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Clean code is one of the first ideas that makes developers feel like professionals. For many developers, though, it can stop being a helpful guideline and become a trap instead. That's why you need to learn where to draw the line and recognize when it starts working against you.

Memory prices are through the roof, SSDs aren't far behind, and soon GPUs will be feeling the brunt of market forces too. If you've been saving up money to upgrade or build a PC, you may have been looking at rising prices with dismay and are probably thinking about weathering the storm.

FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on Dec. 16-20. Winter Wonderland, hosted by Indie Author Central, is offering free wintery reads for Kindle e-readers.

Stuff Your Kindle Day is back again, and this time it's festive.

Winter Wonderland, hosted by Indie Author Central, is offering wintery books for free or just $0.99. And the books that you download are yours to keep forever. Does your library desperately need a boost? It doesn't matter. These books are free to download, so you might as well stock up.

SEE ALSO: I tested the best Kindles to help you find the perfect e-reader

Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We've lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.

When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?

Winter Wonderland takes place from Dec. 16-20. Unlike a lot of Stuff Your Kindle Days that take place over 24 hours, this event runs for five days. That gives you time to properly assess your options, make a list of top priorities, and then download everything you want to read. Take your time and enjoy the process.

Who can take part in Stuff Your Kindle Day?

There are many great things about Stuff Your Kindle Day, including the fact that everyone can participate. Kindle, Kobo, and Nook readers can download these books for free. You can even download these books on your preferred app and read them straight from your phone.

Which e-books are free?

Finding all of these free wintery books is straightforward thanks to the helpful hub page on Indie Author Central. Everything is neatly organized with filters for genre, content level, spice level, and availability. You can head directly to what you want to read thanks to the nice people at Indie Author Central.

Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?

Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there's no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don't count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time, so don't hold back.

The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Kindle (16GB) $89.99 at Amazon
$109.99 Save $20   Get Deal Why we like it

These popular e-readers help you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. The price is down to $89.99 for a limited time, saving you $30.

Holiday streaming is a seasonal joy that only rolls around once a year, and I always look forward to relaxing with my collection of holiday music. I like to use YouTube Music to stream tunes during this season for many reasons, the main one being its YouTube integration.

Are you just starting out with soldering and want to practice on a few cheap and easy projects? That’s exactly where I am in my microcontroller journey, and these are the simple projects I did first to really start to hone my soldering skills.

I've been using the free tier of Google Gemini's API to generate snarky descriptions of visitors captured on my video doorbell in Home Assistant. It worked perfectly until very recently. Google has unfortunately slashed the number of free requests for many of its models, with Gemini 2.5 Flash cut down to just 20 requests per day. If you've been hit by the same problem, here's what to try instead.

This was another busy week in tech, with big updates for Home Assistant, Steam's 2025 replay going live, a revamped Jellyfin desktop app, iRobot's bankruptcy, and much more. Here are the biggest stories from this past week you might have missed.

Canonical has given cute animal-themed codenames to Ubuntu releases since the earliest versions of the operating system, but these releases didn't always come with default animal-themed wallpapers. A lot of default Ubuntu wallpapers have just been abstract blobs and waves of light, but starting with version 17.10, every Ubuntu version has defaulted to an animal-themed wallpaper to go with its animal-themed name. Here are my favorite picks.

This was another busy week in the Linux ecosystem, with a new major release for Kali Linux, updates to Docker and Armbian, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

Compact sedans are evolving quickly, but not always in ways enthusiasts appreciate. For 2026, one premium Japanese brand has updated its compact sedan with fresh styling, improved tech, and subtle refinements aimed at keeping it competitive in a shrinking segment. While many rivals use refreshes as an excuse to simplify lineups or remove enthusiast-focused elements, this update takes a more thoughtful approach, modernizing where it matters without losing the character that helped the car stand out in the first place.

Much of the world runs on open-source software that is free to deploy, adapt, and incorporate into other projects. Even though this software is offered at no charge (or has a significant free option), that doesn’t mean that the projects don’t have costs associated with them.

Whole-column references in Excel are silent performance killers, often forcing the program to manage a range of over a million rows. As a result, they can significantly slow your workbook's performance. So, stop using A:A references and, instead, create dynamic ranges.

