Lucy Woodrow, a life-loving Dublin girl, tries hard to make sense of her life and her family. Her romantic and personal adventures are full of charm, wit and are illuminating and highly entertaining. She goes on a worldwide adventure of self-discovery, returning to Thailand three times. Each time her experiences there are radically different. This is a story, full of soul, of one woman's determination to find and live the life she loves. Along the way Lucy experiences the devastating loss of her older brother, Shane, and finds true love with a wonderful man, Charlie. As Lucy's life takes off in different directions she holds on tight to her self-belief. Although at times she goes through painful personal growth, she refuses to give in and ultimately finds her very own happy ever after.
Joy is in the playground with her two friends: Jumpit the frog and Tortie the tortoise. They are joined by other friends who have been having a very bad day! They all work together to help their friends overcome the challenges they face through gratitude, mindfulness and self-belief. Joy's Playground promotes resilience in children though practising and teaching important skills. Now more than ever anxiety, stress and change-management is crucial for young children.
On the ideal playground, all kids are equal. They take turns on the swings, play fair during kickball, and help each other up when someone falls and skins their knee. In all areas of life, we have much to learn from the playground kids. Be Nice. The End. distills the wisdom of the playground kids into seven simple values: Inclusion Empathy Acceptance Courage Perseverance Perspective Kindness Featuring thought-provoking messages from inspirational speaker Bryan Skavnak and darling, diverse faces illustrated by Wendy Kieffer Shragg, Be Nice. The End. teaches us that all the playgrounds of life are better when everyone--no matter their age, skin color, ability, shape, or size--is nice.
This final work from a visionary game designer reveals how a surprising range of play-based experiences can unlock our imagination and help us capture the power of fun and delight. Bernard De Koven (1941-2018) was a pioneering designer of games and theorist of fun. He studied games long before the field of game studies existed. For De Koven, games could not be reduced to artifacts and rules; they were also about experiencing fun. His final book, The Infinite Playground, is about the power of the imagination: the imagination as a playground, a possibility space, and a gateway to wonder. De Koven guides the readers through a series of observations and techniques, interspersed with games. He begins with the fundamentals of play, and proceeds through the private imagination, the shared imagination, and imagining the world—observing, “the things we imagine can become the world.” Along the way, he reminisces about playing ping-pong with basketball great Bill Russell; begins the instructions for a game called Reception Line with “Mill around”; and introduces blathering games—Blather, Group Blather, Singing Blather, and The Blather Chorale—that allow the player's consciousness to meander freely. The Infinite Playground extends a play-centered invitation to experience the power and delight unlocked by imagination, offering a curriculum for playful learning.
“But everyone else has it.” “If you loved me, you’d get it for me!” When you hear these comments from your kids, it can be tough not to cave. You love your children—don’t you want them to be happy and to fit in? Kristen Welch knows firsthand it’s not that easy. In fact, she’s found out that when you say yes too often, it’s not only hard on your peace of mind and your wallet—it actually puts your kids at long-term risk. In Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World, Kristen shares the ups and downs in her own family’s journey of discovering why it’s healthiest not to give their kids everything. Teaching them the difference between “want” and “need” is the first step in the right direction. With many practical tips and anecdotes, she shares how to say the ultimate yes as a family by bringing up faith-filled kids who will love God, serve others, and grow into hardworking, fulfilled, and successful adults. It’s never too late to raise grateful kids. Get ready to cultivate a spirit of genuine appreciation and create a Jesus-centered home in which your kids don’t just say—but mean!—“thank you” for everything they have.
While the study of children's poetry has always had a place in the realm of children's literature, scholars have not typically considered it in relation to the larger scope of contemporary poetry. In this volume, Joseph T. Thomas, Jr., explores the "playground" of children's poetry within the world of contemporary adult poetic discourse, bringing the complex social relations of play and games, cliques and fashions, and drama and humor in children's poetry to light for the first time. Poetry's Playground considers children's poetry published in the United States from the mid-twentieth century onward, a time when many established adult poets began writing for young audiences. Through the work of major figures like Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg, Randall Jarrell, Theodore Roethke, Shel Silverstein, and Jack Prelutsky, Thomas explores children's poems within the critical and historical conversations surrounding adult texts, arguing at the same time that children's poetry is an oft-neglected but crucial part of the American poetic tradition. Canonical issues are central to Poetry's Playground. The volume begins by tracing Robert Frost's emergence as the United States' official school poet, exploring the political and aesthetic dimensions of his canonization and considering which other poets were pushed aside as a result. The study also includes a look at eight major anthologies of children's poems in the United States, offering a descriptive canon that will be invaluable to future scholarship. Additionally, Poetry's Playground addresses poetry actually written and performed by children, exploring the connections between folk poetry produced both on playgrounds and in the classroom. Poetry's Playground is a groundbreaking study that makes bold connections between children's and adult poetry. This book will be of interest to poets, scholars of poetry and children's literature, as well as students and teachers of literary history, cultural anthropology, and contemporary poetry.
Did you ever Google “pregnancy after 35” or “getting pregnant at 40” for helpful advice and inspiration on your way to motherhood? Did your excitement and hope turn into disbelief and shock when your search turned up millions of gut wrenching stories on the risks and dangers of later pregnancies and the staggering rise of age related infertility in women? The Joy of Later Motherhood is the much-needed antidote to all the negative hype surrounding motherhood at advanced maternal age (which is 35+). Written by seasoned journalist Bettina Gordon-Wayne—herself a first-time mom at 44 and the third generation of women in her family who did not get the memo that conceiving a baby after 40 is dangerous, if not outright impossible—The Joy of Later Motherhood is: Positive, honest, deeply human, and an inspiring guide to mature motherhood that will undoubtedly boost your fertility and your chances of getting pregnant; Full of real-life stories and helpful insights of more than 40 women over 40 (and top natural fertility experts) who all had natural pregnancies and healthy babies. With love and candor these women tell of heartbreak—like infertility diagnosis and miscarriage—and triumph—from healing diseases to finding their faith. They share their stories in order to empower other women to approach the topic of later motherhood from a position of strength and courage and to show them what’s possible and, in fact, natural. If you are looking for a medical book focused on only the physical aspect of pregnancy, this may not be the right one for you. The Joy of Later Motherhood is written by experts of a different kind. It’s written from the perspective of the women who actually achieved what millions of women are striving for: naturally conceiving a healthy baby after 35 and, especially, after 40. You’ll learn how to prepare for pregnancy, even if you choose in vitro fertilization or were diagnosed with unexplained infertility or were trying to get pregnant for years. You’ll get advice on how to get pregnant naturally and what natural family planning methods worked for other women. But maybe most importantly, you’ll learn that trying to get pregnant is not just a physical matter, but also a matter of the mind and maybe even your spiritual beliefs as these women attest to. The Joy of Later Motherhood is for you if the following rings true: You hear your biological clock ticking, but you don’t want to be in a panic about it like everyone else. You are afraid that your body may fail you. Or that your contradictory thoughts—“I would love to have a baby, but I don’t think I can give up my freedom!”—may influence your fertility. You feel alone and isolated because you’ve already experienced more than your fair share of heartache. You need different perspectives to help you go on. You wonder if it is fair to a child to have older parents and whether he’ll have to shoulder the burden of an ailing mother or father long before his peers. Maybe you are worried or are upset. Maybe you doubt that motherhood will ever happen for you. We get it. We’ve been there. With our stories, we want to lovingly see you through this journey as much as we can. We’ve got you.
