You may have played Capture the Flag when you were a kid, at summer camp or day care or simply with a group of friends.  It’s a popular childhood game, used for teaching strategy as well as for entertainment.

Fortunately, there are many grown-up versions of Capture the Flag that are just as much fun.  Here are some tips for putting together a good Capture the Flag game.

1. Play in interesting terrain.  Woodsy terrain is a lot of fun, because it gives players places to hide and makes the game more challenging.
2. Make team members easily identifiable.  Especially if you are playing in terrain that makes people hard to see, you need an easy way to identify your teammates.  A brightly colored bandana tied around one arm (i.e. "the blue team" and "the red team") is the classic way to identify players.
3. Add a grown-up element.  Adult versions of Capture the Flag often include airsoft or paintball guns.  For instance, you can use airsoft sniper rifles to take out members of the opposing team, or classic army airsoft guns to give the game a more genuine feel.

Capture the Flag isn’t just for kids!  Of course, you could also apply the argument, "Bigger kids, bigger toys" — being adults means that we get to make the game more fun, not that we have to stop playing it altogether!

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The first time I ever encountered sleep apnea, it was as a babysitter.  A little 4-year-old boy I babysat for had it.

Sleep apnea is pretty scary stuff if you don’t know what it is.  Basically, the person stops breathing a little bit in their sleep.  If you don’t know what is going on — and even if you do — you may find yourself holding your breath as you wait for the other person to start breathing again.  It’s scary when it’s a child in your care, but it’s just as scary when it’s an adult, such as your spouse or an aging parent.

I didn’t know this when I was babysitting for that kid, but there are actually a lot of ways to treat sleep apnea — you don’t just have to deal with that stress.  A sleep apnea machine, known as a CPAP machine (for "continuous positive airway pressure"), keeps the throat open by continually blowing a little bit of air down it.  Therefore the person’s throat can’t close up and force them to stop breathing during sleep.  A sleep apnea mask might not be that comfortable, however, which is why a person needs to choose their equipment carefully — if you don’t like how it fits or feels, you won’t wear it while you sleep, and therefore won’t benefit from the treatment.

Now that I know about stuff like sleep apnea, I’m a more attentive babysitter.  I like to have the baby monitor nearby so that I can listen to the kid breathe.  It’s amazing what a comforting sound that can be!

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I’m getting pretty frustrated with our public school system these days.  Last year, the Washington Post ran a bunch of articles about the public schools in the District.  This past week, there was an article about how our math education system isn’t working.

What’s up with all this?

These days, it seems like more and more parents in the District are having to resort to Washington DC in-home tutors in order for their kids to get a quality education — something that, if I might remind you, our kids are supposed to all get for free.  Unfortunately, it just doesn’t happen that way, does it?  Public schools generally don’t receive enough funding to provide the education they’re supposed to — and, I suspect, when they do get the funding it gets misused.

Reading skills in particular are really struggling.  Kids today just don’t want to read.  They have things like TV and video games, which are infinitely more attractive to them.  With less time spent reading and less enjoyment of the pastime, a lot of kids in the District need Washington DC reading tutors just to keep up with where they should be.

According to standardized testing, of course.  And maybe this should have been the first topic my little rant addressed, but standardized testing just doesn’t seem to be working.  All it really does is punish schools by taking away funding, when really the schools that have poorer scores are suffering from a lack of funding already.  I’m not talking about SAT and ACT tests — needing extra help for Washington DC SAT test prep is generally expected, since it is preparation for college, after all — but the tests that public school kids take every year to determine not only their progress, but the school’s.

Unfortunately, I think that something in our public education system in general (and not just our math education) is broken.  Testing isn’t going to help fix the problem, but just keep reminding us that it’s there.

Technorati Tags: public school system, education, standardized testing, Washington DC, tutors, SAT test prep