Hilton Head Living

The money you save for your children’s and grandchildren’s education will probably be the most important investment you will ever make. These funds will, in turn, become a new investment in a child or grandchild’s future, with the potential returns measured in lifetime earnings, career satisfaction, and even the ability to help educate their own children. With stakes this high, your ability to understand the complex template of sources and methods of educational funding has implications that can last for generations.

Going to school brings opportunities to learn, grow, make friends and have fun. But there are challenges as well. Here are a few and what you can do to help.

Starting School

Separation anxiety

By the time they start kindergarten, many kids have been in preschool or daycare and are used to being away from parents. But those who have been home fulltime can have trouble with separation anxiety.

It started with cars. As a little boy, Peter Granata fell in love with cars. Fast cars, sleek cars, cool cars. By age nine, he started a youthful career by helping out down at the corner tire store in Chicago’s Little Italy. Each Saturday, he earned the money to race down to the dime store and buy a model car.

After homework was done, he built model cars and taught himself to draw. He reproduced the pictures in magazine and then tried different ideas. The lines and styling were what caught his eye. His father also got him model boats that he floated in a backyard inflatable pool. He loved the idea of ships, but cars remained his first love. By age 21, he had dreamed up a vehicle seat memory device which he patented. Unusual in one so young, but Granata is that extremely rare combination of dreamer and doer.

It used to be rare for adults to return to the classroom after earning their degrees and starting their careers. My, how times have changed.

These days, more and more adults are “hitting the books” later in life to enhance their skills, switch careers or simply indulge their intellectual interests. Today’s competitive job market is making the need for continual training and skill building a necessity for many, said Nancy Weber, vice president of Continuing Education and Institutional Advancement at Technical College of the Lowcountry.

“Employers are looking for skilled workers who can multi-task, are technology savvy, and have strong communication and reasoning skills,” Weber said. “Anytime an individual can add skills or upgrade, it is a plus for their job search.”

The raspberries in Tim Silcox’s garden are doing amazingly well this year. It could be due to a recent cold snap, but more than likely it’s because of all the bees. Silcox has thousands upon thousands of bees.

Throughout the summer months, we are exploring all the fun things to do in the Lowcountry in our Summer Fun guides. This month, the topics are parasailing, charter fishing, biking and hiking. In June, we tackled kayaking, dolphin watching, wave runners and our local beaches, which is my personal favorite.

In the African country of Tanzania, there are an estimated 1.5 million orphans, children who are the legacy of the spread of HIV/AIDS and wars in neighboring Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo.

We've all heard of beauty pageants, and most of us have heard of body-building competitions. But in between those two are "figure competitions," which emphasize muscle tone over muscle size. And for one local woman, figure competitions have motivated her to live a healthy lifestyle and to be disciplined about her diet.

Let the flag wave

This July 4 is the 50th anniversary of the 50-star American flag. The flag became official on the holiday in 1960, marking the addition of Hawaii as a state. So, from one group of islanders to another: Aloha from HHI!