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by Kathy Stemke, Contributing Editor

Reading books with your children not only opens up the whole world to them, but often kick-starts their creative writing juices. When teaching creative writing to children, I’ve found that using maps, props, books they’ve read, or pictures help them organize their thoughts and create characters and a plot. Here are a few activities that will help your child get started.

CREATE A MAP OF A NEW WORLD
Draw the map of an island on a crinkled up paper bag. This will show that the map is old. Now add some features like mountains, caves, volcanoes, rivers, swamps, or lakes (This is a great way to give your kids a geography lesson!). How about adding an old, deserted pirate town? Remember that islands don’t have to be tropical. There are also rocky islands, jungle islands, and since this is an imaginary story, how about rainbow islands, candy islands, islands made of toys, or any combination of elements you want.

Decide who lives on the island. Maybe it’s a clan of long-lost Vikings, rock people, wacky animals, or talking birds.

Finally, start the story by bringing to the island a main character or two. What would happen when two kids get shipwrecked there, or a time-traveler shows up? They need to have a goal as well. It could be as simple as trying to get home, or finding an object that’s needed to save the world. Because you have a picture of your island it is easy to create a plot as your characters move from one part of the island to the other. Create a problem to overcome at each feature.

Try reading The Adventures of Grassie Green in the Colored Worlds by Steven Rox.

IMAGINE YOURSELF AS A TINY BUG EXPLORER
First, give your character a reason to explore. Maybe you’re looking for a lost treasure, a rare animal, or a cure for a terrible bug disease. As a tiny creature, everything looks different to you.
Use numbered Popsicle sticks and string to map out your journey in the yard. Wind the string around each stick as you place it in the ground. Each stick represents a problem that you must overcome to continue your quest. Maybe you have to get over a big rock, cross a puddle, get away from a hungry bird, or ride on a dandelion seed.

Finally, solve the final problem and find what you’re looking for.

Try reading The Little Squeegy Bug by Bill Martin and Michael Sampson.

HOW DID THE TIGER GET ITS STRIPES?
These types of stories are called folktales. Historically, they have explained things. Have your child draw a picture of his favorite animal. Make a list of the characteristics that make this animal unique. Write a story that explains how the animal got a particular trait. (How a tiger gets his stripes, how an elephant got large ears, why an eagle has a white head, or how a giraffe got a long neck.) Start the story about elephants when they had tiny ears. Tell us the problems the elephants had. Tell how their ears grew to solve the problems.

Try reading Asian Children’s Favorite Stories: A Treasury of Folktales from China, Japan, Korea, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia by David Conger, Patrick Yee, Marian Davies Toth, and Kay Lyons.

from Suzanne Lieurance

As a classroom teacher or home schooling parent, you want your students to be adding new words to their vocabularies all the time.

Here’s a fun way to help students take real ownership for new vocabulary words.

Create a word wall.

A word wall is simply a wall in the classroom - or the hallway - that is devoted to words and their definitions.

Any student can add to the word wall at any time.

As the teacher, you will need to have the following items available to your students at all times:

* Blank sentence strips or thick pieces of paper or tagboard

* Colorful Markers

* Masking tape, tacks, etc. for adhering the sentence strips to the word wall

* Dictionaries

Here’s how the word wall works:

Any time a student is reading and comes across a word he is not familiar with, he uses the dictionary to look up the meaning of the word. He then writes the word and its definition, along with his signature, on the sentence strip, then tacks the sentence strip to the word wall.

At a designated time during the day, students remove their sentence strips from the wall and they take turns presenting their new words and the definitions to the class. They can tell what they were reading when they came across this word and how the definition helped them figure out what that particular reading passage was all about. After the new words of the day have been discussed, have students tack them back up on the word wall. Encourage them to start using each others’ words during the day, whenever possible.

The word wall will grow and grow, of course. And, you’ll be surprised at how students will become POSSESSIVE - or take ownership - for their own words.