When it comes to ultralight gaming mice, aesthetics and feel are normally left in the dust in favor of cutting that extra half a gram. Somehow, with the Sabre v2 Pro, Corsair managed to create what is essentially a near-perfect ultralight gaming mouse that’s the lightest I’ve ever used—and it even has a full shell.

"Elite gift giver" is a title we all strive to achieve in life. But I'd argue that finding a unique eco-friendly gift is the final boss of thoughtful gifting — thoughtful because you clearly carefully considered what'd make them happy, and because you made a conscious effort to not fall into the wasteful overconsumption trap.

I mean, consumerism really puts a damper on holiday cheer, particularly as it applies to waste and ethics. Consider how much non-recyclable packaging will be used, how many old tech devices will be trashed to make room for new ones, or how many underpaid workers put in extra hours to get those Shein prices so sketchily low. Of course, there's always the question of whether your giftee will even use that gift you bought in a hasty scramble, or if they'll gift it to the trash can to keep the peace in their junk drawer.

SEE ALSO: The best 'buy it for life' products, backed by Mashable reporters and editors

Outside of voting, using your dollar to shop and gift sustainably is a tangible way to get involved at the individual level. I've gathered a list of the best unique sustainable gift ideas below, including several items that I personally use and tell loved ones about. This isn't your average list of fancy reusable grocery bags and succulent gift boxes: There are affordable stocking stuffers that simply act as a less-wasteful version of something people already use regularly, as well as more creative, premium eco-friendly gifts like comfiest comforter ever that happens to be made from recycled plastic bottles. There's a gift for every point (and budget) on the journey to create less waste.

Writer-director Rian Johnson hits the books to craft the locked room mystery of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and so does the Spring Book Club of the film's church. And if you're quick, you'll spy an entire whodunnit reading list onscreen to add to your TBR pile.

There's a scene crucial to debonair detective Benoit Blanc's (Daniel Craig) investigation into the "stuff of detective fiction" murder at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, in which accused priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) helps him rifle through the parish office for clues. They find one, a simple piece of paper.

SEE ALSO: Why 'The Hollow Man' novel is crucial to 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery'

On the page, the priest and the detective find a list of the church's book club titles, and the parishioners seem to be having quite the classic whodunnit mystery binge. Not only does the list include the key "syllabus of how to commit the perfect crime," John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, but there's also enough Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe to make an impossible crime seem possible.

Here's everything on the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude book club list — and there's some pretty major ties to the murder at the heart of Wake Up Dead Man (but no spoilers).

The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr Credit: Mashable / Orion

American author John Dickson Carr's 1935 mystery novel, The Hollow Man, featuring his recurring investigator protagonist Gideon Fell, has become synonymous with determining the elements of an impossible crime. In Chapter 17, the detective gives his famous "locked room lecture" directly to the reader, detailing "the general mechanics" of how a murder — like, say, that of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) — could be committed in seemingly impossible circumstances. In fact, Blanc himself uses this book to solve the case in Wake Up Dead Man, dubbing it "a syllabus of how to commit the perfect crime."

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers Credit: Mashable / Warber Classics

Published in 1923, the spectacularly named Whose Body? is the first of English crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers' 14-book detective series. It introduces the iconic Lord Peter Wimsey, Sayers' aristocratic amateur detective. His first case? A London financier is murdered and left in a bathtub, naked but for a golden pince-nez. Hear that Wake Up Dead Man viewers? A bathtub.

The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe Credit: Mashable / Vintage Classics

Netflix titles love a bit of Edgar Allan Poe, from Wednesday to The Fall of the House of Usher. In Wake Up Dead Man, there's a famous title from the American writer on the list, 1841 short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The tale features the first appearance of the character regarded as the first fictional detective, Poe's great C. Auguste Dupin, who had immeasurable impact on one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his own detective, Sherlock Holmes. The investigator is faced with a locked-door mystery, a brutal and grisly double murder with the last killer you'd ever suspect.

Featured Video For You Rian Johnson on 'Wake Up Dead Man,' Josh O'Connor's neck tattoo, and AI slop The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie Credit: Mashable / HarperCollins

Who among you crime fiction fiends doesn't know Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's famous Belgian, moustachioed detective or Miss Marple, her famous elderly, English, amateur detective. The British writer has two titles on the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude book club list, starring her leading investigators. Published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is an absolute masterpiece of a twisty crime novel, with Poirot pulled away from his vegetable garden to solve the murder of a wealthy widower. There's blackmail, clandestine meetings, mysterious footprints, and yes, the crime scene is a locked room.

