10, 20, 30, 40--Counting Spare Change

Do you have a jar or two of spare change sitting on your counter? Have you thought to yourself, "Gee, I should really count that, I bet it would add up," but haven't because you just don't have the time? Have you thought about dumping your jar in one of those Coinstar change counters but hesitate because you don't want to pay a percentage? If so, then I have the answer to your change counting woes--your kids.

Last week, my husband came up with this great idea. He was tired of hearing the kids whine, "I'm bored, there is nothing to do" and our coin jar was about to runneth over. So he put 2 + 2 together and got 4--4 nimble workers with small fingers that could easily stuff a coin roll. So on a Saturday afternoon, he stopped at the bank, picked up paper coin rolls and told the kids to get to work.

Well, it actually wasn't that easy. They needed an incentive. Something that would entice them to sit for an hour or more (without the distraction of the television, they needed to pay attention) and sort through the Lincolns, Washingtons, Jeffersons, Kennedys and Roosevelts (yes, I had to look). What was the motivator, you ask? As you might suspect, we had to pay them off and how we did was by letting them buy a "family gift" with the proceeds.

They were so excited by this prospect. I was amazed and wished that I had thought of this earlier. Counting all the coins, rolling them up and then adding up the stacks ended up being a great educational experience as well. Maybe I could say they kept up on their math skills this summer after all.

When the arduous task was complete, we all went to the bank (to get the full experience) and dropped our loot in front of the teller. And guess how much there was? $178.50. The teller (who happened to be a friend from school) asked my son if he would like a $100 bill and he quickly said "yes." He proudly took it from her and let each of his siblings hold it for a moment. Savoring its crispness, its scent, the number of zeros. I then placed it in my wallet (for safe keeping) and off we went to Target.

I didn't let the kids spend the entire amount--I'm not that generous or crazy. But we did buy the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Wii game and decided to earmark the rest for our next family dinner out. Who knew that having the kids count all that spare change would make so much cents?

The Cost of Healthcare

Every time you look or listen these days, the headline news abounds about the "Healthcare Crisis". Headlines on the Internet, newspapers, TV and cable news are punctuate with words like "crisis", "urgent" and "doom". It's enough to make you sick!

But are we really experiencing a crisis? Or is it more of a "nagging problem", an "issue" or a "concern"?

From my own vantage point, I am fortunate that my husband has benefits including health insurance from his employer. We pay a premium that increases annually, and with that amount of money it could pay our hefty monthly electric bill and water bill. But as a family of five, we have never wavered from having health insurance because you never know when you're going to need emergency care.

Last summer, as a matter of fact, both my husband and youngest daughter experienced illnesses that required immediate attention. In my daughter's case, our family was camping when she complained about having a tummy ache. She did not have a fever, wasn't doubled over in pain, and wasn't throwing up. She even went on a hike. So we did not react immediately to her symptoms. But on the third day of complaining she developed a sudden fever - her pain became more acute and localized so we rushed her to the hospital emergency room.

Turned out she had a ruptured appendix. We experienced emergency care where she was diagnosed, then we experienced full in-patient care where she was operated on and recuperated for three days at the hospital in a private room. We had an incredible medical team who we placed our complete trust in. $3000 worth as a matter of fact as that was our out-of-pocket expense. Her total bill? $47K. If we did not have medical insurance, we would have had to pay that amount ourselves.

While my husband and I were in the waiting room, it was a critical moment. But were we experiencing a healthcare crisis? If we did not have insurance, what would we have done? More importantly, where would we have received proper medical attention?

Yesterday I took my 17-year old daughter to a volunteer meeting at the Ronald McDonald House. This is an amazing place, funded by philanthropic dollars from McDonald's (aka the Golden Arches) as well as private and corporate donations and endowments. Here, critically to terminally ill children receive outpatient care while awaiting further in-patient treatment. They are often far from home and by staying in such a facility for only $10 a night, they have some financial relief from their other healthcare bills.

Families or individuals who have a major illness and who have reasonable healthcare insurance are burdened by co-payments and expenses which their insurance does not cover. Overtime, they also become a burden on the insurance company who re-classifies their status and often make it more difficult to get coverage should they change carriers. That's known as a pre-exisiting condition in the insurance world, and they often decline covering someone with a background of health-related problems because they can become a burden on their profit-oriented business model.

Remember, insurance companies are in this to make money.

So a question at hand is whether those who are self-employed, who make low wages or who opt out of purchasing insurance able to afford quality care where it won't break the bank? Is it necessary for the government (big daddy) to interfere or intervene?

What other solutions are there? And how did we get to this "crisis" to begin with? I think there are more questions than answers, but to get to the right solution we have to ask all the questions we can. We also have to curb our law-suit-happy population who have forced the healthcare industry to be overly cautious and costly.

In my opinion, the less government involvement the better. Consider the Social Security System, Medicare and Public Education. Each of those if privatized would stand a chance of being more successful because they would have merit and profit based systems. In countries where schooling is privatized such as Belgium,they are more successful because the teachers are rewarded for success in their pay and the schools have to show a profit. Their scores reflect this. A great video to watch is "Stupid in America" reported by John Stossel on 20/20 (go to youtube and search on "Stupid in America".)