During other daily activities in the classroom, if someone uses a word in conversation that another student has tacked up to the word wall, you’ll probably hear that student say, “Hey, you just used MY word.”

And that’s what you want - students using new words, being aware that they use new words, and feeling a sense of pride and ownership in their expanded vocabularies!

Try it!

by Amy M. O’Quinn

Can a little house on a hill smile happily while watching the sun and moon and stars all through the changing seasons?

Can a little train engine talk herself into pulling a bunch of heavy cars up a steep hill by repeating, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can?”

Can letters of the alphabet race to the top of the coconut tree?

Sure they can—if the writer uses a literary technique called personification!

WHAT IS PERSONIFICATION
Personification means giving human traits (qualities, feelings, actions or characteristics) directly to a non-living object. For example, the trees were dancing with the wind, the pot of soup bubbled merrily on the stove or the sun peeked over the hill. Obviously, trees can’t really dance, pots can’t be merry, and the sun doesn’t have eyes to peek over the hill. But what great descriptions for a reader to picture in his mind!

WHY DO WRITERS USE PERSONIFICATION
Many times an author will use this literary technique to add more fun, drama, sparkle, excitement, or interest to a story or to convey a certain mood. And because we are people, it is easier for us to relate to the object or to an idea that is being personified because we understand and identify with the human attributes that are being portrayed.

WHY TEACH PERSONIFICATION

HOW TO TEACH ABOUT PERSONIFICATION
Parents can easily introduce the technique of personification when it occurs in picture books. Just have the child identify things that a non-living object simply cannot do. An object cannot act or feel like a real person—so that’s called personification. This is a great activity and one that can be handled naturally when talking about what can be real and what is pretend. The child probably won’t remember the term “personification” after just one introduction, but a base of knowledge is being built one term at a time. Again, it’s all about exposure! And I can almost guarantee that even a very young child will recognize when an inanimate object has been given human qualities! Children find such things to be very silly—and very fun!

PICTURE BOOKS THAT CAN BE USED TO TEACH PERSONIFICATION
Virginia Lee Burton was a master at using personification in her picture books. Who can possibly forget The Little House, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, or Katy and the Big Snow? Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could and Don Freeman’s Corduroy books are also classics in this technique. But there are many other picture books as well that can be used for teaching about personification.

Below is a great starting list. So check out these titles, and discover the fun of personification in picture books!

The Barn by Debbie Atwell
Best Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill
The Caboose Who Got Loose by Bill Peet
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.
Corduroy books by Don Freeman
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
Jennifer and Josephine by Bill Peet
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift & Lynd Ward
Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
Maybelle the Cable Car by Virginia Lee Burton
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
Smokey by Bill Peet
The Tree That Would Not Die by Ellen Levine
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

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Amy M. O’Quinn is a pastor’s wife and former schoolteacher-turned-homeschool mom of six. She is also a freelance writer who enjoys jotting down ideas around the fringes of family life. She specializes in non-fiction, and her work has been published in various educational and children’s magazines. She is also a product/curriculum/book reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, a regular columnist for TEACH Magazine, and a member of SCBWI. The O’Quinns live on the family farm in rural south Georgia. You can find Amy at her new writing site/blog, amyoquinn.com. Or visit her personal blog, Ponderings From Picket Fence Cottage.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher or a homeschooling parent, the best way to motivate your students is through some sort of authentic instruction.

What is authentic instruction?

Well, it’s simply instruction that is based on real world tasks.

Students can immediately see how what they are learning inside the classroom applies to their real lives both inside and OUTside the classroom.

A good way to provide authentic instruction is through games.

When students need to learn certain skills in order to play enjoyable games, they will become engaged in the principles and concepts you teach because they will want to be able to use their new skills to play the games.

The nicest part of this type of authentic instruction is that kids tend to pick up the skills needed to play these games rather quickly, simply because they are self-motivated.

For some great math games to help engage your students Click Here!

What kid doesn’t love riddles? The Math Riddle Book presents math practice in a way that kids enjoy! When kids complete a set of math problems, they’ll be able to decode the answer to a laugh-out-loud riddle!

