reading to kids

On the SCBWI site in an article is a report of a talk by Rosemary Wells saying that 'the child read to regularly and often will develop imagination and an ability to learn.' Exactly! Our family saw an example of this first hand on Saturday night. At a family gathering for our daughter's birthday our three year old grandson who is read several stories each day, entertained all after the meal by pretending to be a shopkeeper selling various items- mostly healthy fruit and vegetables. he used a cut out area led into a small unused space behind the corner of the cushion dining area of the restaurant where we'd had our Lebanese feast. His wide vocabulary and imagination is largely due to the influence that books have had on his life since birth. Our granddaughter is now starting to get into the book scene. She has also been read to since birth but only now at a little over twelve months starting to show an interest.
The weekend was great with bargains picked up shopping and family time. But we came home to news about a dear friend battling cancer which made me feel saddened for her and her family. But also thankful for the precious time we had with our family and determined to enjoy each day as we never know when it will be our last.

Breathing space

Finally I feel I can breathe and get back to working on my own writing. The day at NSW Writers centre last week on writing for children and young people was good. Packed sessions. Standing room only in the first one with publishers Marc Macleod and Margaret Hamilton. Helpful advice from them which suggests historical novels are a trend at present. Good to catch up with other writers and the session on writing picture books with New Frontier publishing as well as writers and illustrators was good. Also the one on reviewing, as I dabble in that, was a helpful time. I came home feeling the day had been well spent.
Stayed the evening with our son and next morning at breakfast , you guessed it, we were reading Frog and Toad books. Our grandson already knows which story is in which book and what each one's about but then he gets read about 5-6 stories a day by his mum and dad. That's how to grow a reader who will always have a love of books. And he'd have them reading even more if it was possible. I think Grandad and I managed to cover a book's worth of stories before we had to leave after breakfast.

Books and poetry

Well the 'Frog and Toad' thing has spiralled. Our son went to Gleebooks the other day and came out with four 'Frog and Toad' books for his three year old son and also Arnold Lobel's 'Mouse Tales.' Lovely to see the enthusiasm these books have generated in one little three year old. And his father is keen to foster it.
Last Sunday our writers centre had the delightful Patti Miller with us for the day. She is an expert on' writing your life 'courses. Although her emphasis is life stories I found that some things she said echoed points I had made in the poetry course I have recently written. For anyone interested in writing poetry, my course 'How to Write poetry' is now up and running at Writer's Success http://writerssuccess.com/ I'd love to meet any of you via email there.
But back to Sunday - accessing memory is always a good starting point for writing. At one stage we had to draw a floor plan of the house we lived in as a child. I lived in a number but I could not draw a floor plan of any of them, which seemed weird. I could see the outside of each house and the yard. I could see individual rooms and incidents and items from rooms but could not see the whole floor plan as a whole. Perhaps that says something about me and the way I compartmentalise my life? However I did find some of the digging into memory helpful and ended up turning one of the memories into a new poem which I would like to develop further.
Maybe into a series of poems. So the day was definitely worthwhile, even if I'm not planning to write autobiography or life writing as many attending the day were. I think we can always learn from others or sometimes just have ideas re-enforced that will help in our own writing.

Two Films

Watching a film recently- 'The Simple Life of Noah Dearborne' - or something like that. We knew nothing about it except that Sidney Portier was in it and figured therefore it couldn't be too bad. He's always been of my favourite actors. Who could forget him in 'To Sir with Love' or 'Guess who's coming to dinner.' This film was obviously when he was a lot older. But old actors never lose the knack. With one look he conveyed so much without a word being spoken. It's something I think current actors seem to have forgotten how to do. Everything needs to be spelled out these days.
The other film we glanced at but not for long was a remake of 'South Pacific' with Glenn Close. I like Glenn and some of her other films especially as Sarah in the 'Sarah, Plain and Tall' and 'Skylark' films but this version of South Pacific was in my opinion hopeless. Of course I have to say at this point that the original is one of my favourite musicals second only to 'Les Miserables' which I've seen a stage version of several times. We saw 'South Pacific' on stage for our anniversary was it last year? I think. And I liked it, though still preferred the film, which is unusual for me. I often prefer a stage show over film. But both left this later film version for dead. Musicality, scenery, casting, acting- you name it in, the later version always for me was found wanting.

