The Literacy Specialist's Life with Carol Boles - NWFCC March Specialist Showcase

Welcome to day two of Carol Boles’ 6-day NWFCC March Specialist Showcase tour.

Join me in welcoming Carol Boles, Literacy Specialist today when she provides a glimpse into the world of literacy.


Children in the 21st Century:

-Need to be competent readers, in order to be successful in school and adult life,

-Can learn to read, when provided instruction in phonics, practice reading daily and taught with a variety of teaching materials.

-Will learn to love reading when both parents and teachers participate in their reading education—with consistent modeling of good reading skills, while also expressing the enjoyment reading gives them.

I created carolfraserboles.com to share with parents and teachers my experience, knowledge, and philosophy about reading education. Visitors at carolfraserboles.com will find articles, curricular resources, teaching strategies and helpful tips to help children learn to read.

Log on onto www.carolfraserboles.com and here’s what you’ll find:

“About Me” Read about my credentials and experience in reading education

“Home Page” Find recent posts about reading education,

“Articles” Find a list of articles on reading education I’ve published, also, go to Ezine Articles to find more articles for parents and teachers,

“Dyslexia” A definition, research, and teaching strategies to help dyslexic children learn to read,

“Literacy Lingo” Words used by reading educators, literacy experts and researchers in reading education,

“Coming Soon” Curricular materials on reading developed by carolfraserboles.com

“Guest Contributors” Janet Petersen, B.A., M.A. Education, Adjunct Professor Baker University, Overland Park, Kansas. Professor Petersen specializes in multi-sensory approaches to teaching reading for dyslexic learners,

A sample of what visitors will find ……

Reaching Tactile Learners

Science, on how children learn to read, reveals that children who are dyslexic need to activate the visual, tactile and speech areas of their brains…..

 
Follow Day 3 of Ms. Boles' tour tomorrow at http://www.melangeofcultures.wordpress.com/. Leave a comment and your name will automatically be entered to win a Three Angels Gourmet Co mug and a package of Divine Dill Dip Mix - at the end of the month, provided by the National Writing for Children Center.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

The Homeschool Specialist's Life with Amy M. O'Quinn - NWFCC March Specialist Showase

Welcome to day two of Amy O’Quinn’s 6-day NWFCC March Specialist Showcase tour.


Because I balance homeschooling, homemaking, being a pastor’s wife, and my writing duties, no two days are ever the same at our home. Of course, we have our daily schedule of schoolwork that we must complete, and that usually lasts at least until lunchtime for the younger children and later in the afternoon for the older ones. But after that, it really depends on what day of the week it is as to what comes next.



My son is currently getting ready for a district poultry judging competition, so he has to attend practice/training sessions at our county extension office two afternoons a week. He also has twenty hens and a rooster to take care of each day; plus he must gather and wash the eggs to sell to local customers. He is also helping my husband get our garden ready for planting, so his afternoons are rather full right now. This is ‘real life’ learning at its best.



My youngest daughter takes a violin lesson one day a week and a sewing lesson another day. So between my older twin daughters (when they are not in class at the local junior college) and myself, we take chauffeur duty as needed. Our two youngest boys are content to play together and use their imaginations to entertain themselves quite well after school, and at this point they are not involved in extracurricular activities other than things we do with our local homeschool group every other week.



I try to fit in whatever writing assignments I need to do either early in the morning before the children get up, in the afternoon when they are finished with their lessons, or sometimes at night after they go to bed. It really depends on what deadlines I have pressing that dictate my writing schedule. And my husband is agreeable to me slipping off to the library on an occasional weeknight evening when I really need to get an assignment or project finished. But as I’ve said before, my family comes first—so I always keep that in mind when accepting writing jobs.



At my website, www.amyoquinn.com, I try to post articles, book reviews, and other things of interest to both writers and those who homeschool. I also repost my articles that are first published at the National Writing for Children Center and the product/curriculum/book reviews that I do for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.



I am striving to be more consistent with posting at my site, so that is another writing goal I have set for myself. I also plan to do more articles about how to use literature and ‘living’ books in the educational arena, because I have found that my children respond well to using ‘real’ books as opposed to textbooks for much of their content reading—especially in the areas of history and science. Literature based learning is wonderful, and I enjoy sharing ideas and resources with other writers, educators, and homeschool moms!