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie Credit: Mashable / HarperCollins

Miss Marple's first appearance was in Christie's 1930 novel The Murder at the Vicarage, a murder mystery set in the small English town parish of St Mary Mead — big Wake Up Dead Man vibes. In this whodunnit, the town's local magistrate and churchwarden is widely hated by everyone in the village — and then he turns up dead in his study. Everyone has a motive, and no one is safe from the watchful eye of Miss Marple.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is streaming on Netflix Dec. 12.

It’s not just you (and Rian Johnson): Social media these days feels like a big trough of AI slop. It’s just…everywhere. Swipe through your FYP, your Reels, your timeline, and you’ll see slop on slop. Mashable associate editor Tim Marcin explains how we got here.

Jodi Carreon began worrying about her older child's spelling ability a few years ago, when the child was in second grade. 

In Carreon’s southern California school district, students had returned to the classroom following pandemic restrictions. Each child had a laptop, a feature of distance learning Carreon thought would be phased out as schooling returned to normal. 

But that didn't happen. Her child, she says, was expected to use Google Docs before they knew how to type, and could also access spell check. Though they were also practicing handwriting, her student wasn't coming home with spelling lists or tests, either. Carreon recalls wondering at the time how they were learning to spell.

SEE ALSO: What to know before you buy an AI toy

"Over the next couple of years, I started to understand…they aren't explicitly teaching spelling in the way that I understood it to happen," said Carreon, a stay-at-home parent and co-lead of the advocacy group Distraction-Free Schools CA. (Mashable isn't sharing specific details about Carreon's children for privacy reasons.)

By the time her child reached the end of elementary school, Carreon decided they would benefit from spelling tutoring. She also knew that letting them rely on error-correcting technologies like autocorrect, spellcheck, and generative artificial intelligence would only mask the problem. 

So she downloaded spelling lists from the internet and reviewed words with them every week. Carreon was improvising: "I'm not a teacher," she said. "I don't exactly know the proper way to do this. I would help them as best as I could, based on the rules I remembered."  

Parents are on their own with spelling

What Carreon didn't know then was that many teachers no longer understand how to effectively teach spelling, and don't receive high-quality curriculum to help them, according to literacy experts interviewed by Mashable.

This may surprise parents of a certain age, who attended elementary school in the 1980s and early 1990s and likely became proficient spellers thanks to formalized spelling instruction. 

While the literacy crisis frequently makes headlines, parents are less aware of the decline in formal instruction, which contributes to difficulties with reading, comprehension, and writing. There is no annual national spelling assessment and states generally don't explicitly test spelling, so it's difficult to know the extent of the problem. 

Complicating matters are tools and products like spellcheck, Google Docs, Grammarly, and ChatGPT, which parents themselves might favor and which can make spelling appear an obsolete skill. But literacy experts interviewed by Mashable say that while such tools can be helpful later in a child's schooling, students must learn the vital skill of spelling or risk falling behind academically. Spelling may seem like an optional skill these days, but literacy experts say it's foundational for being able to read, write, and comprehend well.

Absent a nationwide movement to standardize spelling instruction, parents are in a position they dread: On their own. 

Spelling struggles? What to do next.

None of the literacy experts Mashable interviewed blamed teachers for the lack of spelling instruction in schools. Instead, they pointed to a decades-long shift away from science-based literacy in favor of a since-debunked philosophy known as “whole language,” which posited, among other things, that students didn't need formal spelling instruction. Instead, the thinking went, they'd learn to spell through reading. 

The abandonment of formal spelling instruction, beginning in the late 1980s, meant that educators stopped learning how to formally teach the subject. Nor are they routinely provided comprehensive lesson material that includes spelling, said Dr. Brennan Chandler, professor at Georgia State University who researches literacy and dyslexia. 

"I really try to approach these conversations from a place of curiosity." - Jodi Carreon, parent education advocate

Even though "whole language" and the widespread curriculum that supported it has been thoroughly rejected by scientific research in recent years, spelling instruction has not recovered. Although most states have passed science-based literacy standards, spelling continues to be an afterthought, Chandler said. 

Carreon had to cobble together at-home spelling resources for her child. She also initially approached her child's teacher and school administration about the role of technology in the classroom, using access to spellcheck in early grades as one example of concern. 