Belgium has developed a very innovative government-lead solution. There the money to educate a child is provided by the governement using a voucher system, where the funds are attached to the kid, and the kid is not bound as they are in America by school districts. Families can "shop around" for the best school that suits their child. The schools are profit based and overtime develop a reputation. As reflected by test scores, American schools don't educate as well as schools in other countries because they are, in effect, government monopolies, and monopolies don't have much incentive to compete. In Europe, if a school can't attract a student, it goes out of business. Belgium has some of the highest scoring students in the world, by the way.

Jack Welch, the distinguished former CEO of GE, is featured in the Stossel report and has written about stories of the success he brought to GE. Because of his meritocracy-based system he was able to achieve incredible success. When you have the power to reward excellence, you increase excellence. When you have government run agencies, unions, and "big brother" breathing down, you nearly always breed complacency and excellence is hampered because it not rewarded properly.

That is what I fear the most in a government run healthcare system. Remember the last time you stood in line at the DVM? Government run. How about getting a passport? How long did that take? Government-run. So how could a government run healthcare system be any better than other government run systems in America?

I don't claim to have answers but in run-of-the-mill experience that a typical American has such as going to the DMV to get a license renewed, medicare fraud, lacking public education systems, its hard to have assurance that the government will do a better job in healthcare. For sure we have issues with the rising cost, but what other creative ways can this be addressed? It's like crying for mommy or daddy when you can't find the immediate solution. But let's be grown up about this and figure out a creative solution before running to the government to take care of everything.

The Trash/Memories Found Under My Car Seats

Does this picture look familiar or at least some version of it? Have you ever reached under the seats in your car and extracted Pokemon cards, Goldfish cracker remnants and action figures? Have you ever looked in a cup holder only to find rocks, peanut shells, and or Tootsie Pop wrappers? I'm hoping that I am not alone and your answer is "yes" because the contents in the picture above were recently dug out from under the third row seats of our family SUV and this is only part of what I found!

My initial reaction was OMG--my kids are pigs, they are using my car as their personal trash can. I then started crafting my lecture on no more eating in the car as I pulled handfuls upon handfuls of junk from under the seats. But as I tossed the debris onto the pavement, I realized that this trash was bringing back great memories. How is that for seeing the glass half full? My anger quickly dissipated as I walked down memory lane.

For example, the little green alien (lying in the middle of the pile in the photo above) that was a once well-loved prize. My son won it at Laser Quest. He celebrated his 12th birthday there and to keep him and his restless guests entertained as they waited to enter the Activation Chamber, I gave them all a few quarters to play the arcade games. The prizes received were not worth the 50 cents paid but they do bring back memories of a great day. A day where 8 excited tweens (and one dad) created goofy code names, wore black and tried not to get tagged.

The Pokemon card reminded me of how much my boys love Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Squirtel and Chimchar. I pictured them with their heads close together examining how many damage points each character has and what each character evolves into. It also made me wonder why my kids can easily memorize all of these details but can't remember their math facts.

The Halloween pencil was given to one of my 8 year old boys during his Halloween party at school. When I looked at that it called to mind numerous Princesses, witches and Storm Troopers parading around the school blacktop. I recalled rambunctious kids with chocolate covered faces making Halloween treat bags while listening to the Monster Mash.

After spending way too long reminiscing (and not cleaning), I realized I was getting carried away. This was trash after all and it should have ended up in the garbage can, not the crevices and carpets of my car! So, I gathered my brood together and after a short lecture we all pledged to work together to keep our car clean. Moments later, they saw the pile of goodies on the pavement and began shouting, "That's mine!" Evidently all this trash brought back memories for them too--the I remember that is mine kind!

Back to School Blues

I can't believe it, summer vacation is almost over. My kids start school in 8 days!! This summer has flown by (doesn't it always?) and I am not ready for school to start. I'm not ready for 7:30 a.m. drop-offs, homework that has to be turned in the next day (no more weekly packets for my twins) and schlepping kids to soccer practice (at 6 different fields throughout the week). I like our lazy days of summer. I am going to miss sleeping in until 8 (sometimes 9), watching the kids and the dog swim, and staying up late and roasting marshmallows with friends. I love summer.

Do you have the back to school blues? What are you going to miss?

The Gap Year

My eldest daughter recently made a decision which goes against the typical high school senior's way of thinking. She has opted, with our encouragement, to take a gap year. Rather than continue without a break after 13 years of school (K through 12) and proceeding to 4 or 5 years of college, she has decided to take a full year off between high school and college.

Initially she was going to take a six-month break but decided a full year would be more significant and worth while. Part of what prompted this is she is one of the youngest in her class of 2009, her birthday is in October and she is only 17 years old. Most of her friends are already 18 years old, able to vote, and driving. She does not have her drivers license yet, and has a bit of maturing to do. So this opportunity is sort of like catching the delayed start of kindergarten on the back-end.

