A Net in Time

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Seven Reasons to Find a Writing Community

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You know how easy it is for writers to write on their own? To stick to themselves, writing and reading on their own?  Anguishing over plot lines, fumbling over character development, musing over poetry lines, and waiting for the next blot of inspiration to hit. Sometimes we forget a rather important aspect of writing… having a community we can talk in.  Real people in life that we can talk to, gain inspiration from, realize that we aren’t alone and more.

seven reasons to find a writing community

You know how C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien founded the Inklings?   Feeling alone with their ideas that were out of the mainstream until they found each other and over ale and stories discovered encouragement.  Other men joining in, until they had a group of writers spurring each other on and offering ideas and inspiration to each other.

We are no different you know?   We need each other.  Do you know the benefits of having a community?

Benefits of having a community

  1. Encouragement/Support/Fun/Friendship – all wrapped up in one bundle.  Where would we be without good friends who share a similar interest?   How can we write alone all the time?  Where can we find the inspiration to go on when we don’t have others who share our hobby or interest?   In person or on-line, it’s great to have people you can laugh with, cry with, and just be with.
  2. Critique – A writing community will also want to help you do better at what you want to be best at.  They’ll critique you work in a building up manner, wanting to help you be the best you can be.
  3. Ideas – stuck?  Not sure what to do next or what word would fit well with your thought?  Struggling to understand a character you haven’t quite filled out yet?  Having a group of like minded souls can inspire you as you bounce ideas off each other.
  4. Mentoring/Education – Trying to figure out the best way to do something?  Stuck on what on-line platform to use, or what it means to tighten up a line or a paragraph?  Needing an answer to question that maybe someone else has already figured out?  Being part of a group is a good way to get those questions answered.. whether by you or another member.
  5. Accountability – ..have a goal.. like with NaNoWriMo 50,000 words in a month? Imagine you are all doing this encouraging each other, pushing each other along.  Have a deadline to get a poem in?   Or you need to do that mock up for an editor?
  6. Motivation – Stalling happens. Wouldn’t it be great to have a person who has been there done that be there to give you a nudge?  Tonight I was watching a show with hubby where a gal had given up doing her art, and another artist brought out a canvas and said GO… do it now.  Pushing her to return to a hobby loved. Giving her to motivation to do it for herself.
  7. Promotion/Publication – sharing our work.. whether it’s just for ourselves or for a larger audience, a writing community can and will help you with this.  Even if you only share within your group..a community gives you the opportunity to give a clearer voice to the words you write.  They can also host speaking events, or publish an anthology of your group works.

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World War 1: Soldiers in Training

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Over the past week we’ve been studying soldiers in training.  Getting ready for the battle field, and being fit to fight is an important part in the life of a soldier.

Soldiers in Training, world war 1

It was actually harder than we thought to research this topic.  We couldn’t find a site that actually told us the training that soldiers had to undergo beyond the basics of physical fitness and drills.  We still managed to learn a bit, some of this based on what my lad is learning in army cadets this year.

Videos:

This video reminded my son of a reenactment he attended, where he had to practice running in a straight line carrying a gun.  I asked him, how would we practice this skill in real life.  He thought a while and then brought up the air rifles we have.  I suppose we too, can practice some of the skills to be soldiers in training. 

Surprise!  Horse training

One of the videos that popped us surprised us.  Army horse training.   In retrospect it makes sense, we just never really thought about how soldiers might need to be trained as well as the horses themselves.  First train the men, then train the horses. 

Gas Warfare

I never thought to think about soldiers in training having to focus on gas warfare, how to deploy it as well as how to protect themselves from it.   Last night we attended Christmas 1914 at Fanshawe Village and there was a fellow who talked with us a great length about gases used and the products used to protect the men from it.  It was hard and brutal and the knowledge gained was a big reason why it wasn’t used in World War 2.  world war 1 gas mask

My son said when it was on you couldn’t see anything and it was harder to breathe.  Can you imagine trying to run and fight and carry a full load while wearing one?   Just a hard job for those soldiers.  Helps us better understand the struggles they went through.  The video below shows German troops. While watching I wondered aloud how many times they would kill themselves. Apparently this was something my son had wondered about earlier and researched and the answer was YES, lots of times.  