Old friends and poetry

What a joy on the weekend to read ‘Frog and Toad’ to our grandson. He kept Grandad and I busy with both the book from the library and then other one we took down. Every story had to be read while he sat in rapt attention. The other interesting fact was hearing our adult son and daughter exclaim, ‘Oh I remember this one,’ or ‘I can’t believe Frog laughed at Toad,’ or ‘I loved this story.’ And then start to quote bits.
Last night I had an interesting phone call. Someone from the local council rang and wanted me to go up to one of our local park, and have my photo taken for a display of poetry being held in the park. The joy of smaller communities is that the local library gave them my name, so this woman could contact me. At the time of the phone call I was sick and not understanding much of what was being expected of me. The woman talked quickly and my brain was set in slow mode. But I went anyway
It looks like the photos and favourite poems will be organised into a display that will be set up in the conservatory in Cook Park, later this month. The poem I chose was ‘Initiated into Blue,’ since it is about plants and the general theme of most of the poetry seemed to be garden related. The exhibition will run for a month or more.
Cook Park is one of our prettiest parks which attracts a lot of tourists and visitors who come to Orange. Guess it was worth paddling around in the rain and feeling worse by the time I got home as it’s all free publicity for my poetry book. If you want to have a look at the cover of ‘Kaleidoscope’ and some of the poems they are up on my website www.daleharcombe.com

Some things change and some don’t

Times have changed. We hadn’t been ten pin bowling for years. On Saturday night husband and I went ten pin bowling with a group of friends. No longer is it bowl and chat in between, as the video music clips on screen as well the pins being aimed at, pulsating music and flashing coloured lights and disco balls make it almost impossible. Maybe I'm just getting old. Our group could have done without all the added attractions or distractions depending on which way you look at it. Still it was a fun night though I doubt anyone of us will be up for bowler of the year awards. And at supper at our place we got a chance to talk without the intrusion of music and video.
But some things don’t change. Talking to our son yesterday he was excited telling me how held got ‘Frog and Toad Together’ by Arnold Lobel from the library for his three year old son. As a child, it was one of our son’s favourite books but he wasn’t sure how his little one would respond or whether he was too young for it, since the artwork isn’t exactly colourful or startling. Our grandson loves it! Goes to show that a good book never loses its appeal. Somehow the copy we used to have of ‘Frog and Toad Together’ got lost in one of the many moves which is sad, but we still have a copy of ‘Frog and Toad Are Friends’ which we plan to take down next time we visit our son and his family. Looking forward to reading them again with our grandson.
We used stories from these two books as puppet plays. I remember contacting Arnold Lobel about twenty or so years ago when we had a puppet group and asking if we could script his stories into puppet plays. He very graciously allowed us to do it without any copyright problems and cost since we were a non profit group. Lovely generous man.

Observations

Recently I discovered something interesting about my reading habits. Most of the fiction writers I read tend to be women, with the exception of notable guys like Tim Winton, Nicholas Sparks and a few others. When it comes to poetry most of the poets I read are male with the exception of Judith Beveridge, Judy Johnson, Luci Shaw. I don't know that it means anything- just found it interesting.
Another thing my daughter and I were discussing on the weekend, is how sometimes we will wake up with a song running through our heads and not necessarily one we have heard recently.
Last week for me it was one I had taught at church on the Sunday and it stayed with me most of the week, except for one morning when I woke up with John Lennon's 'Starting Over.' Since I had never been a huge Beatles or Lennon fan, though I liked some of the slower ones, I'm not sure where this song came from. I don't remember having heard it any time recently. But there it was.
Being a word person my music always has lyrics. I'm not big on instrumentals. They're not easy to sing along to, although daughter and I have been known to try.