While your child is learning how to use a spoon, do not have her use regular adult utensils. These heavier metal utensils can hurt your child's gums or teeth. Your child may also find them too heavy to maneuver. Instead, purchase your child's own set of plastic, toddler-sized spoons. Toddler spoons are often tipped with soft rubber to make it easier to grip the handle. If your toddler is still learning how to handle her spoon, you can help her by putting your hand over hers. Move her hand through the whole process of scooping up the food and then bringing the spoon to her mouth. Do this movement much more slowly than you would to eat with a spoon yourself. Your child is still adjusting to the feeling of eating with a utensil. Place a small amount of food in a bowl so that your toddler can practice using her spoon. Putting a small amount of food in the bowl will help if she accidentally swipes the bowl and spills its contents. Have another bowl with more food ready on the sidelines. When she has used the spoon to eat the small amount of food in her bowl, add some more food from the second bowl. Your child will most likely adapt to using a spoon quickly. However, you should still stay by her side while she practices so that you can help her with large bites, or with tilting the spoon the right way if the food is about to slide off of it. Your child will most likely continue to be a messy eater until she reaches the ages of 2.5 or 3.

Summary: Give your child her own 'toddler spoon'. Help guide your child through the movement of eating with a spoon. Give your child a little food to practice with. Stay by your child's side while she practices using the spoon.

The Maya calendar reckons any date in terms of its distance from a fixed start date. For the Maya calendar, this fixed date represents the start of a Maya creation cycle. Archaeologists write this start date as 13.0.0.0.0. Each number (separated by a dot) in the expression 13.0.0.0.0 represents a position within the five cycles of the Long Calendar, in the order baktun, katun, tun, uinal, kin. The Maya creation cycle repeats, with each cycle beginning with the start date 13.0.0.0.0. It is unknown why the cycle begins with 13 baktun rather than 0. Used in much of the contemporary world, the Gregorian calendar provides a familiar method for marking time. Take the date Monday, December 29th, 2008, for example: "Monday" signifies one of a cycle of 7 days forming a week. The date (29, in this example), signifies a particular position within the unit of one month, which may be 28, 29, 30, or 31 days in length. The year (2008) signifies a certain number of years since a fixed reference point (the traditional birth of Christ at the year 0). "Monday, December 29th, 2008" would translate to "7 Manik 10 Kankin 12.19.15.17.7" when written according to the Maya calendar. The elements of this date are: Manik signifies the day within a named cycle of 20 days used in the Tzolkin calendar. The 7 following signifies the date's position within a cycle of 13 days used in the Tzolkin calendar. Kankin provides the name of one in a cycle of 18 months used in the Haab calendar. 10 gives the date's position within a cycle of 20 days forming one uinal, or month. 12.19.15.17.7 provides the number of years since a fixed reference point, the start of a Maya cycle: 12 baktun, 19 katun, 15 tun, 15 uinal, 7 kin. The current Maya creation cycle's start date of 13.0.0.0.0 corresponds to the date December 21, 2012 in the Gregorian calendar. The start date of the previous cycle (which ended on December 20, 2012), 13.0.0.0.0, corresponds to the date August 11 (or 13) 3114 BC/BCE in the Gregorian calendar. December 21, 2012, which came after the end of a long cycle in the Maya calendar, would be written as 4 Ajaw 3 Kankin 13.0.0.0.0 using the full calendar expression. Similarly, the previous day, December 20, 2012, would have been written as 3 Kawak 2 Kankin 12.19.19.17.19 There are several online tools for converting dates in the Gregorian calendar to the Maya calendar. These tools allow you to reference the Maya calendar quickly and easily, without doing complicated calculations or using charts.

Summary: Read the Maya long count date. Understand how dates are recorded and read using the Gregorian calendar. Compare this familiar system to the same date written using the Maya calendar. Express the Maya creation cycle date. Use a calendar converter.

Proper cleaning usually involves shaking and some scrubbing, which can damage delicate glass parts if you're not careful. Separate each of the parts -- the bong, the slide, and the stem, and set them aside to be cleaned separately. You may want to wear latex gloves, as the smell of resin can be hard to remove from your hands. This will loosen up any of the bigger chunks of resin that may be clogging up your bong. The hotter the water the better, so use tongs to grip the piece if you can't securely hold the piece. Do not use hot water on a cold piece, as this can cause it to shatter. If your piece is cold, for whatever reason, start with lukewarm water and slowly raise the temperature. For smaller, routine cleanings, you can just rinse out the bong quickly and move on to further cleaning. If there are any large chunks of tar or resin that you can easily reach, simply knock them off with gentle scrubbing. If a chunk resists, that's fine. You just want to get rid of the big, easily removed chunks now. For smaller pieces with tough, thick stains, like your slide or bowl, it can help to freeze the piece for 30 minutes. This loosens up chunks of resin and makes them easier to knock off. Be sure to dry the bowl before freezing. Make sure that they can seal effectively. You'll use the bag to contain your cleaning fluid while you soak the smaller pieces. Though you can do them at the same time, it is safest to put them each in separate bags. You can also use cups and bowls, as long as you can fill them with enough liquid to cover the pieces. However, cleaning may leave an unsavory smell to the cookware, making plastic bags the most convenient option more often than not.

Summary: Separate all the moving pieces from the bong. Rinse out the pieces in hot water. Knock off any big pieces of resin with cotton swabs or pipe cleaners. Place the smaller parts in resealable plastic bags.

If your first draft was a bit haphazard, grab your notes and the instructions and write a second, final draft. Use proper grammar and spelling, and include all the information that is required. Make sure to look at your work on a micro and macro level. Not only should the words be accurate, concise, and fit together, but the paper needs to fit together as a whole. Does it seem to gel? Would any reordering make it better? Take a break before you start editing -- your mind needs different stimuli to process to break up the monotony and find the smaller errors. Once you're ready to go back, read the letter of intent and make necessary changes to ensure it reads clearly and everything makes sense. Edit ruthlessly to avoid repetition and make the writing flow smoothly from one paragraph to the next. Have a fellow student or co-worker, or a family member or friend read it for you. A new set of eyes will see a new set of things. Include the letter of intent with any other application materials, and submit the entire package to the institution according to the directions. If you have more than one page, you may want your name on each one (small and in the corner) in case the pages get separated.
Summary: Write a final draft. Proofread and edit your work. Submit the letter of intent.