It’s the fun way for kids to build the math skills they’ll need throughout their lives. Learning is easy and enjoyable when you’re solving puzzles!

To order The Math Riddle book Click Here!

If you’re a homeschooling parent or a classroom teacher, you’ll want to join us this Thursday night for a FREE teleclass.

Click to listen and find out more about this event:

To register for this free event, JUST CLICK HERE and fill in your name, email address, and any question you might have about strategic instruction in the registration form.

Enjoy time with your kids today and celebrate Valentine’s Day with some homemade cards.

Watch this:

This week’s Teaching Tips column comes from Sharon Blumberg.

Blumberg is a junior high Spanish teacher and a freelance writer. She has been teaching for 17 years. She currently teaches seventh grade Spanish in Illinois. She has two grown children and resides in Indiana with her husband and dog. She is an active member of The Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club and The Story Circle Network.

As a seventh grade Spanish teacher of eighteen years, I strive to maintain a sense of variety in my class activities. Among these are what I refer to as “Culture Day” on Fridays. At the beginning of class on Fridays, I present a learning activity that deals with Hispanic culture or language.

One way I enhance literacy skills in the Spanish language is by selecting Bilingual Children’s books by Scholastic and I Can Read Spanish…Language Learning Story Books by Barron’s.

The Bilingual Scholastic books display beautiful illustrations of the concepts featured. Research states that when students are learning a foreign language, if phrases in the target language are paired with their native language, the language acquisition process is learned much quicker. As I read each page to my students, I read the paired bilingual phrases in Spanish and English. Even though these books are intended for a younger children’s audience, my junior high students enjoy eyeing the illustrations as the bilingual phrases embrace the pictures. Each book takes about five minutes in duration for me to read and present.

Among these books is Polar Bears, Osos Polares, by Susan Canizares and Daniel Moreton, September 2002, Scholastic Inc. This book displays illustrations of Polar bears frolicking in their native habitat of snow, ice and water. The phrases are brief as they demonstrate taking part in the gerund form of activities such as napping, descansando, and walking, caminando.

Another book from this series is titled Sea Creatures, Criaturas Marinas by Pamela Chanko, September 2002, Scholastic Inc. This bilingual children’s book displays colorful illustrations of sea creatures that inhabit the deep waters of the seven seas.

The Birds, Pajaros book from this series, by Susan Canizares and Pamela Chanko, September 2002, Scholastic Inc., displays colorful aspects of various kinds of birds.

Corral Reef, Arrecife de Coral by Susan Canizares and Mary Reid, December 2002, Scholastic Inc., displays beautiful, vibrant colors of life among the waters of the Coral Reef. This book does a nice job in teaching some basic colors in Spanish and English.

Frogs, Ranas by Susan Canizares and Daniel Moreton, September 2002, Scholastic Inc., portrays the life cycle of a frog while various kinds of photos of frogs are displayed.

For those braver in spirit and heart, you can present Snakes and Lizards, Serpientes y Lagartos by Daniel Moreton and Pamela Chanko, December 2002, Scholastic Inc., where various kinds of reptiles and aspects of their bodies are featured.

Within the I Can Read Spanish…Language Learning Story Books, the bilingual book, I’m Too Big, Soy Demasiaso Grande by Barron’s Educational Series Inc., gives the reader wonderful messages about embracing one’s individuality. Two animals, the giraffe and the elephant are depicted in humerous ways. Each animal takes on characteristics of the other in a silly way. For example, the giraffe gets very long ears and the elephant grows a long neck, like that of the giraffe.

The book concludes by each animal telling the other one that he is great as he is. The back of the book supplies the reader with a pronunciation guide for the Spanish phrases, read throughout the story. What a fantastic and creative way to teach such a wonderful concept! My students eagerly tell me the moral messages that prevale upon experiencing completion of the story.

This week’s teaching tip article comes from Amy M. O’Quinn.

