Tag Archives: editing

author, Boys, home learning

Be Destroying English for Another Generation

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Anyone that writes a blog, I would think loves to write. I know that I truly love to write! It is the way that I process. I truly having fun playing with words…

But, back in grade 11 English, I stopped writing. I was a flute-playing jock who spent most of their time in the gym, with friends or in the band room. In my free time, I loved writing down quotes I came across and writing in my journal. I wrote every single day as a 15 year old.

But, I had a grade 11 English teacher that shoved, pummelled, and used literature to criticize students at every turn. You were never “good enough” and you were called out when you weren’t. We were made to memorize and perform Macbeth out loud. As students, we had to read and reflect on the haunting and odd book, Lord of the Flies.

Can you imagine my heart as I now watch my grade 11 son, 32 years later, reading and experiencing these same two books? Week by week, I am watching his love of literature being sucked out of him and his love of writing being taken from him. Why must students’ focus on having the correct formatting for quotes? Why must students’ write down quotes verbatim from a book? Why must students’ write an essay with a hideous word count that would be more directed towards a student that wanted to study and deepen their understanding of English literature? Why must we use the same books as 1991?

Love a duck folks!

Love writing.

Love speaking.

Love communicating.

Share your words.

Share your story.

Share who you are.

And Google the rest!

Lord, please break the cycle of the use of literature that doesn’t bring insight or inspiration for this generation of students (nor my generation either).

And that’s all from me folks.

Happy almost December and love what you do.

XOXO Joanna

Boys, mom of boys, musings, Parenting, radical sabbatical, Wordsmith

Be Watching A Phenomenal Amount of Youtube (Mom of Boys)

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I remember shortly after my boys were born that a mom friend advised me to try to join my children in their play. We were already an active family that loved to cross country ski, walk the dog, eat together, read together and play board games together. This very sage mom friend who was a few years ahead of me was very wise in her advice as she knew what was coming:

Technology.

Screens.

Computer games.

Movies.

Minecraft.

And yes, “Youtube”.

I am very grateful that I learned a long time ago, when the boys were little, to try to always join them in their “play”. It’s been a truly and very fun unexpected journey.

Our current favourite Youtube channels are:

Mark Rober = An engineer who used to work for Nasa and Apple. You may have heard about the backyard squirrel maze or glitter bombs. If you haven’t definitely check him out.

Dude Perfect = A group of five Christian men who met in University and now do trick shots and short skits. We did a “Dude Perfect” birthday for our oldest 16th birthday this year. It was a hit!

Jet Lag, the Game = This is a group of three young men who play real life “board games” around the world. We support and watch them on the streaming platform Nebula and always watch the new shows together. *Some swearing and one of the young men often gets drunk as part of the game.

Fidias = We got hooked when Fidias was trying to get a hug from Elon Musk. It is interesting to see what he comes up with and how positive he is.

Mr. Beast = I am sure everyone knows about Mr. Beast and his huge budgets for making videos. He is a young man who has a passion for creating and has been blessed by this creativity. He has so many channels and the main one is good, but there are some videos we don’t watch. The boys are excited to try his chocolate bar: Feastables.

Max Fosh = This is a new favourite from England because of his wacky ideas – sneaking into things, “Welcome to Luten” sign, buying a traffic circle… He’s light and fun!

On top of these channels, all of our boys have started their own Youtube channels following their passions. Their work is my ABSOLUTE favourite as I watch them film and edit these pieces of art sharing from their heart.

OC (11 years old) = Our youngest loves Lego and doing creative custom builds. Here are some of his amazing creations at “Brick of Lego”: https://www.youtube.com/@BrickofLego

CC (14 years old) = Our middle guy thoroughly enjoys talking and sharing his love of cars! He’s got a channel called C Cars that he started many years ago and has recently started adding to: https://www.youtube.com/@CcarsYT

JC (16 years old) = Our oldest doing what he loves most, flipping! jcanflip is his channel and he flips for every subscriber he gets and posts nightly at around 10:00pm PST. https://www.youtube.com/@Jcanflip

What are your current favourite Youtube channels? Please share as we love adding to the things that we can watch together as a family.

Have a funday Sunday folks and love what you do!

xoxo Joanna

author, blogger, Book, writing

Be Editing a Book 

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Have you done something that you find unbelievable? 

I live in ‘unbelievable’ right now on a daily basis.  

I have spent the last few months pouring my thoughts onto paper through mind maps, on the computer in paragraphs and through old journeys from when I was younger.  

And now I am editing these words. Pouring over them with my heart and mind.  I am ensuring that every words represents my message and would make my boys (and my mom) proud.  

I am very grateful for Sexy Neck who edits for me nightly, my plethora of friends who are waiting to walk with me as editors and those brave souls, Karen and Rick, who edited my introduction and conclusion already.  

I am not sure what form this book is going to take, but I do know that I love living in the ‘unbelievable’ realm.  

Living. 

Dreaming.  

Wondering.  

Pouring out.  

Getting poured into. 

Editing a book.