Posted in books, creativity, education, guest post, hooked on books, reading, reading everyday, sparking creativity

Guest Post: The Importance of Reading For Education

By Linda Mills

Reading is one of the most vital habits and hobbies a parent can cultivate in their child, or a person of any age can take up, because reading develops the minds and opens up new avenues that are important in the pursuit of education. Reading about any subject is an indispensable resource that cannot be replaced by any other medium even in today’s technologically advanced era.

Reading Better Leads To Speaking Better

Self-expression is a vital tool for every human being, giving individuals the power to express themselves clearly with better vocabulary as well as enabling them to have an impact. The more someone reads, the more they are able to shape and express their opinion, which is vital for critical thinking and for educational purposes. Reading widely also means various sources of information can be triangulated and compared with each other, which again lends itself to effective speaking and articulation.

Widen The Scope

Reading widens the scope of a person’s mind. Readers are able to empathize with others who may be completely different from them, and they are able to experience different cultures. One of the main objectives of education is to widen the scope of one’s mind and teach a person about the world in general including history, philosophy, and science without being restricted to the area one is born in or the culture one belongs to. Reading also makes individuals more creative and imaginative as reading uses many different neuron networks in the brain, which no other stimuli including visual can command. No wonder reading makes people smarter!

Read Actively Not Passively

Passive reading means you read the words, but don’t pay extra attention to them or employ critical thinking to ascertain the various meanings of the text. For educational purposes, critical thinking is very important because it encourages asking questions, seeking multiple sources of information, and seeking a greater understanding of context. Active reading is better reading, because it allows for greater retention and benefit for students.

Reading And Comprehension

Comprehension of the written texts is very important for educational purposes and the most basic way is when someone––student or otherwise––can answer questions after reading any text. This sort of fluency and concentration also affects a student’s ability to write effectively because they are more able to retain information, express their opinions after evaluation, and write it all down.

Many techniques help with comprehension especially for younger readers, such as the following:

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Posted in creative writing, creativity, journal, journaling, motivational journals

New Releases: 4 Lined Journals with Motivational Covers

Here are four more journals I recently designed. This project I started with the intent of still creating simple lined journals (like the last six journals I did), but this time with fun motivational covers––Because who doesn’t love some visual motivation!

I brainstormed, and then chose four slogans or affirmations that I have worked for me in my own journaling journey, and then played around with some images and fonts until I came up with these lovely creations.

Here is an official book description…

This motivational journal is a good for every day use, or great as a gift. This is a 120 page lined notebook or journal ready to be used for any kind of writing, journaling, note taking, and is especially good for reflective journaling on creating better quality life experiences.

This is also small and can fit in most handbags, packs, or even a back pocket. Journal size is 5.25″ x 8″ with a glossy cover and cream color lined pages inside. Pages are suitable for most types of pens.

All these journals can be used for any sort of generic journaling or note taking, but also can be dedicated to the topic of the covers.

Here are the individual links for each of the journals.

You Got This… I love this affirmation so much! I once had a journal with this phrase. In that time of my life, I was having a lot of hard days, and sometimes just pulling out the journal and looking at the cover was the positive boost I needed. This is an affirmation I have used quite a bit in my daily personal growth even before I purchased that particular journal.

The Best Is Yet To Come… This is definitely a winning affirmation that’s full of positivity and hope, because no matter what we have going on right now in our lives (good, bad, or in between), even better is always on the way!

Follow Your Dreams They Know The Way… This is a great journal for writing out your dream life. The things you want to have happen. The things you want to do or be. The things that fill you with excitement and promise.

Create Your Own Calm… This is a great place to either write out tools you can use to create more peace and calm in your life, or even a place you can release some of the “upsetting” bits and pieces of life, so you can create more calm after the release.

And that’s it for now. I do have a brand new guided journal releasing soon, so keep an eye out for that. Until then, have a great rest of January (I can’t believe the first month of 2021 is almost over already)!

Posted in creative writing, creativity, journal, journaling, writing

New Releases! 6 Lined Journals with Unique Cover Designs

I love creating guided journals, but this month I decided to try designing some regular journals to see what I could come up with. The results are these six lovely creations. Each journal has 120 lined pages waiting for whatever writing or journaling a person is in the mood for. The difference between the journals is just the cover, because isn’t it nice to have choices?

Here is the official description below…

This a perfect for your every day use or great as a gift. This is a 120 page lined notebook or journal ready to be used for any kind of writing, journaling, or note taking. This is also small and can fit in most handbags, packs, or even a back pocket. Journal size is 5.25″ x 8″ with glossy cover and cream colored lined paper inside.

Some of the journals like the Affirmations, Gratitude, Inspiration, and Dreams can be used specially for those particular topics, or just used for free writing or regular journaling. My personal favorite is the Inspiration journal, not just because of the image and color, but I love the idea of having a journal just for writing inspired ideas (I have lots of those)!

