stories

Monday, November 9, 2026

Basic Information About Parent Centers

Basic Information About Parent Centers

Some school-based parent centers consist of little more than a bookshelf of materials in the waiting room of a school office; others are more elaborate and self-contained, with comfortable seating and coffee at the ready, books and other materials that can be taken or checked out, and a computer, VCR or DVD player available, which visitors can use for informational purposes. Some have no staff, some [parent centers] are run by a changing cast of volunteers, and some have an actual staff member. Minimally, the purpose of such parent centers is to distribute information and to make parents feel welcome at a school or, if the center is located off campus, to make them feel more comfortable with the U.S. education system in general. Ideally, every school would house its own parent center, but given the limited resources of most schools (including time, funding, and space), parent centers are less common than many educators and parents alike would want.

http://www2.ed.gov/admins/comm/parents/parentinvolve

The New Puppy

My little brother Mario wanted a dog for his birthday. He had been asking for one for a long time. My mom and I went down to the pet store while he stayed at home with grandma. When we got to the pet store, we saw snakes, birds, mice, and fish. The dogs were in the back. The store only had fancy poodles with curly hair, and they cost $300 each!

My mom said that we could not afford to buy such an expensive dog. I told her that Mario wouldn’t have liked a poodle anyway. On the way back home we stopped at the animal shelter to see if they had any dogs up for adoption. There was a little brown one with black spots in a cage in the back corner.

The other dogs in the shelter started barking when I walked by their cages, but it was real quiet. I put my hand next to the bars of the cage and the puppy slowly walked over to smell my hand. I could tell he had been hurt because one of his legs didn’t work that well. Even though he was small, his eyes were big. He stuck his tongue through the bars to lick my hand. He wagged his tail. I knew we had found my Brother’s birthday dog.

The staff at the shelter asked us a number of questions about where we were going to keep the puppy, and required us to sign paperwork guaranteeing that we would take good care of the animal. We paid fees for the spaying and neutering of the puppy, along with fees for the license and the tags. Altogether, the total was less than seventy-five dollars, which was way less than the pet store would charge. And now this animal would have a home.

When we got home, I took the puppy into the backyard and my mom went into the house to tell Mario that she had a Spotify for him. I held the puppy gently as Mario came out. He was so excited! He kept yelling, “Gracias! Gracias!” When he saw the dog. The puppy seemed really happy, too, probably because he was not in a cage anymore. Mario came closer to the puppy and slowly put his hand out for the puppy to smell it. The puppy took a couple of sniffs and gave him a lick. Mario smiled wider than ever, and softly patted the puppy on the back of his head.

Friday, November 6, 2026

The Amusement Park

Today I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with Mar Vista Summer Day Camp. I had been looking forward to this trip all week! (We always go on our field trips on Fridays.) In the morning, I couldn’t wait for the bus to come to pick us up. I hoped there wouldn’t be much traffic getting up there.

When we got inside the gates, we were supposed by how few people were there that day. We had expected the park to be crammed with families and kids from other summer camps.

I got assigned to be with two counselors, Victor and Andrea. Boy, was I glad, because they were the counselors who said they would be going on all the fastest rides!

The first ride we went on was Batman. I liked that ride because the roller coaster track is above the riders and your legs swing all over the place. It’s really smooth, too, even when you turn upside down.

This was the first time I was able to go on the big rides, because the last time I came I was only six, and I was still going on lots of the little kid rides at Bugs Bunny World. It was still kind of cool to see those small rides as we passed by them on the way to the big ones.

The next ride we went on was Superman. I didn’t like that one much because all you do is go up once, and back down backwards, really fast. It’s kind of scary too, because you can’t see where you’re going on the way back down, and you don’t know if the ride is going to stop!

After Superman, we went on a really old ride called Spin Out. My dad had told me that it was one of his favorites from the old days. I thought it would be slow and boring, but it turned out to be cool.

In this ride, a group of about twenty people walk into a round room and stand against the curved black rubber wall. Then the room begins to spin around, slowly at first, then faster and faster.

A few seconds after the ride began, the room spun faster. I felt my body getting sucked up against the wall. The floor began to drop away. Everybody started screaming, but we didn’t fall. I couldn’t see my feet because my head was pinned against the wall. Since I couldn’t tell by looking at my own feet how far down the floor had moved, I looked across at the people on the other side. We were about four feet up from the floor! After about a minute of spinning, the floor started coming back up, and the spinning slowed down. Finally, our bodies started sliding slowly back down the wall toward the rising floor. Everyone laughed when it was over. I sure am glad we went on that ride before lunch, and not after!

www.henryanker.com

Earthquakes

There are many kinds of natural disasters that happen on Earth. There haven been forest fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, and severe droughts. Earthquakes are another kind of disaster that make the ground, and everything we built on it, shake. The shaking can sometimes go on for more than a minute. Most earthquakes are small and hardly noticeable, but others can be catastrophic and deadly for thousands of people. Earthquakes in the United States are most likely to occur in western states, especially California. Depending on where we live, we need to be prepared for what disasters are more likely to happen in the future.

A big earthquake can make bridges and highways crumble. This means tons of concrete crashing to the ground. Parts of buildings, or entire buildings can fall. People can be hurt or killed by heavy things that fall away from high places. This is why students in school practice sheltering under tables during earthquake drills. Once the shaking is over, students and adults need to evacuate the buildings and go outside where it is safer.

