How about a follow

How about a follow? Scroll to the end of "Notes from Jo" and click on follow. Thank you.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Be A Proud Cat



My thought for the day:

“Don’t wait until you have reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be PROUD OF EVERY STEP you take towards reaching that goal.”


I would be proud of you if I had anything to do with your progress, but guess I can be proud anyway. I’m proud of people who are writing and people are reading, and proud, too, that you are here, reading this.

They say that writing doesn’t make you a better writer; it makes you a better person.  You begin to think better. You learn about yourself, you become more organized. Although I think writing does make you a better writer, unless, of course, you are repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Put something on paper every day. And better yet write something in your journal in cursive, yes, cursive—you know the old fashioned way--by hand. I read recently that writing in cursive increases cognitive activity in ways typing doesn’t.

This was driven home to me last Saturday at a family reunion. An aunt who is now retired, but had taught school for the last 30 years, the last few teaching handicapped children, taught me a valuable lesson.  She told me that schools who no longer teach cursive are making a grave mistake.

In teaching reading she would begin to have the student make lazy eights on their paper—remember those from school, making the old infinity symbol over and over? As the student’s hand began moving she would ask them form a letter. The easiest is a “c” she said. The “c” can easily be transformed into an “o.” Move into an “a” a small "a," for if one adds a stem up to an "a" it will become a ”b.” Add a stem down and it becomes a “q.”

This was revolutionary to me.

Second thought for the day: Listen to your elders.