INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Although it can be general, most books have a theme based on holidays, seasons, or your child's preferences. This is an important step because it will make it easier for you to come up with content to fill the pages. Having a coherent message will also make it easier for you to educate your child.  Holidays make good themes for activity books. You can educate your child about the cultural origins of the holiday and how people celebrate it. It also gets your child excited about the season. Seasons of the year are also good themes. They can teach your child fun outdoor activities as well as cultural folklore surrounding that time of year. If you want your activity book to tell a fun story, the theme may simply be adventure. Some examples of other topics are family, farms, flowers, food, animals, history, and cultures. You may already know that he or she enjoys - for example, coloring or doing simple crosswords. Ask your child their favorite activities or get together a few for he or she to try. Observe which your child enjoys the most. This is a good time to ask your child if he or she wants to help you make the activity book.  Look in the newspaper for comic strips and puzzles. Children love comic book strips and they are a great way to encourage a burgeoning reader. Examples of other children’s activities that could easily be compiled in an activity book are fill-in-the-blank stories, mazes, word search puzzles, and even open-ended doodling. A few examples of creative activities that your child may not have tried before are stenciling, torn paper art, and stamps. In addition to reading, you can supplement an activity book with activities that include telling time, simple math, writing, vocabulary, history, and more. If you incorporate the lessons into the activities well enough, your child will only notice the fun they’re having. Choose activities at your child's level and search for them online, or write the problems yourself.  You may have a book that teaches your child days of the week, months, and holidays by having them write in the correct answer in the blanks. Another example of educational content may be a series of mathematical crossword puzzles. If you can weave the puzzles into the plot of the book, it is a fun way for your child to learn basic arithmetic. This is a great opportunity to include your child in the story. Look at the types of stories they enjoy and try to create something similar. This will keep your child turning the pages and discovering what happened to his or her favorite character. Who knows, your child may enjoy the story so much you have to write a sequel.  Some examples of fun adventures may involve a child rescuing a pet, a family discovering what is in their attic on a snow day, or a knight journeying to a foreign land. Try to include songs, nursery rhymes and poetry. This will draw your child in and promote an appreciation for music. You can write your own lyrics or put in well-known songs and poems. Choose songs that are based on the theme – such as "Let it Snow" for a winter-themed activity book. You all can sing the songs together. Now that you have a collection of activities, stories, and songs for your child to enjoy, you need to think about the physical makeup of the book. Will it be paper printouts, or will you get more creative with it? This is an excellent time to get your child involved in the joy of making something by hand.  The simplest way to make an activity book is with a three ring binder or folders with built-in brads. You can print out or design pages, punch holes in the side, and put them in. Fold computer paper in half to create an easy binding system. This will also make the book smaller and more easy for your child to handle. Blank bound books are inexpensive. This will give the activity book a more polished feel. They are also a more interesting texture for your child to interact with. You can paste pages in the bound book, or draw on activities by hand. A fun project is dry erase coloring exercises. Make the black and white outline on a piece of paper and place it in a plastic sheet protector. Give your child dry erase crayons and watch them redo the activity over and over again!

SUMMARY: Choose a theme. Figure out activities your child enjoys. Decide on some educational content for the book. Write a story to include in your activity book. Decide on a medium.


INPUT ARTICLE: Article: If you're trying to repair a malfunctioning external hard drive or flash drive, plug it into one of your computer's USB ports.  Skip this step if you're attempting to fix a built-in hard drive. You may need a USB 3 to USB-C adapter if your Mac doesn't have traditional USB ports. It's a menu item at the top of your Mac's screen. A drop-down menu will appear. If you don't see Go at the top of the screen, click the Finder app icon in your Mac's dock (or click the desktop) to force it to appear. You'll find this option near the bottom of the drop-down menu. Double-click the Disk Utility app icon, which resembles a grey hard drive with a stethoscope on it. In the upper-left corner of the window, click the hard drive that you want to fix. It's an image of a stethoscope at the top of the Disk Utility window. Doing so will prompt Disk Utility to begin scanning (and repairing) your selected hard drive's bad sectors. Once the Disk Utility finishes repairing your drive, you should see a pop-up explaining what was repaired. If you don't see any repairs listed, your hard drive doesn't have any bad sectors to repair. For each time that a repair (or series of repairs) is listed, run Disk Utility again to scan for further issues. Once Disk Utility no longer reports repairs upon completing the scan, your Mac's hard drive is fixed.

SUMMARY:
Connect the drive to your computer if necessary. Click Go. Click Utilities. Open Disk Utility. Select a hard drive. Click the First Aid tab. Click Run when prompted. Wait for the repairs to complete. Run Disk Utility again.