Leonie Dawson's Blog, page 32

Diary: Operation Reclaim My Office

Babes,

I’m feeling a bit pissy today. Do you mind if I process with you and form a plan?

Kids are back at school. I’m trying to start the new term productively and get started on my quarterly goals.

I decided to move back into working in my office instead of the couch. The couch was notttt doing my back any favours! And then as soon as I decided to do that, I remembered why I am not working in there.

Here’s why:

My office is an addition on the back of our garage. It’s not attached to our house properly, and was probably a DIY build. It’s been plagued with leaks and flooding, two of which damaged a bunch of my artworks and sketchbooks, all of which needed to be thrown. 

And it really upset me. I tried to joke about it at the time that it was a good way to declutter, but I felt betrayed by my studio. The place that’s supposed to be the safe space for my business and creativity to flourish! It felt unsteady, and it made me sad. And I retreated into the house and to the couch to create on instead, much to the chagrin of my back, and the part of me that wildly craves solitude and a room of one’s own.

We ended up working out where the leaks and floodings were coming in, and did some emergency repairs to stop it. It wasn’t fully fixed however – we need to work out how to rebuild a small corner of the wall that’s been eaten away by racing water. And then I just found another leak today. And it opened up all those feelings again of why I’m not using my office.

To complicate things – I’ve also long wanted to update the flooring in the studio. Currently it’s a fairly tacky checkerboard tile with a lot of paint stains. But… there’s no use updating the flooring when I still don’t feel confident in it not flooding anymore!

Then a part of me thinks: well, I could at least buy a new rug to cover up the godawful tiles. I had two, but they were ruined in the flooding as well. But of course: there’s no point in buying new rugs until I can ensure I’ve absolutely and thoroughly fixed the flooding problem.

I think what needs to happen is see if a handyman can leak-proof the office by properly repairing the damaged wall corner and remove the sink (which backs up in heavy rain and I’m pretty sure sends gutter water INTO my office instead of out, the motherfucker!)

Once the office is leak-proof, I can:

Get new flooring installed (or get handyman to install!)Get new rugRest easy knowing I’m not going to get flooding in my business base!

And if the handyman ends up being rad to work with, he could possibly fix up some other office things like:

Patch the ceiling where the old fluro lights were taken outFinish painting and patching all trimsRemoving the old airconditioner and either replace with a small window or just patch it back into wall again.

Righto. 

Thanks for letting me bitch and moan and form a plan!

Onwards, with love,

FREE GOODIES:

[image error]  Daily-ish writings
[image error]  Weekly love letters
[image error]  Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
[image error]  A library of free treasures

COURSES:

[image error]   Sales Star
.  Marketing Without Social Media
[image error]   Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
[image error]   40 Days To A Finished Book
[image error]   40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

 

The post Diary: Operation Reclaim My Office appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

My Goals For Next 3 Months

Dearests,

Last week was chock-a-block with end of school holiday revelry. We filled it with all the holiday things we wanted to do, but were too busy hanging out at home for the first two weeks.

Want to listen to this as a podcast? Sure!

Click play above, or or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

Behold! Here’s what I’ve been doing in the last week!We had a picnic at the river with friendsmy biggest kid had her first ever solo playdate at a friend’s houseI took the kids & their friend to a horsemanship workshopwe did the 4 hour return trip to visit my in-lawsI went to the osteopath twice! Because who do I love? My osteopath! Why? Because she makes the body boo-boos go away! When do I see her again? In two days! Why so often? I dislocate with a sneeze! Who’s writing this while wearing a heat pack for a newly displaced hip? MEEEEE. I should make this into a song for the next time I see her. I feel she would enjoy that.I did a couple of group coaching calls – one for all my course students, the other just for my Marketing Without Social Media students.me & my big kid recipe tested to find a new snack for school lunches.I also made some ridiculously good feasts for the family including a poached pear cheesecake which was just BEYOND. WHO EVEN AM I ANYMORE.

All in all, I felt like mother of the year for pulling off all that stuff off.

