Just Not That

All parents dread hearing footsteps early morning that signals the start of another day long before you actually planned to get up.

We knew that feeling too well. Buying one of those overpriced clocks that promises to solve the problem proved to be money well spent as we do get (slightly) more sleep now.

Toddlers obviously have no way to tell the time, so when they wake up it must be day time. The sleep trainer clocks work by giving one of two signals simple enough for children to understand – either you must stay in bed or you may get up.

We considered two products: the Kidsleep Nightlight/Alarm and the Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer. We settled on the Gro-Clock as it seemed stronger and I liked the idea of being able to see the actual time on it when you happen to end up in the kids’ room during the night. The Gro-Clock also has a very high sales rank on Amazon.

Features of the Gro-Clock:

• The Gro-Clock communicates sleep and wake up time to children by showing a blue star for sleep time and a yellow sun when it is day time.
• The screen brightness level can be adjusted which is handy. We use the lowest brightness setting.
• Option to set two different wake-up times. It has night time and day time nap modes. One can also use the day time nap mode during weekends to get an extra couple of minutes sleep.
• Can show the digital time in addition to the sun/star. This can be handy for parents to see the time if they have to get up for a sick child.
• There is a ring of stars around the big star that disappears one by one to count down to wake up time. This can be used by bigger kids.
• Apparently there is an audible alarm that can be set – may be useful for bigger kids. Our kids are providing this funtion at the moment.
• The Gro-Clock comes with a story book that help explain to the children why they have the clock. The partial truth anyway, so THEY can get more sleep and feel more rested the next day.

Negatives – besides for the price, when the mains power is switched off, all settings are frozen. That is not too serious, as the only thing that you have to set is the actual time when you switch the clock on again.

Dear Discovery Health,

I hope you found my previous post helpful. This time I’m going to tell you how to save loads of money.

Medical Aid schemes are a business after all and with those blinkers on you have two ways to increase the bottom line – you increase members’ contributions or you cut benefits. Both cases Discovery wins, members lose.

Now allow me to remove those blinkers and show you a better way where everybody wins. There are a few ways for a baby to be delivered – Caesarean section in hospital, Normal Vaginal birth In hospital, Normal Vaginal birth In hospital or birth centre with a private midwife, Home birth with a private midwife.

According to the Board of Health Care Funders, vaginal births in hospital cost around R15 000 while C-Sections cost on average R26 000. A home birth will probably cost you less than R10 000.

Now a home birth or birth centre may not be for everyone, but when you have a member that wants to go this route, you should encourage them, so make it worth their while and pay more of what they claim as they are actually saving you lots of money.

Dear Discovery Health,

It has come under my attention that after all these years as a medical aid you still do not quite understand child birth.

So let me try and explain it in simple terms.
When babies are conceived (the details of this is not applicable), there is a simple formula for calculating the due date or expected date of delivery. This due date is 40 weeks or 280 days from the first day of the last normal menstrual period.

This is quite simple, but the snag is that according to statistics only about 80 percent of babies are born within ten days of the due date. This means babies can come BEFORE or AFTER the due date. I have experienced it three times, so yes it is true!

Now how to use this knowledge – When somebody do a birth pre-auth, please add a window of a few days before and after the due date so the next time a baby comes a few days early or late, you will still pay out the claim promptly without frustrating parents who have enough to deal with after the birth.

I trust this will clear up a few misconceptions.

Once you understand part 1, please continue to part 2

Here are a few dinosaur/reptile pictures I created from a photo taken at the South African Museum. Print it out and let the kids colour them in.

Stegosaurus

Styracosaurus

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Allosaurus

Tortoise

Crocodile

Macroplata

Diplodocus

Ankylosaurus

Snake

You often hear people talking about saving money by making phone calls over the internet. This may sound complicated but in reality it is easy. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the term for voice communication over the internet.

VoIP requires a broadband / ADSL internet connection. In a previous post I explained what ADSL is and what equipment you need.

When you get started, try to use the same ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider) as the people you would like to phone most often. In order to phone people for free, you need to ensure that you are using the same provider.

Popular providers are SIP providers (e.g. Sipgate), Skype and Google Talk

From

Equipment

What you need to make VoIP calls (without a switched on PC)

• An ADSL modem/router with a VoIP/FXS port *** (the FXS port turn your standard or cordless telephone into a VoIP phone and allows you to make VoIP and normal PSTN calls) or
• a VoIP/Skype compatible cordless phone e.g. the RTX DUALphone 3088 for Skype, the Philips VOIP321 VoIP And Skype Compatible Digital Cordless Telephone
  or the Siemens Gigaset A580 IP DECT Cordless Phone – Black or
• an Internet Phone Adapter or
• an IP Phone

What you need to make VoIP calls using your PC

• One of the following options:
  • the best Logitech webcam you can afford with a built-in microphone for making calls with video and PC speakers or
  • a standalone microphone and PC speakers or
  • a headset or
  • a USB phone (only works when your PC is switched on) or
  • a downloaded Softphone like the X-Lite or Skype

*** Entry level ADSL modems with VoIP ports: Dlink DVA-G3672B, Siemens Gigaset 762SX, Billion 7401VGP, Netgear DG834GV, Billion 800VGT,