News From Home

New Item On Your Phone Bill

The federal government is letting phone companies put another fee on monthly bills. The goal is to stop subsidizing phone service and start helping to spread access to broadband, which isn’t available to 18 million households.

The new levy is allowed to begin at 50 cents a month, but some companies could charge less or as little as 10 cents a month, depending on what fees companies charge each other for delivering phone calls.

Smarter, More Creative Kids

If you have the time and resources to usher your kids to special events, museums and botanical gardens, that’s great. But there are plenty of ways to develop engaged and more creative children that require less time and money.

Have an age-appropriate kids’ dictionary. Encourage them to look up words and read definitions to you. Add an insight about how the word is used.

Create a spot for them to solve jigsaw puzzles, which builds visualization skills, memory and pattern recognition.

Build a puzzle library. Challenge them with crossword puzzles, mazes and brain teasers.

Play dominoes. The game aids number skills. Show them how to build knock-down walls to enhance creativity.

Put up a world map. Help them locate states and countries as names come up, say the editors of Disney FamilyFun.