And now the holidays have gently folded into the land of memories, and a brand new term stands before us. 10 weeks to try and move some big goals over the next 3 months.

Here’s my next 3 months of goals:

Kids & Family:

We’ll be maintaining our reading intensiveAs an addendum to that, we’ll be going to a cat cafe to celebrate 5 straight weeks of daily reading. WHAT A REWARD! WOO!Make good progress on X issueHave a weekly play-based tutorMy kids are joining the school Writer’s ClubI need to work out how we’ll support an extracurricular activity on Friday afternoons.We’ll take a long weekend holiday in September to stay in a cute cottage near my in-laws.

My Health & Self Care:

I’ll start weekly private pilates sessions at a reformer studioI’ll go back to the naturopath to find out test results and her recommendationsI need to do some journaling and work out my own plan forwardI need some more facials. I need to find a great facial place around here!Continue weekly solo mama retreats & evenings to myself & as much blissful solitude as possible to refill my well!

House:

Get destructive fig trees removed before wet season hits in SeptemberGet our pandanus trees prunedGurney our front paversGet a skip bin to get rid of the flooded trash from my officeGet a charity shop in to take excess furnitureContinue decluttering & organisingContinue painting & decoratingFinish trim & doors in bedroom & ensuite

Business & Finances:

Bring out a new programPossibly retire old programsDo 10 interviews on other people’s podcastsSet up new investing structure & move cash into ethical managed fundsContinue doing monthly money goal reportingWhatever wild idea I come up with nextMaybe come up with a quarterly or yearly plan with parameters & KPIs? That could be exciting for a change! Either way, get shit together for my next financial year goal which I’m calling…“Golden Year 2.0”Goal is $375,000 for the quarter.In terms of priorities, my kids are my biggest focus currently.

There’s a few new learning habits we’re instilling & things we’re working on, and it takes quite a bit of focus to keep it going. My kids are bloody wonderful humans – funny, sweet, creative and kind. They are delightful humans! We just need to help them with things that need developing so they can keep on soaring.

Everything else is very secondary to that priority, honestly.

I’ve probably written the areas in order of priority, come to think of it. Kids first, then my health, then the house, then the business.

That doesn’t mean I don’t love and adore my business. It’s just at a joyful point where it doesn’t require huge amounts from me. It feels more like a happy hobby than anything else. I still pinch myself: the fact I get to just… make whatever I want? Talk about what interests me? Pen love letters to the world? Connect with rad humans? And get PAID for it? What a freaking dream come TRUE!

Righto… time to go fill my well for the evening.

Whatever you’re planning… I hope it is glorious & just perfect for you.

Big love,

P.S. Did you know the difference between flotsam & jetsam? Nor did I, but I’m glad I researched it tonight.

The post My Goals For Next 3 Months appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

June 2021 Review

Blossoms,

Last month I did a monthly review. I fucking loved writing it – and you seemed to love it. So it’s officially becoming a tradition!

I’ll cover:

life blessings & challengeswhat I’ve createdphilanthropy thoughtswhat worked in my businesswhat didn’t workhow much my business earnedWant to listen to this as a podcast episode?

Sure! Hook in below!

Click play above, or or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

Now… Let’s start with personal stuff… because that’s what really matters!

Sick Kidliwink

I felt like I was in a different world for much of June. The world of parenting a sick kid. It wasn’t the usual run-of-the-mill cold either… my eldest kid was really unwell. She was hospitalised overnight with suspected appendicitis, had a bunch of tests, x-rays and scans and ended up with a combination of diagnoses including mesenteric adenitis (enlarged lymph nodes in her stomach).

The poor love was so unwell with pain and nausea. It’s been hard to see my kid feeling so unwell, and it was hard enduring the uncertainty of not knowing what it was. It’s now been over 5 weeks since it began, and she’s really only returned to full wellness in the last week or so. It’s such a huge relief.

Portrait of me by my big kid. It’s just so hilarious & brilliant & accurate!