"I really try to approach these conversations from a place of curiosity," Carreon said, noting that she's never taught in a classroom. She recommends parents ask their child's teacher or school about the spelling curriculum, as well as the value placed on spelling as a skill. 

Spelling resources to consider 

Chandler acknowledged that there isn't an obvious or well-vetted solution for parents facing this problem. Khan Academy, a go-to tutoring platform for many parents, doesn't offer a spelling curriculum, for example. Additionally, students need more than just memorization drills; instead they must develop an understanding of the English language. 

Chandler recommends parents familiarize themselves with the rules that govern English spelling, which they themselves may have forgotten or never learned. He suggests the slim book Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy for this purpose. 

Dr. J. Richard Gentry, an education researcher and co-author of Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching, says children need to systematically use the spelling words for the week, connecting them to broader skills, such as phonics, reading comprehension, writing, and building their vocabulary. His Spelling Connections series teaches the subject with this approach. Individual student guides retail for $30 each, but the publisher also offers school and homeschool packages.

Gentry recommends parents begin paying close attention to their child's spelling toward the end of first grade and continue monitoring it throughout elementary school. 

Chandler acknowledges that little or non-existent spelling instruction puts children with an existing or emerging learning disability at a serious disadvantage. If most students in a class can't spell well either, it may prevent teachers and parents from accurately identifying challenges specific to dyslexia, for example. 

That risk gets higher with the use of error-correcting tools and products like spellcheck and ChatGPT. Students with undiagnosed dyslexia can unwittingly lean on that technology to conceal their disability. 

Deanna Fogarty, vice president and head of reading science at the literacy curriculum company Wilson Language Training, encourages parents to talk directly with their child's teacher about their spelling, particularly if they believe their child might have a learning disability. 

Parents can ask the teacher about ways to support their child at home. Fogarty says the teacher will ideally offer more than a list of words to memorize, since that approach doesn't help students internalize the English language's coding system. 

"If the support you're seeking doesn't [teach spelling] in a logically sequenced way, it's still going to be very random and probably not make the impact that parent would be looking for," Fogarty said. 

Still, Fogarty said parents can seize the opportunities they get. If they're provided with just a list of words, Fogarty suggests looking for commonalities, such as a shared prefix or suffix. That presents an opportunity for the child to better grasp the rules that define English spelling. 

Fogarty also recommends the website TextProject, a nonprofit literacy organization that offers a list of the 4,000 most common word families. She said parents tutoring their child could use the list to identify high-frequency words with commonalities.

Carreon wishes parents in her position could easily find spelling resources and support. In addition to at-home studying with her child, she's paid for tutors and taken advantage of writing courses for them. 

"We're in a position to be able to do this," she said. "But not all families are, and that's my real concern." 

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted fresh clues around a nearby star that strengthen the case that an object previously seen there was not a planet but an enormous space crash.

A team of astronomers observed a new, faint point of light near the inner edge of a broad ring of dust circling Fomalhaut in 2023. The object closely resembles an earlier detection in the mid-2000s, which gradually faded. 

Both objects appear at locations where scientists would expect debris from high-speed collisions between large planetesimals, the early rocky building blocks of exoplanets. Capturing such a rare event is "amazing," said Paul Kalas, the principal investigator from UC Berkeley. 

Together the two detections provide direct evidence that large cosmic collisions are still happening in mature planetary systems. By observing these impacts almost in real time, scientists can estimate how often these kinds of crashes happen, how much material they release, and how debris disks — and the planets that may emerge from them — continue to evolve long after a star forms.

"This is certainly the first time I’ve ever seen a point of light appear out of nowhere in an exoplanetary system," Kalas said in a statement. "It’s absent in all of our previous Hubble images, which means that we just witnessed a violent collision between two massive objects and a huge debris cloud unlike anything in our own solar system today." 

SEE ALSO: Scientists discover a lemon-shaped planet with something they've never seen before

Fomalhaut lies about 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus, aka the Southern Fish, and is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is surrounded by several belts of dust and debris, material left over from the planet-building process, similar to our solar system’s Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune.

In 2004, Hubble saw a compact source inside this belt, dubbed Fomalhaut b. At the time, scientists debated whether it was a planet surrounded by dust or something else entirely. By 2008, some believed it could be the first exoplanet discovery made with a visible light telescope.

