What to expect in SEO in the coming months

We just recently taped a new round of webmaster videos, and I thought this video deserved a full-fledged blog post. This is my rough estimate (as of early May 2013) of what search engine optimizers (SEOs) and webmasters should expect in the next few months:

Bear in mind that this is a very rough estimate, because priorities, projects, and timing can change based on a lot of different factors. But I hope this gives folks a ballpark idea of what to expect in the coming months as far as what my team is working on.

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Google Continues To Experiment & Expand Authorship

If one theme was abundantly clear at SMX West in March, it was the question over the importance of authorship and how it might impact future rankings in Google.

During the “What’s Needed For SEO Success In 2013 & Beyond?” panel, I asked Matt Cutts if Google planned to expand authorship credit (and potentially the rich snippet) beyond just written content (like blog posts) and begin incorporating other content types.

In reality, content creators could truly author various types of content, including photos for photographers or video for videographers. Just because a piece of content isn’t part of the written medium doesn’t mean that content has no author.

Matt indicated that while the majority of content that Google sees on the Web is written, there are clearly other types of content Google indexes and wants to be able to understand authorship for.

Google is certainly doing its part to infer authorship of content, even when authorship markup has not been applied to a particular page. Over the past six months, there have been several examples of Google erroneously crediting the wrong authors with content, such as when a New York Times article credited Truman Capote with a new article, even though Capote has been deceased for nearly 30 years.

Google has even inferred authorship over other types of semantic markup on the page. On my own site, our archived webinar pages, which are coded with video schema and previously were displaying a video rich snippet, suddenly reverted to authorship instead, even though the page was not coded with author data:

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The Most Effective Way to Become an SEO Master

A couple of months ago a friend of mine asked my help with one of his websites. It is an online store that sells sports equipment, and he hired a local web agency to revamp the design and the site structure. 

Long story short the agency completely destroyed the optimization he had on his site, changing all permalinks, putting the same title tag on all pages of the site and so on. As a result the good rankings he had disappeared over night, and he was pretty pissed.

He set up a meeting with the agency to discuss the issue, and he asked me to go along with him to back him up and to give my take on the issue.  

After talking for 5 minutes with the guys who owned this web agency I realized they didn’t have a clue of what they were talking about. I pressed them a bit with some technical questions and one of them said:

“Hey man, I know this stuff, I am even doing the Google course!”.

To which I replied:

“What Google course? Google doesn’t offer any SEO course officially.”

The guy started mumbling and couldn’t explain what course he was talking about. Then I asked them:

“Okay forget about courses and books, just give me the URL of a couple of sites you managed to increase the search rankings and the traffic. And please show me the Google Analytics so I can see the organic traffic numbers.”

Silence…

In the end the guys admitted that they didn’t know much about SEO, and I gave them a to-do list of things they should do to fix my friend’s website.  

But my point is: there’s only one way to effectively learn and become good at SEO, and that is by getting your hands dirty and doing it. 

Sure, books and courses can help, and there are some good ones out there, but all the books and courses together represent only 10% of your learning curse. The rest will come from hands-on experience. From building 10 websites from scratch and failing with 9 of them, while making one to the top of the search rankings and seeing your organic traffic explode.  

Only when you try to do the stuff yourself you’ll understand and learn what works and what doesn’t, which methods are effective and which are not.

I was inspired to write this post after reading a similar post on Shoemoney’s blog: If You Are Such a Hotshot SEO, Why Are You Trolling For Clients?.

If you are starting to learn about SEO stay tuned for tomorrow’s post as well, when I’ll review a set of SEO tools that can get you going a lot faster.

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RSS Search Engine Optimization

Tips for Helping Your RSS Feed Perform! : In some ways RSS is very similar to HTML, the language commonly used to create websites. Just as with HTML, webmasters using traditional search engine optimization tactics when creating an RSS feed will find that their RSS feed receives additional exposure and interest.

Simple steps to optimize an RSS feed for search engines: 

1.) The title should contain important search terms : To state the obvious, the title should be relevant and not misleading, while still emphasizing keywords. Ultimately, the title should entice the reader to read on, not mislead them.

2.) Display RSS feeds : Most webmasters display their feeds as content on their website. When displaying a feed be sure to use PHP, ASP or HTML so that search engines will spider the contents of the feed displayed. If using a template to display feeds, use header tags to define the appearance of the Channel Title and Item Titles. Many search engines weight header tags with more importance. See Displaying RSS Feeds for additional information - http://www.small-business-software.net/display-rss.htm

3.) Internal & external Links : Within a feed you should always use the full path of any links, keeping in mind that other sites may syndicate the contents of the RSS feed. Links that are not local to the site should launch a new browser. While this is not specific to search engines it will help keep visitors on your site.

