Super Smile

From Scholastic News:

We talked to Mary Hayes, a pediatric dentist in Chicago, Illinois, about proper ways to care for your teeth. “Teens need to realize that their teeth need to last a lifetime and require maintenance and a lot of TLC,” Hayes says.

Here are Hayes’s tips:
Brush and floss. When you eat and drink, you’re not only feeding yourself, you’re also feeding colonies of bacteria called plaque that live in your mouth. These bacteria eat sugars and other carbohydrates, producing acids that break down tooth enamel and eventually lead to cavities. That’s why you should brush your teeth at least twice a day to remove the plaque. Flossing daily is equally important, because it removes the hard-to-reach plaque between your teeth.

• Bacteria on your tongue are the biggest cause of halitosis, or bad breath. So don’t forget to brush your tongue—it’s a great way to get rid of garlic breath. Chewing gum with xylitol, a sugar substitute, improves bad breath too by neutralizing mouth bacteria. Mouthwash can also be a short-term solution, but if your halitosis persists, consult your dentist.
  
  
• Visit the dentist regularly. Even if you haven’t had a toothache in years, you should visit a dentist every six months. Often, early stage cavities don’t hurt but will show up on X-rays. Regular dental cleanings and checkups can prevent having to undergo painful and expensive procedures.
  
  If you have braces or a retainer, be sure to follow all of your orthodontist’s instructions. Your jaw keeps growing into your early 20s (age 25 for boys, age 23 for girls), so stick to your orthodontist’s rules to make sure your smile stays straight.
  
  
• Be aware of what you eat and drink. Cutting back on sugary juices, sodas, and snacks can help keep bacteria at bay. If you’re consuming a lot of carbohydrates, like bread and pasta, brush your teeth more often. Those extra carbs fuel the bacteria in your mouth. If you can’t brush after a carb-heavy meal, drink water or milk to help neutralize the acids.
  
  Here’s more vital information: Drinks like coffee and tea can stain your teeth. Tongue piercings can chip teeth. Lip rings can wear away your gum line and expose your lower teeth’s roots. Smoking cigarettes and using chewing tobacco also wreaks havoc on your mouth and gums—and can lead to mouth cancers.

The Right to Vote

female Saudi doctors

From Time for Kids:

What has been a basic right of women throughout the United States since 1920 will become a step toward equality for women in Saudi Arabia by 2015. That’s when King Abdullah’s recent decision to allow women the right to vote and to run in local elections will take effect. The king first discussed the plan with his nation’s top religious leaders, and then announced his decision at an annual speech before the Shura Council, his advisory assembly. He explained that he took the decisive action because a large and vocal sector of Saudi society was demanding greater social freedoms.

King Abdullah

"Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people. Muslim women in our Islamic history have demonstrated positions that expressed correct opinions and advice," said the king. He also announced that women will be appointed to the Shura Council. That addition will be important for women, since the Council is currently made up of men only.

The U.S. noted that these actions will soon allow Saudi women to be a larger part of the decisions in their communities that affect life on a daily basis.

More Rights Needed
Though the decisions are a significant step forward for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, many people there feel the action will not happen soon enough, especially since local elections are scheduled for this Thursday.

"Why not tomorrow?" asked Wajeha al-Hawaidar. She is a leader in the fight for the rights of Saudi women. "I think the king doesn't want to shake the country, but we look around us and we think it is a shame . . . when we are still pondering how to meet simple women's rights."

In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive. To travel out of the country, a woman must have the permission of her husband or male guardian.

"We didn't ask for politics, we asked for our basic rights. We demanded that we be treated as equal citizens and lift the male guardianship over us," said Maha al-Qahtani. "We have many problems that need to be addressed immediately." al-Qahtani is a government employee as well as an activist. Earlier this year, she defied the driving ban by driving around Riyadh, the country’s capital, for 45 minutes.

Fighting for Rights
The struggle for women’s voting rights in the U.S. lasted for decades. In 1848, a group of women led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in Seneca Falls, New York, to discuss women’s rights. Thirty years later, an amendment to give women the right to vote was introduced in Congress. But it wasn’t until 1919 that Congress passed the 19^th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. The amendment was ratified by all the states the following year and American women voted in the 1920 presidential election.

Other countries have also struggled with this issue. French women were not allowed to vote until 1944, and it wasn’t until 1971 that women in Switzerland were allowed to vote in federal elections. In recent years, women in Kuwait won the right to vote in 2005, and women in the United Arab Emirates secured the same rights in 2006. No women are allowed to vote in Brunei.

Halloween

Jack O' Lantern (carved pumpkin)

Halloween is a holiday in many English speaking countries that is celebrated on the night of October 31st. Children wear costumes and they go to peoples' homes saying "Trick or treat!" to ask for candy, sweets in the United Kingdom, or lollies in Australia, and then people give it to them. This practice originally involved a threat. A threat is when someone says that they will do something bad if they do not get what they want. In this case the threat could be explained as: "Give me a treat or I will play a trick on you." Children today usually do not play tricks if they do not get treats. However, some children still get up to mischief (pranks or things to make fun of people; like putting toilet paper in trees; writing on windows with soap or throwing eggs at peoples' houses).

Halloween costumes are traditionally modeled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.

Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children. The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in the United States. Halloween costume parties generally fall on, or around, 31 October, often falling on the Friday or Saturday prior to Halloween.

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before the holiday, while new horror films are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Origin of the name

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.