Being Canadian, we appreciated this video and we found ourselves talking through it, sharing knowledge we learned from our individual research.  Did you know that Canadian soldiers were known for their ferocity during the First World War?

Modern day training!   My lad is inspired.

We learned that training is there to increase skill levels and physical fitness but also to help the soldiers bond as they work together.  This was part of the advantage of having “Pals” units as you had some of that cohesiveness already built in. I see this in my lad with the Army Cadet unit he is part of.  The more the boys do things together, talking, working, exercising, the more the unit is coming together as a unit.  Neat to observe.  🙂

Websites too!

Lest you think we only watched videos, we also took in a few websites.

Learning about the Canadians training at Valcartiers.  We admittedly spent a fair bit of time at this site exploring images, delving into other topics etc.

We learned about the Kitchener blue uniforms of the british.

Studied a PDF of the American training program that gave us excellent ideas for our own training program.  It’s LONG and we only looked the ww1.

Learned about elderly training officers in Britain and some of the problems that created.

Talked our way through the 8 steps to becoming a soldier in WW1.  Which led to hearing some of the training done in the WW1.   The lad was surprised to learn what PAL units in the war were all about.

We learned why soldiers drop and crawl when they are on an infantry line.  Makes sense once you stop and think about it.   See if you can discover why HERE. 

We also looked back at our day for the World War 1.  This was an excellent day for the lad with learning about order, disciplines, different aspects of the wars and so forth.  He still talks about it. 

Hands-on aspects:

We’ll be starting a training regime… physical fitness anyone?

My son and I were talking today about some of the things he wants to do.  He wants it to be something that we do together.  So starting next week he’ll be running around the block (I will walk as quickly as I can) and he’ll eventually catch up to me again.  We’ll do (for me some modification) sit ups, planks, push ups, leg lifts and squats.  Hopefully we can get dad involved as well.   How to fit it all in will be a lovely challenge for us.  🙂

I am going to get him (hopefully tomorrow sometime) to put together a spreadsheet for us to use.  Need to see if we are improving our abilities as that’s something that soldiers do as well.

Follow our studies:

 

 

Ara: the Star Engineer

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Allow me to introduce Ara, the Star Engineer.  This little book focuses on Ara, who has a problem she wants to solve. She is a young lady who loves numbers and has a helpful sidekick robot but together they don’t know quite enough to find a solution to Ara’s problem.   Enter in Innovation Plex.   This story walks us through Ara, and the different people she meets, that help her solve her problem. 

ara star engineer

From the Back Cover:

Ara loves numbers – big numbers. She wants to program her droid DeeDee to count all the stars, but she’s not sure how.  In this upbeat adventure, Ara visits Innovation Plex to enlist the help of four tech trailblazers – inspiring real-life engineers of Google.   With her new friends, Ara discovers an algorithm for success that can solve BIG problems and be lots of fun: courage, creativity, code and collaboration.

What do you get?

A cute book geared toward girls that inspires them to think in terms of STEM and working with computers.  Innovation Plex is part of google and is host to some of the brightest engineers.   Ara turns to four women to help her solve her problem.  Each woman specializes in a different area so they can help Ara when she faces each new problem. 

Bright, colourful images fill the pages, bringing the story to life.  Each of the four focus words is highlighted.  In the image below we see COURAGE. Creativity, code and collaboration are done in a similar manner.  I liked that each time we met a new character her name and position were highlighted. 

Ara, Star engineer

As you read you will notice different words are printed in bold.  Many of these words will found in the glossary at the close of the book.  These are words that introduce important concepts to readers from 5-9 years old. The illustrations by Ipek Konak are spot on, giving voice to the working environment for these four engineers as well as to the joy of thinking and problem-solving.

ara, star engineer

My Thoughts

I thought this book was well done and applaud the authors for not dumbing it down.  Too many books don’t use language that is varied or specific enough to not only entertain children, but to educate them as well.   This book succeeds in doing both.   It would be so easy to expand this book to include various ages…from researching the helpers, to learn more about coding and computer language, to adding in a STEM project or two to put the learning into a hands-on format. Brightly coloured images with an excellent storyline following Ara through the various stages of completing her project. Well done.

