Elizabeth Barret not only knows her ABC very well, she knows it in English and Spanish. That wouldn’t be a great deal if Elizabeth wouldn’t be 17 months old.

The blond little girl knows how to read in both languages, and what is even more amazing is that she learned to read on her own.

When she was born, her parents started teaching her sign language along with spoken language. They read to her often and she was constantly watching a PBS show called “Signing Times” which teaches kids sign language.

Little by little Elizabeth began picking out words and readingthem without the direct intervention of her parents

Her parents had gone public with Elizabeth’s story in hopes of meeting other people with similar precocious children. So far they had already been contacted by several parents whose children possess similar abilities as Elizabeth’s.

Here is a video of little Elizabeth reading in both Spanish and English

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I think most of us can remember at least an episode when our parents used corporal punishment as discipline. I remember my mother chasing me around the house with a belt in her hand threatening me use it if she would catch me. In my case, it never went beyond a couple of swats on my legs that left me with some minor bruises. I never resented my mother for hitting me, especially since she only did it in extreme cases where my bad behavior went beyond of what I would probably accept from my own kids now.

The reason I bring this up, is because there is a case in a Columbia County courtroom where a father is being tried for felony physical abuse of a child because he used a paddle to strike his 12 years old son as punishment for lying.

The father, 43 years old Barry W. Barnett Jr remains free on a $100,000 signature bond while the trial takes place.

What is interesting is that the 12 years old son is testifying in favor on his father. He said that he understood why his father did it and he knows that lying to his father was bad and he shouldn’t have done it.

 The report for child abuse was filed after a teacher of one of the boy’s siblings brought the case to the attention of social services. The report from the investigation stated that

  
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I just read a very funny article on Alpha vs Beta (slacker) moms from Laurie Yarnell, a regular writer on the online magazine iVillage.

Laurie identifies two types of mothers: those who are obsessed about doing everything perfect and those who are happy with just being a regular mom.

According to Laurie, Alpha moms  “hand out home-grown organic carrots (“nature’s own candy”) for Halloween, shelve their toddler’s picture books according to the Dewy Decimal System, and color-code their carpool schedules, in triplicate. They are also overly involved in every last bit of minutia in their kids’ lives, right down to personalizing each goody bag with glued on rhinestones”

On the opposite corner, “Beta or slackers mom, are content to squeak by with a passing grade in Motherhood 101. They leave an open box of Lucky Charms on their doorsteps for Trick or Treaters, conveniently place their kids’ library on the bathroom floor, and use the back of the carpool schedule to write a note to the teacher about why Fruit By The Foot should be considered a school-friendly healthy snack.”

“Alphas get the job done AND everything matches. Slackers get the job done, too—the results just may not be pretty”

Now… what type of mother are you: Alpha or Beta?

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A new report just published by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows that the use of a simple fan can reduce up to 72% the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

The study conducted by  Kimberly Coleman-Phox, MPH; Roxana Odouli, MSPH; and De-Kun Li, MD, PhD in California revealed that the reduction in SIDS risk seemed more pronounced in adverse sleep environments. For example, fan use in warmer room temperatures reduce the risk of SIDS

And if the baby is placed in the prone or side sleep position, and the fan is also running, the reduction in SIDS is even higher.

According to the study, the use of fan in the room where the baby is sleeping contributed to reducing SIDS even in the cases where baby was not using pacifiers (it made not difference in babies using the pacifier)

So the perfect combination to reduce the risk of SIDS is baby using pacifier, sleeping on the prone position and using a fan to vent the room.

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