4.) Link text should emphasize keywords :It is no longer a deep, dark secret that the text used for incoming links will help a site contextually define the keywords that the site appears for in the search engines. Keeping that in mind, be sure to use keywords in any link text that points back to your website.

5.) My.Yahoo and My.MSN : This is surprisingly simple to do but often overlooked by publishers and webmasters. The fastest way to have an RSS feed spidered by Yahoo or MSN is to include the feed on a personal my.yahoo or my.msn home page. Simply create an account on the respective search engines and customize the home page to include your RSS feed. This is done by adding content and listing the URL to the RSS feed. Typically, within 24-48 hours the feed's contents will be spidered and indexed by Yahoo and MSN.

6.) Theme feeds : Feeds should be themed. This will help with themed links back to a publisher's website from anyone syndicating the feed's content.

7. ) Link popularity : Increase link popularity by submitting the RSS feed, blog or podcast to the appropriate directories. The following directories allow submissions of specific kinds of RSS feeds. Be sure to follow the guidelines of each site and choose categories wisely.

Submit Podcasts - http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm
Submit RSS feeds - http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
Submit Blogs - http://www.blog-connection.com/submit-blogs.htm

8.) RSS feed descriptions : RSS feed descriptions are generally summaries or introductions to other content. Often, feed creators will provide additional information on an HTML site, enticing the reader to click through for the full information if it is a topic that is of interest to them. Provide enough teaser copy that the reader can easily discern if the contents are something that is important to them.

9.) Subscribe to feeds : This might seem obvious, but a surprisingly large number of publishers do not subscribe to their own feed. This is a great way to visualize what your customers see, and experiment with formatting and integrating HTML into feeds.

10.) Image ads : Add your corporate logo to your RSS feed. Create a brand and enforce that brand by including the image in the RSS feed. The image will enhance your corporate identity and dress up the look of your feed by adding your corporate logo.

11.) Alphabetical rank : Many feed readers list feeds alphabetically in the reader. Feed channels that begin with A will naturally appear in the top of the feed list in most feed readers. If you wish to appear in the top of list of feeds that a reader has subscribed to, keep this tip in mind.

12.) Meaningful Links : Each item in your feed should contain a unique URL associated with it. This will direct users to associated information. Many find using target URLs with the "#" symbol in the link to identify specific content useful.

Most marketers have a love-hate relationship with search engines. Search engines have the abilitiy to make even the most confident webmaster feel powerless . Let’s face it - all of us have felt the wrath of the search engine powers-that-be at one time or another, and while it may be difficult to know what line was crossed or how we fell out of favor, following some basic guidelines will be helpful in optomizing feeds for search engines. 

 

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Learn to live life : જિંદગી જીવી જાણો

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On-Page Optimization Methods Still Valid in 2013

SEO can be divided broadly into on-page and off-page optimization techniques. Simply put, on-page optimization is concerned with everything that can be done to boost your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) on the webpage itself.

Off-page optimization deals with aspects that take place elsewhere such as the quality and relevance (though not these days the sheer numeric volume) of your back-links. An effective SEO campaign will usually take both into account, but the importance of complete on-page optimization cannot be overstated. 

Keywords  

‘The keyword is king’ used to be the mantra of most SEO campaigns. Choosing the correct keywords is still crucial. They are, after all, the phrases that people use when searching for a site, but nowadays less can be more.

The recent Penguin update to Google’s search algorithm dealt with keyword stuffing amongst other issues. Keyword repetition, if done within reasonable parameters, is not considered a black hat technique, but its efficacy is certainly debatable.

After years of debate concerning the optimum keyword density (if you were paying attention you might have noticed people throwing extremely precise figures such as 3.5 percent or 4.2 percent), Google’s Head of Webspam Matt Cutts claimed that it didn’t matter half as much as many people think.

“The first time you mention a word, you know, ‘Hey, that’s pretty interesting. It’s about that word.’ The next time you mention that word, ‘Oh, okay. It’s still about that word.’ And once you start to mention it a whole lot, it really doesn’t help that much more. There’s diminishing returns,” Cutts explained earlier this year.

More recently he revealed that:

“We have an entire team at Google called the Synonyms Team, and their job is to sort of realize that car and automobile are the same thing.”