Broken Toe + Volunteering = NOPE

Just as my kid got sick, I managed to stub my small toe so significantly it fractured. I remember when it happened: the noise of bones snapping was SO loud. I knew immediately it couldn’t be good. My foot swelled and turned black and blue.

And then, because I am a straight up overenthusiastic EEDJIT, I volunteered to supervise a class of 5-8 year olds on a class trip… which meant spending hours racing around a museum, hobbling on one side with a newly fractured toe… which of course then put my back and hips out of place. Could I walk the next day? No. Could I walk the day after? Also no. Thank goodness for my osteopath. They are essential for people with hypermobility conditions.

Anyways, I’m still glad I volunteered on that trip. I got to see my cute kid and all her adorable friends marvelling over exhibits. I got a dose of the city in me. Which reminds me: I wrote something GREAT on that trip. I’ll need to edit & share with you.

DIY + Creative ProjectsI fucking NAILED cooking, including making some spelt cinnamon & berry scrolls. Remember 9 years ago when I made a joke ebook called “How To Be A Domestic Goddess“? And it was a joke because it was mostly empty, which summed up my domestic knowledge at that point. And now I actually COOK and BAKE and shit! Fuck me, I’m the complete package! HA!I also got obsessed with interior designI wallpapered a half wall & got a new art cupboard!Made a drop zone for school bagsDid a reno of my eldest kid’s desk & made a desk hutch for it as well!Restained my office doorDrew covers of books I’ve readOther Lovely PartsI’m always happy whenever I get to see my kids with horses.I started a new 21 day challenge – a reading intensive with my kids.Fulfilled my lifetime dream of working in a bookstoreHad lunch at the Imperial Hotel in Eumundi – it was deeelicious. I love that kooky place!My littlest kid was in an end-of-term play and dance recitalGot recognised while eating crumbs from my crutch… #onbrandRetired my old journal & started a new oneWork

I did two major promotional activities in June… usually I don’t do more than one every 2 months or so, but I wanted to test out doing two smaller launches.

Bundle Contributor

I did a bundle sale through a bundle company for the first time. It was interesting to see behind the scenes in being a contributor. We earned over $2,000 in affiliate fees for it, but didn’t go super hard with promoting. If I’d promoted harder, it probably would have made at least $10,000.

Ultimately, I decided it probably wasn’t useful for me as a revenue creator for me. I think launches need to be worth about $100k to be worthwhile for me. That’s what I usually generate from my own launches, so there’s an opportunity cost if I’m not going to earn that.

It might be useful however as a marketing endeavour however – just to bring new people into my audience.  I’m totally an acquired taste though – my exuberance/swearing/lefty politics. So we’ll see if we score any long term readers/students out of it.

It’s all a fun experiment!

Marketing Without Social Media Launch

In June I also did a 2 week launch for my new program Marketing Without Social Media.

It ended up being one of the biggest sellers out of all my course launches.

I sold 1126 enrolments – about 60% were at the early bird price of US$79, and the rest at US$99. All up, it netted about $125,000 in sales which is awesome!

Other Business Income

In June we also brought in another $25,000 from other courses, affiliate commissions (from when I’ve promoted software programs) and other income streams.

So that’s about $150,000 in a month! Hooray!

We haven’t finalised accounting figures yet – I suspect it will be even more.

How I Marketed

Where the sales come from:

the vast majority were, as always, people on my mailing list. It’s why I’ve ALWAYS taught to focus on building a mailing list over social media – you will earn SO much more money from them! Plus you OWN your access to them! If you need to learn how to write emails that sell $$$$, this course of mine is for you.about $30,000 of sales came from my affiliate program which pays you 50% for every enrolment you refer. I love sending this money out… it’s giving money to people who love my work & share about it with others. I’d much rather pay them than Facebook ads! Fuck that nonsense!used TrustPulse popup to provide social proof of other purchasesused OptinMonster to create countdowns & popups on my website