Follow Day 3 of Ms. O'Quinn's tour tomorrow at http://www.melangeofcultures.wordpress.com/. Leave a comment and your name will automatically be entered to win a Three Angels Gourmet Co mug and a package of Divine Dill Dip Mix - at the end of the month, provided by the National Writing for Children Center.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

The Writer's Life with Pamela Hamilton

Welcome to day two of Pamela Hamilton’s 6-day NWFCC February Author Showcase tour.


Because I do work full time and write part time, I don’t have what I would call a “typical” writing day. I work with adults returning to college to complete their Bachelor’s degree. They may be 20 years older than the traditional students at James Madison University, but they have the same crises as any student – they fail calculus, have no idea of what they want to study, or clash with a professor. Some days I come home so drained, that my daily writing output is a sentence or two in my journal!

Since I know there are going to be days when I drag myself home from work and my accomplishment of the night will be finding out “who dunnit” on Law and Order before I fall asleep, I don’t set daily writing goals for myself. Instead, each Sunday afternoon, I write out a “This week ‘s accomplishments” list. It contains five to seven writing goals I want to accomplish over the upcoming week. Because I get bored easily, not to mention frustrated, I make sure to include a variety of tasks, all related to my writing but not necessarily all putting pen to paper.

A typical list might include:

• Journal daily

• Update my blog 2 to 3 times

• Write 7 to 14 pages on current story

• Edit 3 or 4 photos and upload to Flickr

• Read a good book (or a bad one) for inspiration

• Do internet research for upcoming project

With the publication of Snow Day, my weekly Accomplishments Lists now include marketing goals for each week, such as updating the Snow Day fan page on Facebook, sending out review copies, setting up book signings or readings.

This rather untargeted approach may not work for everybody, but it has kept me on track for the past year. I used to set specific goals, such as writing for an hour every day or writing two pages every day. More often than not, I didn’t achieve that goal, and each time I failed, I only gave my inner critic a bit more ammunition to convince me that I was the failure. Now, if the words don’t flow until Friday, it’s OK. Now if Photoshop drives me to raid that bag of Hershey kisses on Tuesday instead of editing another photo, I don’t care. The result? A lot more checkmarks on my Accomplishment List each week.

I keep those lists, too, in a folder, for awhile, so when I do get discouraged and hear myself saying “I can’t do this!” I can go back and see all that I can do, week by week by week. My inner critic is suddenly stricken with laryngitis --- and I find I don’t have time to write a get well soon note. I’m too busy writing.

Follow Day 3 of Ms. Hamilton's tour tomorrow at http://www.melangeofcultures.wordpress.com/. Leave a comment and your name will automatically be entered to win a Three Angels Gourmet Co mug and a package of Divine Dill Dip Mix - at the end of the month, provided by the National Writing for Children Center.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

The Writer's Life with Nancy Sanders

Welcome to day two of Nancy Sanders’ 6-day NWFCC February Author Showcase tour.


Q: What do you like best about being a writer?

A: I love being a writer! There are so many different aspects of a writer’s life that I enjoy. Every day is different. Some days I’m searching the Library of Congress for historic photographs I can use for free in my books. Other days I’m visiting the children’s library to collect dozens of books related to my current project. And still other days, I’m talking with people on the East Coast whose ancestors go back to the days before the American Revolution. In between all these fun tasks, I get to create and imagine and write.

Just this last week, I was writing an activity for a nonfiction book I’m writing right now. In the research I was doing about sailors in America in the mid 1800s, I discovered a picture of a sailor’s hat on the Internet, along with an explanation of how sailors used to make their hats. Basically, they took fabric from old sails, cut out pieces and stitched them together to form a hat. Then they covered the hat with tar to make it waterproof.

After giving this a bit of thought, I decided to try making a replica of this sailor’s hat, which was called a tarpaulin hat. I went to the fabric store and got a yard of fabric. I cut out some circles and hand stitched them together. I knew I couldn’t write a craft that had the kids painting a hat with tar, but suddenly I got the idea to use paint! So I painted the hat with black acrylic fabric paint.

I couldn’t believe it! The hat I made looks exactly like the actual tarpaulin hats sailors wore in the 1800s!

On my digital camera, I took a zillion pictures of each step as I made the hat. I’ll send these along with the written activity so the illustrator of my book will know exactly how to draw each step.

Just to know that kids all over America are going to learn now to make a sailor’s hat that looks like the real deal is very exciting to me. And all that work was part of a typical writing day.

