5 Things You Need to Know Today in Little Silver and Oceanport: April 30

Homecoming: You guys, I'm totally bummed. Today is the last day of April and that can only mean one thing: my son who's been away at college is coming home. Turns out, $40,000 a year only gets you about six solid months of freedom from your challenging older teen so I'm totally rethinking sending any of the other kids to college and pointing them towards a vocation. So, this being my last week of going to bed knowing where all my children are each night, I'm sorry to see that it doesn't have the sunniest of outlooks. Monday will mimic the day before with sunny skies and temperatures creeping into the low 60s, according to the National Weather Service. It's downhill from there on in, with rain and cool temperatures plaguing the rest of the work week. Perhaps it's a portent for my inner barometer.

Tester tips: If you have a fifth or sixth grader, I'm sure you know that the upcoming school week is all about the NJASK. Here are some tips from Principal Cory Radisch to help your student be fresh and ready for testing:

• Be sure that every attempt is made for your child to have 100% attendance during testing days. Please attempt to avoid scheduling  any appointments or other activities, if at all possible, during school time
• If your child walks to school or is driven to school, please (ok, I am begging again) make every effort to make sure they arrive at Maple Place and are in their testing sites by 8:00 am. Children who arrive late will not be permitted into the class and will have to take that portion of testing during make-ups.
• A relaxed evening, followed by a good night’s sleep, is important for a child to be mentally sharp during each day of testing.
• A healthy and nutritious breakfast is also suggested.  If your child does not usually eat breakfast, testing is a good time to start.

Target audience: Did you know that you could advertise on Web site? I can't think of a better way to target that very tech-savvy, young market. Here's the deets (don't tell my kids I used that term or they'll die): "Shore Regional High School District offers small and large businesses as well as independent proprietors opportunities to dynamically and visibly advertise on the district website.  For rates and other details, click here."

Ugh: I have some really bad news: property taxes for both and are due May 1.

Mean girls: When my kids were young, I spent a lot of time scheming how I could restrict the amount of televsision they would watch. From having them earn TV time through reading or restricting their viewing to Animal Planet and PBS, I was all about keeping them from being little zombies on the couch. The younger me would have embraced the upcoming Screen Free Week that kicks off today. According to the Web site, its a national effort to just turn everything off for one week. Click here to find out more. In the meantime, I wouldn't even think of asking my older teen to wait a week to watch the final episodes of Dr. Who or suggest my other teen daughter take a break from The Office. Teen age girls are scary.