The key with keywords in content, it seems, is to choose them wisely and use them as naturally as possible. There are, however, a few places where you should make sure your most important keywords appear. Keywords should generally be placed near the top of the page and at the beginning of paragraphs. 

Titles 

When search engines analyze your site, they pay particular attention to what lies between the HTML heading tags, especially <H1>, <H2>, and <H3>. In other words, titles and subtitles are important positions for keywords.

Don’t just use the heading tags on your first or main page. For every page on your website you should have a <h1> or <h2>or <h3> that has that page’s main keyword within it.

You can also double up on your subtitle SEO efforts by also including them in a contents list of clickable links. Don’t, however, make your titles too long or convoluted. Keep them simple and to the point. 

URLs 

The URL of the webpage can be one of the most important factors of on-page optimization. Changing URLs retrospectively can be problematic so it’s important to get this right from the start. Including important, relevant keywords in the URL can give you a small, but perhaps, crucial rankings boost, and both Google and Yahoo will display the portions of your URL that match the search term entered in bold in the SERPs. This can serve to catch a human eye even if you are not at the top of the SERPs for that particular search term.

Avoid overly dynamic URLs as these can be off-putting in the search results. All of your URLs should be set up in a logical way that gives an idea to what the user can expect from the content of the page.

If, for example, you saw www.domain.com/index.php?12345/ then it would be almost impossible for you to guess what that page was about. On the other hand, www.domain.com/dog-leads/ is almost certainly going to be about dog leads. 

Meta Tags  

Meta tags are used to instruct search engines on how a particular webpage should be indexed. Optimizing your title tag and the description meta tag can be useful in providing additional information to the search engines but using the keyword meta tag can do more harm than good. 

The exception to this is the news_keywords meta tag that Google announced in September. This is only for Google News-accredited clients however and pertains only to news stories. If this isn’t you, steer clear of the keyword meta tag.

The nature of SEO has changed over time, but its purpose is still the same. Increasing your chances of a high SERPS ranking and the additional traffic this can generate can only be a good thing. On-page optimization is one of the most important tools in achieving this and can be well worth the time and effort.

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Love Poems-Nilesh Patel

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Epic Funny Fail Compilation 2012

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6 Things to Do Before You Delete Your Facebook Account

You've probably thought about deleting your Facebook account before, but for one reason or another you've been unable to commit. Maybe you're applying for a job and don't want your future employer to see pics of you at college frat parties. Or maybe you just can't stand one more depressing status update.

If you're serious this time about deleting your Facebook account, escaping the social networking giant can be a lot more complicated than you would think. There are necessary steps you should take before pressing that delete account button.

Remember, deleting your account is very different from deactivating your account. You can deactivate your account at any point, and when you want to return everything is as you left it. While your account is deactivated, people on Facebook will not be able to search for you, but some information like messages you've sent may still be visible to others.

SEE ALSO: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook
 

If you permanently delete your account, you will not be able to regain access to your account again, ever. Most personally identifiable information is removed from the Facebook database, but some may remain such as your name if you sent a message to someone else.

If you're planning to delete your Facebook account permanently, read on to learn about what steps you should take first.

1. Check Your Connected Apps

There are a lot of apps and websites that require you to log in using your Facebook username and password, and when you delete your Facebook account you lose access to these sites as well. You can check this by clicking on your Account Settings, then Apps in the left column. Popular apps that use Facebook login are Pinterest, Pandora, Foursquare, Spotify and Instagram. Some apps allow you to change your form of log in by using your email address or Twitter handle, for example. However, there are some sites that don't let you decouple your Facebook account from their app, like Spotify.

If you still want to use Spotify, your best bet is not to delete your Facebook account. If you want to almost delete your account to maintain your Spotify profile, you could remove all of your friends, change the email address associated with your Facebook account to one you don't use very often or turn off all email notifications for all apps, including Spotify, and lastly remove all of your data from Facebook and delete all of your activity, photos, etc. Though exhausting, taking this approach would allow you to keep all of the playlists you have made on Spotify and the songs you have been sent by friends, rather than starting over again.

If that sounds like way too much work for you, then you can always deactivate your Facebook account, and setup a new Facebook account with an email you only use for Spotify, and then authenticate Spotify from there. In taking this approach, you would lose all existing Spotify activity, so unless you are a new user and don't have much built up — the first option is probably the best, albeit time-consuming.

