Wild violets

Well, our yard is green and there are loads of wild violets coming up.    I know that essentially they are weeds, but they look nice and are easy enough to pluck up later!
Soon the forget-me-nots will be in flower and I see lots of lily of the valley starting to peek through!

Voting Time !!

Hi everyone !

Don't forget to get out and vote tomorrow - May 2nd.   In Guelph, we have 8 possible choices including the Liberal, Conservatives, NDP, Green, Libertarian, Marijuana Party, Animal Alliance, and Communist Party.

Although this election started off as a bit of a snore-fest, it has livened up a bit in the last week.  With all the new - and sometimes strange moves in the final week, it should motivate people to get out there! 

Try this !

Copy the poem below into your word processor and see how many errors your spellchecker will find!

Owed to a Spell Checker

Eye halve a spelling checker

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marks four my revue

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word

And weight for it two say

Weather eye is wrong oar write

It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as mists ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite

It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye has run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

Its letter perfect awl the weigh

My checker tolled me sew.

Skype name

My Skype name is tutoringcentral

If you are new to Skype, you can simply go to the add contact area and type in my Skype name to add me.

The Brain !

Reading "A Father to His Freshman Son" by Edward S. Martin reminded me of some of my experiences with students.
I've quoted part of the article below:
                          Your mind, like your body, is a thing whereof the
                           powers are developed by effort. That is a principal
                          use, as I see it, of hard work in studies. Unless you
                          train your body you can't be an athlete, and unless
                          you train your mind you can't be much of a scholar.
                         The four miles an oarsman covers at top speed is in
                         itself nothing to the good, but the physical capacity to
                         hold out over the course is thought to be of some
                         worth. So a good part of what you learn by hard
                         study may not be permanently retained, and may not
                         seem to be of much final value, but your mind is a
                         better and more powerful instrument because you
                         have learned it.
                         Knowledge is power,' but still more the 
                         faculty of acquiring and using knowledge is power.
                         If you have a trained and powerful mind, you are
                         bound to have stored it with something, but its value
                         is more in what it can do, what it can grasp and use,
                         than in what it contains; and if it were possible, as it
                         is not, to come out of college with a trained and
                        disciplined
                         mind and nothing useful in it, you would still
                         be ahead, and still, in a manner, educated. Think of
                         your mind as a muscle to be developed; think of it as
                         a searchlight that is to reveal the truth to you, and
                         don't cheat it or neglect it.

The underlining is mine.
These are important points to all those students who cannot see the "value" in studying history, or geography, or the parts of a cell in science, or algebra, etc.
How often I have heard this refrain: "I'll never use this in my real life." 
Sometimes it is enunciated as a challenge: "When will I ever need to know this?"
           It is not so important that you become a massive "container" of information.  (Ever less important with today's technology.)  Rather the brain's stimulation strengthens it and your ability to work with material - sometimes new and challenging - sometimes review.
You become a better person. 
Of course, this is not only for young people.  New discoveries seem to indicate that exercising the brain helps stave off Alzheimer's. 
So keep learning and exercising your brain power!

Some limited classes are now offered using Skype™.
Ahhh, new technology! Sometimes it is a benefit, sometimes a curse. I am working to
making this technology work for us.
As with all L.T.L.'s programs, each program will be different and based on agreed terms of course.
Check website for further details.

Multiplication Tables

Many students have weak automatic multiplication skills.
Practising is the only way to improve.  The game below adjusts to your skill level as you proceed.
It takes a little while to get started, but then I've found students like playing the game.  (Don't worry - the ogres aren't too scary!!)
Best of all there is a FREE version - and it's the only one I've used so far.  It works well.
Give it a try!

www.BigBrainz.com