Teach the children well

kids and their dog
My children at the beach with Angus our best dog ever.

I like an idea I read about in an article in the Wall Street Journal by Anthony De Leon.

Here’s the title and excerpt:

600 Kindergartners Were Given Bank Accounts. Here’s What They Learned.

How San Francisco and other cities are trying to boost financial education and college savings

Tierra Ferrand started saving for college when she was in kindergarten.

She and 600 other low-income public-school students in San Francisco were each given a bank account with $50 in 2011 as part of a program that expanded the curriculum from reading and writing to interest rates. Now 17 years old, she has more than $1,500 banked and is off to Grambling State University in Louisiana this fall. That balance may be small, but Ferrand and her mother, Aisha Brown, 44, said the account changed their approach to money and saving.

“Outside of this account, we don’t have other college savings accounts,” Brown said. “We don’t have those advantages that some other families may have.”

San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College Program, which now gives $50 in savings to every student, has 52,000 active accounts with a total balance of $15 million—$10 million of which came from deposits made by the students and their families. The program aims to be both financial education and a small start to college savings, and has been replicated in 39 states across the country. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-savings-fund-san-francisco-85d32bf5?mod=life_work_featured_pos3

I’ve often thought there are many things we need to teach our children in school — or at home. I remember talking to my son’s fourth grade teacher.

“Can you give them a lesson on how to write a letter and address an envelope?” I asked. I discovered my son didn’t know where addresses went on an envelope. I was sure he wasn’t the only one.

That’s because kids use email and lost ordinary skills that we took for granted. Banking, savings, credit cards and compound interest are lessons that are being taught in some classes in San Francisco along with the $50 deposit into a savings account. I say “some” because in the article I learned that not all teachers use the savings account lesson plan. They said they were busy enough with existing curriculum.

Another thing I realized my son didn’t learn was how to pay for gas and fill up the tank. I homeschooled my daughter for middle school and I included lots of “adulting” lessons. I thought my son would pick up things naturally from observation. But he was always reading — every free minute — like on car rides. He was oblivious to the world around him.

Changing a tire is a skill my dad taught me when I got my first flat. Of course we have AAA now, but isn’t that a good thing to know how to do if you don’t have cell reception?

What other basic life skills do you think should be taught to our kids in school or at home?

I hope you’re enjoying my new M W F blogging schedule.

Teach the children well from Crosby Stills.

Life’s too short

Sunset in Puerto Penasco
Sunset in Puerto Penasco.

This week I went out to lunch with two graphic designers I used to work with when I was in public relations and advertising. I’m talking about the years before I had kids. My oldest is 30!

Last month, I met graphic designer #1 for coffee. She moved out here about 15 years ago. She lived a few blocks from me in Palm Springs. When I was moving out here, a fellow swim friend reminded to contact her.

I’m so glad I did. At the time, COVID was raging and we didn’t get together. But she sent me an email with lists of restaurants and grocery stores nearby. She also told me to keep my cat inside! She recommended the YMCA that is five miles from our house as a place to swim. All her help made our move easier.

This time for lunch, graphic designer #1 asked if it was okay if she invited another graphic designer from my past life. When I had my own PR firm, I felt a lack of loyalty from graphic designer #2. It was a work related incident that is meaningless now.

Today, I have a totally different perspective. I can see where I was at fault, or maybe I was reading something into a situation that didn’t exist. She may not even realize that I was upset!

I felt work that I created was mine — but in fact it belonged to the company who hired me. I didn’t have ownership, just pride in my work.

Amazing what 30 years can do for clarity and common sense.

The three of us had a delicious and leisurely lunch, caught up on decades past and agreed to make this happen on regular basis. I was so excited to see and connect with both my old co-workers and friends. They’ll add a great dimension to my new Arizona life.

Here’s to ongoing friendships, a sense of community, and understanding that life is too short to hold onto hard feelings.

What examples do you have where time has changed your perspective over your feelings or relationships?

Is it that time already?

Roadrunner.
Roadrunner on my patio. They are vicious to other birds.

When I picked up my phone this morning, I discovered something really annoying.

Text messages. These weren’t text messages from family or friends. These were from politicians or campaign staffs. I had 20 of them!

Didn’t we just have an election? Why did my infrequent random texts from politicians turn into a stampede? 2024 isn’t that close. Do our politicians do anything besides raise money?

I’ll admit if there’s someone I support, I’ll donate a little money. But I mean “a little.” Then my info gets sold to other campaigns. Sold and sold, over and over. I guess it’s another way for campaigns to raise money.

Then I find more than 20 text messages on my phone from people I don’t support and would never support.

I can’t imagine what it will be like a year from now!

Any suggestions on how to get off these campaign text lists?

More good news

Sunrise
Sunrise in our backyard.

When I went to lunch last week with a ladies group I recently joined, I sat at table with three of my neighbors. One is a board member for the group and the other two are my friends and new members also.

This group is fundraising for The Phoenix Dream Center, which is a facility to rescue and help victims of human trafficking. I wrote about that HERE.

The board member/neighbor at our table said “You’re the one with a background in PR.”

I thought to myself, “Did I really need to share that on my membership application?”

