasta can be substituted for wheat.
• Dried basil can be substituted for fresh. (when using fresh herbs in a recipe, use 3 times as much as you would use of a dried herb)
• Chicken broth can be substituted for the oil which goes into the pasta once tossed.
• Cooking spray can be substituted for the oil you sauté your vegetables with.
• Turkey sausage is a great substitute for pork Italian sausage.
• Basil Tip: Chiffonade - To slice an herb or leafy vegetable into thin strands. Best way to accomplish is by stacking herb directly on top of each other, then rolling the leaves and slicing.

About the Author: Bek Davis is a trained chef and a work at home mom. You can find more recipes, cooking tips, and mom resources on her highly recommended website: http://modernmom.info.

Source: www.isnare.com

Having the right fishing supplies is an exceptionally crucial thing to remember when your are contemplating your next fishing journey. You must permit yourself the best tools to get into the “mood” & get the best benefits of fishing. Purchasing the finest fishing supplies will help you in several ways. As you know, the more items you acquire the more pleasurable the fishing will be. One of the important things you ought to ask yourself is, do you own all that you need before you head out on your journey? To be victorious you would be wise to ensure that your fishing outing starts with acquiring the right fishing items. There are lots of different types of fishing gear and it normally depends on sort of location you will be fishing in, what sort of fish you are searching for and the breed of fishing that you desire.

There are various types and styles of fishing reels that have a range of costs. If you are wanting to enter into commercial fishing you would be recommended to make sure that your fishing supplies is meant for that type of use. Professional fishing requires a great deal more stronger fishing tools. Since commercial fishing supplies has twice to 3 times the use they fatigue much faster. This makes it much more wise to pay the extra cash up front. There are an assortment of manufactured goods so that you can make a choice based on wishes in addition to what you can actually get. Find great offers on surfing boards online today.

The particular sort of fishing rod is also another fundamental part of the tackle that you will want. You may perhaps want to consider what sort of rod that you will need for your fishing expedition. Just as there are different reels there is a mixture of fishing rods also. It is suggested to base your judgement on the type of fish that you are aiming to get.