A to Z challenge 2012: A is for Alphabet

 

A is for Alphabet.
Here we are at the start of this year's A to Z challenge. My theme for this year is "sharing books with children". This will include lots of reflecting on my favourite children's books, how I have enjoyed sharing books in the past and how I will continue to share books in the future. I'm sure I'll also do lots of learning along the way and explore new ideas for sharing books. I hope these posts will be interactive ones. Feel free to share your comments and ideas! 

We start off today, the only Sunday of the challenge due to April 1st being a Sunday this year, with the letter, A and the word, alphabet. I enjoyed reading and looking at alphabet books as a child. My favourite as a child was Dr Suess's ABC and my favourite character was Icabod. 

from Dr Suess's ABC

I must have read that book more than a hundred times! In more recent years I have enjoyed sharing Animalia by Graeme Base with many different children. Such gorgeous illustrations and so many things to find on every page. Alphabet books are a great way to share a love of words, letters and sounds with children. These type of books don't need to be read in one sitting (although that's fine too). Why not pick a letter and spend time looking for everything starting with that letter and then think of more things too? 

"Crafty Crimson Cats carefully catching Crusty Crayfish" from Animalia by Graeme Base

Do you have a favourite alphabet book? 

Shadow Shot Sunday - March 25th, 2012

I noticed some great shadows on the front door this morning and did manage to capture them. Unfortunately though (due to my impatience I think) something went wrong between them being on the memory card in the camera and getting on to the computer. I only managed to save one and now the sun has changed position. :-( 

A new garden and a snail

A new garden and a snail. 

Today I enjoyed some delicious wood oven pizza at the launch of the 2012 Magic Harvest Program in the Hackham area. Yum! Magic Harvest is a program based on the book One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein. A group of people meet regularly in hubs to learn how to grow their own food at home and share their skills and produce. I will be in a group which will meet fortnightly for about an hour to share our gardening adventures and also establish and maintain a small community garden. There will also be workshops throughout the year to learn gardening and cooking skills and we will have the opportunity to visit each others gardens. It feels like it's going to be a lot of fun. 

Today, as well as the yummy pizza, a couple of members of another hub gave a small demonstration on planting a garden in a polystyrene box. Then it was raffled off and I was lucky enough to win it! Yay! I was planning to go to Bunnings to see if there were any seedlings I could rescue but I was saved the trip. The box contains lettuce, celery, silverbeet and chives seedlings. All things I had been planning to get in the garden soon. I've told my daughter the snail she got at the community market we went to this morning is not welcome in the garden! 

Sunday Scribblings - March 18th, 2012

The prompt this week for Sunday Scribblings is honest.


Today, at morning tea time 
In front of the coffee machine
You will ask me how I am 
And I will lie 
"Okay thanks"
And the day will go on 
I will not have time to ponder then 
How I really am 
That I am not okay today 
Was not okay yesterday 
And will not be okay tomorrow 
Then later when I will have time 
to reflect upon my answer 
"Okay thanks"
Slowly the realisation will dawn 
It was the only answer I could give
A deeper truth 
And honest 

Shadow Shot Sunday - March 18th, 2012

Lots of great shadows here today! These are all from near the backyard garden patch. 

Mistakes provide great opportunities for learning

Mistakes provide great opportunities for learning! 

Today I learnt that if you cut a tube of glue open with scissors, it is a good idea to ensure there is no glue left on the scissors. My daughter got some fake nails and asked me to cut open the small tube of glue that came with them. I did so - with my good pair of kitchen scissors - I have a tendency to grab whatever is the closest and easiest option. A couple of hours later I picked the scissors up to cut open a packet of icing sugar and the blades would not budge. Very well stuck together! Oops. 

Now just to hope that the scissors will once again be usable after some hot water, force and maybe a knife. 

Shadow Shot Sunday - March 11th, 2012

Returning home 

Blogging challenge preparation is under way

Blogging challenge preparation is under way. 

I'm referring to the April A to Z blogging challenge. People all over the world will be blogging each day in April (except most Sundays) with each post covering a letter of the alphabet starting at A and finishing with Z. You can find more information about the challenge here. 

I participated last year and did find it quite onerous posting 26 times in a month. To counter that I have begun preparations earlier this year. I have already written the posts for A, B, C and D and scheduled them to begin on the appropriate days. I have a theme this year - sharing books with children. I will be posting about many of my favourite children's books and ideas for sharing them. Already I have enjoyed reminiscing about old favourites and learning about new ones. I will be finding out lots of information and have already discovered some new favourite websites. It will be exciting to share what I learn. Soon I will be writing the E post about "Hunwick's Egg" by Mem Fox! A great book for sharing at Easter time. What good timing with the 5th of April being just before Easter. 

I realised today that my love of children's literature seems to have also influenced my writing of poetry. Children's books often contain a lot of repetition. More than once I have written a poem with a line (or two) that repeats throughout the poem. A couple of times that has turned out to be a good thing but more often I have gone back and taken out the repetition!

I'm definitely in the A to Z April blogging challenge. I'll have posts at least for the first four days! How about you? Are you interested in joining the challenge? 

 

C is for Caterpillar. Read what I have to say about this book, here on the 3rd of April, 2012. 

This week is Adelaide Writers' Week

This week is Adelaide Writers' Week 

Yay! Adelaide Writers' Week began today. I haven't been yet but have already enjoyed listening to a couple of sessions thanks to the LIVE broadcast through ABC radio. The first 3 days can be listened to via online streaming. You can see the program and details of how to listen here. Today I listened to a great session - "The Art of Biography with Selina Hastings and David Marr". A fascinating discussion about writing biography - what to put in, what to leave out, the use of private letters including letters which the author had asked to be destroyed, what can be written when the person being written about is still alive and how much the writer can be in the story (their values, beliefs etc). Very thought provoking! 

Tomorrow is Kids day. As well as the usual East and West stage there will be lots of activities for children. My children are too old for those type of events now (Brianna is right at the upper end of the age range probably) but I'm looking forward to seeing what goes on. It's the first time there has been a day dedicated to young readers. Plus, you're never too old to enjoy good children's books! 

I would love to go every day but unfortunately I can't. I hope to stay for quite a while tomorrow and then go again on Wednesday. Looking forward to a session about Unhappy Families with Fiona McGregor and Favel Parrett and a session "Dream a little dream: On getting published" amongst others. 

I've been looking forward to this week since the last Writers' Week two years ago. Every time I've been has been very inspiring and has resulted in me finding out about some fabulous books. I'm confident this year will be no different. And more good news - it won't be such a long wait until the next one as it is to be an annual event now! 

Blogging from A to Z challenge - I'm in!

A blogging challenge in which you post every day during April, except Sundays, and structure your posts around the letters from A to Z. It's taken me a while to decide whether to participate or not. It's a big commitment and the number of posts I have written lately has been... Let's just say I haven't posted much of late. Can I write 26 posts in a month? Or more specifically, can I post 26 posts in a month? I have decided to start planning during March and have at least some of my posts pre-written and scheduled.
Last year I participated in the A to Z challenge and enjoyed it. I started off making alphabet cards but found it a bit tiresome part way through and ended up writing about different words.  
This year I have decided on a broad theme - sharing books with children. I love children's books and this gives me a chance to share that as well as learn more. I'll probably narrow that theme down as I continue thinking about it over the next few weeks. For now I'm excited to be thinking about the books I love and the 26 different possibilities.