Sample Articles, content articles

Word Count: 683

Many people have grown up sharing their home with a family pet. Pets can be a very important part of life, especially when kids are involved. Having a pet can enable your child to learn something about life that homes without pets cannot teach them. It really doesn’t matter what type of pet you have, the same lessons can be learned from any kind. Pets can help your child in many ways.

Even having a goldfish can play an important role in your child’s life. Of course, interacting with a goldfish is a bit limited, but the child still has something to care about other than himself. The child can still talk to the fish and tell it how he feels about life, thereby having a vent for his feelings. He can still play with the fish and even teach the fish a trick or two. (You can teach the fish to follow your finger when you drag it along the glass, or the fish can come to find food when you tap their bowl.) Fish can be soothing and calming to watch, and can keep your child company—especially at night if you have a lighted aquarium in your child’s room.

Having another type of pet in your home means that your child need never be without a friend. The pet can act as their friend. The pet can be someone they talk to, someone they play with, someone they care about and someone who cares about them. Everyone knows the great companionship a dog can provide. Dogs are not said to be “man’s best friend” for nothing. But consider that a cat or a bird can provide that same friendship as well.

Dogs, cats and birds can all provide that companionship that is so important to your child, and will always return the love that they get. These animals will return your child’s love unconditionally and without judgment. They will accept your child as he is, like no human being can. Having the love of a pet can bolster a child’s confidence and self-esteem, and help him learn his own self-worth.

Having a pet will also teach your child responsibility. They will learn that the pet needs to be fed, walked or let outside, and kept clean, along with other needs. If you teach your child to be involved with the pet’s care, they will learn responsibility and grow up to be more dependable, reliable adults. You can also teach your child the consequences of their lack of responsibility if they fail to take care of their pet properly.

Pets can often teach children the value of sharing as well. Consider your dog staring up at your child with big puppy eyes requesting a bit of his cookie. Consider your dog grabbing your child’s ball and running off with it. Think about the cat curled up in your child’s favorite T.V.-watching chair. In all of these cases, the child has to learn to share with the pet which will help them when they have to make friends or in the school environment.

Sometimes even, pets can teach your child life’s saddest lesson—how to deal with death. It isn’t a pleasant thing, but having a pet that dies (even a hamster or fish) helps your child when they have to deal with the death of any other family member. They learn how to mourn and how to get on with life.

Another thing that having a pet can teach your child is the value of the creatures in the world around him. Having a pet encourages children to learn about the various animals that inhabit the world in general. Is a dog so different from a wolf, a cat not unlike a lion, or a pet hamster like a small version of a ground hog? Children can learn to appreciate what the animals in this world can offer us and how important they are.

Having a pet in your household, any type of pet, is definitely a good thing. The lessons your child can learn by having a pet are invaluable.

Word Count: 480

When traveling to Florida most people think of Miami, Fort Lauderdale or Disney. But there are other great places to visit in Florida and Naples is one of them. Naples is located on the Gulf of Mexico and is an area where nature abounds alongside its cosmopolitan core.

Beach and sun lovers can relax on over seven miles of Naples’ spectacular white sand beaches. They can soak up the tropical sun, frolic in the turquoise Gulf waters or dolphin watch off the long Pier.

Golf and sports enthusiasts will love Naples too. Naples offers the highest ratio of golf courses per capita within the United States, with over 35 golf courses in the area. Major state, national and professional golf tournaments have been held here for decades and well-known golfers like Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer have been known to frequent Naples’ courses. And, what may be a bonus to some or an obstacle to others, is the wildlife one can see while playing golf here as eagles, osprey, alligators and other wildlife abound.

Naples also offers surprisingly good tennis opportunities for the avid tennis player as well. There is year-round sailing, jet skiing, boating and wind-surfing. And with so much of Naples’ activities centered on the water, fishing plays a major role in Naples’ attraction. The tourist has the option of leisurely throwing their line off the newly-remodeled Pier or charting a boat for and exciting day of deep-sea fishing.

Although Naples offers an abundance of cultural activities in its metropolitan area, with the Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Pelican Bay, the Naples Playhouse, dinner theatres, open air concerts and the like, being right next door to the Everglades offers tourists a wealth of opportunity to view nature.

There are several excursions and safaris into the Everglades that begin in Naples. The tourist can take in the wild mangroves and delight in the viewing of alligators, manatees, dolphins, bears and a never-ending array of birds on their airboat tour. They can visit Big Cypress State Reserve or the Everglades National Park, which is home of the world’s largest mangrove park. Or they can stop at Museum of the Everglades or the Smallwood Museum for a cultural bend to their nature experience.

The shopping in Naples also won’t leave the serious shopper wanting. There are several select shopping centers with fashionable shops, art galleries and bistros, and the downtown shopping is within walking distance to the beach. And every spring Naples holds the Naples Spring Arts Festival where artists from far and wide exhibit and sell their works.

Naples is a place that appears to have everything going for it. Tourists will not be left wanting when they visit Naples, whether they are looking for a relaxing beach experience, an activity filled vacation or a nature escape. Visit Naples soon and see for yourself what others are raving about.