The big lesson here is to make sure your connected apps will let you change your form of login before you deactivate your Facebook account. You won't be able to change anything retroactively. If you have already deactivated your Facebook account and you can't login to these connected apps, you could reactivate your Facebook account and follow the steps listed above.

2. Download Your Facebook Information

For users who want to delete all history of their Facebook days but who still want a record of everything they've done on the site, Facebook has developed an easy way to download that information. Go to your Account Settings, click "General" in the left-hand column, then click on "Download a copy of your Facebook data", finish by clicking "Start My Archive"."

The information in this download is available in three places:

• Downloaded Info: This includes timeline information like posts you've shared, messages, photos, a history of the conversations you've had in Facebook chat, a list of your friends and much more.
• Expanded Archive: This is additional info, and contains even more account details like logins, cookies, apps you've subscribed to, people you have unfriended and much more.
• Activity Log: This is a comprehensive history of all your activity from posts you've commented on or liked, apps you've used, and anything you've ever searched for.

For a full breakdown of what information falls into each category, check out this Facebook chart. As you can see, the information available for download is extensive, so make sure you save it in a safe place in case you need to access it later.

Also, if you are just interested in saving certain conversations you've had with friends you can forward them to your email address. First go to the message stream and click on the Actions tab at the top. Next, scroll down to Forward Messages and select the ones you want to forward.

SEE ALSO: 8 Reasons to Deactivate Your Facebook Account

3. Ask for Your Friends' Birthdays

Facebook has become a reliable and convenient resource for remembering friends birthdays, so if you no longer have your account you might slip up and forget. Instead, be proactive in reaching out to your friends and tell them that you are deleting your Facebook account, but would still like to remember their birthday. Another way of doing this is to use the incredibly annoying Facebook Birthday's app. You could include a disclaimer at the top telling people that you're just using it to gather all of your friends' birthdays before you delete your account.

4. Ask for Contact Information

It's incredible to think about how much communication happens over Facebook alone. Before deleting your account, make sure that you have other ways to keep in touch with your friends, whether that is through email, texting or phone calls. Download that contact information for anyone you're worried about losing contact with.

SEE ALSO: How to See When Someone Unfriends You on Facebook

5. Store Your Facebook Information on the Cloud

Backupify.com is a great way to store consumer web application data on the cloud. There are both paid and free services available, with the free service giving you 1GB of storage, or you can get up to 25GB for the paid service. The backups occur automatically, and you can download critical items as PDFs as well. Backupify files are stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS), which are subject to the highest security and boast a 99.9% up time.

6. Optimize Your SEO Before You Go

If you're leaving the Facebook community, make sure you are still active on enough other social platforms to maximize your SEO. You want to make sure that you are still searchable by friends or potential employers.

Are you seriously thinking about deleting your Facebook account? Let us know why in the comments.

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On Page Optimisation (SEO)

SEO has traditionally divided into two main areas; on-page optimisation which covers what can be done on the pages of the website itself, and off-page optimisation which covers activity that takes place elsewhere (e.g. link-building).

The most effective strategy in 2012 however (social media powered SEO) requires an integrated approach, with on-page content promoted off-page within the main social media channels. Please click on the following link to find out more about social media SEO - the future proofed SEO strategy that delivers outstanding results now.

Alternatively, click here to understand more about how off-page SEO has had to adapt to changes in the search engines’ algorithms to remain effective in 2012.

Finally, if you are more interested in on-page SEO, we should probably warn you that, although it’s still very important to optimise on-page factors, it’s extremely unlikely to work on its own unless your market is particularly niche. Please read on for:

• A checklist outlining the key areas to consider when reviewing on-page SEO.
• A list of common mistakes to look out for with regard to on-page SEO.
• A list of old-school SEO (‘spammy’) on-page tactics that the search engines are now able to recognise (and punish accordingly).

On-Page SEO Checklist:

• Always start with keyword selection, research and testing
• Meta Description tag
• ALT tags
• H1 tags
• URL structure
• Internal linking strategy
• Content
• Keyword density
• Site maps, both XML and user facing
• Usability and accessibility
• Track target keywords
• Expect results in 6-12 months

Avoid common on-page SEO mistakes such as:

• Duplicate content
• URL variants of the same pages
• Off-site images and content on-site
• Duplicate title tags

Avoid spammy SEO tactics such as:

• Hidden text
• Hidden links
• Keyword repetition
• Doorway pages
• Mirror pages
• Cloaking

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Top 10 Best SEO and Social Media Books

More and more people are turning to the Internet when it comes time to learn a skill or learn more about a topic; however there is not denying that books (actual in-your-hand, turn-the-page books) have their benefits. Those who really want to sit down and read extensively about something often find that it is easier to read a book than read an article online for a few hours. Books are tangible, so you can write notes easier, read on the beach or somewhere comfortable, and give your eyes a break from the computer screen that you’ve likely been starting at all day at work.