O’Quinn is a pastor’s wife and former schoolteacher-turned-homeschool mom of six. She is also a freelance writer who enjoys jotting down ideas around the fringes of family life. She specializes in non-fiction, and her work has been published or acquired by magazines including Jack and Jill, US Kids, Guideposts for Kids, Learning Through History Magazine, Highlights, GEORGIA Magazine, Homeschooling Today, International Gymnast, etc. She is also a product/curriculum/book reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and a regular columnist for TEACH Magazine. The O’Quinns live on the family farm in rural south Georgia. You can find Amy’s blog, Ponderings From Picket Fence Cottage, at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/picketfencemom.

Picture this cozy scene. You are sitting on the sofa with your little boy tucked closely beside you enjoying a wonderful picture book or an exciting read-aloud. Your son listens with delight and begs for more. So, of course you continue, talking about the pictures or what’s happening as you go along.

Later, when Daddy comes home, your little boy runs up to him and excitedly begins to retell (in his own words) the whole story in great detail. You know without a doubt that he has absorbed and comprehended what you read earlier in the day. Moreover, a month later, he retells the same story to Grandma, again remembering small details that you yourself have forgotten. Your child has naturally utilized one of the greatest learning tools there is, and one that will certainly help him in his educational endeavors as he grows older. It’s called narration.

WHAT IS NARRATION

Narration is simply the art of “telling back”, and it’s a technique often used by classical educators and those who employ the teaching methods of Charlotte Mason (a 19th century British educator). However, on a broader scale, it’s much more than that, and it can be used by anyone of any age to facilitate concentration, vocabulary, comprehension, memorization, language skills, and even writing skills.

WHY USE NARRATION

One of the easiest ways to explain the importance of narration is to borrow from Miss Mason herself. In some of her writings, she used the illustration of a sick patient in the hospital. The person was suffering from intense pain and the doctor had written the remedy on a piece of paper. He told her this would alleviate the pain, however, he would only let her look at the card for a few minutes. Then the card would be destroyed permanently, and the doctor wouldn’t write it again. Can you imagine the intense concentration the patient would put forth to remember what was written?

Although a small child naturally “tells back” what he hears, it’s a skill that should be encouraged and developed when he is very young. Because just think of the benefits when the child is older and needs to remember certain information. If he knows that he will be asked to ‘retell’ after a reading, he will definitely pay more attention to the material at hand so that his narration will be accurate. What he can tell—he knows! He has to think, sift through the information, and choose the important parts to narrate. He has to assimilate the material, make it his, and put it into his own words. With this concentrated effort, he WILL remember!

Charlotte Mason said, “What a child digs for becomes his own possession.” In addition, oral narration is only one step before written narration, which is basically composition! So technically, oral narration is a forerunner to processing one’s thoughts and putting words on paper in a way that makes sense. It’s a skill that’s invaluable.

NARRATION AND YOUNG CHILDREN

The art of narration begins very early, even before a child can read. As mentioned above, children love to “tell back” the stories they hear. And have you ever noticed a little one who will pick up a beloved picture book, turn the pages slowly, and perhaps ‘read’ it aloud to a younger sibling or even a favorite stuffed animal or doll? This is beginning narration, and the continuing pattern is a natural progression—if the child is encouraged and the skill is fostered. Too often, this desire to “tell” is schooled out of the child as he grows older. But language expression is so important, and the ability to organize and demonstrate the knowledge he gains from books is priceless.

IDEAS FOR USING NARRATION

We have established the fact that narration is a valuable learning tool, so let’s look at some practical ways to use it with young children. And because we want our little ones to retain their natural curiosity and desire to “tell back”, we don’t want to overwhelm them with heavy ‘educational’ language. Instead, a gentle approach is best; plus this early discovery stage is so much fun and a joy to witness. Many parents probably already do many of these things without realizing they are creating a solid foundation for future learning.

* Use high quality ‘living’ books. Even young children can appreciate well-written literature, and they will understand far more than we give them credit for.