She slipped a spreadsheet and a press release across the table to me. “Can you help me get out our press release?” It was for an upcoming fundraiser.

“Sure,” I said.

“I just need you to fill in the blanks on the spreadsheet. I haven’t been able to find the contact information for some publications.”

The next morning I googled the publications with missing contact info. I was able to find some of them and I either filled out online forms or sent emails to them with the press release.

Within 30 minutes I got a response from a magazine publisher who has high end magazines for high end neighborhoods.

“I’m sold. I love The Dream Center. Can you take a call in two hours?” his email said.

I quickly texted the board member/neighbor to ask if she’d take the call. I’ve been to two meetings in two months and don’t know much about this group — like how long it’s been around, how many members there are, if they have a budget to buy ads, etc.

“I’ll be at the dentist,” she texted.

“Okay. I can do it,” I replied.

Later I got a phone call from the president of the group who said she’d take the call. Whew!

Fast forward and the president called me back to say they had an excellent call and then had a meeting the next day. They are getting free advertising from now on each month! They are getting a VIP listing and perhaps a feature article.

I’m so thrilled I helped open the door. I’m also relieved I didn’t have to take the initial phone call. I was smiling the rest of the day.

What has made you smile recently?

What I’m excited about

cactus bloom
A cactus in bloom in my yard.

After taking time off from submitting stories, I finally did it. I dusted off the story I wrote about my mom and submitted to two publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts. Two so far.

It made me really happy to do that. The process has changed through the years. I used to mail my printed manuscript with a query letter and an SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope.) Then I’d anxiously await for the publisher or agent to reply by snail mail. If I was lucky, I’d get a letter that was encouraging. Or, in the case of a novel, I’d send in the first three chapters and the editor would ask for more. I even got a few acceptance letters from magazines and newspapers.

The funniest thing was I did get an offer to publish my “mom” story. At the time, I didn’t think the offer was good enough. It was from a small publisher who said they’d do an initial run of 500 or 1,000 and see how it did before another print run. How I wish I would have said yes! That’s why I’m excited to try again, all these years later.

On the down side of submitting manuscripts, I’d get a form letter or postcard in my SASE with a generic phrase, “We’re sorry but your manuscript doesn’t fit our needs.”

Now, we submit by email or through a form on the publisher’s website. They have submission guidelines and say if you don’t hear back in so many months, they aren’t interested. You’re not guaranteed to get a response.

Doing more research on publishers, I renewed my membership in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). I downloaded the market survey for small presses and discovered quite a few still use the old snail mail method with SASEs. I bet that cuts down on the number of submissions!

I received an email from one of the two publishers so far and it stated they are interested in my story and will give it careful consideration. I guess I passed the first hurdle. But, the email ended with “if you don’t hear back from us within two months, then we are passing on your manuscript.”

Eh, wait and see. In the meantime, I’m pleased to be back in the game.

What are your thoughts about submitting your writing?

On getting hacked

Desert lavender
This has nothing to do with my post, but it’s such a beautiful desert lavender plant in our yard I had to share.

I had an issue with my emails and wrote about it HERE last week. I was afraid I was hacked. Or in the very least someone was playing fast and loose with my email address. I set up a new email account and so far everything is going peachy.

But then I heard from someone today that their bank account got hacked. Listen to this: someone got into their bank account online and changed the user name and password so they couldn’t access their account! Then the hacker transferred money out using Zelle. This friend didn’t even use Zelle. But. if a person can get your username and password by hacking into your computer, they can turn on Zelle.

I found a few articles about the scam. Here’s a quote from one:

Stealing money using Zelle is apparently as easy as adding a phone number to a consumer’s checking account, and then telling the bank to “Zelle” money to a hacker-controlled account — at least in some cases.

When following up my story earlier this week about consumers who don’t even use Zelle get hit by Zelle fraud, a bank official told me that’s how it’s done. Criminals — potentially using stolen online banking credentials or credential stuffing attacks — add a cell phone they control to the user’s profile, then send money to the hacker’s account.

After the hacker’s mobile number is added to the bank account, the banks’ confirmation code to verify the transaction is misdirected to that fraudulent number, and the hacker confirms the transaction. So once the account is compromised, a fraudster is able to transfer money out of the account.

https://bobsullivan.net/cybercrime/heres-how-hackers-are-using-zelle-to-raid-bank-accounts-and-why-victim-was-out-1800-until-i-wrote-to-the-bank/

I decided that changing my password wasn’t enough. I turned on two-factor authentication.

Have you ever had a credit card, bank account or email account hacked? What did you do about it?

Bombarded with junk

junk email
One of the many hundreds of junk emails I got today.

I hate email. Not all the time, but often enough.

Today my inbox is flooded with subscription confirmations like the one above.Which makes me wonder if my email has been hacked? I’m literally getting thousands of emails in all languages from random companies asking me to confirm my subscription request.

What is up with that?

Of course I can only read the ones in English. They are addressed to all sorts of different people, none of them me, but they state the subscription request came from my email address.

It makes me nervous that I have been hacked, have a virus or someone is out peddling my email address.

Here’s another one. I’m not Glen Veum.

Has anything like this happened to you? How did you stop it? Should I create a new email address?

Do you think I’ve been hacked?