The Adventures of Amelia Bedelia By Peggy Parish

This week I went to Barnes and Noble and sat and read through the collection of Amelia Bedelia Books for 90 minutes on Saturday, June 9, 2012
The Adventures of Amelia Bedelia was a three pack collection of stories from the Amelia Bedelia book collection.  The first story was titled "Amelia Bedelia".  In this story she is house sitting for the people that she works for, so they left a list of chores for her to complete in the meantime.  Amelia Bedelia has a horrible time understanding the true meaning behind commands and takes them literally.  For example, the list requested that she "dress the turkey for dinner", so she clothed the turkey in a jumpsuit and socks. The story was hilarious, and as usual she smoothed things over by making a wonderful signature dessert.
The second story was called "Come Back, Amelia Bedelia".  In this story she was fired, and had to go job hunting.  She tried numerous different jobs, but kept getting fired on the spot for misinterpreting the directions.  For instance, one job required her to "shorten the dresses in the changing room", so she took a pair of scissors and cut every dress shorter and was asked to leave.  She eventually ended up back at the home that she was fired from in the beginning of the story.
The third and final story was titled "Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia", and she offered to help out a little league baseball team since one of their players was sick with the measles.  She cannot follow directions in a nonliteral way even when given by a child.  The team told her to "step into the ball and meet it" in order to hit it when she swings, so she stepped up during the pitch to shake the ball's hand and got hit in the shoulder. 
I always enjoy reading Amelia Bedelia stories because it is hilarious watching her be repremanded for making honest mistakes.  I would recommend educators to  use this story to exercise chilrens abilities to determine the literal and nonliteral meanings of phrases or commands.  If  nothing else, these stories are entertaining.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

This week I  read over 90 minutes (possibly 100 minutes) Wednesday, June 7, 2012.
 This week I finished the Five Love Languages chapter 8, physical touch through chapter 14, a personal words.  Chapter 8 physical touch was expressing how some lovers feel loved the most when their mate gives them physical touch.  This is not to be confused with strictly sex; they also cherish massages, soft touches, hand holding, kisses and hugs.  This type of lover needs an abundance of touchy feely attention to feel that their partner is into them, and they also use touch to show they care and are attracted to their mate.
The next chapters showed each individual how to define and recognize their own particular love language as well as their partners and even introduced ways to distinguish which love language your c hldren may be dominant in.  The book finished out by explaining how love is a personal choice that every human decides to engage in.  Healthy relationships requires each partner take the time to know their partner's love language and find ways to cater to those particu lar needs as often as possible.  It is the little things that count in showing others what they mean to us. 
This book was very useful in showing me that different people value different terms of endearment to feel loved and appreciated in their relationship.  To be successful, couples must makke themselves aware of what it takes to please their partner and ensure that they practice this on a frequent basis.  Children also have things that make them feel a connection to their parents.  If we are paying attention to our loved ones it is never hard to tell what gets them going.  The best way is to start with yourself and express to others the way you like being loved and start the conversation about their own language. Just this knowledge can make an even stronger connection between couples.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

This week I read for 90 minutes Thursday, May 31st.
I read the next three chapters in The Five Love Languages.  Quality time was the title of the first chapter I read this week.  This chapter explained to couples that if your partner values quality time then your job is to make sure that you spend romantic alone time with your mate.  This makes the person feel loved by you; your undivded attention is most fulfilling to their needs.
The next chapter, receiving gifts, discussed with couples that your mate gauges your love and appreciation best when you shower them with gifts.  This is not the same as getting valentines, Christmas and anniversary gifts for your mate; thwy feel it is most effective when gifts are given unexpectantly.  Buying your wife flowers just because it is Tuesday for instance.
The last chapter I read was Acts of Service. The author explained that this type of affection as when couples do nice things for each other to give the other a break.  For example, a wife could give her husband a sensual massage and foot rub when he gets home from working a longer work shift.  A husband could do the cooking or laundry for his wife so she could watch lifetime uninterrupted one Saturday afternoon.  This person feels love through their partner going out of their way to make them comfortable.
I got some good tips this week for helping me define the three featured languages this week.  I am eager to wrap it up and get all the secrets next week.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

