Don M. Winn's Blog, page 33

Encouragment for Children with Dyslexa. Also Time Travel.

A few months ago I was reading a post by fellow blogger, Fiona, and it caught my attention. Fiona’s post is a letter to children with dyslexia explaining a little bit about what it means to cope with having dyslexia and sharing some of her personal experiences. I thought it was a very kind letter and it touched my heart.

It also got me to thinking.

I too am dyslexic, as I have mentioned before in this blog, and I had a very hard time in school as a child. Not much was known about dyslexia back then, and for me, encouraging words were few and far between.

So I started thinking about time travel. What if I could travel back in time and offer some encouraging words to myself as a child? What would I say to myself? I thought I’d share my musings in case anyone else finds them helpful as well.

Things I would tell my child self:

Just because something may be difficult for you, doesn’t mean that you’re stupid or that you can’t do it.
You can accomplish practically anything that you want to accomplish, no matter how hard it may be at first.
Never give up
Be patient with yourself.
There is more than one way to learn something. Just because other kids do things a certain way doesn’t mean that you have to.
Figure out what way works best for you. It’s okay to learn something in a different way and don’t let anyone to tell you otherwise. There is no wrong way to learn something.
You deserve more credit, rather than less, because you are showing up every day to work extra hard in spite of difficulties with learning.
If you put forth the effort, you will accomplish things in your life that you wouldn’t think possible.
Tell yourself these things over and over again:

I am not stupid.

I can do it.

I will be patient with myself.
As hard as it might be for you to even imagine now, someday you will love reading and writing. You will even write books of your own.
Don’t worry. You’ll get used to the moustache.

Next week I’ll talk a little bit more about dyslexia and some ideas that really helped and inspired me as I got a little older and more used to living with it.

Medieval Trivia and a Recent School Visit

I had a really nice visit with the students at Grandview Hills Elementary this past week. Everyone seemed to enjoy the visit and paid close attention to my presentation called “The Medieval Life of Sir Kaye,” where I talk about a few details of day to day life during the middle ages. So today I thought I’d share a few photos from the visit and some fun facts from the presentation.

The Trivia:

→ Every castle had a great hall where everyone – lords, ladies, guests, and servants – ate together. People ate off of plates called trenchers. Trenchers could be made of metal, wood, or even big slices of stale bread that would soak up the juices of the food. Sometimes after a meal, the used trenchers made of stale bread were given to the poor for them to eat.

→ Beds were very valuable possessions in the middle ages. They were usually owned by the wealthy and were made so they could easily be broken down, moved, and reassembled by their owners. This was helpful for people who owned more than one castle, because as they moved from castle to castle, they could take their bed with them. Beds were often mentioned in people’s wills, and passed down through several generations of a family.

→ Plumbing is if course a delicate but necessary subject. Many times an indoor toilet in a castle was simply a seat above a shaft that led straight down into a pit at ground level. This pit periodically had to be cleaned out, and the poor man who had to do that job was called a gong farmer. I’m not sure why he was called a farmer, but I did learn that the word “gong” comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which also eventually gave us the word “going.”

And on that note, I think it’s time to stop, because that’s enough medieval trivia for today! Here are a few fun, friendly, and fantastic faces from Grandview Hills:

Sir Kaye the Boy Knight (Book 1) The Knighting of Sir Kaye by Don M. Winn

Reblogged from This Kid Reviews Books:

Sir Kaye the Boy Knight (Book 1) The knighting of Sir Kaye

By Don M. Winn

168 Pages – Ages 8+

Published by Cardboard Box Adventures on September 21, 2012

Reggie Stork was angry with his father for sending him to work in the fields as an “unjust” punishment. Reggie got mad and decided to wander off, following a river. Soon he got lost and fell into quicksand.

Read more… 380 more words

Thanks so much, Erik, for your enthusiastic review.


Reading it totally made my day!


I'm so glad you enjoyed the book.

Thanks again,
Don

Free-range Imagination from Blank-slate Toys

Are you thinking about buying toys for any children in your life any time soon? Maybe…maybe not…but here’s something to think about.

One of the best things about kids is their endless capacity for imagination and the joy they get out of it. And it’s truly amazing to watch as they play with the simplest thing (oh, say, for example, an empty cardboard box) and they make it become anything they want.

