Journal-writing time becomes a fun-filled exercise with these fresh, fun, and skill-building topics. Invite kids to write about the antics of the classroom hamster or dealing with a toddler at the mall, and they'll be eager to get started. Activities include Little Paper Spelling Lessons, Help me Books, Chalkboarding Circled Words, Guess My Rule, and many more. Grades 1-2.
A follow-up to the bestselling Grandmother's Journal, to pass along a variety of experiences and life-lessons to others in the family. Specially suited to passing to children, grandchildren, or other family members, this journal gives the writer a means to organize their thoughts and advice for others. Thoughts such as "What I wish I'd known when I was your age," "What I've learned in my life and can pass on," "Top Ten things I've learned in life," "What to look for in a partner or when dating,"—all from a close, experienced family member who knows best.
Abandoned by her father and rejected by her mother, 4 year-old Jennie is taken without explanation from her kindergarten class and driven through the night to live with her grandparents. They live on a farm where gophers pop out of the ground, turkey gobblers give chase, the bathroom is in a little house near the woods, and which is austere and culturally limited. Almost from the beginning she tries to run away back to live with her mother in Minneapolis. But her grandparents, although undemonstrative, steadfastly support her. Grandpa helps her with her homework at night sitting around the kitchen table lit by a kerosene lamp, she sits on his lap, while riding the binder, and curls up with him on the sofa at nap time. She helps her Grandmother with the chickens, picking eggs and feeding the pigs. But conflicts arise. Especially with her aunt , Hilda who is spiteful and humiliating. Jennie wants to run away and find her father in Canada but all her attempts fail. As far back as in kindergarten, Jennie liked to draw. So in first grade when she was asked to draw the picture placed on the blackboard in front of the class, she worked hard to copy the exact likeness. The picture was The Last Supper. After that, she became known as the class artist. Hilda felt Jennie was wasting her time drawing and discouraged her. Reading, another of Jennie's interests, was also considered wasteful. All through high school Jennie continued to be the school artist. During this time she became attached to Frank, a future farmer with a kind, uncomplicated view of life. He loved her but knew her dream was to leave the farm and go to study art. After graduating from high school Jennie is offered a job in Washington, D. C. Her grandmother slips her thirty dollars and urges her to leave at once, before Aunt Hilda can interfere. Her new life in the city is a shock and a revelation. Jennie discovers art galleries, takes her first real art lesson using pastels, and begins to acquire a new set of goals and values. Two years later, she returns to Minneapolis and enrolls at the University of Minnesota in art. Life is a struggle as she has to work to support herself and pay for her education. While working at one of the her jobs, she meets Jim, a young psychology student who is using the G.I. Bill to attend university. Soon they marry, unknown to either Jennies' mother or her aunt Hilda. Jim is very supportive of Jennie's interest in art. Between leaving the farm and starting university a series of tragedies occurred. Her grandparents died—first her grandfather, then her grandmother. Earlier a favorite uncle shot himself. Another uncle died under questionable circumstances and her mother becomes committed to a mental hospital while her father remained a mystery in spite of efforts to locate him. After graduating from university, she paints and exhibits her work, exploring new directions of expression. It is not easy to find success. When galleries are either hanging her work upside down or failing to pay her, they disappear from sight. Her first real success comes from entering a painting in an exhibition in New York. Titled Subjective-Objective, the painting and received first prize. From then on Jennie's goal to become an accomplished artist plays an important part in her life. Still, she couldn't forget the farm where her uncle now lives. One day, she decided to go back to the place she'd grown up and had wanted to escape. Seeing the faded wallpaper on the upstairs hall the stippled paint walls, the empty bookcase, Jennie becomes aware she has slowly moved from the austere and culturally limited setting of the farm to a new world, one of painting, art, and intellectual interactions. She'd left the farm and could not return. Back in Toronto, Jennie walked into their condo, past th
Grandmas Gleanings are the result of many years of journaling done by Joyce Pomp during her quiet time with the Lord. She is a pastors wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. The devotionals are saturated with Gods Word; they are also intended to bring you into a special relationship with our Father God, not a plastic, must-do religious activity. Grandma Joyce was encouraged to compile her writings into a yearly devotion book. Individuals who have had the opportunity to read Gleanings have told her how the true anecdotes/incidents have touched a specific need in their life as they read an entry for the day. Come to know God loves you. Come to know true joy in your life. Know that God still performs miracles today. Be assured: The joy of the Lord is your strength. You will be challenged. You will be blessed.
Why do grannies always tell us to speak up? Why do they have creases on their faces? Are grannies flexible? How do you cheer up a sad granny? How old are grannies, actually? Eric Veill explains it all in this offbeat book for the extended family to chuckle over--no matter what kind of grandma you have, are, or would like to be. From the author of My Pictures after the Storm, which received three starred reviews and which School Library Journal proclaimed "may be the funniest book of the year."
I wrote this book during the Covid-19 lockdown, Feb-July 2020. It was important to me to pass on my Irish heritage to my girls. I want them to know what it was like growing up in the fifties in Ireland surrounded by the richness of extended family and the love of music. The heartbreak of leaving home, the stupid mistakes I made because of insecurities and the importance of having God in one’s life. And most of all because my Granddaughter asked me to do it.
In the evocative and stirring novel “The Journal Effect” by Kelly Simmerman, readers are invited into a world where the past and present intertwine through the pages of forgotten journals. The story delves deep into the realms of family secrets, personal discovery, and the unyielding power of memory. At the heart of the narrative is Chelsea, a character whose life is irrevocably changed when she uncovers a series of journals belonging to her late grandmother, Evelyn Petersson. These journals, filled with decades of untold stories and hidden truths, become Chelsea’s guide through a labyrinth of her family’s concealed past. As she turns each page, she is drawn deeper into a complex web of emotions, revelations, and mysteries that have shaped her family’s history. Set against the backdrop of everyday life, the story masterfully intertwines the ordinary with the extraordinary. Simmerman’s writing is both poignant and captivating, painting a vivid picture of Chelsea’s journey as she navigates the delicate balance between the love and pain embedded in her family’s legacy. The narrative is rich with themes of betrayal, loss, and the enduring impact of the past on the present. This novel is a compelling read for anyone who appreciates deeply emotional storytelling, complex characters, and the intrigue of a well-kept family secret. Simmerman’s skilful narrative invites readers to reflect on their own family histories and the stories that lie hidden just beneath the surface. “The Journal Effect” is a testament to the enduring power of memory and the unbreakable bonds of family, making it a must-read for fans of heartfelt, character-driven fiction.
Winner of the 2014 National Outdoor Book Awards for History/Biography Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it." Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction. Author Ben Montgomery was given unprecedented access to Gatewood's own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence, and interviewed surviving family members and those she met along her hike, all to answer the question so many asked: Why did she do it? The story of Grandma Gatewood will inspire readers of all ages by illustrating the full power of human spirit and determination. Even those who know of Gatewood don't know the full story—a story of triumph from pain, rebellion from brutality, hope from suffering.
The stories in Get a Grip depict a range of imagined lives. There are Estonian brothers trekking from their blighted neighborhood to a college interview. There’s a TV meteorite hunter in town to search for otherworldly treasure. We meet a widow addicted to physical pain and a successful ad executive who loses all his worldly possessions in one day. All of the characters work out their struggles in the Baltimore region, channeling, in turns, the area’s charm, its despair, its humor, its self-doubt, its compassion. Get a Grip is a book about who we are when the cameras are off and the phone has died.
