I fell in love with poetry as a child. I loved reading it and having it read to me. And as I got older I loved learning what the poems meant. Now I am a published poet. My guest today, Susan Day, an expert on grand-parenting and author of the soon to be released book, The Top 10 Things Happy Grandparents Never Regret Doing!, writes about how important it is to teach children to memorize, read aloud, and write poetry. Please welcome Susan Day to Choices. The Importance of Teaching Children Poetry by Susan Day By studying poetry, memorizing and learning how to create poems, children can increase their language skills immensely. When studying poetry children are required to remember the words, and the rhythm or meter, in which the poem is meant to be said. This skill actually plays a powerful part on a child's ability to learn and recall information from a wide range of subject areas. Sadly, many classrooms underestimated what an important learning tool poetry is. A poem might be … [Read more...]
What do you wish you knew before you turned 40?
A few days ago, Naturally Savvy, for which I am the Savvy Over 60 contributor, posted my article: Ten Things I Wish I Knew before I Turned 40. I put a lot of thought into that article, and even though I came up with ten things as my editor suggested, I know it is still incomplete. I didn't address religion, or money, or women's equality a subject so much in the forefront today. I also didn't discuss marriage, or children, or what to do during retirement, or politics. The list is a work in progress. The list will never be complete. Perhaps to entice you to go over to Naturally Savvy to read my article and other articles I've contributed, I'll give you a few examples from my list. But really I'd love for you to share your list either here or at the Naturally Savvy link. Only spend time with people you care about. Life is too short to feel obligated to be with people we don't care about. Learn to excuse yourself gracefully. Gently fade away. And believe me they won't miss … [Read more...]
Aunt Helen – always in our hearts
My beautiful and glamorous Aunt Helen died peacefully last evening at age ninety-seven. She had a wonderful life with dynamic Uncle Charlie (unfortunately he left us many years ago and way too soon), her five children, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. I always loved her calm elegance and looked to her as a role model. We will miss this woman who was fabulous in every way, and we are thrilled to have had her in our lives for so long. Here she is at age eighteen - when everyone thought she looked like the movie star, Hedy LaMar. And since she was a part of my life for all of my life, I remember that she looked this way well into her 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. And a more recent photo. As you can see, she was still beautiful in her old age. … [Read more...]
Happy rebirthing [via Eleanor Vincent]
[This is a reblog of Eleanor Vincent's post today - by permission] I'm throwing a party for the rebirth of Swimming with Maya. Thanks to the power of networking, it has a new life as a paperback and eBook. But in 2010, the future of my book did not look bright. Capital Books, the independent publisher that issued the hardback in 2004, was closing its doors. My beautiful book about raising daughters and rebounding after loss would be pulped. I tried everything I could think of to sell the remaining hardback copies and had some success. But even if I sold them all, the book would still slowly fade and die. I considered the Author's Guild program Back in Print that creates print-on-demand books for authors in situations like mine. But I'd have to live with a generic book cover and format, and no marketing support for the book. Sadly, this story is not uncommon. Small publishers close their doors with alarming frequency. And big publishers those consolidated megaliths can … [Read more...]
