Somebody has to do it. Somebody has to call shenanigans on this ridiculous commercial from AT&T indicating that the Internet is producing a generation of superspelling kids who are incapable of getting eliminated from a spelling bee. Somebody has to speak the truth.

I am somebody.



Oh, really. Our kids spell better because of Internet access?

Dear AT&T: H-O-R-S-E-H-O-C-K-E-Y.

The Internet is a gold mine of information for those who know how to navigate it and how to separate nonsense from fact, entertainment from information. But your commercial is a parody that backfires. Internet communication, e-mail and the like (especially text messaging) do not make our children better spellers. Your commercial actually reminds viewers of the damage quick and easy communication has done to our kids' ability to spell or string a sentence together.

The kids in your commercial can spell "baccalaureate" and "admirably." The kids who subscribe to your services in the real world can't spell "later" or "be right back."

I'm not saying the Internet makes our kids dumb. It doesn't, anymore than books make our kids dumb. It depends entirely on what books they're reading, what they're doing and reading on the Internet.

Turns our kids into better spellers?

Yeah, right. AT&T, it's time to r-e-a-c-q-u-a-i-n-t yourselves with r-e-a-l-i-t-y.

All too often teachers hear excuses from children for all the reasons that their homework isn’t done. Ideally homework is assigned to practice new skills that have been learned during the school day. Homework should be given for an age appropriate amount of time and shouldn’t be considered as “busy work.”

Here are a few tips that parents might want to adopt in order to improve their child’s homework experience:

1. Have a designated time each school day when homework is done. Some children need a break right after school and some do better getting it over with and having the rest of the evening free.

2. Give your child a quiet study area with supplies they might need. Include a ruler, calculator, markers, pencils, scissors, glue, etc.

3. Make sure your child has a planner at school to copy assignments in. Encourage neatness in handwriting so that you are able to read and understand what is being assigned.

4. Use a calendar to record and track assignments that are long term. Practice budgeting time to get large assignments done on time.

5. Teach your child from an early age that they are accountable for homework not you. Support your child’s teacher in expecting homework to be done.

Maggie Cary, a national board certified teacher has been an educator for more than 17 years. She is certified in secondary education and holds a master’s degree in early childhood education.

Over the years she has mentored countless teachers and advised hundreds of parents. Cary has taught children from preschool through high school. She also offers classroom advice on website Classroom Talk.

A week after my daughter got a ticket for running a red light, my father got a ticket in our neighborhood for not stopping properly at a stop sign.

To add insult to injury, the officer came back an hour later and gave him a ticket for parking on the street in front of our house (instead of on the grass; this is a Palm Beach County law).

So we have been talking about the police a lot in our household, not in the most positive way.

My kids want to know why anyone would want to become a police officer, if all they do is give out tickets. I explained that they do many other things, such as rescuing people from accidents, performing CPR, delivering babies, protecting us from terrorists.

But these are abstract concepts for kids unless they have firsthand experience. I hope my kids never need to be rescued by the police, but it may be the best way for them to see that law enforcement's responsibilities extend beyond our cars.

Grassy plains, grazing horses, white wood fences. It almost looks like Kentucky. But it's Coconut Creek.

I paid a visit last week to the horse stables at Tradewinds Park, a county government property, and came away with another option for kids' birthday parties. The county is in the birthday party package business, unbeknownst to me.

For $10 per child, with a minimum of 10 children, a maximum of 20, you can give your child a horse party.

You get a tent near the playground. Five picnic tables, a grill, two pony ride tickets per child (kids have to be 52 inches or shorter), a barn tour and party invitations. You also get "story time with Martha,'' and a scarecrow-making activity.

Food costs extra. So do jumps in the bounce house.

But it's an option. Check out Tradewinds Farms birthday party packages online by clicking here or call Bette Estep at 954-491-4605 or email TWFARMTOURS@comcast.net.

A very well produced response to the Dad's Life rap video

I'm trying a new thing this school year. Menu planning! Throwing a few chicken nuggets in the oven just doesn't cut it anymore, especially since my son eats at least five meals a day. He needs real food, and a lot of it.

