Journalist Christopher Elliott shared an email from one of his regular readers. It tells a tale that is both sad and heartwarming. A 3-year old boy was murdered by the boyfriend of his mother. The family decided to take him off life support, so the grandfather flew in to say goodbye to him. To make sure that he got there in time, one Southwest Airlines pilot delayed takeoff:

According to him, everyone he talked to couldn’t have cared less. When he was done with security, he grabbed his computer bag, shoes and belt and ran to his terminal in his stocking feet.

When he got there, the pilot of his plane and the ticketing agent both said, “Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we’re so sorry about the loss of your grandson.”

The pilot held the plane that was supposed to take off at 11:50 until 12:02 when my husband got there.

As my husband walked down the Jetway with the pilot, he said, “I can’t thank you enough for this.”

The pilot responded with, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”

Link via Gizmodo | Photo by Flickr user Pylon757 used under Creative Commons license

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Gotta start them young! As for myself, I've already taught my 2-year old a few words in Klingon and Ferengi. Why? Because she's at the perfect age for foreign language acquisition.

via reddit

Comedian Danielle Harrison parodied mommyblogging, that strange genre of blogging that seems to captivate so many modern mothers. It's a pitch-perfect depiction of the hyper, over-sharing, cyber mom. A sample:

June 20, 2010

I haven't given any updates on Pat in a while! How awful of me! I've been getting your emails asking how he's handling puberty and let's just say...not well. Not well at all. Yesterday his face was absolutely disgusting. He was up for going to school but I sat him down and said, "No way." I explained that in high school, your worst-looking day is always how people remember you. "Even when the acne clears up," I said, holding his hand while we had tea at the kitchen table, "your whole class will think of you as Pizza Face after they see you today. One bad-looking day in high school can ruin a person, Pat."

He said that he'd still like to go because he had an important biology exam, but I pointed out that even if he aced the exam and got into Yale and became a molecular biologist, there would be two hundred and fifty people in America who had seen his pustules and would never forget it. Finally I got through to him and he locked himself in his bedroom, probably to drop to his knees and thank Heaven above for a mother who really understood what it was like to be a teenager.

Don't get me started on his erections! Email me if you're interested, I have some great stories.

Link | Image: Urlesque

When my father was nine years old, he built a functional go-cart from spare parts that he found around the family farm. This kid is sort of like that. Dylan Karam, 11, of Opunake, New Zealand, is building a house:

Since getting a hammer when he was five, Dylan has never been far from a construction site and has helped builders around Opunake in the last six years.

But it is his latest project that could be his most impressive.

The young chippy is voluntarily putting in eight to nine hour days to help build Beau LeProu a new house on Aytoun St.

"He started turning up last year with his apron and his hammer and he's been back every day since. He does more hours than any of us. He is here before us and leaves after us and he cleans up after himself," said head builder Phil Brophy.

"Yeah, I get here at about 7.30am I suppose and stay until about 5pm," Dylan said, hand resting on his 20-ounce Estwing hammer bought just days ago with some of his Christmas money.

He also picked up some magnetic screwdrivers, a tape measure and folding builder's ruler.

When these aren't hanging from his waist in his leather builder's apron they are at home safe in the wooden toolbox he built.

Link | Photo: Cameron Burnell/Taranaki Daily News

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When's the last time that you've used a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk? A long time, probably -- but you know what it is when you see one, right? Well, not the kids of today. This French-language video from Canada shows young children presented with items of technology from the 1980s and asked to explain what they are.

via Flavorwire

Prudent Baby, a parenting blog, offers this trick to encourage your young child (older toddler or pre-school) to stay in bed at night instead of wandering around the house. First, place three lengths of colored tape that align with the nursery door mostly closed, halfway open, and mostly open:

Explain the rules to the kiddo. Tell them they are a big kid now, and big kids use the tape system. At bedtime, the door will be wide open, aligned to the first piece of tape. The first time he/she leaves her room (for anything other than an actually necessary trip to the potty), the kiddo will be returned to bed, and the door will be closed halfway, aligned to the second piece of tape. The second time he/she leaves her room, she'll be sent right back to bed, and the door will be closed further, to just a crack, aligned with the third piece of tape. If Mr./Mrs. Cranky Pants leaves their room a third time, the door is going to be shut all the way. Make sure they understand the rules and act it out.

Do you think this would work?

Link via Wired

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"One more time: what does Ronald Reagan say?"

"'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall.'"

Charlotte, the daughter of YouTube user jasonenglish1, really knows her presidents. She can identify many by name from a collection of portraits on a placemat, as well as provide quotations.

via Urlesque

Kathryn Aurora Gray, a 10-year old girl from Frederictown, Canada, already has an impressive item on her resume. She's an amateur astronomer and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has credited her with discovering a previously-unknown supernova:

The society said that in this case the galaxy was "imaged" on Friday, New Year's Eve, and the supernova was located on Sunday.