Where the sales did NOT come from:

social media (because I don’t do it anymore). If you want to learn how to market without social media, this other course of mine will be hugely helpful!paid ads on Facebook, Instagram etc (I’ve previously spent a lot of money on them, and I just don’t love them. I much prefer organic traffic, building a mailing list and having word of mouth referrals.)Blog posts I createdBiz Success: How To Work Out Your Ideal ClientBiz Success: How To Online Network & MastermindA Scrapbook of InspirationI also recorded a bunch of podcast episodes(plus a crap tonne more blog posts I’ve already linked above!)InterviewsRooted Reinvention podcastA Summit On Limiting BeliefsArt Medicine VoyagePhilanthropy

Last month I talked about trying to decide on my philanthropy approach this year. How last year I donated $25,000 to one charity which is a direct action approach to the climate crisis by buying & managing land for wildlife. And how this year I felt like I needed to change that approach to include climate crisis advocacy work as well.

I finally came up with an approach that felt good to me – to donate $10,000 to direct action climate crisis agencies (likely Australian Wildlife Conservancy and Bush Heritage Australia), another $10,000 to climate crisis advocacy (Friends of the Earth and Australian Conservation Foundation), and then have another pool of $5,000-$10,000 to be able to grant to a variety of charities.

With that decided, I made $13,000 in donations in June:

$5,000 to Friends of the Earth$5,000 to Australian Conservation Foundation$1,000 to Minus18.org.au$1,000 to OzHarvest – that will provide 4,000 meals to families in Australia struggling with food instability.$1,000 to Doctors Without Borders.

I’m glad I’ve got a framework for it for future donating!

What I Watched & Read:

My favourites in June were:

Hannah Gadsby’s DouglasBo Burnham’s InsideSusan Branch‘s 3 memoirsManabeshima Island Japan: an illustrated travelogueInspired You: Breathing New Life Into Your Heart & Home by Marian Parsons (it’s pretty Christian-targeted, but otherwise a good read on interior decorating)Goals for July?

This month’s focus is:

getting kids settled back into school & their 3 x new extra-curricularscontinuing our reading intensivefinish reading Famous Five novel to kidson the work front… it’s more about circling back around after another big launch, catching up on daily blogging & seeing what wants to be created next!

Big love,​

​​​​​​

FREE GOODIES:

[image error]  Daily-ish writings
[image error]  Weekly love letters
[image error]  Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
[image error]  A library of free treasures

COURSES:

[image error]   Sales Star
.  Marketing Without Social Media
[image error]   Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
[image error]   40 Days To A Finished Book
[image error]   40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

 

The post June 2021 Review appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

Podcast: Entrepreneur In Car Talks More Shit

Possum blossoms,

You know the drill! Grab a cuppa, pick the comfiest spot on the couch and plug in your headphones.

Let’s go through the cast list:

Entrepreneur: MeTalking Shit: Also meThe car: My car

An Oscar-worthy cast right here, all for you.

Ha! Enjoy!

Explicit AF

Just to reiterate: this is one sweary motherfucker of a podcast. So if you listen to it around kids… they will defo learn some new vocabulary from Aunty Leonie. MWHAHAHAHA. ENJOYYYYY!

How to listen

Listen below, or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

Want to find all of my podcast episodes?

Just pop over here treasure!

You can also just sit on your couch and yell “OK Google! Play me “Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised” podcast!” and your digital servant shall administer to your needs.

Who gives a fuck about privacy when you can have a little robot assistant at your beck and call so you may never leave the couch again.
HONESTLY HOW GOOD IS LIFE.
THE END.

Big hugs,

The post Podcast: Entrepreneur In Car Talks More Shit appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

Reading Intensive Challenge Update!

Dearests,

This just filled my heart with joy today.

Just the image of those two tweens out there in the paddock reading a book together.

Excuse me while my heart squeeeeees.

Also, for those playing along at home…

The tweens bought matching copies of:
Dog Man #10: Mothering HeightsAlice-Miranda in Egypt

My 7 year old bought:

Pig The Monster​Meet Ella (a beginner reader version of Ella & Olivia)

Honestly, I’m freaking THRILLED with how this challenge is going. It’s creating some great habits & inspiration for all of us!

