HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

I just lost about twenty minutes of my life on a frog game for my phone. You can’t redeem any points for prizes or money, and there are no brain-expanding benefits. You catch frogs, you hop them around and they eat. Perhaps the programmers were counting on my nostalgic feelings of sitting reverse cross-legged on the floor playing Frogger.

If you are looking for a slightly more redeemable app for the little one’s, CloudBurst has an adorable bunny in their “Talking Rabbit” App. The bunny aims to entertained the smallest tots, and teaches names of basic body parts, letters and numbers. The rabbit reacts when a child touches her ears, tickles her, or touches the scenery. When the child talks to the rabbit, the bun repeats it. While some sound effects become a bit grating to parents, you might begin to love the rabbit when peace temporarily interrupts a long, trying car ride this weekend.

You can try Talking Rabbit on your iPhone, iTouch or iPad. The app is absolutely free from iTunes. If you want to go ad free, pay just .99.

My local library has several opportunities a month for children to read with therapy dogs in a story hour setting. How do dogs teach children how to read? Apparently, the children naturally want to read to the dogs and make sure they are entertained! Reluctant readers want to participate, and also children with concentration problems find it grounding to pet a dog.

There’s a different type of therapy dog that is hoping to develop the reading skills of readers ages four through eight. Tristan is a Bichon Frise therapy dog who has a series of books chronicling his adventures with humane companion Trudee Lewis. They volunteer as a team with California-based Paws for Healing. The series of nine books feature a single theme or adventure each. There is a title about Tristan’s job as a therapy dog, and a book about getting groomed as well as the latest installment, Tristan Goes to the Store.

The stories, published in paperback form, build a child’s skills of sounding words and phrases out. In a subtle way, readers learn that dogs like Tristan require not just an occasional pat, but love and sometimes specialized care, such as grooming for special coats. Children will also be introduced to the concept of pets helping others.

All volumes are available online, or request them from your favorite independent book store.

Here’s an encouraging sign:

According to The College Board (collegeboard.org), the 2009-2010 college school year saw a record number of Pell Grants–both in dollar amount and number of awards. The $28.2 billion in total awards outpaced the prior year by almost $10 billion. Tuition increases may discourage students from pursuing degrees, but before you are soundly daunted, check into scholarships and grants. While state budgets may slash gifts to universities, individual students are receiving more government aid. The more aid a student gets, the smaller the amount of the college loans carried around on their backs after graduation. Not only that, but the door opens for students who would not normally consider a college education in the first place, having desire but no obvious funding source to justify the commitment.

Public universities may cry poverty over diminished funding, but doesn’t an influx in revenue from actual tuition keep schools more competitive to lure students? At the very least, the operating budget coincides with the actual number of students wishing to attend? This works, in principle. In actuality, a university is not merely funding the education of the individual student, class materials and the rent or mortgage on the square footage that the desk their derriere rests on occupies, but other holdings. The whole experience includes archival art and rare books, green spaces and walkways to study and study upon.

Will you go back and finish that degree to have a competitive edge, or have the edge to have more fire power and influence to help others?