Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 571
Getting There
Hello Everyone
Last week, l was telling you about how you can make yourself happier and look after your mental health.
One of the things l mentioned was to tell yourself positive things about yourself to encourage yourself and prophesize your future with your own words.
Words are powerful. Belief is powerful. Faith in yourself is powerful.
You may think it’s funny to call yourself a loser all the time; but it won’t be funny if you really do become one.
When you start off trying to achieve your goals you can get excited about them – and then the path gets a bit hard.
Do you give up?
No!
But many things can bring you down.
Self-doubt can scupper you, but you have to remember that all successful people felt that way at some time. lt isn’t only you.
Feeling uncomfortable when you try new things does not feel nice at all.
Feel the self-doubt and discomfort and fear and do it anyway.
Push through fear – and on the other side of fear is elation.
This is how we grow big time.
lt has been said in the media on occasion in recent years, that the children who missed out on schooling during the Covid lockdowns are a ‘lost generation’ – this means their futures are ruined because of their education being interrupted.
This is not so!
Do not listen to this opinion!
Do not believe this!
Anyone can get knock backs through illness, losing their home, family troubles, and things like that, causing them have to take time out of a normal routine – but this does not mean to say all is lost.
lf you fall behind on your schooling, YOU CAN MAKE lT UP.
Nowadays, you have so much information on the lnternet to help you, even if your parents can’t afford tutoring.
This blog has a wealth of information, and it can help you with tips and tricks to help you with your English and maths too.
No matter what age you are, you can keep learning; and learning added to a ‘can do’ attitude, can change your life for the better.
Being successful takes many small steps. You may think it will take hundreds of small steps; but it may take thousands.
Lots of people who have in mind the harvests they would like in life, do not pay enough attention to the seeds they have to plant to get those harvests.
And when those seeds are planted, they have to be cared for and constantly tended.
And you can’t keep digging them up to see what’s happening.
You have to just let them grow in their own time.
And you have to know what seeds you need to sow. Your dreams and goals are your own.
You can’t wait for others to believe in your dreams, and you can’t please everyone, so don’t even try.
Everyone has different dreams.
We are like all pieces of a jigsaw puzzle – called the world.
Some people want to be doctors and some people want to become theatre directors. The world needs us all.
And of course some people can do jobs that nobody in their family has done before. They are following an unfamiliar path – but if it feels right, go for it!
lf you want to do something that nobody in your family has done before, and nobody can give you guidance – there should be someone somewhere who can give you advice.
Don’t compare yourself with others and think they are better than you are. Don’t let other people put you down and undermine your plans or self-confidence. They sometimes do this because they are jealous of you and you should not let them ruin your life because of their spite. lt is always easier to put someone else down, than lift yourself up!
You do things your way, and you bring your own gifts to the table.
You just have to compare yourself to your former self. How well are you growing?
Don’t make excuses as to why you can’t do or have something – find a good way to get what you want.
Schedule your plans, write them down on a list – and get them done.
Get yourself organized.
Don’t just rush around aimlessly like a bluebottle!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Don’t keep complaining, thinking it should be easier to get where you want to be.
Don’t think that life should be easier – but that you should be better.
Learning and trying and learning and trying is the way to go.
The more you grow yourself, the more likely it will be that things are going to fall into place for you.
Just because things are not working out easily, it does not mean that it is not meant to be. Persistence is a master skill and builds up strength and momentum.
Be grateful for all that you have, and everything that goes right for you, and build on that.
Did you know that most millionaires these days, are self-made?
They were not born rich.
Their journey to riches was not easy.
lt could have taken many years and a lot of hard work.
But if it was easy and quick – everyone would be doing it.
Having faith in yourself, and showing a huge commitment when the path is difficult and you have a lot of struggles is not easy.
But so many people do it, and that it proves that it is possible.
Wally Funk went into space in July 2021 long after she had done her astronaut training in the 1960s! ln the time she trained to be an astronaut they would not let women go into space.
She did not give up hope.
The world changed and at last she got her chance!
How long did she have to wait? She waited over 50 years.
When it happened it was awesome!
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: How is Mum getting on with moving the furniture about?
Bill: Well, apart from a slight wardrobe malfunction, sofa so good!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
And if you want to help the planet this year –
Think trees and bees!