But over the ensuing years, the object’s behavior raised doubts. The mysterious source dimmed instead of brightened, appeared to stretch outward, and eventually vanished. Those changes better matched what scientists would expect from a cloud of debris created when two large bodies smash and then slowly disperse. 

When astronomers had another look at the system nearly 20 years later, they did not see the original object at all. Instead, they found a new source nearby along the same dust ring, suggesting that a second major collision had occurred in roughly the same region. The study results appear in the journal Science.

"What we learned," Kalas said, "is that a large dust cloud can masquerade as a planet for many years."

What's strange is that the team is seeing the two debris clouds in close proximity. If these collisions were haphazard, experts would think they'd appear in totally random places. The researchers also can't yet explain why these two crashes happened within such a short span of time. Previous theories would suggest a collision of this magnitude should only happen once in 100,000 years or so. 

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"If you had a movie of the last 3,000 years, and it was sped up so that every year was a fraction of a second, imagine how many flashes you'd see over that time," Kalas said. "Fomalhaut’s planetary system would be sparkling with these collisions."

Astronomers propose that a second dust cloud around the nearby star Fomalhaut formed after two massive objects, seen in the first panel, approach and crash into each other. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / Ralf Crawford illustration

The dust clouds shine by reflecting starlight, making them visible to telescopes like Hubble. But that same starlight also pushes on the tiny dust grains, causing the clouds to spread outward and fade. This process explains why the first cloud disappeared and why the second may also fade.

Based on the brightness of the debris, researchers estimate that the colliding objects were likely 37 miles wide — larger than most asteroids involved in known crashes in our own solar system. Such impacts release enormous amounts of dust, briefly lighting up otherwise invisible events.

For astronomers, this discovery offers a rare chance to witness the kinds of destructive events that once shaped — and may still shape — planetary systems across the galaxy, said coauthor Mark Wyatt, who is based at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The team looks forward to what additional insight the James Webb Space Telescope, which observes in invisible infrared light, can reveal about the size and makeup of the dust.

"The system is a natural laboratory to probe how planetesimals behave when undergoing collisions," said Wyatt in a statement, "which in turn tells us about what they are made of and how they formed."

If you know where to look online, you'll find concerned whispers about the ability of America's schoolchildren to spell. 

One teacher-creator on TikTok who goes by the handle @oopsdaaliya recently posted about her first-grade students' alarming spelling test results. On a 10-item quiz of high-frequency words (think the, with, has), most of her students struggled. Sometimes they wrote only a single letter or left the blank space completely empty. The video has been viewed 1.3 million times. 

"This is my reality," she said in the video. "I really don't know what to do." 

SEE ALSO: What to know before you buy an AI toy

Elsewhere, in a subreddit for teachers, a parent recently shared a post entitled, "5th grade kids can't spell, why?". The question elicited dozens of passionate responses from current and retired educators. The spelling crisis in their classrooms, many of them argued, could be traced back to a theory known as “whole language,” which rejected science-based literacy, including spelling instruction, in favor of since-discredited reading and comprehension strategies. 

"[N]ow we have a generation of struggling students," wrote one commenter. 

While the anecdotes are troubling, data is hard to find. There is no annual national spelling assessment, and states generally don't explicitly test spelling, so it's difficult to know the extent of the problem. 

Still, top literacy experts interviewed by Mashable agree the whole language approach marked the beginning of depriving countless students of formal spelling instruction for decades. Other educational policies that overlooked the crucial role spelling plays in reading and writing also didn't help. Even though many schools have pivoted back to science-based literacy approaches, specifically phonics, spelling often remains an afterthought. 

These experts also have a warning for parents and educators who dismiss spelling as an obsolete skill, given the widespread availability of error-correcting digital technologies and products like spellcheck, autocorrect, Google Docs, Grammarly, and ChatGPT. Relying on these tools without becoming a proficient speller can put students at a lifelong disadvantage, they say. 

That's because learning to spell correctly from the beginning gives students the "underlying linguistic knowledge" they need to read, write, and communicate effectively, says Dr. Brennan Chandler, a professor at Georgia State University who researches literacy and dyslexia. 

"Spelling really has quietly eroded," Chandler adds, "even as evidence mounted that spelling is really a driver of reading development and not this optional add-on." 

"Everybody really wants this"

Parents coming to terms with the role spelling plays in the literacy crisis shouldn't blame themselves or teachers, Chandler says. 