However, the kinds of toys your kids are playing with can have a profound influence on just how far that wide-open realm of possibility will expand for them as they play. If the majority of their toys are related to their favorite television shows or movies—toys that already have plots and personalities attached to them—a child’s first tendency is simply to re-enact those plots as they play with their toys.

There is nothing wrong with this, of course, and a child’s imagination is certainly not going to be stifled for life if they play in this way. Eventually, they will most likely branch out and change the roles of their character-based toys as they play. With most kids, imagination will always find a way.

But to help kids exercise their free-ranging imaginations, consider making sure they have easy access to blank-slate toys—toys that have no pre-existing stories attached to them. This provides them with a fresh start that gives them no choice but to make up their own stories as they play.

Here’s a few tips from some related articles:

In an article published on WebMD, Uma Thurman speaks about an organization called Room to Grow that helps parents of low-income families to enrich the lives of their children, focusing on the developmental years of birth to age three. In this interview she also mentions the importance of play to facilitate learning and recommends simple toys, such as basic character toys (like animals or family figures), art supplies, and building blocks—toys that encourage imagination and flexible thinking.
An article on NPR.org relates that studies have shown that imaginative play helps kids exercise better self-control in their lives. It cites recommendations from researchers that kids engage in “complex imaginative play” by planning and acting out scenarios, using symbolic props (like using a towel for a cape, etc.)—preferably for extended periods of time to reap maximum benefits. They also encourage reading story-books together.
An article published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children offers the following tip: basic is better when it comes to toys. Try to choose open-ended toys that kids can use in multiple ways.

And one more tip from me, a non-expert:

Take some of these basic, open-ended types of toys and then play with them with your kids. See where your imaginations will take you together. I feel confident that I can guarantee it will be one of the best gifts you ever give them.

Sir Kaye Launch Party Photos

The princess and

the puzzle!

I recently realized that I never posted the photos from the Sir Kaye launch party. Sorry about that! The parties were a lot of fun. We had several families come and bring their children. Some of them came wearing medieval-inspired costumes. We had a shield design contest, and there were puzzles and games, and of course I signed books too. Many thanks to All Things Kids and The Bookspot for hosting the parties.

In the picture below, on the left, you can see everyone hard at work on their shield designs at the table behind the shocked-looking young man. I’m afraid I can’t tell you why he was so shocked. I did look around to see what might have caused it, but I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Maybe he suddenly remembered he had left the bathtub faucet running at home or something like that. The pictures on the right are close-up shots of a few shield designs as people were working on them.

Here are a few pictures of party guests who came in medieval costumes! One of the photos is me with two barefoot and bejewled princesses. The other photo is a guest with a wooden shield she made and designed and painted herself! I wish I had taken a picture of the back of the shield too, because she also included what I just now learned are called enarmes – straps that hold the shield to the forearm as well as one you can hold as a handgrip. And it was heavy too! I was really impressed with all the hard work she put into her shield. Thanks so much for sharing it with everybody!

Like any book launch party, the main reason to have one is to show the world (or at least the party attendees) the new book, so of course I was available to sign the book. Here’s a photo of me doing that. I like this photo better than any I’ve ever seen of me signing a book (and I have to tell you I don’t really like any photos of me, but I put them in the back of my books and on Facebook and stuff, because other people tell me I have to), so I decided to include this one here as a novelty item.

Finally, here are some of the shield contest entries from the guests at the party. It was lots of fun, and I’m really happy, because most of the kids and grownups who have read The Knighting of Sir Kaye have told me that they can’t wait for the next one! So I definitely have lots of work to do for next year.

Elementary! School Visits, That Is

I recently made a visit to each of the four elementary schools in Hutto, TX, where I read a short section from The Knighting of Sir Kaye, and gave an illustrated slide presentation about life in medieval times. I think all the students enjoyed it. I’ve visited most of the Hutto elementary schools before, and it was nice to see the different students again.

I had especially wanted to visit the schools in Hutto, because they use a knight theme to teach qualities such as kindness and honesty and responsibility and friendship…very similar to the medieval ideal of chivalry. Notice the knight and castle theme in the cafeteria at this school:

As I talked about knights in a historical sense, I also included a section on chivalry, and asked the audience how we can show chivalry today. The kids had lots of thoughts on that subject, as you can see from these pictures.