This week I read the first four chapters of "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman.  I am enjoying this book so far.  It gives me the impression that this is a self help novel for married or serious couples because it is strategies and techniques to be more aware of your partner's needs. 
Chapter 1 titled "what happends to love after the wedding", chapter two titled "keeping the love tank full" and chapter three, "Falling in love" are all geared toward making the reader aware that falling in love is the easy part that comes natural, but staying in love is hard work.  People make the mistake of getting too comfortable in their relationship, so they start neglecting to do the very things that made their partner fall for them in the first place.  We must continue to find creative ways to show our partner that our feelings still remain.
Chapter four introduced the very first language, words of affirmation.  This love language is described as the type of person that enjoys receiving compliments and hearing their partner say how much they love them and how much they mean to them.  This individual also shows that they love a person by wanting to share their feelings with them, and can become offended if their partner is not feeling their love cup with sweet nothings. 


I read for thirty minutes each day Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.  May 21, 23 and 24.

Pleasure Reading The Lorax

The school I work for is really trying to get our students use to doing things that help the environment, and showing them examples of becomeing more "green", so I chose to read "The Lorax" by Dr. Suess to my lower learning intervention group. 
The Lorax is a children's story that is rather lengthy, so I split of the reading in thirty minute increments over three days.  This is a tale of Suess World people and creatures that make horrible decisions about the environment because they take for granted that it will always look the same.  The moral of the story is to use our resources wisely, and keep things as clean as we can.  It is not okay to just trash olur environment because at some point the whole world will be polluted and all of our population will die off due to the hazardous wastes it causes.  At the end the Lorax makes everyone clean up the world and teaches them better choices for keeping their world tidy so everyone can stay healthy including plants and flowers.
I appreciate this story for bringing an environmental issue down to a level for children to grasp an understanding.  The pictures were cartoon like, but they gave avery good description of how things start off great, but over time our bad choices will catch up with us with a vengence.

This week I read 30 minutes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and stopped for clarifying questions and discussions along the way.  It was enjoyable because the knowledge and respect my students gained from the moral.

Heaven is for Real

This week I started a new book that was given to me by a friend at work.  She hooked me by having me read the prologue which ended up making me keep going.  Heaven is for Real is a non-fiction Christian novel from a three year old child's perspective.  He was faced with a near death experience, and after recovery while talking to his parents they discovered that he met Jesus.  The little boy explains his parents whereabouts while he was under anesthesia.  He told his dad that he raised up out of his body, floated around and saw his dad in the corner at the hospital praying and his mother in a different room talking to someone on the phone and praying.  He said Jesus sang to him in Heaven, and he got to meet God.  He described God as being very, very big, and he said the people in Heaven do not wear glasses and no one is old or sick.  The boy gives a very detailed description of what things in Heaven are like and what was taking place to the point where is father was overwhelmed enough to write a book about his son experience.  When reading it, it felt so real that it forces you to believe what he is saying.

Lost and Found Week 2

This week when my daughter and I read the book Lost and Found we found out, along with Jamee, that her so called boyfriend, Bobby, was only using her to steal CDs for him.  Darcy was at the record store browsing when she spotted Bobby and his friend looking through CDs.  She got close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation.  He was bragging to his fellow high school friend that middle school flunky chic would do whatever he told her to do just as long as he pretends to like her.  Darcy went home, and shared this information with Jamee who refused to believe Bobby would say that.  She campagined that Bobby loved her, and went to her room and blasted her rap music. 
Darcy's friend Brisana made fun of her project partner, Tarah, calling her fat and dumb and making fun of her boyfriend Cooper.  Darcy was hurt that she would do that,  yet she never told her friend to stop for fear of judgement on her for befriending someone of Tarah's status.  In spite of Brisana's jokes about Tarah and Cooper Tarah went to the Tidal pool with the odd couple.  Cooper joked around too much for Darcy, and put a leach on her.  She got so upset about it that she left and found a bus bench to ride the bus home instead of riding back with them.  While she waited she say some mysterious man in a Honda staring at her.  Right when he began to get out of the car the chapter ended!