At home, we need to know where to go if an earthquake happens. We need to know how to find our way around our home if the earthquake happens at night. We may need to navigate stairs. People should have a flashlight or cell phone with a light close to their bed. This way, people can be ready for an emergency, even in the dark. If a quake happens while we are in our house or apartment, it is a good idea to stand in a doorway during the shaking where there are stronger wooden beams above our heads and holding onto the door frame.

We should also have extra food and water at home in case we can’t get out of the house or access help for many days. Hospitals and stores may be damaged and stay closed after a quake, inaccessible to the public. Police and firefighters, the people we often call ‘first responders’ will only be able to help the most severely injured. Everyone else will be on their own. In the cafeteria, schools keep several days worth of food and water needed for the large number of people there as a precaution. Students and adults who take medication daily should have an extra day’s supply on hand. Earthquakes are part of life in California, but we can do our best to be prepared for them.

The New Computer

Jessica’s family bought a new computer. The family had been saving money for it for over six months. Everyone in the family was excited about it, and everyone would use it. Jessica’s parents had asked Jessica and her brother, Kyle, to research different models and features available. They did this by using computers at the library to read technology reviews online, and also research deals with their Smartphones.

They all agreed that they wanted the computer to have a 24” or larger monitor, have a hard drive with at least 1 TeraByte (TB) of storage, at least 8 GigaBytes (GB) of RAM, and come with a 3-year warranty, which would cover any problems that might occur. They ordered the computer online, and was delivered in just 3 days. Everyone had an intended use for it.

Jessica’s dad would use it to make sure they had the right amount of money in the family bank account. If the amount was wrong, he would know about it right away. He could have checks deposited automatically, monitor their credit report, and file their tax returns over the Internet.

Her mom would use the computer in her police work to track down at-large bank robbers and other criminals. She would be able to check criminal records and fingerprints in databases right from home. Jessica’s mom could also review crime statistics of burglaries and car theft in and around their neighborhood. There would also be the opportunity to monitor the whereabouts of convicted and released felons via the publicly available State of California Megan’s Law database.

Jessica’s brother, Kyle, would use the computer for his college studies. He could use the Internet to research biology concepts like photosynthesis and genetic mutations. Kyle attended college hear their home and commented daily to campus. He needed access to a computer at home to study for his major in Microbiology at UCLA.

Jessica herself would send e-mails and homework assignments to her high school teachers. She would compose and submit her papers in MLA Format using Google Docs. She could research words, concepts, and issues right within the application. She especially liked having her work saved automatically to the cloud, and be able to access her work back at school without having to carry a USB flash drive. Having a new, well-equipped computer would be great for everyone in the family.

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Family Traditions

A family is a group of people that are related by birth, by marriage, or another reason, like foster care or adoption. There are other ways people can be included in a family. A person may be included if he or she is a lifelong friend to a member of the family. A person could be considered ‘family’ if he or she served together in the military with someone in the family. Families have mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more.

Families often have traditions that help members of the family feel a stronger connection to the past, and to each other. Traditions include events, activities, a love of music, dancing, participating in sports and games, preparing meals or cultural foods, or celebrations in a religion that people in a family do together.

Traditions can be things like eating a Thanksgiving dinner, opening presents on Christmas morning, or fifteen year-old girls wearing white dresses for their Quinceñeras. A family tradition can be snuggling up in lawn chairs watching fireworks on a Fourth of July evening, grinning children gathered around a picnic table singing, “Happy Birthday”, or grandchildren helping their abuelita make tamales. Other special occasions families might consider traditions are traveling to their home country during school holidays, young and old family members playing soccer or softball at the park, or eating pozole and buñuelos at an aunt and uncle’s house.

Traditions can be wonderful when families participate in them, but they can be sad when members of a family can’t be there because they are not able to attend, are sick, or have passed away.

Traditions like taking a family photo, or walking on the beach holding hands at sunset, are times we cherish and remember, and look forward to doing again and again. Honoring traditions, by keeping them going, is the responsibility of the older members of the family. Having fun, singing, dancing, playing, joking around, shaking hands, and giving kisses and hugs are everyone’s job.

No More Mowing

For Uncle Harry, the grass outside his home was becoming too much trouble to take care of. He lived in the desert of Las Vegas, Nevada. It was hot most of the year, and his water bill was becoming very expensive. In the summer, to keep it green, he had to water his lawn twice a day! In the winter, the grass would turn brown when the temperature got too cold. On top of all that, he thought, at seventy-five, he was getting too old to mow it himself. He decided to have his lawn dug out and removed, and put pampas grasses, cacti, and cool looking rocks and smooth stones in his yard instead.

First, he hired some men who were looking for work, waiting outside the local home improvement store. Together, they dug out all the grass below the roots. Next, they removed all the sprinkler heads and capped them off, as the plants Harry would be putting in wouldn’t need much more than the occassional rainstorm to stay alive. The next step was to smooth out the dirt using rakes and make it flat. After that, they rolled out some thick plastic over the dirt to keep wild grasses and weeds from growing through. Finally, the men opened the bags of different colored smooth stones Harry had bought and spread them out by hand until the dirt was covered. They left open circles where the grasses and cacti would be planted next week.

Harry was happy with his work and the work of the men he had hired. He gave them all an extra twenty dollars each over the one hundred dollars each he had promised to pay them for the day. In the next few weeks, after Harry had planted the grasses and cacti, neighbors were stopping by daily complimenting Harry on how nice his yard looked. Some people even asked him which landscape architecture company he had used, and ‘could they get the phone number?’

Few people believed Harry and a few men looking for work on a Saturday could have done such a ‘professional job’. That gave Harry great satisfaction, along with the relief that he didn't have to mow anymore, and that his water bill would be cut in half.