The greatest reward parents can give their children is verbal praise, an early childhood and parent trainer said Thursday at a parenting workshop for faculty and staff.

That was part of the advice passed on by DeVonna Wicks, who gave a presentation titled "Developing Responsible and Independent Children." The "Lunch and Learn" event was a part of the Child Care Network, which is a pilot program through Camp Fire USA.

Big doors were opened at an everyday rehearsal for the TCU Marching Band when members found out they had the opportunity to be featured on national television and win $25,000.

Bands from across the nation submitted videos as part of a contest to appear on an episode of the television series "Hawaii Five-0." The TCU band was one of 17 chosen for the chance to appear on national television sometime this fall, associate director of bands Jeremy Strickland said.

Highs and lows of September

Frogs up to finally bringing live horned frog mascots to the university. If LSU can have a tiger and Baylor can have a bear, then two blood-squirting lizards shouldn't be asking too much.

Pony down to continued problems with freshman housing. Students live in converted community space for the fourth year in a row because there are too few rooms to accommodate incoming students. After four years, the university needs to fix this situation once and for all.

This season, head football coach Gary Patterson put a pyramid on the wall in the team room before fall camp the same way he did last season. Even though the Frogs reached the Fiesta Bowl last season, the first postseason goal on the pyramid is to win the Mountain West Conference.

TCU won the conference last season with an unblemished 8-0 record in conference play. The closest the Frogs came to a loss was a 20-17 win at Air Force played in single-digit temperatures. Other than that, no conference team came within 27 points of upsetting TCU.