Friday, July 27, 2007

Puzzle sunday (20)

Really difficult one all about clocks for adults and teens... Are these world clocks, or metaphors for friendship? Remember that the challenge of difficult puzzles is to develop a strategy. Finding out the laws is what development is all about!

writing group adherence

Want to write or want to start a writing group? On this site it's made very transparent. I joined forums with the same ideas in my mind. I don't know if I really want to be part of a writing group IRL or if I will want to soon. Maybe this site will help me because it contains a list of questions to ask yourself.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

looking back from future

an exercise in morals
What if I would live years ahead when the many many problems of safety, hunger, housing, criminality, education and psychology on a world scale are resolved. How would I look at present times? Would I judge over myself without looking at the context? What would I think of others? What do I judge now and am I forgetting about their context?

Monday, July 23, 2007

on the dock between monuments

Yesterday I went to see a theaterplay with my daughter. It was about Poland, Europe. About the period after the second world war until now, set in the lunchroom of the polish dock labourers in Gdansk. During the typical polish meal, with delicious vegetarian home made borsjt, and poppie-seed cake, and a very lovely sweet, prunes in chocolate, the history of Poland is served with polish Jazz. I bought the text of the play and completely impressed I went to buy the text of the play.

I know I would at some point want to read it. I didn't have enough money on me to buy the music, which I will do. This buying of the lyrics felt as a contrast for my feelings and thoughts. I forgot my bicycle after the play, and my daughter made a turn when we bicycled around the terrain, very appropriately the ancient dock of Den Helder.

The band drummer with a lovely smile made a joke about it "you'll be back a third time!"
He was right. I saw the pianist from Roman Polanski the night before. I bought it in our supermarket - another contrast.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Imagine

Someone when I was studying sighed everything has been invented. Not true! There are so many ideas out there waiting for you to find in your own imagination. Need an example? Here.

Puzzle sunday (19)

Printable puzzle to take away on the beach? How about a puzzle to test how well you know sign language or mazes for your child? Or a puzzle about liberty? Liberty? yes... Rubic is for me the example of how liberty is attained by the studying and mastery of rules, both through his life history and his puzzle.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Puzzle Sunday (18)

How do you increase your vocabulary without getting bored by repetition? Well, either you just sit down and do it, or you can do a pyramid puzzle at a puzzle a day.

teens at home and fun

It's easy for me to invent something, but getting it done is a matter of the flexibility of my friends and children and not less, my own flexibility and skills. I invented two days ago that we could have a psychological camp at home. We would look at films that we have on dvd or VHS: Amélie, Awakenings, the Sixth Sense with some teenagers but we wouldn't just passively look at them: we would sit there with pencils and paper and write down what we observe, situational factors and saillant behaviour and then discuss about these. Also we would look at one horror movie and pretend to be a profiler.
I was pleased with the idea, but slowly, the enthousiasm of the teenagers started to crumble. One didn't want to come over because of his new computer. My friend wanted me to come with her to a museum with the children. Therefore I should go to another museum to buy a museum card. There was one day left for my idea and we decided to put the idea off for a week.
This gives me time to elaborate on the idea, maybe order some booklets or print some additional literature. Yes, I might order a book or two.

update on writing

To my light surprise I've been asked to write an article about blogging for a Dutch e-zine about writing. The e-zine attracts writers that have higher aims on content and style issues. I'm myself not the most eloquent of the bundle, I consider myself a writer of content.
Will this be a next step in building a carreer in writing? Hope so.

Except for writing letters for organisations, critics of theater plays and a book in two languages, my writing experience consists of blogging since november last year.

Being clear and twisting ears are two conscious competing aims that I try to satisfy whenever I write. This makes me feel both awkward and relaxed around writers who aim to write with style. There aren't many writers in the Netherlands that write about writing, let alone non-fiction. Maybe it's because it's a small country with a limited number of people who speak the language and a limited number of writers.

I'm very happy to try and a little worried about it. Or is it just arousal?

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Puzzle sunday (17)

The puzzle of today comes from a book. It is a puzzle you can do with someone else. Can you resist not to read the answer?

If for whatever reason, Puzzle sunday doesn't appear, it might be a good idea to look for a puzzle book, for not missing your weekly mental workout. An alternative would be to browse through older posts for a puzzle.

books for children are scaffolds for development

In an earlier post I told you about scaffolds. Scaffolds are a very workable teaching method that helps students and children to surpass themselves. The idea is that what you teach should be slightly more difficult than what the student masters at that moment.
Now how can we build those scaffolds?
One way is creating books that contain stories that in some way helps children to reach a higher level of morals, reading skills, vocabulary, understanding of emotions, historical awareness,...
For surcharged parents and teachers, these books are a great help to build their children's character. After reading a part of the book, you can talk about your own ideas about what is written in the book, and ask what your child thinks about it.
If you want to go ahead and write a book, why not enter a competition? Maybe you will end up getting published. Good luck!

*new* item at Chez Odile is the metachat where Creatives and Thinkers meet.

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