 

ara star engineer

 

Ara, the Star Engineer.
Komal Singh et al
Illustrator: Ipek Konak
Page Two Books
40 pages, Hardcover (though I received a trade paperback)
STEM, engineering, girls
ages 5-9

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
NOTE: there is a website to go along with Ara, Star Engineer. You can find it here. It has a fair number of printables to expand the ideas found in this lovely picture book.

disclosure

Geography Crafts for Kids

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You know, I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for a while now and have looked at it off and on.  Not quite the same as when I’m looking at a book to tell someone else about it though.  Geography Crafts for Kids is filled with 50 different projects and activities to help expand one’s knowledge of geography.   I really like this book!

Geography Crafts for Kids

From the cover: 

  • How did early explorers keep from getting hopelessly lost?
  • Where is the center of the world
  • What does a cow in Finland sound like?

Want the answer?   Check inside, and soon you’ll be doing and creating cool things that will help you experience geography like never before!   Map your friend’s face, predict the weather, and find out if you have what it takes to pass your own country’s citizenship quiz.  Search for eco-invaders in your backyard, or turn tomorrow’s trash into treasure.  You’ll never look at Earth the same way again!

Geography Crafts for Kids

What you Get

Five chapters, templates and 50 different projects.

The five chapters are

  • Where in the World are you?
  • Maps, Maps, and Even more Maps
  • We are different, we are the same
  • The Earth Shapes you
  • You Shape the earth

Geography Crafts for Kids

Each chapter contains a number of interesting projects such as making a Mariner’s Cross Staff, a compass, a timezone clock, an antique map & case, a novel map, stamp box, world drum, take a citizenship quiz, read tree rings, make a Pangea pudding puzzle or even a debate book.   So many different and exciting options to try.   Learn the history or the reason behind each craft.

Geography Crafts for KidsTHIS I liked.  Projects in a geography book that you wouldn’t expect.  Who would think about putting a project about brick making in a book about geography?  But when you stop and think about it, homes all over the world are made from bricks, so it makes sense. Many of the projects are ones that I would not have anticipated. 

Lots of different ways to make maps were explored, one I thought was unique was printing off an antique map and printing it off on a t-shirt or pillow case.  It’s just a matter of finding some transfer paper.  Some were ones I expected like doing a neighbourhood or a trade route map.  It’s great to mix the expected with the unexpected isn’t it?

My Thoughts:

I love the variety presented within the pages of this book.   To see the options available to help your students learn geography its a great thing.  This book would be an excellent addition to any teacher who wants to add hands on elements to teaching geography.   I hope to make a cross staff with my lad when we study war by sea. We are taught how to use it as well.   I even found a video that talks about this navigational tool.  Another excellent book is can be found here. 

Geography is such a comprehensive topic, there are many approaches to studying it, and this book is just another helpful addition.

Geography Crafts for Kids

 

Geography Crafts for Kids
Joe Rhatigan
Heather Smith
Lark Books
Hardcover, 144 pages,
Geography, Art, Crafts, Projects.

Remembrance Day

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Remembrance Day 2018

Remembrance Day has taken on new meaning this year.

Taking the time this year to study the wars with my son has brought into sharp focus the pain and suffering that men (and even women) suffered for the freedom that we enjoy.   Popular or not popular wars, these people deserve our respect and acknowledgement for the choices they made so we can live lives of freedom.   Freedom to make good and bad decisions.  Lives free from oppression from another country and all that goes along with that. 

Let’s take that one minute of silence and remember those who have gone on before. 

and when that is over, listen….

Seven experiments for Science Co-op

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Seven Co-op science experiments

I’ve been teaching a science class this current co-op season.   I had a couple of books that inspired me The Element in the Room and The Electric Pickle.   Here are seven experiments for a co-op science class. 

We discussed hydrogen and oxygen and learned to separate them with electrolysis. 