* Do some pre-reading activities. Let the child look at pictures and guess what will happen in the story.

* When reading the story, use different voices, inflection, sound effects, and even suspenseful pauses before turning pages. If your child asks questions, answer them. It’s easy to become a bit frustrated when we want to read and they want to talk about what’s happening.

* Turnabout is fair play. Ask your child questions about the story or what he thinks will happen next.

* After you are finished reading, ask the child to retell the story in his own words…you’ll be surprised at the detail.

OTHER IDEAS

· Record your child’s narration on cassette or CD.

· Let him draw a picture to ‘tell’ about the story.

· Let him dramatize or act out the story, use a flannel board, or how about a puppet
show?

The possibilities are endless, and no matter how you choose to foster your child’s narrative ability, encouraging him to talk about or retell what he’s heard or read is extremely important. Narration is a skill that will pay great dividends farther along the educational road.

You already have most of the items you’ll need for your child to make this Thanksgiving Book.

Maybe Dad can help the kids make this book while Mom gets Thanksgiving dinner ready.

Thank you, artsymommy.com!

Children shouldn’t die. But in reality, children suffer from traumatic deaths and terminal illnesses. New website and blog helps parents of children with terminal illness.

Wheatfield, In, July 19, 2008. The topic of death and dying and children is a difficult topic to think about or discuss, yet parents and families with a terminally ill child need someone to turn to address these difficult issues. Now critical care pediatric nurse, Terri Forehand has created an online site called Heart Felt Words 4 Kids that not only provides a wealth of helpful resources for families coping with the stress, pain, and frustration of a terminally ill child, but also offers insight and guidance for discussing death and dying with children.

“I find when working with children with a terminal illness, that parents do not have enough resources to deal with the emotional side of the situation. We are good at giving them the medical and technical information, but we as a healthcare team, are not good at telling them it is ok to stop treatment. We are not good at saying “We have done everything we can, now go and love your child and hold him and then let him go.” We are not good at failing and we look at death as failing instead of a natural part of life. So where do parents go for that kind of support? I try to give parents the resources and emotional support and an arena where it is okay to talk about death and dying issues especially with children,” states Forehand.

She gives resources and book reviews along with tips to ease the pain of grief for children. The new website is more kid friendly. Here children experiencing grief or illness can click on KIDS WORDS and THEN SOME to add a comment or suggestion for other kids. They can also write a question about an illness or death and dying to be answered by the author who is a pediatric critical care nurse.

Ms. Forehand continues to work in the pediatric intensive care unit of The University of Chicago Comer’s Children’s hospital where she cares for children in all stages of illness. She is currently working on fiction for children and a book titled Career Diary of a Nurse.

Contact: Terri Forehand
219-843-4954
Email address: [email protected]

NOTE: Terri is sponsoring the candle fundraiser for the Leukemia Society in the top right corner of this page and 25% of all the money raised from candle sales here will go to the Leukemia Society.

If you love candles, please check out the wide variety available through Terri’s fundraiser by clicking on the link in the top right corner of this page.

by Ed Bacchus

A buddy of mine and I came up with this list of things to do with our children last spring during bad weather.

He has 3 children and I only have 2, but these activities have come in handy for us a number of times since then.

Most are geared to local Dallas, TX spots, but I am positive you can find similar sites for activities like these in your own area.

Fun Things to Do With Your Kids

1. Visit the local Children’s Museum (Most major cities have one dedicated to children)

2. Take a tour of the Kids’ Wing of your major Art Museum

3. Spend an afternoon at the Aquarium

4. Go to the Movies (A no brainer, but we can get more creative than this)

5. Take a field trip to the Science Museum (Great adventure for kids)

6. Spend some time at the Toys R US Jungle Gym (In the TX summer heat this is a must)

7. Enjoy the Merry Go Round at a local mall (We have a couple of malls who have installed these)

8. Go Roller Skating

9. Try Bowling

10 Have your kids create a new friend at Build A Bear (A chain found in malls, you can take all afternoon deciding on the many choices)

11. Paint N Party (Arts store where you can pick your piece, paint it and they fire it)

12. Hang out at Chuckie Cheese

13. Eat and play at Main Event (Similiar to Chuckie Cheese or Dave & Busters)

14. Let the kids have a great day at Dave & Busters

15. Browse the Bookstore (Barnes & Noble or a half-priced one)

16. Enjoy the Library

17. Go out for Ice Cream

The key to this list is to have it handy because you never know when you are going to need it. If you have something to add, please comment.

