MSI Press Blog

  With cancer, it does happen. Many stories do not have happy endings, and some endings come sooner than we would like. MSI Press has published several books on bereavement. Broader in scope than the experiences of those who have lost loved ones to cancer, they share many, if not most, of the emotions of those who have grieve for those medical science could not save -- and they give hope and a wide range of options of how to go on and LIVE.  Harnessing the Power of Grief (Julie Potter) get the book or ebook In this book, Julie Potter traces back decades the research on understanding and coping with grief, which she describes as a natural human response to loss. Pulling from the work of Worden, the author prescribes four tasks for those in grief to use in managing their grief. She also walks the reader through special situations like tragic loss without warning. A book for those who are grieving and those who are walking with grievers. Read more posts about Julie and her book H...

  Excerpt from Clean Your Plate! (Bayardelle) -  Don’t Be a Quitter Your kids want to try out ice skating. They’re jittery with excitement for their first class. They come home glowing and talk of little else for the next week. They ask for new ice skates for Christmas, they start saving up their allowance for new gloves to wear during their lessons, and you start Googling how to be the parent of an Olympic ice skater. As the weeks turn to months, the excitement slowly starts to wear off. After a few weeks, they no longer look forward to classes with as manic a level of excitement, and after a few months, they start outright complaining or asking not to go. If this is your first rodeo (i.e. the first sport or extracurricular your kid has tried), it’s probably no big deal. You let them stop and pick another activity because you don’t want to drag them to something they no longer enjoy. So, they decide try soccer. You see the same manic excitement and the same letter to Santa ...

Adult Language Learning vs Child Language Learning (Part Twp) Grammatical Competence Grammatical competence—the ability to produce structurally accurate language—is often assumed to be innate in native speakers. But in reality, it develops slowly and unevenly. In one’s first language, full control over grammar doesn’t typically emerge until around age ten. Before that, children rely on patterns and approximations. They say things like “I goed” or “She don’t like it,” not because they lack intelligence, but because they’re still internalizing the rules. True grammatical accuracy is learned—often through formal education, correction, and exposure to written language. This has profound implications for adult second-language learners. Adults are expected to produce grammatically correct sentences from the outset, yet they lack the immersive, multi-year K–12 schooling that shaped their native grammaticality. They must learn grammar the hard way: through textbooks, drills, feedback, and cons...