He tutors students with dyslexia and conducts research in classrooms. He hears from both parents and teachers that they desperately want students to learn to spell correctly. 

"This is where I get frustrated, see, because everybody really wants this, but we're still neglecting it," says Chandler, who's developing a teaching curriculum for spelling. (Chandler also serves on the advisory board for the literacy education company Amplify.) 

Parents feel ill-equipped to tutor spelling at home for obvious reasons, like time and patience. There are also relatively few trustworthy home learning products available, compared to those for subjects like math and English. 

Plus, students and their parents may resist the hard work required to spell proficiently, given the availability of error-correction technology. But those tools, Chandler says, "mask student difficulties and further normalize a decline of explicit spelling instruction."

Meanwhile, because literacy curricula abandoned formal spelling instruction for nearly three decades, teachers stopped learning how to teach the subject. Nor are they routinely provided the resources they need for explicit spelling instruction. 

Educators may do their best with word lists and weekly quizzes, but instruction is often haphazard if they don't have access to a formal spelling curriculum, says Dr. J. Richard Gentry, an education researcher and co-author of Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching. 

In the classroom, Gentry recommends 20 minutes of daily classroom spelling instruction. To be effective, the material should cover specific spelling rules, phonics patterns, and foundational vocabulary appropriate for each grade level. 

"This kind of instruction using a curriculum leads to long-term mastery as opposed to simply memorizing words in short-term memory for a test or reliance on digital devices without teacher guidance," says Gentry. 

When to worry about your child's spelling

Parents should begin paying close attention to their child's spelling in kindergarten. Toward the end of first grade, students are typically expected to develop more sophisticated spelling knowledge. At that point, students may not be able to spell more complex words correctly, but they should be able to use logical syllable patterns accurately (think e-g-u-l for eagle). 

If they struggle with letter recognition and phonic sounds during kindergarten, it's important to begin shoring up that foundational knowledge as soon as possible. 

Consistently poor spelling can indicate that a child has dyslexia or another related learning challenge. If that's masked by technology or limited instruction and testing in school, it may take years to discover the root cause. 

Gentry says parents should continue monitoring their child's spelling proficiency — and the school's curriculum for the subject matter — throughout elementary school. 

What kids learn when they learn to spell

Deanna Fogarty, vice president and head of reading science at the literacy curriculum company Wilson Language Training, says parents shouldn't assume spelling isn't being taught if their child isn't becoming proficient in the skill. 

Instead, educators may be focusing on memorization without teaching the rules of spelling. Or spelling may be part of a student's English Language Arts curriculum, but not delivered using science-based principles. 

Additionally, in the English language, there are over 1,100 ways to spell 44 sounds, Fogarty says. That's why memorization tactics alone fail students. 

They need to know, for instance, that c represents /s/ when placed before e, i, and y, and that c represents /k/ before the vowels a, o, and u, among other instances. Knowing these rules helps students understand spelling in a way that memorization doesn't. (For a crash course in these conventions, Chandler recommends the slim book Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy.)

Fogarty, who previously tutored dyslexic children, says students often express relief when they realize that standardized rules govern the English language. They often labor under the impression that English spelling is too difficult and unpredictable to master.

Chandler says that as kids feel more competent in spelling, their motivation to improve grows. As they become proficient, Chandler says they can use tools like autocorrect and ChatGPT to strategically check or finesse their work. But relying on them from the beginning may prevent students from developing critical reading and writing skills. 

He notes that the ability to write fluently and with ease, which requires accurate spelling, may very well influence their life's direction. 

'When you teach students to write, we're not just preparing them to pass an exam or perhaps an essay," Chander says. "We're teaching them to reason, argue, to clarify their thoughts, to communicate their ideas, to advocate for themselves."

Want to watch college football this season? Here are your best options: BEST FOR ESPN ESPN Unlimited $29.99 per month for 1 year (save $15) Shop Now Best for Fox and Big Ten Fox One 7-day free trial, then $199.99 per year (save $39.89) Shop Now BEST FOR SINGLE GAME FuboTV 7-day free trial, then $54.99/month for 1 month (save $30) Get Deal Best for channels Hulu + Live TV 3-day free trial, then $76.99/month Shop Now Best for affordability Sling Season Pass $329 for 5 months (save $50.95) Shop Now BEST for INTRODUCTORY OFFER YouTube TV 5-day free trial, then $49.99/month for 3 months (save $99) Shop Now

The James Madison Dukes made college football history when they rolled over Troy in the Sun Belt Championship Game and — with other results going their way — received an automatic for the college football playoffs over Power Four programs from the ACC. It's not only the first time that James Madison have made the CFP but the first time the Sun Belt Conference has been represented at this level. James Madison are this season's great underdog story.