We talked to many relatives and friends who have college-aged children as well as parents who held their children back when it was time to enter kindergarten. When our daughter was of age to enter kindergarten we had no idea we could delay her start date and hold her back, we were just following the process of enrolling her in school at the right time based on age cut-off (which is December 2 in California). But as the years passed and we realized there were children 1 to 2 years older than our daughter, we considered that we may have done her a disservice. In a book called "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, he discusses this phenomenon based on date of birth and the relationship to a person's success.

Fortunately, this was a decision that had a chance to be revisited in what many Europeans and Australians call a Gap Year. More and more universities in the United States are also encouraging incoming freshman, once they've been accepted, to delay their entrance and consider a gap year. Harvard and Princeton encourage all incoming freshman to consider it. And when you think how long our children will be working once they graduate from college, what is one year in the big scheme of things?

Many parents fear that a gap year will make their child complacent and lose the drive to go on to college. But studies have found the reverse, that those who opt for a gap year are often more focused, have a higher graduation rate than those students who opted to go to college immediately after high school graduation, and have a clearer sense of what they want to do. Those who opt for college immediately after high school are often so burned out that by the time they enter college they party too hard, lose focus, have failing grades, and end up coming back home or dropping out. Some take an unplanned gap year (or more) instead.

What has been interesting are the stories we have heard from our friends and family who had circuitous routes before their own college graduation. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law both started out at smaller colleges before transferring in their junior year to a larger university where they ended up meeting. It did not impact their college experience and both are highly successful today. In my own case, I actually graduated early from high school thinking I did not want to attend college. But my older sister convinced me to apply to the University of Maryland where I majored in Asian Art History. That degree did not result in a high paying job, so I went back to college to get a second Bachelors degree in Computer Science. I was 25 by the time I graduated and secured a great job at a company where I worked for 24 years. My husband attended Drexel University in Philadelphia. Drexel is a co-op school which includes a year internship and pratical experience. Employeers find that those students are better prepared than those who go straight from high school to college and graduate without any practical experience.

In my estimation, my daughter will learn more, mature more and experience more in these next 12 months than if she were to go straight to college after graduting from high school. Currently she is already lined up with several volunteer jobs which will provide experience in her chosen field of art and illustration. We are excited with her as she jumps in to this next year. Stay tuned as I'll blog about her notable experiences in the next few months.

Puberty On the Horizon.....

I recently posted an article on the Silicon Valley Mom's blog about boys and their interest in girls. And when I say interest in girls, I mean INTEREST in girls--looking up nudie pics on the internet to be exact. Now my son has not done this yet (yeah, right you say) well as far as I know. Let's just say he has not been caught. Anyway, I have a feeling we will be entering these treacherous waters one day soon. I'm just hoping I've got another year (yes, my fingers and toes are crossed!).

I realize the interest in the female anatomy is a part of growing up, but I'm not ready for it. At this point my darling 12 year old still plays with Bionicles, rubber ducks (from Oriental Trading Co.) and enjoys the online game Moshi Monsters. I just can't picture him ogling naked women.

I know I need to get my head out of the sand and accept it. But I'm not READY!!! The question is, what do you say? I've got some material in the works but I need more. If you have been through this part of parenting before, PLEASE tell me how you handled it. Any words of puberty wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

(Totally off topic, but to go along with our previous post on your favorite vacation destinations, sunset above is from one of my new favorite places, San Pancho, Mexico).

Newly Maui'ed

Need I say more? Summer's nearly over, but I can always go to my own little piece of Maui in my mind and enjoy it for a brief but splendid second.

What's your favorite destination? Let us know so we can add it to our list of favorite destinations we'd like to travel to.

Zumba Fever

I've ditched the workout and have joined the party--the Zumba party (I just love that slogan!). Zumba seems to be the latest exercise craze. Gyms across the nation are offering these booty shaking, Latin music thumping, dance-based aerobic workout classes. My gym, unfortunately, seems to be one of the last workout facilities to jump on the bandwagon but luckily I have a friend who teaches classes at a nearby dance studio (Saratoga School of Dance).

So most Mondays and Thursdays (at 1 p.m.--in case you want to come) you can find me trying to get my Latin groove on and my heart rate up. This is where I leave my pride at the door and try to do fancy foot work while shaking my money maker. And I am telling you, the meringue, tango, and salsa are tough to master. It is like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time. It requires coordination and concentration--which I seem to lack these days.

I always thought of myself as someone who had rhythm and was fairly coordinated, but I can't help but think I look like Elaine Benes (from Seinnfeld) when I do my Zumba moves. I'm not quite as jerky but there are definitely some similarities--stiff upper body, arms flailing, etc. I just can't seem to get my shoulders to move along with my hips!

Despite my less than graceful moves, I find it to be a great workout and a lot of fun. And really when was the last time you used fun and workout in the same sentence? But what could be more fun than jumping around to Latin pulsating music while shaking every part of your body and working up a sweat (and I am talking the red in the face, dripping wet kind)? O.k don't answer that. But if you want to try a class where the time flies by and you can enjoy a good laugh with friends--then come and join the party!