Big love,​

​​​​​​

FREE GOODIES:

[image error]  Daily-ish writings
[image error]  Weekly love letters
[image error]  Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
[image error]  A library of free treasures

COURSES:

[image error]   Sales Star
.  Marketing Without Social Media
[image error]   Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
[image error]   40 Days To A Finished Book
[image error]   40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

 

 

The post Reading Intensive Challenge Update! appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

Diary: The Susan Branch Obsession Continues

Dearests,

A few months ago I internet fell upon Susan Branch – a 74 year old author & illustrator who has been creating since the 1980s (when I was born) and has gathered the most beautifully connected, loyal group of readers she calls “Girlfriends”.

When I excitedly told Chris about her, my eldest kid heard me and said:

“So… you when you are older?”

Basically.

I went onto order a few of her books, and have been working my way through her three illustrated memoirs. I’m now reading her last one – “A Fine Romance: Falling In Love With The English Countryside.” It’s one of those series and books that is just so wonderful that I want to both eat it whole, but then I am rationing it out… because there are no more books in this series (yet) and WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT A SUSAN BRANCH ILLUSTRATED MEMOIR IN MY TO DO PILE?

I think Susan Branch gives me inspiration for a retirement plan. Make handwritten, hand illustrated books with photographs? Go on adventures & slow document them?

YES.

Her third book about England is also giving me major cravings to visit the Mother Country. My family has been in Australia for six generations, mostly in the one small town. my heritage is English & Danish, but most of all Small Town Inbred. Just so you know what we’re working with here. Ha!

When I was younger I craved experiencing vastly different cultures. I was an exchange student to Malaysia for a few months, Chris & I travelled around India for a month, and we spent a week in Singapore too. I reckon it’s a sign of middle age that I want to go visit where my ancestors came from.

I also want to acknowledge here that England is a problematic colonising nation. I think about Nora Krug’s illustrated memoir Belonging: A German Reckons With History & Home… where she works through her ancestral heritage during the Nazi era.

Anyways: Susan Branch. Wildly prolific. The handwriting. The details. The deliciousness. The inspiration. Also, babes, can you please write your next memoir already?

She’s kind of SARK meets Martha Stewart!

Anyone else know of any other illustrated memoirs/travelogues about England… or anywhere really? It seems like a super niche market! Tuttle Publishing has kind of cornered the market for illustrated memoirs for Asia, especially Japan. They have some phenomenal reads! This one was the most visually stunning I’ve ever read… I could just read Florent Chavouet books of him travelling around the world.

Maybe illustrated travelogues are my new niche book obsession! Watch this space!

Love, 

FREE GOODIES:

[image error]  Daily-ish writings
[image error]  Weekly love letters
[image error]  Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
[image error]  A library of free treasures

COURSES:

[image error]   Sales Star
[image error]   Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
[image error]   40 Days To A Finished Book
[image error]   40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

 

 

The post Diary: The Susan Branch Obsession Continues appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

An Open Letter To CEO Magazine

A video in which Leonie gets ranty…

To the CEO & Editor of The CEO Magazine,

I’m writing in to offer feedback on your International Women’s Day Issue.I picked up your magazine for the first time on this issue, thinking it would be an excellent showcase of women leaders.Imagine my surprise when after the feature about women leaders… it was interview after interview of older white male CEOs. The lack of diversity was shocking and felt deeply offensive.Where are the interviews of CEOs who are women? Where are the interviews of BIPOC leaders? Where are the diverse leader interviews? Your magazine currently does not reflect me, or my CEO associates.Please advise on your editorial diversity statistics and initiatives.Your magazine is clearly an important resource for the CEO community, but is not living up to its potential of empowering all leaders.Best wishes,Leonie Dawson

The post An Open Letter To CEO Magazine appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

Reading Challenge: Notes From “Raising Readers”

Lovebeams,

After sharing about my new kids reading intensive, one lovely reader wrote in to recommend Megan Daley’s website Children’s Book Daily and her book Raising Readers.

I thoroughly binged on her website, these resources were especially helpful:

Top 20 Kids Books ListsWhat To Read Nexther blog is a treasure trove of all things kid lit!