This week I did pretty well. We had halfway decent dinners -- lasagna, tacos, chicken with pasta -- that were easy to fix after I rushed in the house from a long day at work. But I need more ideas. And please don't tell me to spend all day Sunday cooking and putting things in the freezer. I'll do that occasionally, but I just don't have time for that kind of preparation every week.

Another issue: By this morning, we were out of milk. Out of bananas. Out of after-school frozen pizza snacks. Looks like I'm going to have to make another grocery run midweek, which really annoys me. I've always done big shopping on Sunday for the week ahead, but I can't stay a step ahead of my voracious teenager anymore.

Help! I need ideas.

We ran some good crockpot recipes in the Food section on Thursday. I can vouch for
Barbara Stein Fleckman's shredded beef brisket. Everyone in my house really liked it, even though my husband has vowed to cut back on red meat.

And I'm definitely checking out our family dining reviews of South Florida restaurants.

But I need new ideas for next week. Do you have a tip worth sharing? Or a recipe? Send me a family-friendly recipe you love and I'll give it a try. We may even print it in the Food section -- giving you proper credit, of course!

Just add it to the comments section, or email it to me a gbryant@sun-sentinel.com. Put "family friendly recipe" in the subject field.

Thanks for your help.

We used to cook TV dinners in the oven. It took forever.

In our family, only one person could be on the phone at a time. That phone was in the living room. If you really stretched the cord, you could get it to the other side of the couch.

We had to leave the house with a pocketful of quarters to play video games.

I spent the last couple of days talking to colleagues, friends and Twitter users (#DadsTalking) about the things we experienced or enjoyed growing up that our kids will never experience quite the same way. Nothing exhaustive or authoritative about this list. Just a few things that came to mind.

1. Must see TV

No, I'm not talking about the NBC Thursday night lineup in the 1980s. I'm talking about the fact that if you missed a television show, you missed it. There was no such thing as taping it or "Tivo-ing" it or OnDemand TV or catching it on DVD just a week or two later. Sorry, if you wanted to watch a TV show, you had one option and one only: rush on home and watch it when it aired. Period.

While we're at it: There were three networks on television, a total of maybe six or seven channels, and there always seemed to be something interesting on. The network television premiere of a popular theatrical film was a big, big deal. Networks used to fight tooth and nail over the rights.

And TV Guide magazine was much, much smaller than, say People.

2. Jiffy Pop

Unless you had a popcorn popper, this was the only way to get hot popcorn at home. Sure, you could settle for a store-bought bag of popcorn, but it wasn't the same thing as Jiffy Pop. Here's what you'd do: turn on the stove (which usually involved actually igniting an actual flame - how primitive) hold onto the package and shake it like your hand is in an electrical socket until the foil and package resembles a gigantic silver mushroom. Your popcorn is now ready. You can still find it, but in this age of ease, tossing a bag in a microwave and pressing the button that says "popcorn" is too convenient to pass up for most families.



3. Contains sugar, and proud of it!

Once upon a time, we bought cereal that contained sugar. We knew it contained sugar because it said so, right there in the name. Super Sugar Crisp, with its mascot, Sugar Bear. Or Kellogg's Sugar Corn Pops. Mmmm-mmm.

Yes, these days they still sell cereal, and they still have more than a spoonful of sugar. But they're ashamed of it now. Super Sugar Crisp is now Super Golden Crisp, as if kids are drawn to the cereal's color. Kids, when we grew up, we weren't afraid of sugar. And we still have all our teeth. I'm just saying.

We also had Frankenberry, Count Chocula and Booberry. Anyone seen those guys lately?

4. "This is where I came in."

The first movie I remember seeing in theaters was Jaws. We walked in at the part when some lady dressed in black walked up to Roy Scheider and slapped him. We sat through the rest of the movie, watched the credits, stayed in the theater for about 15 minutes, and the movie started over again. At about the time that woman walked up to Brody and slapped him again, we got up. "Come on, this is where we came in," my mom said.

This could never happen today! No one walks into the middle of a movie anymore. They don't let you! Those who do probably sneak in and are likely to get chased out by ushers between screenings.

The moviegoing experience is a completely different thing these days. Remember when a movie theater had only one screen? You'd show up, and if the movie you wanted to see wasn't playing, you'd have to go somewhere else?

Our kids will never know that experience. Not like we did.

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