Around the Web:

Mike Rowe Says Many Are Following Bad Job Advice

The host of a show called Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, Mike Rowe is a big fan of hard work, and he does a great job in this interview explaining that four year college degrees may not be the best path for preparing a young person for a career.

“We’re lending money we don’t have, to kids who will never be able to pay it back, for jobs that no longer exist,” he explained, echoing what he told TheBlaze TV’s Andrew Wilkow earlier this month. “That’s crazy, right? That’s what we’ve been doing for the last forty years.”

There's definitely something here. Read more.

How Not to Read a Children's Book

Loren Eaton sent me this link. It's a great read.

Always read in the same tone of voice, without expression or accents. Especially if it’s only a mediocre book that you’re tired of reading one more time—your child will be offended if you read Clifford with a Southern drawl!

Make sure you read it in a funny voice. Read more.

Hundreds Attend the Funeral of WWII Veteran

If you missed this, this week of all weeks, you should go back and read it.

His death could so easily have been marked with a simple service in an almost empty chapel.
Harold Jellicoe Percival, a last link to the Dambusters raid, never married and had no children. When he died last month aged 99 he had no close friends and it seemed there would be no one to mourn him except a handful of care home staff.
But yesterday, after a newspaper appeal led to an internet campaign highlighting the forgotten war veteran’s case, hundreds of people who never knew him came to pay their respects at his funeral – poignantly held at 11am on Armistice Day.

I cried. Read more.

A Mommy To-Do List

Courtney Reissig over at the CBMW blog has a post about being a mom and getting things done.

Babies don’t like to-do lists. Mommies like me do. I find great comfort in my to-do list. And I find even more in that little checkmark next to each and every item on my list. Babies? Not so much. There is always a blow-out right when I need to finish the dishes.

How To Be A Man At Home

Brian Howard writes at his blog about how to be a great dad at home.

Watching college basketball games or Seinfeld re-runs every night will not help you lead your family. Evenings are Prime Time for husbands and fathers to be completely present to our families. Don’t let the remote control dominate your family. I watch less TV then ever these days because there is simply not time to parent four kids, love my wife, and watch much TV. Three or four nights a week, my wife and I watch a show together after the kids go to bed. From 5-9 however, the TV is seldom on.

Around the Warren:

My Father's Stunning Failure to Acheive:

In honor of Veteran's Day, S. D. Smith shares a reflection on his dad:

From his enlistment (he volunteered during Vietnam, wasn’t drafted) as a Private, to his honorable discharge a few years later as a Lieutenant. I had to drag many of the facts out of him, because he is more reluctant than most men to talk about himself. But after some persistent inquiry, he would tell it to me straight.

What Seems to Be

Wednesday brought a guest post from Kelly Keller. It was great.

There was the anticipated silence when Gandalf disappeared down the crevasse after the creature. Even Maddie knew what had happened without any explanation. I used to say that I only felt comfortable in this story when Gandalf was around — and at this point, he’s gone. Everything is different. We as readers anticipate the unknown with dread.

A Contentious, Incontestible Boy

Loren Eaton writes about The Whipping Boy, the 1987 Newberry Award winner.

No one calls Prince Horace by his proper name. A childhood spent greasing knights’ saddles, tying noblemen’s wigs to the backs of their chairs, and dumping croaking frogs into the castle moat has earned him the unenviable nickname of Prince Brat.

Something to Try with Your Kids:

This is more of a learn by example thing. Refe Tuma photo-journals a fun thing his family did for a month. Too cool. Read more and then find your own twist on it.