So I then binge-read her book Raising Readers over the weekend.

Here are my notes:“Flashcards or early online reading programs won’t instil this joy in your little one, but gorgeous books will.”“Cuddle up with your child. Reading is the perfect time for physical bonding.”“Reading books is still the single most important activity you can do with your child in developing their literacy.”“Follow the text with your finger so your child can see the way words flow from left to right. Be prepared to re-read favourite books over and over again.”“A child’s love of books begins with loved adults taking the time out from a busy schedule to read with them. It’s a wonderful bonding exercise. Cuddling up and reading with a child allows them to form powerful associations between books and moments of happiness, love and closeness.”“But life can be stressful and it can be difficult to keep reading at the top of the priority list when there are work crises to deal with, children to wrangle, bills to pay, and so on. Every family has their own set of challenging circumstances. Making reading part of the daily routine helps to ensure that it happens because it becomes automatic, like brushing your teeth or turning on the dishwasher. But it also means that you’re consistently carving out moments for yourself to relax and relish dedicated time with your child.”“Sometimes, when I am exhausted by solo parenting or when the end of school term is nigh and I’m surrounded by small cranky people, it is so tempting to skip the bedtime books. But when I reflect on the benefits of a bedtime reading routine in my own life, it’s clear to me why I make the effort nearly every night to do it.”“We take it in turns, myself included, and we switch it up. Some weeks we will read picture books. Then we might spend a week on puzzle books and then we might have two weeks of reading a longer chapter book.”“Incidental reading is all about snatching pockets of time in a busy day to quickly escape into a book with your child. It could be while you’re waiting for the bath to fill or while you’re killing time before a doctor’s appointment. The key to incidental reading is to surround yourself with books so that they can be easily and regularly dipped into.”“Place collections of books in baskets or boxes throughout your home, chuck a few board books in the nappy bag, and stash a few in the car.”“Keep the structures in place, the modelled reading at a high level and the books strewn on every available surface, ready and waiting.”“Learning to read and becoming an independent reader is a process of incremental skill building.”“The first few years of primary school can seem to be a never-ending slog through sight words and frantic morning searches for those flimsy little school readers that teachers hand out daily with the reverence of a first edition Harry Potter.”“Books that your child has chosen from the library are for sharing with a loved adult and are usually a read-aloud experience until your child is reading independently. Even then, reading aloud is something which I encourage well into the upper primary years and beyond.”“I believe that every child should always have picture books on the go.”“Do the hard yards as soon as possible. Your child will reap the rewards later on.”“I personally have learnt more about Australian history through reading Jackie French’s novels, than I did in all my years of history lessons at school.”It was definitely a useful read!

In some ways it helped build a framework in my head of how people learn to read, and the culture and conditions I need to create to help it get there.

It’s late, and my eldest has just fallen asleep after reading a book for hours on end.

Whatever I’m doing, it seems to be working. Just a bit of extra energy is creating momentum!

Onwards!

The post Reading Challenge: Notes From “Raising Readers” appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

Reading Intensive Challenge: Log #1

Loves,

You can read my post detailing my new challenge here!

I’ve been putting off writing this log – I started thinking it needed to be super detailed and brilliant, for some reason.

Perfectionism. Gross. No thanks!

So don’t mind me while I just write my shitty first draft.

Daily Habits:20 mins+ of Reading Time – listening to my youngest read while my eldest reads by herself20 mins+ of Me Reading To ThemA lesson from Reading Eggs/Reading Eggspress.

These have been working well. I’ve been making a non-negotiable. If I don’t, they’ll never get done.

I’ve noticed that by putting more of a focus on reading time, it ends up having a cascade effect. They start reading, get obsessed and keep reading. My eldest kid ended up finishing 8 chapter books this week (!!!!)

