INPUT ARTICLE: Article: There are 3 types of bonds that you can buy from issuers. These are fixed rate bonds, floating bonds, or payable at maturity bonds. Each one has a different payment schedule and interest rate.  Fixed rate bonds will earn money based on an interest rate set when you bought the bond. You will receive payments once or twice a year from the interest that the issuer owes you. You will receive the face value (or original value of the bond) back when the bond matures. Floating bonds will also pay out once or twice a year, but the issuer can change the interest rate based on the current market. This could benefit you if the interest rates  go up but not if rates fall. You will receive the face value back when the bond matures. Bonds that are payable at maturity will not pay anything until the bond matures. Once it does, you will receive the face value and any accumulated interest. These bonds are often cheaper to buy, but it takes longer to get your investment back. Higher ratings mean that the bond is lower risk. Triple A (AAA) rating is the highest. Bonds with a rating of BB or below are very risky. When you buy the bond, you should be told what the bond rating is. There are 3 agencies that rate bonds. These are Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s Corporation, and Fitch Ratings. You can visit their websites and look up the company to find the rating. Treasury bonds are fixed rate bonds that pay out every 6 months. They mature in 30 years. To buy treasury bonds, go to https://treasurydirect.gov/. Create an account. Once a month (usually around the 15th), the government releases more bonds. You can then buy the bonds through the website. The schedule of bond releases can be found here: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/annceresult.htm. You cannot buy bonds from companies or towns directly. You must have a broker. You can find a broker online or at a local bank, brokerage firm, or investment firm.  Brokers will charge a percentage of the cost of the bond as a fee. Some brokers may require you to spend a certain amount of money on bonds to hire them. If you want to invest in bonds, it is a good idea to buy different types of bonds. Get many bonds with different interest rates, maturation dates, and face values. You may even get bonds with different levels of risk. The safer bonds will protect you against the riskier investments. It is a good idea not to have all of your bonds mature at the same time. For example, you might have a 2-year bond, a 10-year bond, and a 20-year bond.

SUMMARY: Pick what type of bond you want to buy. Check the bond rating to see how risky the bond is. Buy low risk, fixed-rate bonds directly from the government. Hire a broker to buy corporate or municipal bonds. Diversify the bonds that you buy.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Explain that a cause is an event or action that makes something happen; an effect or consequence is a thing that happens as a result of that cause. As your child gets older, add additional vocabulary. Words like “influence,” “results,” and “factors,” for example, as well as words that will help with cause and effect sentence construction: “therefore,” “consequently,” “thus,” and others. ” Reinforce the relationship between causes and effects by using the word “because” in conversation; it makes for better understanding for many kids. So, for example, say, “Your shoes are dirty because you stepped in the mud,” or “The house is cold because we left the windows open.” As your child grows, you can point out that the principle of cause and effect is significant in a number of ways. We try to discover the causes of things that are bad so that we can eliminate them and make the world better; we try to discover the causes of things that are good so that we can apply them and maximize the results. Once your child starts school, it’s important to emphasize the academic uses of cause and effect. Scientists use it all the time (What is causing global warming? Why did these plants die? What will happen if we mix vinegar and baking soda?), and so do historians (Why did the American colonies revolt? What happened after Cortes conquered the Aztecs?). A T map is a simple table with two columns. On one side, you can write causes; on the other, you can write effects. For example, on the left side, write “It is raining.” Have your child brainstorm possible consequences: it gets muddy, flowers grow, the school has indoor recess, there are traffic jams. Write those on the right side of the table. You can also use T maps for individual cause and effect relationships to illustrate language. So, in this case, you would write “It is raining” at the top, instead of on the left. Then, on the left, you’d write, “It gets muddy because it is raining.” On the right, you’d write, “It is raining, so it gets muddy.” This method teaches the two main forms of stating cause and effect: the “because” form and the “so” form. It also reinforces the concept. One example is the cause and effect chain. Choose a consequence (say, “pants are dirty”). Then have your child think of a potential cause (for example, “I fell in the mud”). Then you (or another child), follows up by saying the cause of that consequence (“it was raining and slippery”). Continue as long as you can. This game will help your child develop his or her understanding of cause and effect. You can also play a simpler game where you offer an imaginary effect (say, “the dog barked loudly”) and have your child think of as many possible causes as he or she can. Examples might include “the dog barked loudly because the mailman came,” “the dog barked loudly because someone pulled on its tail,” or “the dog barked loudly because it saw another dog.” Look for themed picture books designed to tackle causes and consequences. Read them with your child, and talk about the situations presented in them. For older children, draw a timeline on paper. Choose a historic event, like a war, and mark its important moments on the timeline. Connect those moments based on cause and effect. As your child grows, his or her understanding of cause and effect will get better and better, and you can begin pushing for deeper, more analytical thinking. Ask why something occurred, and then follow up with “How do you know?” or “What’s your evidence?” Try asking “What if?” questions to engage your child’s imagination: “What if we accidentally used sugar instead of salt in this recipe?,” “What if the American colonies didn’t revolt?” Introduce the idea that correlation is not causation. If there is no evidence for a particular cause making a particular event happen, then it may be a random occurrence rather than a causal relationship.

SUMMARY:
Teach your child the vocabulary of cause and effect. Use the word “because. Explain why cause and effect relationships are important. Make a T map. Play cause and effect games. Read books. Create a timeline. Teach analytical thinking.