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Ed Bacchus is the author of Parenting Toys - a daddyblog with a little flava. To learn more about Ed, visit his blog and click on 100 Things About Me.

It’s almost spring, which means the weather is getting better and more people are out and about. Also, many families will be going out of town for spring break, so here are some home safety tips from fellow parent Ed Bacchus.

Home Safety in Today’s World

by Ed Bacchus

I was a victim of a home robbery in college and was convinced that it was the result of furniture I had delivered just prior to the break in. I could never completely prove it, but one of the delivery persons was very interested in my stereo system.

A close friend was recently robbed while his wife went to work in the afternoon and this caused me to review some of these issues I have learned over the years.

First of all, if someone really wants to get in your house, they will. No security or safety measure can insure this, but I have always felt that you can at least make it hard on a would-be thieve.

For years friends would make fun of me because I used the “club” on my car steering wheel, but would never lock the car. My response was that all I wanted to do was make the thieve think about the extra few seconds it would take to steal my car compared to another one.

One night we came out of the movie theatre and noticed broken glass on the ground next to my car. Someone had broken into the car next to mine, and mine was safe. True that this doesn’t stop thieves from getting the stereo, but you get the picture.

So, below is advice I give people to consider for their home safety.

1. Try not to Tell People Your Business -Don’t let them know you’re home alone or that you’re away at certain times of the day. You never know when someone is watching your movements. When I have the carpet cleaned, I never tell people on the phone that I’m not home during the day. I tell them that both my wife and I work from home. When the service people are there, I bring it up during the conversation.

Don’t tell your neighbors when you are going out of town. A teenager overheard his parents talking about a neighbor going on vacation and he then told his friends who robbed the home.

2. Hide your valuables when service people come in your house - Close your doors, put things away because people are always checking out what you’ve got.

3. Buy Door Jammers - In many suburbs, kick-in break-ins are on the rise. Get Door Jammers that make it hard to kick in your front door. A Door Jammer is a metal pipe with rubber feet on both ends. It works on tile and carpet. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to kick a door in.

4. Get a Security System and Use It - Yeah it costs $20-$30 a month, but you wouldn’t believe how many people fail to use theirs. The windows stickers and signs advertising the security system is worth the cost alone.

5. Get a dog that barks - You wouldn’t believe how this can deter a thief. My dog doesn’t bark, but I always let the service people who come to my house see the dog running around.

6. Get Motion Detector Flood Lights installed Outside - Go to Home Depot and buy a couple. Call an electrician and have him place them in strategic places around your house. Many thieves case a home at night for night-time break-ins. If they see you have these installed, they may not want to risk the exposure.

7. Get Window Locks - $1.50 each at the local hardware store. A simple 1″ inch metal square that you tighten with an allen wrench. You can install them on easy accessible windows around the house on the first floor of your home. The window lock is one of the cheapest ways to feel safe. My grandparents used to use a wooden broomstick jammed in the window so it wouldn’t open, and it served the same purpose.

8. Use Your Garage - If you have a garage, clean it out and make sure you park your car there. Keep your garage door closed.

9. Have a close friend pick up your mail or newspapers while you’re away - Postal workers are now known to share mail holding information with would-be thieves.
Remember, thieves usually choose the path which offers the least resistance. Just make it hard on them and they may move on. Again, nothing offers complete safety, but I hope these tips give you something to think about.

