Students and Sports: Good or Bad?

    Sports... most people love them. Whether it be football, volleyball, basketball, track or any other sport this article may relate to you, a friend or your child.

    A big question in the student world these days is if sports are good for kids and teens. The answer many people want to hear is "yes", but what about injuries and pressure?

   Sports are good for kids and teens, but they definitely should not be required. Some kids prefer something to do with the arts, such as music, art, drama. One problem as stated by Hank Hill in the article "What In The Name Of High School" is that some school districts focus way too much on sports and not enough on academics or arts. Why should smart or artistic students not be celebrated as much as sports players?

    But yet, as mentioned in a video called "Notebook: Kids and Sports," kids who participate in sports are more likely to be social and happy than kids who are not in sports. Sports have also been proven to increase grades, and grades seem to drop when the sports season is over, as found in a video called "Sports: How Much Is Too Much?"

   Sports are good for grades and for making kids more confident and happy. But sometimes the pressure from parents, peers and coaches is too much. Sports aren't for everyone either, so kids shouldn't need to feel pressured to join one. So keep the pressure to a minimum and the safety to a maximum, and sports will be a wonderful experience for those involved.

Halloween!

As you all know, Halloween is approaching! Are you ready to go trick or treating or hand out candy to excited kids and teens? Which ever you are doing you should have not only yourself, but your house, prepared! Halloween is a fun, candy-filled, spooky holiday so go find your Halloween bins! The best time to shop for new decorations will probably be after Halloween; everything should be on sale since the stores will be trying to get rid of it. But it's not a bad thing to buy some stuff during this time!
       If you have younger children they will probably be begging for a new costume, so why not? Well, first how about you look through what you have! They probably don't want to be something they have already been, but you can probably find something to throw together. Have some plain old masks? How about digging out the glitter glue or something and writing on it or decorating it with something you have on hand? Otherwise just get some face paint type stuff. Put your creative mind on and go searching. Pintrest or WeHeartIt are some good places to start for ideas.

Maybe you are looking into be creepy this year. Or maybe you are tired of being scary, and just want to be something unique.. Maybe you even just want to throw together a bunch of random stuff and not even know what you are. It's Halloween, so who cares what you are! Just remember... no trick-or-treating if you're not dressed up! So have fun this Halloween, and stay out of trouble.

As for your house you should get the outside and maybe even the inside decorated. If you can a good idea would be to theme your decorations off of your costume. Here are some creative ideas...

As for this last photo you may be able to guess what it is. To make this simple decoration all you need is:

  -White milk jugs (you get to recycle this way too!)

  -Black Sharpie marker

  -Battery powered lights, or even plug in ones would work

Take your white milk jugs; on each draw or funny or scary face with the marker. For battery powered lights, just put them inside the jug, and turn them on at night. For plug in lights you will need to cut a hole in the side of your jug, as close to the bottom as possible. Make the hole as big as you need so that you can work with it. Then run the lights through the jugs, bunching some lights inside the jug. The lights will run along the ground this way, but that is okay. It will still look very cool!