P.B. Cannon's Blog, page 19

Curing Boredom in Children

I’ve noticed a lot of young people and children complain of being bored a good deal of the time.  I was puzzled as to why this would be.  As near as I can recall, I’ve never been bored.  I finally decided that it must not take that much to entertain me.

I love to read, so I’ve always kept a book at hand to read when I have the time.  If I don’t want to read, then I’ll write as I enjoy doing that just as much as I like reading.  If I don’t want to do either of those, I’ll draw and paint (or some other form of coloring: sometimes I’ll use crayons) since that is another thing I get a great deal of enjoyment from.  I’m not a great artist or anything like that, indeed, I’ve never been schooled in it – unless you count the two drawing classes I took at the community college for the humanities portion of the electronics curriculum I was in at the time (took the drawing lessons because that was something I’d always done anyway).  Or I’ll go for a walk (weather permitting).  If there is absolutely nothing else I want to do at the time, nothing I want to watch on TV, no old movie I want to see, then I’ll just sit and think.  I reckon you’d call that daydreaming.

Anyway, I know exactly how to keep kids from being bored.  This is a time to get all that stuff done that you haven’t had time to get to and  entertain your kids at the same time, such as getting help with straightening the garage or basement.  There are lots of entertaining things to do around a house that kids can do.  I had a lot in my repertoire when I was raising my kids.  Herewith are a few tips for keeping your children entertained when they come whining and complaining there is nothing to do:

1. If they are over the age of eight, hand the kid a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels and direct them to the inside windows of the house.  Don’t worry about them being too little to do this, or about them doing a good job.  Give them a step stool and a squeegee and believe me, they will do a good job.  Maybe not the first time they go over the windows, but even the most inept of them will finally get it done right by, say, the fourth time over.  Then, send them to get the bathroom mirrors.

2. If they’re over twelve, get a bottle of window wash that can be connected to a hose and send them out doors to clean the outside of the windows when they’ve finished with the insides.  Explain to them that they have to cover the bushes or flowers first.  Of course, you should only send them out for this during nice or warm weather as you’ll want to avoid icy windows – or kids.

3. Have them clean up the mess they made while doing the windows.

 4. If they are under the age of eight, get them to take old newspapers and magazines that you’ve been meaning to put in the recycle bin but haven’t gotten around to yet, out to the bin, and have them empty every waste can in the house and place plastic bags in them.  If you don’t have enough waste cans, go buy some.

 5. Then, have them pick up the stuff they dropped or spilled while carrying it to the recycle bin or emptying the cans.

6. This is a great opportunity to get the walls cleaned of fingerprints and spots. Don’t forget the doors and the knobs. Even really small kids, down to the age of four I found, can clean off spots and dirty doors especially if you give them one of those Mr. Clean Eraser sponges to work with.

 7. Have them clean up the mess from cleaning up the walls and doors.

8. This is also a good time to get the vacuuming done. Don’t be concerned if it’s not done the way you would do it. The point is, you’re not having to do it because your bored kid is doing it instead.

9. Have the kid empty the cleaner and put it away.

10. If you have a garden, either flower or vegetable, send them out to pull weeds. Of course, you should point out to them first, exactly which are the weeds. You may want to supervise this activity closely from your lawn chair with the sunshade while sipping on your favorite iced beverage, just in case.  Don’t forget leaf raking in the fall. (side note: my oldest daughter swears that my mother, who babysat her and her sister and brother after my divorce whilst I worked my two, sometimes three jobs, planted weeds just to keep them busy.  Hmm.  She could be right.  I remember pulling a lot of weeds when I was a child.)

After such entertaining sessions, you may find your kids are never bored again, and they will protest they aren’t bored when you’re trying to get them to perform such duties at a later time. In these cases, simply explain to them that you are helping them continue to not be bored by enabling them to retain whatever devices of entertainment you have provided for them, such as toys, laptops, cell ‘phones, games, etc., by performing these  really entertaining functions you have laid out for them.  They’ll understand when it’s properly explained.

I must say, my children, who are grown now, one with children and grandchildren of his own, are never bored.  They got over that early on.  Neither were my grandchildren when they came to visit me.  And, as soon as my great-grandchildren get older, they won’t be bored when they come visit Granny either.

If nothing else, I got weeds.

Use coupon SW100 to get all my books free at Smashwords starting today!

(No coupon needed for “Seed”! It is always free!)

Reblogged from A Passion For Writing:

I want to pass on a warning to young writers in the horror genre (and perhaps to readers, too). There is an editor and owner of several small presses — Tony Giangregorio — who has a long-standing reputation in the industry for not just editing but rewriting his authors’ fiction and then refusing to return or sell back the rights. He received a lot of bad press in May 2012 when he published an anthology having completely rewritten several stories submitted to it (one of them by noted horror writer Jonathan Maberry), but he is now back, publishing some mangled fiction under his Open Casket Press.

Read more… 1,042 more words

Boucher’s World: Transformations – coming out on June 6th!.

Boucher’s World: Transformation, the second book in the Boucher’s World trilogy is now at  Smashwords and Amazon as an e-book.

FREE Smashwords coupon = BL68D

Synopsis

The peoples of Boucher’s World are finally out of the two-thousand year old mysterious, continent-covering dome of Boucher’s World.  Jade Lowry, the co-discoverer of the exit, was kidnapped by megalomaniac, Caine Montford, but managed to escape with the help of her soul-mate, Kendis Rost, and a doomed precog, S’tella.