When I was writing the book, Readers Theatre for African American History, I got to experience the excitement of creating read-aloud plays for the first time. I practiced reading some of the scripts aloud with my cat and writing buddy, Humphrey. My husband Jeff, a fourth grade teacher, took some of the scripts to his classroom and field-tested them. It was so exciting to hear reports of how his students really got into the scripts!

Interested in learning more about Nancy, visit:
http://nancyisanders.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/book-party-readers-theatre-for-african-american-history-2/



Follow Day 3 of Ms. Sanders' tour tomorrow at http://www.melangeofcultures.wordpress.com/. Leave a comment and your name will automatically be entered to win a Three Angels Gourmet Co mug and a package of Divine Dill Dip Mix - at the end of the month, provided by the National Writing for Children Center.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Marketing the National Writing for Children Center is No Longer a One Man Show!

M E D I A   R E L E A S E


CONTACT: Suzanne Lieurance, The Working Writer’s Coach

Email: suzanne@workingwriterscoach.com

Website: http://writingforchildrencenter.com/

For Immediate Release

Marketing the National Writing for Children Center is No Longer a One Man Show!

Writing is usually a solitary endeavor, as children's author Suzanne Lieurance knows. But, as founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center, Lieurance also knows that marketing or promoting the Center, and its coaching club for children's writers, should be anything but a one man show.

"The National Writing for Children Center is a valuable resource for both aspiring and published children's book authors," says Lieurance. "Yet, writers can't get the help we offer if they don't even know we exist, which is why I'm pleased to announce that Donna McDine is joining our staff as Publicist Intern. Donna will help me plan and implement all promotional activities for both the National Writing for Children Center and the Children's Writers' Coaching Club. I'm very excited about this. With Donna on staff, there are so many new ways we can promote and market both the National Writing for Children Center and the Children's Writers' Coaching Club. We're out to provide children's writers with the information, instruction, and resources they need to start their writing careers or take their careers to new levels. I can hardly wait to get the word out about all we have to offer!"

Visit the National Writing for Children Center online at http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com/ or the Children's Writers Coaching Club at www.cwcoachingclub.com for more information.

###

Full Media Kit and more are available upon request electronically.

The Sandlot Summit Book Review

Cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com and read my book review of The Sandlot Summit.

While you are there, be sure to read all the other exciting writing information. Be prepared to settle back for quite some time...there is a wealth of knowledge to read and absorb!

Book Review ~ The Secret of Yahweh!

Hello All...cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com and read my book review of "The Secret of Yahweh!" by LeFerna Arnold-Walch and be sure to leave a comment.

Also, take the time out to read all the other valuable posts at NWFCC.

I'm Looking for a Monster

Cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com and read my book review on:

Title: I’m Looking for a Monster

Written & Illustrated by: Timothy Young

Hard cover: 14 pages

Ages: 4-8

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books

ISBN-13: 978-0-375-84416-4

Publication: July 2008

While you are there, be sure to check out all valuable information.

The Wedding Planner's Daughter, by Coleen Murtagh Paratore ~ Book Review

Cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com/ and read my book review of:

Title: The Wedding Planner’s Daughter

Written by: Coleen Murtagh Paratore

Soft cover: 200 pages

Ages: 8-13

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN-13: 978-0-689-87340-9

Publication: February 2005

Children's Book Review Week at The National Writing for Children Center

Hello All...cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://writingforchildrencenter.com for Children’s Book Review Week:

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz and reviewed by Carma Dutra

Screwball by Keri Mikulski and reviewed by Suzanne Lieurance

The Rabbit and the Snowman by Sally O. Lee and reviewed by Donna M. McDine

Be sure to check back all week long to read more reviews.

Book Review - Secrets I Have Kept by Beverly Stowe McClure

Hello All...cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com and check out my book review of Secrets I Have Kept by Beverly Stowe McClure.

Have a lovely weekend.

Book Review ~ Rainbow Sheep by Kim Chatel

Cruise on over to The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com and read my book review of "Rainbow Sheep," by Kim Chatel.

While you are there take the time out to read many of the other fantastic articles!

Interview with Lea Schizas

Hello All...I recently had the privilege of interviewing Lea Schizas, multi-published author and award-winning editor of two Writer’s Digest 101 Top Web Sites.

The interview is now published on The National Writing for Children Center - http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com

Please stop by, read Lea's remarkable interview, and leave a comment. Included is a wonderful surprise offer.