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About four billion years ago, during our solar system?s infancy, there was a mighty cosmic collision. A slightly smaller planet than ours - roughly the size of Mars - slammed into Earth, a catastrophic event that nearly wiped out our world. But it was a glancing blow so instead of shattering Earth, it tore off a large chunk, most of which ended up settling into orbit. That debris, over time and through the power of gravity, condensed into our moon.
Today some scientists are convinced that intelligent life might never have developed on our planet without the stabilizing influence of the moon. Without our natural satellite,Earth would wobble much more, wreaking havoc on seasons and weather patterns.Plus, the moon is responsible for our intense ocean tides, which biologists believe helped to ?stir the pot? of life.
In other words, we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for an early disaster which almost destroyed the entire planet. Earth rose from the ashes like the fabled Phoenix to spawn intelligent life.
There?s an important lesson here for parents and students. Early failure and/or disastrous mistakes don't necessarily spell the end, and could - if handled properly -provide the ingredients for a tremendous comeback.
Too many students trip up early in school and then proceed to write off the rest of their academic career. They place themselves into a box labeled ?Not Bright? and give up any hope of educational success. Their self-image is bruised, and their attitude is bleak.
Likewise, some parents misinterpret their child?s scholastic efforts at an early age and then stop challenging them intellectually. They may go so far as to accept subpar efforts at school as just the way it is.
But, like our planet?s early history, everything depends on how you deal with a juvenile setback You can either let it hamper your progress, or you can use the event as a springboard to a better future.

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said:
But noble souls, through dust and heat,Rise from disaster and defeat
The stronger.

Once again, there?s a reference to rising. We often hear it in stories of great sports comebacks but the same can be applied to a student?s academic lifeline. The key is to

make sure that kids don?t brand themselves as failures because of early mishaps and essentially give up.
Learning to positively cope with setbacks and disasters is as important as learning to succeed. More importantly, young people can actually use their missteps as motivation to make something better than before - metaphorically taking the debris from their experience and molding it into a stabilizing force.
All we need to do is gaze up at the glowing reminder in our sky each night to realize that a near-disaster can ultimately produce a remarkable success story.

Dom Testa is an author, speaker, morning radio show host, and has kept a ficus tree alive for twenty two years. He?s also the founder and president of The Big Brain Club, a non-profit foundation that helps young people embrace the idea that Smart Is Cool.More info at www.DomTesta.com.

***** The Mommies Network is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping moms find support and friendship in their local community. We were founded April, 2005 and currently have 100+ communities in 33+ states with over 31,000 active members.

From The Mommies here at The Mommies Network!

Its not a rumour! So the announcement has been made that now Facebook will have clickable #hashtags. The social network wants to make it easier for users to find content already on Facebook, and functional hashtags are the first step. According to Facebook, many users already post hashtags anyway, so why not make them work. Hashtags will be both clickable and searchable, so, for example, topics like #NSALeaks or #NBAFinals will now exist.

Instagram and Twitter already use clickable hashtags and make things much easier to search and find what you are looking for or items you have in common with others maybe.

If you are interested in increasing your social media knowledge, use those #hashtags and learn as much about how they are used that you can.

Watch for the hashtag #MommiesNetwork for information, pictures and some great posts and tweets!

As kids, we loved our summer breaks. As parents and teachers, we sometimes wonder if it derails a kid?s progress in school. Often referred to as "the summer brain drain," the worry is that too much down time allows students to not only fritter away what they might have learned in the previous school year, but it also gets them out of learning mode.

If you're concerned about this, let me suggest a few things that might ease the problem and help plug the drain.
If you think about it, kids look forward to their summer break with such enthusiasm not simply because it means no school, but because it also means lots of fun activities. Well, why not think about all of the ways you can weave learning opportunities into those activities?

Examples: If you're taking your kids out to a baseball game, talk to them about the way a player's batting average is determined. Even if they only keep track of a player's average for that one game, it becomes a fun math project for them. If a guy gets one hit in four at-bats, they'll suddenly understand where the .250 average comes from. (For your own help, one hit divided by four at-bats.)

If you take them to the aquarium, why not have them research the history of sharks. Why sharks? Well, besides the fact that they're fascinating animals, their history dates back literally tens of millions of years, and it provides a great opportunity for young people to learn about how some species die out, while others evolve and mutate into the familiar creatures we see today.

Kids love going to the movies. I know a parent who did something fun after taking her son to see one of his favorite superheroes in a summer action flick. She challenged him to go home afterwards and create his own comic book, featuring that superhero. It allowed him to come up with his own unique story (you KNOW I love that!), and it also challenged him artistically. He ended up breaking out the colored pencils and creating an eight-page masterpiece, completely illustrated. He felt like a total rockstar afterwards.

Going on a long road trip? Why not use the time in the car to investigate the geography along the way, or invite the kids to plot different courses on a map, complete with details on distance and ETA. Today?s innovative new tech tools can make it fun.

And, of course, there are so many more that you can come up with. Just because the kids might be out of class for a long break, it doesn't mean that their brains have to shut down completely. The goal is to find fun activities that will embellish their experiences out of school. They'll love it, and you probably will too!

If you have other suggestions, comments here would be appreciated by many. Thank you, and enjoy the summer!

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