Reduce, Reuse and Recycle : we hear this everywhere today. Small changes in our everyday life go a long way towards a better environment and prepare us for a greener lifestyle.  Driving hybrid cars (or not driving a car), using alternate modes of transport, conserving electrical energy at home (insulation, using lights only when you need it, using green lights) and yes, using a clothesline, particularly in summer season, are all the things to do to be green.

Last weekend I visited a green event hosted by the City of Belmont and was fascinated by the number of green vendors.   The green industry is taking off in all walks of life.  From the smart car to Segway, Argon filled double paned windows to Compost bins - all these contribute to having clean and less polluted air and a healthier planet. More »

Reader Seema asks:

My students mess up in their writing using capital M for Mom and D for dad in all places. How can I teach them (first graders) when to capitalize mom and when not to. How can I make it easy for them?

Geeta Padmanabhan answers: 

Family relationships are capitalised when used as proper names.

I sent a thank-you note to Aunt Sarah, but not to my other aunts.

Here is a present I bought for Mother

.Did you buy a present for your mother?

If the kids are capitalizing “mom”, they can do it in two situations.

1] When they are addressing “mom”. For example:

Mom, are you there?

[2] When they use it as a proper name.

You know who is in that room? It is Mom. Here the kid thinks her mother’s name is Mom. That’s how the kid has always known her.

You will notice there is no ‘whose’ marker (my, your, his, her, their) before the word “Mom”. If the sentence establishes the relationship with that marker, “mom” starts with a lower case letter. Once the relationship is established, she is just my/your/her/his/its “mom”.

Example: “Is that your mom?” 
So if a kid writes:
“Mom makes me do all the work” or “I buy a gift for Mom” we have to accept it as right.
It becomes wrong only when the sentence goes, “My Mom drives me to school.”

Children learn through drill work. Some of the work we have for beginners:
[1] Write your name on the corner of every page of your workbook.
[2] Your city, district
[3] Names of parents, friends
[4] Then move on to sentences. The sentences are simple first and then have proper names.
Example: River Nile flows through Africa.
Exercises could be
[a] Fill in the blanks
[b] Correct the sentences.
[c] This simple letter has mistakes in capitalization. Can you fix it? Kids get familiar with letters as well.
[d] Game of tic-tac-toe for capitalization
[e] Kids pick a capital letter from a box of cards. Then write a word using it as the first letter.
[f] Make it clear there are no capital letters in the middle of a word. Give a list (fish, fiSh). Which one is right?
[g] Building sentences. Break sentences into three parts. Put them in three columns. Ask kids to form sentences using capital letters as clues.

Hope this helps. 

 By Arti Miglani

We are experiencing an overall slow down in the real estate market in the Bay Area. The interest rates hit a all time high last week with non-conventional loans going upto 7% with one point. The built out areas like the mid-peninsula and San Francisco where the median home prices are just over a million show less stress with the change in market conditions. The demand continues strong in these areas inspite of tighter credit standards and affordability concerns.

Some neighborhoods of  the East Bay and the South Bay, where the homes are over a million, are experiencing a slow down because of the fact that the lenders are requiring larger downpayments with reserves of 6-9 months. The interest rates are not helping these sales too. The Evergreen area of San Jose currently has an inventory of 8 months on the market. More »

By Laxmi Natarajan 

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.  ~Henry Van Dyke

This morning I looked out of my window and saw the first blooms on my flowering plum and could smell the spring in the air.   This month early spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils and grape muscari start to flower and it reminds me that it is time to get ready for the sowing season ahead.  It is the time to fix your garden structures, ready the flower beds, prepare the soil for the vegetable garden, cleanup the weeds, add a bare-root fruit tree or a rose bush and the list goes on. More »

Q.  I am stuck with high property taxes on my house bought at the peak of the real estate market. Now that my house is worth less, is there any way I can get a relief on my taxes? More »

Shobha Reddy is a fitness guru and personal trainer based in the Bay Area. She will answer reader queries on fitness and nutrition. Questions may be sent to her via our feedback form.

1. What are the diet challenges for a vegetarian who wants to train for a marathon?
For any person training for a marathon, he or she needs to consume a lot of complex carbohydrates which will give him a lot of energy for endurance events, such as marathons. Complex carbohydrates include whole wheat bread and brown rice, NOT white rice and white bread, etc. Moderate to high protein consumption is also needed.  This is one of the challenges for vegetarians.  Good vegetarian protein sources are nuts, lentils, tofu, and cheese.  There is nothing wrong with adding a little protein powder to a meal as well.  Morning fruit smoothie shakes with protein powder is a great addition.
 
The key is not to skip balanced meals when training for a marathon.
 
2. After age 40 what are the diet no-nos and fitness yes-yesses for a woman?

Women need to cut back their sugar intake, including sweets, simple carbs such as white bread/rice, and soda, and increase their iron intake such as broccoli and green leafy vegetables.  Fitness should be increased to at least six times a week. Weight training is a must to prevent osteoporosis, especially after age 40.