Verona Strauss.comjust because life is fun! …

Well this is great. I can get to share one of my favourite books!

Verona adores reading, but she still loves being told stories and being read to at night. I’ve recently begun reading “Hope and the magic Martian” by Helen Moore to her and we’re thoroughly enjoying it!

So many children’s books leave me cold. The messages are neither empowering or positive. More and more books seem to teach children how to develop an attitude to get what they want. Also we have an ‘issue’ with Verona being worried about being left anywhere on her own after reading a Jacqueline Wilson book.

Jacqueline Wilson seems to be adored by many and the critics love her, but here is one mother who doesn’t. Yes she talks about issues which some children face, but for every child who faces that issue there are millions more that don’t.

In Verona’s case, reading about something that has never affected her has created a fear about something that could happen in the future. Now she is crying at night time and doesn’t want me to leave her anywhere on her own.

One could argue that the book has done a good thing, it has uncovered something that might have developed anyway, but perhaps that isn’t the case and it has simply set up a fear that Verona never needed to deal with. We’ll never know, but in the meantime we’re giving her a lot of care and gentle guidance to try and allay these fears.

Anyway, back to the book! Hope is a little girl who makes a Birthday wish to meet an alien. She receives a telescope for her Birthday and gazes up at Mars.

Meanwhile on Mars, Martin Love is using his Dad’s telescope to look at planet earth and his Dad tells him that Mars was once a planet with enough food and water for everyone; but the martians got greedy, wasted the water, abused their planet and ended up killing virtually all life. Does that ring any bells?

We’ve only got to chapter two, but it would appear that Martin Love is concerned about the state of planet earth (he can see through his telescope that the polar caps are melting) and he believes he can do something about it.

I guess Hope and Martin are about to become friends and help save planet earth from becoming a dry, dusty planet that can no longer support human life…

From what I have read, and I promise I haven’t skimmed through by myself! this is an uplifting and positive story about the power of faith and the human ability to adapt and change for positive benefit. It’s about making changes one small step at a time and gathering together community spirit to bring about change.

It’s so refreshing to find a children’s book for older children which carries a positive and meaningful message. If you have any other suggestions for us, I would be grateful! We had loads of lovely books when Verona was younger, but I’m struggling to find much for children of her age.

Time for a cuddle with Baggy the cat at the farm

Verona has had another couple of busy days. Yesterday she went to Playrangers and the highlight of her day was meeting up with an old school friend!

She hadn’t seen this girl since she left school, two years ago, but the girl had moved to a new house, just across the field from where playrangers takes place.

They caught up with one another and will both be going again next week.

While she was there, Verona taught people how to finger knit. I’ve found a method for finger knitting on all fingers at once. Apparently you can make a kind of scarf in this way. On the next rainy day we’ll have a go and see how creative we can be. Maybe we’ll just end up in a big tangle together!

Today, Verona went to Poppy’s farm for the afternoon. When we went to pick her up, Verona was walking a goat on a lead! She had fed the rabbits, but I didn’t hear much about anything else because the goat walk, collecting plums and lying in the sunshine had taken up most of the afternoon. It sounds idyllic to me!

Today Verona was very pleased with herself because she finished one of her maths workbooks. For the past two days she has been working really hard to get it finished, but she had left the hardest pages to last, so it was a bit of an uphill struggle.

I am so proud of her because I know maths is difficult for her right now, but every day her confidence grows a little bit and we keep giving her positive messages about how it’s getting easier for her. I have a feeling she is on the brink of something clicking into place or having one of those ‘Aha!’ moments. I can feel her just grasping it but then it eluding her again.

It’s a bit like watching her with a wobbly tooth; it’s almost there, but not quite …

Verona is still on blog strike, I thought it would be good to keep a ‘diary’ of our day today. it’s interesting to see what other people get up to in the course of one day!

To begin with Verona did one of her household jobs. Her first is to tidy her bedroom and bring down any washing to put into the machine.

After breakfast (an apple, banana, nectarine and a decadent topping of grated chocolate, honey and cream no less!) she spent some time sorting her babies; first into height order and then into age order.

Breakfast made even more yummy with the addition of chocolate, cream and honey!

Read the rest of this entry »