Category: Challenge

July 19, 2016

National Dance Day is Coming!!!

Turn on the music! Put on your dancing feet! National Dance Day is coming NEXT week on Saturday, July 30th. Save the last Saturday of every July for National Dance Day and join in the fun. It’s not often a TV program inspires a national event, but that is just what the program So You Think You Can Dance has done. The event launched in 2010 and is supported by the Dizzy Feet Foundation to encourage Americans “to embrace dance as a fun and positive way to maintain good health and fight obesity.” A U.S. Congressional resolution introduced the event...

Challenge / musings

May 3, 2016

Fortune Cookie Advice

Here are a few tasty, thought-provoking fortunes most of us could use: You are the master of every situation. Your efforts will be worthwhile. You tend to look at the practical side of situations. It’s time for a differernt dance. Stertch yourself. Take a risk. Your turn! Write one or two fortunes you’d like to receive. Send them as comments so others might read them.

What are Your Favorite Children’s Books?

book reviewing / Challenge / musings

March 15, 2016

What are Your Favorite Children’s Books?

I recently found a list of a hundred top fiction books today’s elementary students should read. Many are relatively new on the book shelf; a few are old enough that I read them as a child, decades ago. The list includes: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Alice in Wonderland Matilda The Chronicles of Narnia We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Where the Wild Things Are Black Beauty Flat Stanley Winnie the Pooh Funnybones The Hobbit Green Eggs and Ham Grimm’s Fairy Tales Artemis Fowl Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Secret Garden The Borrowers Coraline Cinderella Kidnapped The Wind in...

Challenge / musings

December 15, 2015

Word Challenge

Word play is one of my favorite pasttimes. Here’s a word challenge to keep you busy thinking. Begin with the word startling “S -T-A- R -T- L- I- N- G”. Drop 1 letter at a time. End with the word “I” Send me your results IF you can do it.

84 Ribbons / Challenge / details in writing / Letters to Follow

June 2, 2015

Researching Details for Books

I have always loved research, but lately it’s become a challenge. Back in the dark ages (when I was in school), I’d go the the library, check out a handful of books and I’d be set to locate the needed details. Computer sites have simplified. intensified and complicated current-day research. These days, possible sites number into the thousands (stars for the wealth of sources) but they also create the problem of who to believe. Another problem for me, is getting lost in layers of research and finding little rabbit trails that lead me further and further away from my intended...

Challenge / musings

March 26, 2015

Word Play Challenge

I was never a good reader as a child, but I’ve always loved words: their sounds and the way their letter combinations can jump around to make different words. I always had trouble with transposing those common primary devils saw-was and help-play. As a new teacher, I learned I was mildly dyslexic. I also learned that confusion included numbers as well. If you ask me to read a long string of numbers I might start anywhere telling you the numbers (of course they’d be out of order) and then writing them down in correct sequence. Strange huh? I’d have never...

Challenge

March 19, 2015

One-Sentence Challenge

Here’s a fun exercise to stretch your mind and use up brain cells. Try writing one l-o-n-g sentence that creates an image or shares a cohesive idea. One-Sentence Challenge Yesterday I sat waiting for the doorbell to ring which meant my books arrived and I’d hold the early copies in my hands and then rush to the phone to call Linda and share the news that I’d finally completed 84 Ribbons, book one in my trilogy/ writing cycle which started as an overnight idea when I couldn’t sleep so I sat in my living room and let Marta’s story...