But the Duke will certainly have their work cut out if they want to keep making history. As No. 12 seed they're in good form, but Oregon are the No. 5 seed with an overall record this season of 11-1. The Ducks are also on a six-game winning streak.

Following Tulane vs. Ole Miss, this is the final game in the CFP first round. Expect main event-level drama.

If you want to watch James Madison vs. Oregon for free from anywhere in the world, here's all the information you need.

When is James Madison vs. Oregon?

James Madison vs. Oregon takes place at 7.30 p.m. ET on Dec. 20. This game takes place at Autzen Stadium.

James Madison vs. Oregon is broadcast on TNT and TruTV.

How to watch college football in 2025/26

Fans can live stream college football on a wide range of recommended services, some of which include free trials so you can follow the action without actually spending anything.

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Channels: Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network

Fox One provides access to live broadcasts on Fox, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, and Big Ten Network. It costs $19.99 per month, but you can save $40 by opting for the annual plan at $199.99. You can also start with a seven-day free trial, so you've got the chance to watch select games without spending anything.

FuboTV (free trial) Opens in a new window Credit: FuboTV FuboTV 7-day free trial, then $54.99/month for 1 month Shop Now

Channels: ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNews, Fox, FS1, FS2, Marquee Sports Network, Monumental Sports, NBC, NBCSN, Pac-12 Network, SEC Network, and The CW

FuboTV offers you more than 250 channels of live TV and provides the opportunity to watch on 10 screens at once, if that's your thing. You can try FuboTV with a seven-day free trial period. 

Fubo takes sports seriously, and that's something we appreciate. With the Pro subscription, you get access to most college football broadcasts. But hardcore fans may want to consider upgrading to the Elite plan, which unlocks access to ESPNU, SEC Network, Pac-12 Network, and ACC Network. Either way, we suggest you test the waters for seven days before you make any sort of commitment.

Hulu + Live TV (free trial) Opens in a new window Credit: Hulu Hulu + Live TV 3-day free trial, then $76.99/month Shop Now

Channels: ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNews, ESPN U, Fox, FS1, FS2, NBC, and The CW

Hulu + Live TV is not exactly cheap, but it does offer good bang for your buck. You need to cough up $76.99 per month (after a three-day trial), but you get access to over 95 live TV channels, plus Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ (all with ads). The included access to ESPN+ provides bonus access to even more college football games on top of live TV networks like ABC, FOX, ESPN, The CW, ACC Network, and more. Now that's value.

Sling (no free trial) Opens in a new window Credit: Sling Sling Season Pass $329 for 5 months Shop Now

Channels: ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN 3, ESPNews, ESPN U, Fox, FS1, FS2, NBC, Pac-12 Network, SEC Network

Sling is a comprehensive sporting service that offers a whole host of benefits, but you do need to be careful when selecting a plan. The Orange and Blue packages give you access to FOX, NBC, ABC, ESPN, and more in local markets, but for access to ACC Network, SEC Network, Big Ten Network, and more, you'll need the Sports Extra package. We recommend checking your local market to ensure you get access to the channels you actually need.

YouTube TV (free trial) Opens in a new window Credit: YouTube TV YouTube TV 7-day free trial, then $49.99/month for your first 3 months Shop Now

Channels: ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNews, Fox, FS1, FS2, NBC, NBCSN, SEC Network, and The CW

YouTube TV provides access to over 100 live channels. Newsflash: that's a lot. This huge list includes most of the channels you actually need to watch live college football, including NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and ESPN, plus networks like FS1 and SEC Network. YouTube TV also offers that all-important free trial so you can watch select games without spending anything.

How to watch James Madison vs. Oregon from anywhere in the world

If you're abroad for this fixture, you might need to use a VPN to unblock your favorite streaming service. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock live streams of college football from anywhere in the world.

Live stream James Madison vs. Oregon from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the U.S.

4. Sign in to your favorite streaming service

5. Watch James Madison vs. Oregon from anywhere in the world

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (with money-back guarantee).

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal