"Child behavior begins in the home." Raising children is just about the hardest job a parent has. It takes lots of love, common sense, and dedicated consistency. Children learn at a very young age what is expected of them, and they rise to those expectations when given the chance--when praised for good behavior.

     We, teachers, easily recognize those children who come from supportive homes, and we applaud those parents. It's not easy to juggle jobs, house and family management, school, and raising kids. We know parents arrive home from work exhausted, overwhelmed, and often stressed beyond belief, but their day is not over. We know because often we are those parents too.

     Children are stressed too as they balance playdates, after-school activities, HomeFUN (aka homework), dinner, and bedtime routines, which loom large each evening. Their school day is intense not only filled with learning, but also with juggling both their social and emotional behaviors. So, what's the answer? Well, there is no easy one.

    
       reposted from Donna O'Donnell Figurski's Blog - 08/13/2013



     Did you know your brain is made up of two parts – the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. Both sides of your brain work together, but they can also act separately.

     The right hemisphere of your brain controls the actions on the left side of your body. While the left hemisphere controls your right side. For example, when you raise your right hand to wave to a friend, your left hemisphere is controlling your hand. If you raise your left eyebrow, like Groucho Marx,  your right hemisphere is in charge.

     Your left hemisphere helps you to process language – reading, writing, and speaking. It helps with reasoning and logic and math skills. It also helps to process scientific knowledge. Left-brain thinkers are critical thinkers.
    
     Your right hemisphere is responsible for creativity. Art and music are two activities that may come easy to a right-brain thinker. Reading emotions and expressing them are also dominant in a right-brain thinker. Folks with a dominant right brain may be out-of-the-box thinkers. They look at things differently. A box is confined space. It’s limited. When someone is thinking out-of-the-box more divergent thinking may occur.

     Most people are either dominant right- or left-brain thinkers. Have you ever wondered which you are?
I’m definitely right-brain dominant. I’m a writer, an actor, a jewelry designer, and I’m a teacher – a creative teacher. Most of the activities and projects in my classroom were teacher-made – designed and created by me to lure children into learning. I am always thinking out-of-the-box. I don’t know why – I just do. Guess it’s the darn right brain.
    
     I’m definitely left-brain dominant. I’m a user of language – writing, speaking, reading. I’m logical and love to categorize everything. You should see my Excel and FileMaker Pro Data projects. If it moves, I’ll database it.
    
     I love that my brain switches, constantly, between both my right and left hemisphere. It allows me to be versatile. It encourages my divergent thinking, while still keeping me grounded. But sometimes it’s exhausting.
    
     You may have been wondering why the young woman above is perpetually twirling. She is your test. Take a few moments and stare at her. You are using your right brain, if you see her turning clockwise. If she is turning counter-clockwise, then you are using your left brain. If you can see her switch back and forth, then you are using both sides of your brain – like me. Let me know.
    
     I took a test at Chatterbean to test my left vs. right brain. again I scored a balanced brain. What more could I ask for?
    
     Here’s my evaluation.
   
     Are You a Right-Brain Thinker?

     Your quiz score makes you: Balanced Thinker

     Now that you’ve completed our enlightening quiz, you probably know you’re a mix of a right-brain thinker and a left-brain

thinker! The best of both worlds!

(Roger Sperry was awarded the Nobel Prize for his brain-related work in 1981. If this topic fascinates you as it does me, you

can learn more at these sites.)

Chatterbean
Which Way Do You Spin?
Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World

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(Clip Art compliments of Bing.)

reposted from 12/31/13 from Donna O'Donnell Figurski's Blog

     It is scary to put your work out there for critical eyes. It leaves you wide open. It leaves you vulnerable. Of course you’ve done your best and you love every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph. You’ve worked hard. You’ve crafted each word until your eyes seem to turn inward. You think that you can make your article, essay, story, or book no better and you hope that your reviewer will feel the same. After all, if you did not think it was your best, you would not have released it for other eyes – right?

     It’s hard to hear critiques – even the positive ones. Those words you dragged out of your head and arranged into neat little lines on the paper to tell your story are your babies. As a mother is protective of her child, you too, are the keeper of your words – their protector, their proud creator. So you don your armor, harden your shell, stiffen your upper lip, hold your breath, and … hope for the best.

