Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last six years, you’ve no doubt heard of the No Child Left Behind Act. In short, although the Act is built upon earlier legislation that sought to provide additional federal funding for schools in poor communities, it now includes federal mandates regarding annual school assessments, teacher and paraprofessional qualifications, assessments at the pre-school level, and sanctions for schools and districts that fail to meet “Adequate Yearly Progress” as defined in the Act. This all sounds great, doesn’t it? I mean, pretty much everyone is in favor of better schools for our kids, right? Well… [more]

Traditionally, doctors have been unable to vaccinate infants under two months of age due to an immature immune system that is incapable of mounting an adequate response to the vaccine. But researchers at the Children’s Hospital in Boston have found that stimulation of a molecule known as ‘Toll-like receptor 8′ (TLR-8) can boost the immune response, potentially allowing for effective infant vaccination. In short, delivery of a compound that stimulates TLR-8 production alongside a vaccine could boost the neonatal vaccine response to acceptable levels. According to the study’s lead author, this means that babies in developing countries could be vaccinated shortly after birth, before they fall out of contact with the healthcare system. Given the preliminary nature of their results, it’ll be interesting to see how this turns out in the long run.

[Source: BBC News]

Raising4Boys took part in two Carnivals this week. Here they are along with links to our posts that were included in each:

The Best of Me Symphony, which is up at The Owner’s Manual, included “On Sinus Infections and Asking the Right Questions.”

The Carnival of the Vanities, which is up at IMAO, included “Little Brothers, Tampons, and Lollipops.” Also included was “How Much Does a Million Dollars Weigh? (Revisited)” from fivecentnickel.com.

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.” -Hodding Carter.

Written on one of our four year old’s t-shirts are the words “It’s my brother’s fault”. Whenever he gets in trouble, he always tries to blame it on a brother (usually our 16 month old). Now, I’m not saying I’ve been neglectful, but any parent whose been busy knows that sometimes the little ones don’t always get all the attention that they deserve, and our four year old doesn’t like being relegated to the back burner AT ALL! This often results in him coming up with some pretty clever ways to get my attention. [more]

Awhile back I mentioned that we’re moving, and that we were headed out of town to look for a house — preferably one with a forest in the backyard. Well, I’m pleased to report that the trip went far better than we expected — even though we were cooped up in a hotel room with four boys, we ended up buying a new house and selling our current house in just under six days. [more]

“First you have to teach a child to talk, then you have to teach it to be quiet.” — Prochnow

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but I just ran across it last night… The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a product recall for Magnetix building sets. This is a pretty scary one, as some rather nasty things have already happened. [more]

Well, it’s Easter morning, and I’m pleased to report that our eight year old is still a full-on believer when it comes to the Easter Bunny (as well as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy). So sweet and so innocent. My wife and I had been thinking that this past Christmas might be the last one before he figures out the truth about Santa Claus, but his faith in all things Holiday is still going strong. I can’t personally recall how old I was before I started figuring out stuff like this, but we’re hoping that it’ll go on awhile longer — after all, once he figures it out, he’ll most likely end up spilling the beans to his younger brothers. Who knows… As long as we don’t end up taking him to a Bunny-whipping church, we may be able to keep the magic alive for quite some time…

Our “little middle” son (four years old) is so sweet that he makes sugar seem tart. He’s very into hugs, kisses, and terms of endearment of all kinds. In fact, he can’t live without a hug and kiss each time I leave him at preschool and each night before he goes to bed. Throughout the day he comes over to offer an unsolicited hug and kiss and receive one in return, and he often drops an unsolicited “I love you, mama.” I’m stocking up on all this affection, because, realistically, I know it won’t last. He’ll grow out of this phase way too fast. Some day he’ll be that distant pre-adolescent that I’ll have to wrangle for a word let alone a hug… sniff, sniff, boo hoo. In the mean time, I’m going to milk this for all it’s worth and revel in his pure love, rivaled only by my complete and utter love for him.