Reading a book regarding SEO best practices is great because there is so much that goes into SEO and all the falls under the SEO umbrella—social media, content management, Google updates, etc. It takes a very long time to really get a good grasp on this still-new topic, so books are a great way to help you gain a well-rounded understanding. Below are ten of the top SEO books from 2012 until today:

1. The Link Building Book; by: Paddy Moogan
This is one of the most recent SEO books to surface and it was written by the leading industry expert Paddy Moogan, who works for the highly-acclaimed website Distilled. He writes 287 pages all about link building. Search Engine Watch author Julie Joyce writes, “I read it and kept thinking ‘that’s awesome that he’s talking about that and never once thought ‘wow that’s b.s.’”

2. Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing; by: Lee Odden
Odden is someone I have been following for quite some time, and I always feel as though he has a strong handle on everything he chooses to write. This book does a good job of bringing in all of the aspects under the SEO umbrella and explaining how they should work together to really create success.

3. The Art of SEO; by: Eric Enge, Stephen Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessica Stricchiolia
This is considered one of the most popular and most detailed books about SEO out there today. It was written by more than one industry expert, so you get a wide range of opinions and information. It has over 500 pages and covers every little thing you would need to know.

4. SEO Fitness Workbook; by: Jason McDonald
The cool thing about this book is the fact that it offers more than just text. It comes with worksheets and other toolbooks that help you find free SEO tools online, so you walk away with practical advice and resources you can really use. The author, Jason McDonald, is also highly established with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.A from Harvard.

5. SEO for Content Writers and PR Pros; by: Phil Byrne
This is another book with great Amazon reviews. It focuses on a lot of content-based advice discussing blog posts, website content, PR articles, and even stories. It helps give you an idea of what people really want and how to translate that onto your website and market the content the best way you can.

6. Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics; by: Brian Clifton
Understanding Google Analytics alone is important, yet it can be overwhelming to someone who is new to the tool or even to someone who only has a basic understanding. This is a great book for those really interested in understanding how to take advantage of this popular tool.
Great for Beginners:

7. Search Engine Optimization for Dummies; by: Peter Kent
This book is what you would expect—easy to understand beginners’ material. New editions are constantly being published so you are sure to get the most up-to-date information.

8. SEO for Beginners; by: Amit Bhawnani
If you look on Amazon, you will find many reviews that all gave this book five stars and glowing reviews. It’s only 55 pages long and it takes a comic approach to SEO, which helps make the content more fun to read for those who are just starting out.

9. Fifty SEO Ideas: Free Tips, Secrets, and Ideas for Search Engine Optimization; by: Jason McDonald.
A great book for beginners, you don’t have to worry about getting confused with very advanced details. It offers lots of step-by-step instructions about things that small businesses can use right away.

10. SEO King: How I Built My Blogging Empire; by: Jason Blair
It is always helpful to hear a real story about someone who has made it happen through good SEO, and that is exactly what Blair does in his book. He started with a small budget and grew his blog to be one of the biggest around, so this book is not only helpful, but inspiring.

Extra Tips and Tricks Regarding SEO Books
It’s important to realize that SEO is always changing, so the date the book was written does matter. You will want to be weary of some of the practices that may have changed, so it’s always good to double-check with current articles a few of the things you learned while reading. All of the books discussed above were either written this year or last year in 2012. I haven’t read all of these books, but made sure to research what each detailed to offer this list.

Have you read or published an SEO book that you found helpful? What did you find so helpful about reading? Was there a particular section that jumped out at you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Top 10 Article Submission Web Sites

Another great list for those of you who want to engage in Google SEO yourselves. Similar to our press release distribution sites, article submission sites provide you with another great platform for building your Web site free quality inbound links.

Articles you submit to these sites need to be original, related to your field of expertise, well written and free of spelling/grammatical errors. It may be better for you to hire a professional copy-writer to help you with the writing.
Here is the list:

URL	Google PR	Text Links Allowed	Pricing Options
www.ezinearticles.com	6	2	free
www.searchwarp.com	5	3	free
www.fastpitchnetworking.com	5	8	$18/3months
www.a1articles.com	5	3	free
www.artilib.org	4	3	free
www.ideamarketers.com	3	7	bidding from $1
www.articlerich.com	3	5	$1.30-$27
www.search-o-rama.com	3	6	free
www.amazines.com	2	7	free
www.infodento.com	2	8	free

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10 Fun Activities for Children with Autism

Here are 10 activities that teachers and parents love to do with their special needs children.