A new supernova shows up as a bright point of light that wasn't visible the last time a galaxy was checked. Since supernovas can outshine millions of regular stars, they can be spotted with a modest telescope.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/01/03/nb-supernova-girl.html via Popular Science | Image: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

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Like any caring father, YouTube user NuubCast is getting his daughter involved in violent video games as early as possible. This adorable video shows him playing Starcraft while explaining the game to his inquisitive daughter.

via Geekologie

The Pima County Public Library in Tuscon, Arizona has a program that invites kids to read to dogs. This activity allows children to read stories to non-judgmental listeners, namely certified therapy dogs:

For many children, this allows them a rare chance to experience stress free reading. Once they are in this situation, children find themselves relaxing and having fun while reading! They come to think of themselves as good readers, which helps their self esteem and makes them eager to read. And eager readers practice their reading more often, leading to improved reading skill.

All of these elements work together to increase a child's motivation to read, which is an essential element in becoming a successful reader.

http://www.library.pima.gov/kidsweb/readtoadog.php via J-Walk Blog | Photo by Flickr user Manchester Library used under Creative Commons license

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Every year, the father of YouTube user Spoonito recorded a brother and sister coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. This video compiles all of those descents from 1985 to the present. It's especially cute that they move in imitation of themselves as toddlers.

via Geekosystem

Every night, 17-year old Rudy Favard visits the Parker family home in Melrose, MA. He's there because 8-year old Sammy has cerebral palsy. He must be fed downstairs, but his parents are not longer able to physically carry him back up to his bedroom. So the Parkers asked for help from the local Catholic school. The school nurse, Elizabeth Paquette, arranged for a caring teenager named Rudy to visit them every night and carry Sammy back upstairs:

When Paquette brought the boys to meet the family for the first time, the Parkers cried.

“Just to see this outpouring of people,’’ Rick Parker began, his eyes welling at the memory. “To see that these people were willing to put their hands and feet to what they believed. . .’’

Link via Deadspin | Photo: Essdras M Suarez, Boston Globe

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The three year old son of YouTube user popolats opened one of his presents. Intead of a toy, it was a set of books. Naturally, he was incensed at this gift selection.

via Brian J. Noggle's Facebook wall

25 children at the Blackawton Primary School in Britain have published an article in the prestigious journal Biology Letters. It all started three years ago when a neuroscientist named Beau Lotto spoke at the school and advocated for the study of science:

After the talk, Lotto and Dave Strudwick, Blackawton Primary School’s head teacher, decided to try to do an original research project with the students where the kids would have full control. Lotto also ran a scientific outreach program called Street Science, whose aim was to get non-scientists to do original experiments outside the lab. He and Strudwick wondered if the same idea would work in a classroom.[...]

The class of students, after much contemplation, settled on studying the mental abilities of bees:

Ultimately, the class decided to investigate whether bees could use spatial relationships between colors to figure out which flowers had sugar water in them, and which didn’t. The question has interesting implications for bees in the wild, the kids pointed out. If some flowers are bad or have already been sucked dry of nectar, bees should learn to avoid them, “which is like a puzzle.”[...]

Getting the paper published was a struggle as well. In particular, several journals got stuck on the fact that the paper doesn’t cite any references. Lotto says they left the references out because the historical context wasn’t what inspired the kids, anyway.

“That wasn’t the basis for doing the experiment, it was what was interesting to them. That’s the driver of any quality science study,” Lotto said. “That’s what I tell my PhD students: Don’t do any reading. Figure out why you wake up in the morning, what you’re passionate about, and then read the literature. But don’t figure out what’s interesting based on what other people say.”

Link | Article | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user aquariumia used under Creative Commons license

There are many books written to help explain sex to kids. Kate Miller of Geek Mom has a rundown of the four that she considers to be the best. Among them is the classic It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris. Miller writes:

This book is perfect for kids age 10+. I know it’s perfect because when I handed it to my 10-year-old son, he flipped through it and said with disgust, “Jeez, Mom, is this just a book of cartoon pictures of naked people?” He then proceeded to never put it down. As a follow-on to It’s So Amazing, above, this book takes the same subject matter and advances it in complexity and frankness for its older audience. It still uses the same open, colorful, fun illustrations and authoritative yet friendly tone. A cartoon bird and bee go through the book with the reader, getting just as engrossed — or grossed out — as a young reader might. This gives the reader a couple of fun friends throughout. This book will present to your kids all the topics that might make you squeamish: sex, contraception, diseases, homosexuality, abortion, pubertal changes, masturbation, you name it. This edition also has new information on HPV, infertility treatments and using the internet safely. As a reproductive health professional myself, and as a mom on the northern-European model of talking openly with kids about sex, I endorse this book with all my heart and mind. Get it!

How did you/are you/will you teach your kids about sex?

Link | Image: Amazon.com