Buy school supplies now for best deals
August is here, and stores are gearing up for their back-to-school sales. Last year, families spent an average of $634.78 on clothing and accessories, electronics and computer-related equipment, and school supplies, according to the National Retailer’s Federation.
Don’t wait until the last minute to get your school supplies. Start buying now to take advantage of the best sales. Buy enough now to have for later in the year.
These back-to-school sales are also great for telecommuters, with prices on paper, computers and accessories at their lowest.
Underwear and socks are at their lowest prices of the year. Weekly sales will include lunchbox-friendly items such as pudding cups, fruit snacks and storage bags.
— Tara McAlister
The Charlotte Observer
Hints from Heloise:
Plastic bread tabs are handy outdoors
Irene in California writes: The plastic lock tabs that come on breads, etc., can be used for many things. My favorite is when I am training a flower to grow straight. I have a stick in the ground, place the plastic tab around the flower and attach gently to the stick or a string attached to the stick. These tabs also can be used for holding a crochet stitch or needlework.
Barbara S. in West Virginia writes: My hint is to put cornstarch or baby powder into a sock. Tie off the open end with a bread twist or rubber band. You can dust your body without spilling a mess on the floor. It also is a good way to use a single sock.
— King Features
Study looks at age to talk about sex
To significantly decrease unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, maternal deaths and sexually transmitted diseases globally, we should start talking to boys and girls about their sexual and reproductive health as young as age 10, says a new study out of Georgetown University.
“Younger adolescents may experiment with adult sexual behaviors,” write authors Susan M. Igras, Marjorie Macieira, Elaine Murphy and Rebecka Lundgren. “But because of their cognitive developmental stage, [they] are unlikely to correctly assess risks and consequences.”
The study focuses on behavior around the globe, noting that 90 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents live in lower- and middle-income countries. Efforts at curbing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases have increased in many parts of the world, according to the study, but they’re mostly directed at older youth.
Victoria Jennings, director of the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, says the findings are important. Children as young as 10 are beginning to process messages about how to be popular with the opposite sex, how to gain social status and what they gain — or lose — by delaying potentially risky behaviors.
Yet parents, educators and other decision-makers are often wary of introducing the topic to young adolescents, Jennings says, because they fear it will encourage them to engage in sexual behavior. “If it’s done properly it has the opposite effect,” she says.
— Heidi Stevens
Chicago Tribune