Here are the individual links for each of the journals in case you want a closer look.

Notes is great for note taking or jotting down on the fly ideas.

Affirmations is great for keeping track of your favorite affirmations or creating your own.

Gratitude is great for writing down all the things you are thankful for and appreciate in life.

Dreams is great for writing down your dreams overnight, or life dreams (goals) that you want to come true.

Inspiration is great for writing down anything that might inspire you, or you have inspired ideas that you want to make sure you don’t forget.

Journal is great for note taking or just a generic journal.

I went ahead and created a separate page on this blog for lined journal. So they are easy to find (because I will be adding more at a later date), and hopefully won’t be confused with my guided journals.

Enjoy!

Posted in blog series, Celebrating the Journey Of, creativity, empowerment, inspirational

Celebrating the Journey of FortCraftGaming (YouTuber)

So today I am going to shamelessly promote my thirteen year old son. He has been dedicating a lot of his time and energy to getting his YouTube Channel off the ground in the last few months, because he has dreams of becoming a well-established YouTuber. His name (for the purpose of this post) is FortCraftGaming.

Above is a video he posted that he says he loves the most so far. I’ve enjoyed most of them simply because I like watching the progress of his personal growth, over all creativity, and the increase in video editing skills (and yes, I’m being a proud and supportive momma too). Sometimes he’s a little whacky, sometimes he’s very informative (such as how he makes his videos), and he also loves to demonstrate some of the video games he plays.

One of the things I admire most about him is his determination. When he sets his mind to something, he makes it happen (even if it takes awhile). And I know this will take him far in his journey of life whether he sticks it out with YouTube, or eventually decides to pursue something else.

He began his YouTube journey several years ago as he started watching the journey of YourTubers like Unspeakable, DanTDM, and MrBeast.

So let’s turn this over to FortCraftGaming so he can tell a little more about his journey.

So tell us a little bit about your journey as a YouTuber? What inspired you to take this journey?

I’ve always liked making videos, and when I found out that YouTube existed, and that anyone could make videos, I was just like “Yeah, this is what I wanna do.”

What do you like the most about what you do?

The support I get from my friends and fans, also editing and making thumbnails is fun.

What sort of topics or things do you do in your videos?

Whatever I think of doing really. I’ve done videos on gaming with Minecraft and AirMech Arena. I’ve also done some skits. And for a month I did the Stereotypical YouTuber Challenge (SYTC).

Is there any special equipment or knowledge you need to know about being a YouTuber?

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Posted in artistic, blog, blog series, Celebrating the Journey Of, creativity, inspirational, the creative process

Celebrating the Journey Of Nature Bound Design Co

One of the things that I have loved doing in the past on my blog is author interviews for books or series I have read. I’ve decided that I want to broaden that concept and start doing interviews for other people too. There are so many wonderfully talented individuals out there, and I want to celebrate at least some of them on my blog.

So I’ve created this new blog series that I hope to post on at least several times a month, celebrating the journeys of some interesting people I either know, or happen to meet along my own journey.

I’m going to get the ball rolling with Sophia who I met through this blog. She has a business creating handmade jewelry. I saw her products and decided I had to know more about her and her business. So I’m going to hand this over to Sophia, so she can tell you more about her journey.

I love your jewelry designs. I’m curious to know more about your business Nature Bound Design Co. Can you tell us how you got started?

I really got started through my love for nature and the outdoors.  I was born in Germany, and I was always out and about there, exploring the beautiful forests and natural areas that my part of that country had to offer.  Sometimes my family would go on long hikes as a group, and sometimes I would just spend time in the woods near my house.  I was lucky enough to live at the end of a road that terminated near a large forest, so there was plenty of nature to explore right in my backyard!  From that exploration grew a love of natural materials, like stones.

I have always been a creative type. From building things to painting and creating music, I have always felt an overwhelming urge to create. One day, I was exploring YouTube and noticed someone creating jewelry from polymer clay pieces that looked like colorful stones.  I gave this a try myself, but I found that I didn’t like the non-authentic nature of the clay or the way it smelled when baking. So I decided to try to create with the real stones that I had adored since I was young. 

Wire wrapping seemed to be one of the most popular ways to approach this, so I started devouring YouTube videos about how to wire wrap stones.  After much practice, I got good enough to feel comfortable opening an Etsy shop to sell what I had created.  Close friends were my first customers and support, and I am so thankful that they provided me a foundation to get started!

Tell us a little more about the products you make?

I create mostly wired wrapped jewelry, although I do some beaded pieces that are strung together without any kind of wirework. My hope is to start doing some projects with leather this year, since I just launched a men’s line, so I will be offering woven pieces soon as well!

What makes jewelry making so special to you?

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