The governer has approved another Sales Tax Holiday for Florida. During Sales Tax Holiday individuals can purchase back to school supplies and clothing, within a certain price range, without having to pay taxes.

Parents and students are not the only ones that take full advangtage of tax free week, any can get tax breaks on the selected items.

This years Florida Sales Tax Holiday runs from 2:01 a.m., July 22, 2006, and ends at midnight, July 30, 2006.

More information:2006 Sales Tax Holiday

Hillsborough County teachers could receive at least a 10 percent pay raise, the highest increase in at least 20 years, as well as an increase in retirement and health benefits.

Source Baynews9.com 

House prices have increase significantly in the past several years.   The increase will hopefully help teachers keep up with the cost of living in Tampa Bay.

With all the sadness of seeing babies left to die this story has a silver lining.  This week three women left an infant between 6 months and 8 monsths with Tampa firefighter Troy Jones.

Florida law does allow babies to be left at police, fire stations, and hospitals, but it is only for infants under the 3 days.

Officials are happy that the baby was turned over.  But they are looking for the parents.

Seeing the fate that so many unwanted babies have some to makes me happy that the mother did leave the child at the firestation.  An alive abandoned child is better than a dead or abused children.

Where the baby will go from here, has not been reported, but hopefully he will find a loving permanent home

More on the story, St. Petersburg Times 

Your are not the only one noticeing the huge growth in the Tampa Bay real estate market.   The growth in the market is making it harder for many individuals to afford to buy a home.

The Florida Association of Realtors released data Tuesday showing that the median home sale price for the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was $230,900 in May, up 18 percent from $196,100 during the same month last year.
Source tbo.com

“Experts”(whoever they are) have been forecasting for several years that the real estate bubble will burst.   It hasn’t burst yet.   What we are hearing now  is that their will be some market slowdown.

Knowing the concept behind what is taught helps children grasp subjects a lot easier.  Babies learn to crawl because they know, that by crawling, they can get where they want to go.  We don’t sit down and tell the baby, “get down on all fours and move one arm and leg and then the opposite arm and leg”.

The same is true with anything else; including multiplication.   Children need to visualize why they are actually multiplying and how they are multiply.  This will help when they go on to other math concepts.

Tampa Bay Parent provides some beginning math worksheets, that provide and graphical representation of multiplication.

Beginning Multiplication. 

The government officials aren’t the only ones the can track its citizens.  With GPS enabled cell-phones parents are able to track the location of their children. Several cell phone companies now offer tracking of a child cell phone.

Using the internet parents can log-on at find the location of their child.  Some of these new electonic  “big Brothers”  send parents a message when the cell phone is in a certain location.

NOTE: Of course these gadgets do not substitute for regular parental attention.  All new technology should be used in conjuction with parental involment(My two cents).

Through the end of June parents can pick-up FCAT scores from their child’s school.  After that point the paper print-out will be placed in the student’s cummalative folder and handed out at the child’s school the up-coming school year.

If you are unable to make it to your child’s school you can get the scores online at:http://www.fcatparentnetwork.com