Some students that gave what I thought was an extra-thoughtful answer to one of my questions won special limited edition Sir Kaye posters. Others won mini-posters. Here’s a photo of the poster winners at one school.

This is the title slide of presentation I gave on medieval life. It’s projected on a screen here at the front of the school auditorium. If you like the picture, there’s a similar (but much brighter) one on my website that you can download as a free desktop wallpaper. I had it put up on my website so that any kids who didn’t win a poster but still wanted one could at least have a desktop wallpaper.

And finally, here are some students posing for the camera! Thanks for letting me come visit again! I had a great time.

I’d also like to thank the following businesses for donating a set of hardcover picture books to the four Hutto elementary school libraries: Vitamins, Etc., Beverly K. Straub, C.P.A., Oriental Medicine Associates, and Cardboard Box Adventures. Anyone who might be interested in donating a set of books to a school library or sponsoring a school visit can find more information on the donwinn.com website.

Texas Book Festival Recap

The 2012 Texas Book Festival was held October 27th and 28th this year and featured children’s authors such as Jewel, Tad Hills, Jon Scieska, Jon Klassen, and many others. It was a beautiful brisk weekend in Austin, which was a nice change from the super-hot weather at last year’s festival. Here’s a few shots of the festival:

Looking north on Congress to the Capitol:

Looking south on Congress towards the Frost Bank building:

The children’s area, west of the Capitol (inset photos feature some characters who attended the festival):

And of course, here’s everybody’s favorite CBA author, Don Winn…in the CBA booth before the festival began:

And during the festival:

All in all, it was a great day! We met a lot of new people and made some friends. We even got a few nice compliments on the Sir Kaye book. I met three different families on Saturday who bought the new Sir Kaye book for their kids. The same families stopped by again on Sunday and all the parents mentioned how their kids were really enjoying the story. One of them even said that her son hasn’t put the book down since Saturday! That was such a nice thing to hear, thanks so much for sharing the positive feedback!

 

The Knighting of Sir Kaye is Here!

It’s been a long wait, but I’m really excited to announce that The Knighting of Sir Kaye by Don M. Winn is officially available!

Check out the link above to the new page on this blog where you can get an exclusive sneak peek at the first adventures of Kaye and his best friends Reggie and Beau in the medieval land of Knox.

The book is now available as a hardcover or a paperback from the major online booksellers. The eBooks will be available within the next few weeks.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Cardboard Box Adventures newsletter to enter to win an autographed hardcover book and a $25 Starbucks gift card. The first of four drawings will be held October 20th.

Perspectives on Parenting

Sorry to be absent for so long, but I’m back now with good news—The Knighting of Sir Kaye is ready to be printed and the official release date is October 20th. And now that I’ve had a moment to catch up with things, I thought I’d share something I found interesting.

I recently read an article published earlier this year on the MindShift website. It was entitled “If School is not Relevant” and it posed some interesting questions about the effectiveness of schools in teaching children to succeed.

Two of those questions caught my attention, and I’ve adapted them (freely) to apply to parents, because after all, the family is a child’s first school. Here they are:

What if parents gauged themselves, not by how well their kids are provided for financially, but in how well prepared they are to take on the challenges of life?

What if our kids can point to the time we spent with them as the reason

for their success?

When children are young, one of the best ways parents can spend time with them is reading aloud and talking about what has been read. Here are two ways to enrich your conversations with your children about books you’ve read together:

Ask questions about what happened in the story: Asking children questions about what they’ve read teaches them how to reason and helps them develop common sense and logic, all valuable tools for taking on the challenges of life. It helps them learn to put thoughts and feelings into words.

Ask questions about what didn’t happen in the story: Questions about details that are not specifically mentioned in a story teach children to use their imaginations to project their ideas beyond what is known and to draw conclusions that make sense based on the details they already know. This can help them become creative problem-solvers as they develop their intuition and their ability to make logical inferences—another great way to help children prepare for the challenges of life.

Sir Kaye Sneak Peeks Continued…

I am still in the throes of revising my manuscript, so I’ll be brief again today. I do have a few illustrations I’ve gotten back from my illustrator, Dave Allred, who’s been working away day and night. Here’s one just to whet your appetite for Kaye’s adventures in Knox. Enjoy!

Kaye and Reggie spy on the Bungler Gang as they lose their dinner in the middle of a slight disagreement about forest fashions.