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
It was a dark and stormy night.
Well, it was a dark and stormy night last night actually, and I am glad that the sea has calmed down now, but that is beside the point. I was quoting from a book.
It is a very famous opening line from a novel. You may have heard this sentence before if you are a fan of Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
Another very famous opening line is:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
And goes on…
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…
And another is…
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
(That means that an unmarried man with money must want to get married.)
Do you know which books these quotes come from?
Anyway, back to my own story…
At the Rocky Bay Primary School this week, Miss Pringle decided to get the creative juices of the children in her class going by giving them the first line of a story and then seeing what they could make of it.
How many stories would be similar and who could give a different twist to the idea? How much interest could they put into the story? Would they think through what they were going to write before they started and make a plan so that the story didn’t lose its way in the middle?
This is the line she gave them – what would you have made of it?
The prisoner ran with all his might.
What do you think of when you see this sentence?
What might the situation be?
Ask yourself some questions.
Is the man a criminal or wrongly imprisoned?
So do we have sympathy for the prisoner or his guards? (That means – whose side are we on?)
Is he running from a police station, prison or prison-of-war camp?
Was he being transported by prison guards in a van and escaped from them on the journey?
Do the guards know he has run away? Are they pursuing him?
When is the story set? Is it in modern times or a time in history?
Which country or place is the story set in?
Is it day time or night time?
What landscape is the prisoner running through? Is it deserted streets, crowded streets, rough farmland with buildings to hide in, a beach, a rocky mountain pass, a gloomy forest or somewhere else?
How did he escape?
Where is the prisoner trying to get to as he runs?
What is he thinking?
Is he injured?
How does he find food and drink or maybe some transport?
What happens to the prisoner later?
Once you set your scene you can start writing.
Next week, Miss Pringle is going to give her class a selection of opening lines that they can choose from and she will see which ones are the most popular and what the children can make of them.
Children get ideas and a wealth of vocabulary for their creative writing from books they have read and programmes and films they have watched.
So if you want to improve your writing skills, read a variety of books and watch a variety of films to widen your experience of stories.
If you worry about not doing very well in exams and panic when you are faced to write a story and you can’t think of anything to say, you might like to write some stories at home as practice and then you will have some material in your head ready to use in a test.
But be warned! When you are given a topic to write about in an exam you have to fit your writing to what you have been asked to do.
If you just write what you want to write and do not answer the question on the exam paper, you will not get many marks!!!
Not answering the exact question you have been given, and writing down just what you want to say, is the biggest mistake made in exams. If you write a wealth of information not asked for, you will get no marks for it! Does that surprise you?
*********************
*********************
Quick Quiz
These sayings relate to people trying to spoil things for others either because they want to do ruin things on purpose or they are ‘at odds’ with other people and have their ‘own agenda’ (their own plans and priorities).
Can you work out what they are?
- To f _ _ l the n _ _ t
- To be a d _ _ in the m _ _ _ _ r
- To t _ _ _ d on someone’s t _ _ s
- To put someone’s n _ _ _ out of j _ _ _ t
- To r _ _ _ on someone’s p _ _ _ _ e
- To m _ _ _ y the w _ _ _ _ s
- To be a w _ _ b _ _ _ _ _ t
- To be a p _ _ _ _ p _ _ _ _ r
- To put a sp _ _ _ _ r in the w _ _ _ s
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A 3 DlMENTlONAL BlNGO GAME
Put a number of items in a bag.
Give your friends bingo cards – they must all be different.
A sweetie tube could be a tube shape so could a board marker and so on.
A stock cube box could be a box and so could a toy building block.
If you have toy building blocks in different shapes, you can use them to make the whole game.
This makes a good party game and the winner can get a prize.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
Paul Clifford by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton in 1830 (the dark and stormy night was in London)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens in 1859 (the two cities were London and Paris)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin in 1813 (a novel about manners and social behaviour of the time)
Quick Quiz Answers
- To foul the nest
- To be a dog in the manger
- To tread on someone’s toes
- To put someone’s nose out of joint
- To rain on someone’s parade
- To muddy the waters
- To be a wet blanket
- To be a party pooper
- To put a spanner in the works