Other thoughts:I read “Raising Readers” by Megan Daley – a teacher librarian here in Australia. She also has an excellent blog here. I have a bunch of notes from this. It helped build a useful framework in my head of how to approach reading.In “Raising Readers”, Megan talks about her shared readaloud books she reads to her daughters, and how they each got to take it in turns to choose the next read, including her. I thought this was a great idea… I can’t wait to get to choose a read as well!I have already ordered the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton for my next shared readaloud choice… it was one of my favourites when I was a kid.Me & my kids absolutely LOVED Lauren Child’s illustrated version of Pippi Longstocking. So we were thrilled when we chanced upon the Lauren Child illustrated version of Mary Poppins this morning. That’s totally going in our book basket for what we are reading next as well!I also uncovered 101 Kids’ Books To Read Before You Grow Up. We were going through it quite fastidiously when we were homeschooling and quite loved the recommendations. Now the girls are a bit older we’ll be able to read some of the older books too!A wee while ago I went on a stalk through AbeBooks.com to find out of print Jennie Maizels pop up books. She does these amazingly illustrated & handwritten pop up books on non fiction topics like grammar, punctuation, science and music. They are fawned over more than any other books in this house.We’ve just been popped back into a 3 day lockdown to contain a Covid outbreak. Or as I like to reframe it: a 3 day reading staycation!Hooray!

Did it! I wrote the first log! Onwards!

BIG LOVE,

 

Love the sound of your reading challenge! Couple of tips from me with my special ed library teacher hat on as well as mum to an autistic teenager –Megan Daley from Children’s Books Daily has an awesome book and blog –https://childrensbooksdaily.com/raising-readers/Let them enjoy whatever floats their boat. It may not be the award winning children’s books. It may be very niched crime manga (in the case of my son) or completely silly and rude and not pompous grown up approved. I started a whole section in my school library called Toilet Humour – everything about wee, poo, farts, bums, underwear etc. It horrified a few people but it got loads of reluctant readers hooked on a new book every week. And they love seeing adults being silly reading them too.

Hello Leonie (and your fabulous assistant who’s of course reading this) … reading for kids? Reading with my kids every night was a huge plus and just the nicest way to end a day. Then, walking with kids in tow past a bookshop regularly (which would end up costing at least a hundred bucks back in the day, but the smell of those new books was unbeatable). And the library. Of course, the library. Every couple of weeks we’d all lug our stash back and swap it for a new one … there was an obligatory making of chocolate chip cookies upon our return so that we had snacks to gobble up at the same time we gobbled up the new titles.

Now my kids are all grown up they still go weak at the knees with excitement at the sight of a good book.JoI don’t have kids, but one thing that helped get me reading g as a kid was my dad subscribed to two kids magazines BUT IN MY NAME.I was getting mail, like an adult, and every time I picked up those magazines, I was reminded ded that mail was being addressed to me like an adult. Fucking brilliant manipulation. Now I’m a reader and author thanks to that early prompting that made reading so empowering.All the best,ChristopherChristopher J WesleyUsing art to inspire you to reframe negative life experiences into narratives that serve you.https://www.christopherjwesley.comHelpful websites & blogs:Children’s Books Daily

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Diary: More Before & Afters!

Treasures,

Am nailing (PUNNY!) these DIY projects of late! BEHOLD!

More things of note:

Australia after being mostly free from COVID over the past year is having a small outbreak currently (130ish people). I do feel a little bit tense until it gets back under control. Vaccines aren’t widely available here in Australia yet – only to some parts of the population. And that totally makes sense of course – other countries actually NEED the vaccines, and we’ve been able to largely eradicate through a variety of restrictions including short lockdowns and quarantining international travellers. Anyways, I just wanted to acknowledge that my chest feels a bit tight while we wait to see how this outbreak spreads or is contained.I spent the weekend swimming around in Susan Branch’s “Martha’s Vineyard” illustrated memoir. Ooof it is DELICIOUS, and makes me: A) want to bake and do lovely homemade things B) do more art C) live on a small island that has four seasons just like that too!I’m in creative cave finalising Marketing Without Social Media which starts in a few days. All I can think about is COURSE! And COVID!I haven’t done any challenge logs for my latest challenge. I might have to do a shit one just to get started.

That’s all!

Big love,

 

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