They returned to Jade’s village and also brought S’tella’s two small children, now orphans, back with them, as promised.  Jade’s mother, Maggie, will search for a good home for them.  Will she be able to find one where they will fit in?

What does Lark, the Healer, and Sparrow, the precog, have to tell them that will change the lives of everyone?

And, once Jade returns to the camp outside the dome and locates the communications device they have been searching for, will the Humans finally be able to contact their ancient home on Earth?  Will the Elvwists, the other race of people on Boucher’s World, be able to contact their home planet in the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy? Is anyone even left on either of these planets after over two millennia?

Read this second book in the chronicle of the  Boucher’s World trilogy for the surprising answers to these and other questions.  Learn why everyone’s psychic abilities are growing.  Find out what this new change, this transformation, will mean for the peoples of Boucher’s World, and discover who put up the dome two-thousand years ago – and why!

Boucher’s World: Transformation, the second book in the Boucher’s World trilogy is coming to  Smashwords and Amazon as an e-book on June 6th.

The peoples of Boucher’s World are finally out of the two-thousand year old mysterious, continent-covering dome of Boucher’s World.  Jade Lowry, the co-discoverer of the exit, was kidnapped by megalomaniac, Caine Montford, but managed to escape with the help of her soul-mate, Kendis Rost, and a doomed precog, S’tella.

They returned to Jade’s village and also brought S’tella’s two small children, now orphans, back with them, as promised.  Jade’s mother, Maggie, will search for a good home for them.  Will she be able to find one where they will fit in?

What does Lark, the Healer, and Sparrow, the precog, have to tell them that will change the lives of everyone?

And, once Jade returns to the camp outside the dome and locates the communications device they have been searching for, will the Humans finally be able to contact their ancient home on Earth?  Will the Elvwists, the other race of people on Boucher’s World, be able to contact their home planet in the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy? Is anyone even left on either of these planets after over two millennia?

Read this second book in the chronicle of the  Boucher’s World trilogy for the surprising answers to these and other questions.  Learn why everyone’s psychic abilities are growing.  Find out what this new change, this transformation, will mean for the peoples of Boucher’s World, and discover who put up the dome two-thousand years ago – and why!

When I was a young woman and living in the center of my city, one day I awakened at about three o’clock in the morning. Nothing awakened me – there was no odd noise in the night, no bad dream, my children were all peacefully asleep, the dog wasn’t barking and the cat wasn’t meowing to get in.  I just woke up.

This may not sound like such a big deal, and you may wonder why in the world would I even remember one particular awakening. After all, I woke up every day…maybe not that early every day, but still, wouldn’t they all kind of run together after all these years? I mean, that was thirty-some years ago!

Okay – and I hope I can get this properly described because it probably won’t sound like such a big deal – here’s why I remember: I opened my eyes in the darkness of my bedroom and I was connected to everyone in my city. I didn’t just feel as if I was connected, I was connected.  To my next-door neighbors; the family of five over across the way in the projects; the lovely couple and their little girl who lived on the south side of town; the policemen patrolling the streets on the north side; the house down the street where the woman sold drugs and everybody knew about it but said nothing; my mother who lived five or six miles to the west of me; my sister living further to the west; a group of homeless men living under a bridge in the uptown area, and many, many, more.  The good, the bad, the in-between.  Everyone.

I don’t remember thinking anything.  It wasn’t a “thinking moment”. The whole world was still, and as I lay there in the dark, I was…content. Everything was as it should be, it was all a part of me and I was a part of it. And the connectedness (is that a word?) spread out from me and my city, into the surrounding towns and cities, then to the country, and finally, into the world.  And I was connected to everyone, and I was everyone. And they were me.

I don’t know exactly how long it lasted, until dawn began to break, anyway.   I did not go back to sleep and the…connectivity…began to fade as it grew later and light began to come in through my window, brightening my room.  It was as if I had been lying in the bosom of the world, as if I had been embraced by the essence of all the life that is here.  It was, for me, a very profound event.  And it has never faded entirely away.

I have no idea why it happened, or what it meant, or even if it actually meant anything.  I’ve never tried to analyze it.  I got up that morning as I did every morning, fixed breakfast, awakened my older children for school, put them on their buses, got dressed for work, put the smallest child in the car to drop at my mother’s while I worked – and I continued.

But I have never forgotten that wonderful moment in time.  And I never will.

FREE! FREE! FREE! at Amazon 5/9/13 & 5/10/13.

Hard Changes  (a science fiction  novelette) at Amazon and Smashwords!  Only .99 cents!

What will Randa do when her vow-mate goes fishing and doesn’t return?  She lives in a very isolated area, alone with her children, and without their provider she is the only one who can keep them alive.  Will she be able to handle the task?  Will her mate return?  And what will happen when they finally meet the beings they have been told are demons?

Change can be very hard and it takes flexibility to be able to meet all the challenges that are usually involved.

A story of birth, death, and other changes.

Hard Changes  (a science fiction  novelette)

What will Randa do when her vow-mate goes fishing and doesn’t return?  She lives in a very isolated area, alone with her children, and without their provider she is the only one who can keep them alive.  Will she be able to handle the task?  Will her mate return?  And what will happen when they finally meet the beings they have been told are demons?

Change can be very hard and it takes flexibility to be able to meet all the challenges that are usually involved.

A story of birth, death, and other changes.