     If you have chosen a reviewer, someone who you respect and who you can trust, then trust you must! Don’t fear the red pen. Listen with eager mind but remember too, that her opinion is only one view and not necessarily better than yours. Although she, no doubt, will look at your work with fresher, more neutral eyes, you must still pick and choose and determine what you think will move your writing further – what will make your story the best it can be.

     Then go back to the keyboard … and tackle your work with a new outlook until your piece shines – brighter than before.

  As I say after each post:

     If you enjoy Bookity Blog, please pass it on to all your friends and they to theirs. (I’d like to drive up the readership. Sometimes it feels like I am writing in a vacuum. So go ahead. Send it to 10 of your friends.)

If you hate my blog, go ahead and send it to your enemies. (10 enemies would be good.) I won’t mind.

(Clip Art compliments of Bing.)

                                              STRANGEST YET!      

                                                             TATTOO??                 

                                                                        You’ve Got To Be Kidding!
                                                                        It’s just a little hummmmmmmmingbird.

     Okay, so I added a few more holes to my ears. I now have a total of five. Thanks, Betty! And thanks for going with me, and for telling me that it was not cool to have an equal number of holes on each ear . . . thus the odd number of five.

     Then I poked an extra hole in my nose. Thanks, Kiersten! I swear – I would never have thought of this on my own. Although I can come up with some pretty weird ideas without anyone prompting me; this idea is totally your responsibility. And thanks to Betty for holding my hand and saying, “You can do it! You can do it!” but who wouldn’t do it herself when I encouraged her to get her nose pierced, too.

     Monique is totally responsible for the tattoo. Her friend, Sarah, called from Germany with the news that she got a tattoo. Hmmmm! That call changed both my and Monique’s lives permanently.

     Soon Monique was talking about hummingbirds. She talked about it in the car. She talked about it sitting on the floor of my office. She talked about it at the dinner table and she talked and talked and talked. She asked me if I wanted to get a tattoo with her … a hummingbird. “No!” I assured her. But I offered to take her to get one if she wanted it. She wanted it! She wanted it right that minute! We hadn’t even cleared the dinner table yet. It was dark out and rain was gushing from the sky. It was a Friday night. I suggested we go the next day. I could see Monique’s face fall. I sensed her intensity. What’s a little rain? We quickly cleared the table, cleaned up the kitchen, and set off in search of the tattoo studio not far from my home.
Donna's
 
     She thrust the picture of the hummingbird into the tattoo artist’s hand and asked if he could do it. He easily agreed. Monique relaxed into the chair as the artist sketched the hummingbird on her hip. I watched. She said it kind of pinched, but was not painful. When she was done, she needled me to do it too. Although her hummingbird was really cute, I refrained.
Monique's
  
     The next morning I woke with a burning desire to have a hummingbird etched onto me too. I  have no idea what got into me – what made me feel that way, but with an overwhelming intensity, Monique and I hopped into the car and set off for the tattoo parlor again.

     I wanted the same little hummingbird that Monique had. The only difference is that I added color to mine. It’s beautiful. It’s like a piece of jewelry – only it is permanent.

     This little hummingbird ties Monique and me together for life. It is a constant, pleasant reminder of when she lived with David and me and we shared some months together.

UPDATE

Some years after David's event, Monique came to visit us ––this time in Arizona. AND ... GUESS WHAT? We got another tattoo together. This time it was Kokopelli, the god of fertility, happiness, and good luck.

(Clip Art compliments of Bing.)

(Pictures compliments of ME.)

(Reposted from my website at Strange Happenings.)

     Friday, the 13th is a day that many people fear. It’s considered to be an unlucky day. I don’t usually buy into the superstition, but I have, on occasion, chosen to not fly on Friday the 13th or participate in various other functions that may tempt fate.
 
   In reality, my unlucky day was Thursday, the 13th, way back in January of 2005. That was the day that my husband, David, had a subarachnoid hemorrhage that caused him to endure three brain surgeries in less than two weeks. That was the day that his neurosurgeon told me that he would make a “great organ donor.” That 13th was my unlucky day. It changed the paths of David’s and my lives forever.
 
BUT . . . David defied the odds that his neurosurgeon gave him of survival and we celebrate life every day.  But, on this 18th year after his event, we want to celebrate with you too.
 
I’m making a special dinner for David tonight. If you can guess what I am making, I will send you a pdf copy of my book, Prisoners Without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale.
 

        Contest ends at 12:00pm Pacific time tomorrow evening, January 14th, 2023.

(Click here to see book.)

Prisoners Without Bars: A Caregiver's Tale