1. Create a Shredded Flower Bouquet. Who knew shredded paper could be so beautiful? This creative activity involves ripping and shredding paper to create a colorful composition that makes for a great gift or decoration. Kids with special needs will especially love the sensory experience of handling paper and manipulating colors and shapes!

2. Underwater I Spy Alphabet Bottle. Sparkly, glittery water is sure to attract curious eyes! This alphabet bottle is fun to make and a great activity to keep your child engaged and focused. The craft helps kids recognize letters in a creative way while enjoying the beautiful shine and sparkle of floating sequins!

3. Paint with Ice. Kids love to swirl the melting paint over paper, creating beautiful designs. They'll practice their color recognition and observation skills while observing paint go from a liquid state to a solid state, then back to liquid again!

4. Explore the Senses with a Sensory Table. A sensory table is a place designed for squishing, sifting, sorting, digging and pouring! Children will relish the opportunity to get messy, discover, and play freely with engaging their sense of touch, hearing sight.

5. Practice Paint Chip Storytelling. Telling a story is like painting a picture, using words instead of paint. In this imaginative activity, your child uses paint chips and words to tell a story! Alter the activity according to the level of your child, and you can spark his imagination and narrative abilities while having a colorful good time!

6. Play the Matching Halves Game. This matching activity is a great way to introduce children to the concept of puzzles, and to satisfy many special needs kids who crave order and simplicity. Each craft stick will have only half a shape: find the stick with the missing half and place the sticks side by side to complete each one!

7. Sculpt Clay Snowflakes. You don't have to brave the chill to enjoy the beauty of winter. Make sparkly snowflake sculptures and experience winter from the comfort and warmth of your home! Sculpting clay is a great way to boost fine motor skills, and kids with special needs will love the sensory experience of squishing, pulling and kneading as they work.

8. Set Up a Smelling Station. With the help of some small containers, rubber bands, scraps of fabric and lots and lots of fragrant ingredients, your child can create a whole collection of smells to tease his nose. Smell is one of the five senses, and kids will love learning about what role it plays while exploring the breathing and relaxation associated with good scents.

9. Oobleck Science: Solid or Liquid? Can something be solid and liquid at the same time? Experiment with this classic science activity that introduces kids to the mysteries of states of matter. Children will love the sensory experience of squeezing and splashing that comes with this gooey scientific investigation!

10. Make Number Rubbings. Kids love using crayons for just about everything. Put this art streak to good use by introducing them to “rubbings.” They'll work the small muscles in their hands and improve eye-hand coordination. Plus, they'll experiment with different surfaces while practicing shapes and numbers.

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Barack Obama on Education

During the 2008 presidential campaign, and after Barack Obama was elected, we brought you coverage of the new President’s plans for education. 

Standardized Testing : In 2008, Obama said he wanted to “provide funds for states to implement a broader range of assessments that can evaluate higher-order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigation, solve problems, and present and defend their ideas.” The biggest movement on the assessment front is something called the Race to the Top Assessment Program.

“As a parent, I would be concerned because Americans move around a lot (more than in any other industrialized country) and if they move, suddenly their kids are going to be taught very different things,” he says.

School Choice : In 2008, President Obama voted no on vouchers that would use public money to send kids to private schools because he thought they depleted resources for those kids most in need. The kicker is that because the closure of schools—whether public or charter—is the responsibility of states, not the federal government, there’s not much President Obama can do to ensure bad charter schools are no longer in operation.

No Child Left Behind : While Obama did not have kind words to say about this policy heading into his presidency, he never made any promises to kill the bill and start from scratch. He did say he thought some serious reforms were needed, especially in relation to teacher quality and retention, and offered ideas for professional development programs as a way to combat the issue.

College Funding and Affordability : Obama hedged his bets on the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a refundable credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of a college education is free for most Americans. Obama made good on these promises, and the results seem to be positive, especially for low-income students trying to get a college education.

Universal Preschool v One of Obama’s education goals was to create a voluntary, universal preschool program to help close the achievement gap before it starts.

Jennings thinks any evaluation of Obama’s performance on education issues should keep this in mind. “Obama has done much more than could have been foreseen when elected,” he says.

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