We learned the iodine turns purple when it connects with a starch.  This also gave us the opportunity to discuss diffusion. 

iodline

We had a lot of fun playing around with mentos and pop.  We got a lot of different pops, let the boys figure out an hypothesis, and test their ideas, their goal.. figure out why mentos reacted strongly with some pop but not with others.   They got pretty close to figuring it out too!  We ended up turning to the internet for the answers.  It’s a combination nucleation and the the gum arabic and gelatin ingredients of the Mentos, combined with the potassium benzoate, sugar or (potentially) aspartame in diet sodas.   The boys were shocked that the no sugar pepsi had the greatest reaction and had traced that down the aspartame.  And my son had mentioned the bubbles that form on the mint mentos.  We actually took two class periods to research this. 

The boys were delighted to test out chip bags in the microwave.  They excitedly showed them off to a homeschool mom who asked “did you do those in the oven?”  They told her the microwave and she asked about sparks.  We learned that two seconds in the microwave works fine. It was NOT my idea to do one with the contents still in it, but the boys thought it pretty cool.  🙂

chip bag microwave

Magnetic fun

One day we played around with magnets. I hadn’t anticipated this one but came prepared in case they were curious.  I brought four different kinds of cereal and some milk.   They floated the cereal and determined which ones had the most iron in them.  Fruit loops of all things!!!!!   Crushed them and discovered tiny amounts of iron filings.   This was a total eye opener for them.   Then of course, boys being boys, they played magnet hockey…in the process discovering north and south, and how magnets vary in strength. 

iron filings

Our last experiment was in discovering the joy of black snakes. Working with carbon was very exciting for these two lads. It was a windy day so we struggled getting things going and the bbq lighter was a bit of a challenge to use. 

Since we are on vacation this week I didn’t actually plan an experiment for day six.  I expect the lads will be too busy just setting things up and I always have stuff we can play around with.   🙂

Five Reasons to Share Your Writing

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Do you know that when I first started writing poetry as an adult that it was REALLY hard to let people know I liked to write poetry much less let them read it?   MAN that was so hard… and to be honest, it’s still hard but, other than at a writer’s conference I attended, no one has even dissected it and made me feel less than. It is so hard to do though, especially when you start.  I want to encourage you with five reasons to share your writing. 

five reasons to share your writing

I’ve learned to avoid writer’s groups … at least at this point because I don’t know enough about how to dissect someone’s poetry to be very comfortable about having others dissect mine.. I dunno .. does that make sense?   This doesn’t mean I can’t share my poetry with others though.  It’s an excellent thing to do.

Why?

SO glad you asked.

  1. It gives us confidence to continue writing.  Doesn’t it do you good when someone says “I really liked that piece”.  Makes you feel like a million bucks doesn’t it?  So then you want to do it again right?  It’s a huge confidence booster isn’t it?
  2. It gives our words meaning.  We can’t just write for ourselves… writing is meant to be shared.  Even if all you do is write back and forth to your best, longest lived friend.  Or have a small blog in your corner of the universe, or have a mega blog with so many readers it boggles the mind. 
  3. It could be useful.  Perhaps that poem your wrote, or article you spent time agonizing over, is just what the reader needed as an encouragement or to spur them on to better things, or was a balm to a wounded soul.  Maybe that piece of non-fiction taught a 13 year old something he didn’t know before!
  4. Feedback… Even though it’s hard and can crush your spirit.. feedback can also show you what you are doing well and how to make the rest even better. It’s a bit of a two-edged sword right?  The side benefit is if you share your work with discerning writers (so not your very best friend or your mom who will probably like everything you do), you may just end up reading their work and finding your mind sharpened just a bit more.  Fire feeds fire you know?
  5. New readers, new friends, new opportunities.  You never know where your writing will take you.  Someone might read one piece, and then decide they need to read more, and then more and they will share it with their friends and before you know it, you might have a whole following.

What do you say?   Give it a chance?  Let iron sharpen iron?  Find yourself encouraged?   Finding readers that are encouraged or helped?  Isn’t it a lovely thing?   Share it!