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Ed Bacchus is the author of Parenting Toys - a daddyblog with a little flava. To learn more about Ed, visit his blog and click on 100 Things About Me.

Congratulations to fellow journalist Ilva Pieterse, one of the finalists in the Wrte Co.’s annual short story competition themed “Paint It Black.” Well done, Ilva! I look forward to reading the story in the anthology, which the Write Co. says will be published later this year. I also hope that some of my readers will get a copy of the book when it becomes available, and maybe review it on your

Baby's school had an arts morning this past Saturday. The Foundation Phase (Grades 1-3) did a series of short skits on farm animals. I found the constumes very charming. Grade 4-6 did a story on nature conservation. I especially loved the grandfather character, who gave the boys advice on how to save some trees in a Johannesburg park. The casting was not predictable, and I like dthat a key

I've previously mentioned that I've been asked to present a blogging workshop by an industry association. Well, that organisation is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators ( Gauteng) and the workshop I present will be part of the programme for first half of 2008. Please diarise the following dates so you don't miss any one of these events. Date: 28 February 2008 Where: Sandton

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I considered posting this poem on my free story blog, but decided against it. It was written by my 18-year old nephew Agisanang and his friend Obakeng. My reason for not posting it there is that it isn't really appropriate reading for small children. But I still found it interesting enough to post it here. I hope you enjoy it. ................................................................. Read the rest of this post

Last week I attended a prize-giving at the Branson School of Enterpreneurship. Virgin Group Chairman and CEO Richard Branson was there to hand over an award of R100 000 to budding Soweto-based entrepreneurs Musa Maphongwane and Amos Ntsolongo, founders of the Starplex Gaming Zone, a digital entertainment centre. The cheque was part of the first for the 2007 Soweto Entrepreneur Business Plan

Miss Behave And The Sacred Cats Of Ancient Egypt Writer and illustrator: Camille Lagarrigue Publisher: Siamese, 2007 ISBN: 978-1-920143-09-1 Availability: Email Camille and/ check your local bookstore Synopsis When all the witches are summoned to Egypt for their annual conference Miss Behave's enemies - Miss Spell, Miss Fortune and Miss Take - see it as the perfect opportunity to turn her

This post is a shameless promotion of a friend's business, so if you're not interested in places to eat in and around Johannesburg, please skip to the next post. I’ve previously mentioned that friends of mine have launched a new restaurant serving North African cuisine in Rosebank in Johannesburg. The restaurant is called Hightable and on Saturday Baby and I had the chance to explore it and

Sometimes I get so absorbed that I don’t notice things going on around me. I didn’t realize my teenage nephew, Agisanang (aged 18) writes poetry until this past Christmas holiday. While Baby was playing in his computer, she found the poems. Many were written in collaboration with his friend and schoolmate, Obakeng Phiri. Today I posted one of the poems, "I Miss You" in my free stories blog.

A couple of months back I reported on this blog that South Africa has licensed four new commercial TV broadcasters, and there will be loads of opportunities for local content providers. Well, that promise of opportunity is now being realized. One of the broadcasters, Telkom Media, has published its first round of briefs for the production of local content. I would really like to urge local

I have registered with Simpleology site so I can gain access to the course. The process was longish ( six steps in total), but I suspect it's because the blogging course is a promotional give-away, not the substance of what the I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.It

johanna Originally uploaded by damariasenne Meet Johanna Mogane, a retired school teacher based in Johannesburg. We met for the first time today at a small Wimpy restaurant across the road from the library in the city centre.We were both alone, our tables next to each other, and she’s such a vivacious person we were soon chatting like old friends. Johanna was at the library to research

Three friends and a taxi Originally uploaded by damariasenne Three friends and a taxiWriter: Maryanne BesterIllustrator: by Shayle Bester Publisher: Jacana Media (www.jacana.co.za), 2007First Published: The Centre for the Book and Sappi, 2004ISBN: 1-77009-265-X; 978-1-77009-265-5Availability: Kalahari.netFor me the most striking thing about this book was the illustrations. Shayle did a