It's a Wonder-ful Life

Posted by Norman Bailey on Monday, June 30, 2014

Yesterday was all about the musical legend that is Stevie Wonder. 

Up at 7:00 and thinking about how singing tips had gone down with the TuneIN Choir singers.  There were a quite a few emails in my inbox so I was about to find out.  Whatever that afternoon's rehearsal had in store was secondary to the fact that many of us were looking forward to was seeing Stevie Wonder do his thing at the Calling Festival in Clapham Common, south London, straight afterwards.

Rehearsal over we headed down from St Pauls.  In true festival style, it was pouring with rain.  A quick stop at a convenience store to pick up some bin-liners for some makeshift rain wear and we we ready.

How magic was the whole Stevie Wonder experience?  Well check this out.  I rained the whole time.  Many other acts were obscured by the downpour.  The bonus was that an undervalued Gregory porter was in a tent rather than on the main stage.  But this was a good thing because it meant enjoying his scintillating set in the dry of a packed-out marquee. But when it came to Stevie, that was a different story.

At 6pm the word was out that Stevie was about to come on stage.  At that moment the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  Wow!  this man is really on  Higher Ground.  And he was all you could hope for.  two hours of some of the best entertainment you could wish for.  Two hours isn't enough to cover a lifetime of great music.  But what you got was more than enough.

Stevie's classic song 'As' is in our repertoire, but he didn't perform that one.  So we finish off our evening by singing it as rehearsed earlier.

A perfect end to a perfect day.


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Storybookers

7 Proven Ways To Get Boys To Love Reading

storybookersblog:

How many time have you thrown your hands up and said, “I give up”?    

For many people, those who care about positive child development, giving up isn’t an option.  

Think about how your life would be if you had no access to the written word.  This is a reality for many people. For some it’s a physiological issue other it’s psychological.  There are also those who by not understanding the importance of reading never bother to develop the skill sufficiently.  Until it’s too late.

So what does it take to get a young man to put down his Playstaion and pick up a book?   There will be those who say that maybe it’s best not to buy one in the first place.  But that isn’t always as easy as it sounds.  Some parents bribe their kids with games times as a trade off against time spent reading books.  The danger of this is that reading then becomes the opposite of things that are fun.  That’ll set the ‘Reading for Pleasure movement’ back a bit.

So what do you do?  I know teachers, parents and carers who have come up with some clever little ways of getting boys to see reading as a positive force in their lives.  Whether it’s as a pleasurable distraction or as a way to gather a wealth of useful information that they can use to enhance their lives.    These are some of the insights I’ve gathered.  I’ve also thrown in a few that have worked for me over the years.

So here they are, in no particular order.

7 Tips for getting boys into reading:

1.   Tell them a story

If it’s a short story, tell  it to them.  And I mean tell them rather than read.  There are a number of reasons why I say this but I’ll expand on that another time.  Telling a child a  story might sound obvious to some but there are people who are little reluctant.  People often think that if you tell a child a story they won’t read it for themselves.  But you wouldn’t think that if you knew how much the book sales of the Hunger Games went up after movies came out. 

2. Tell them about a story

If it’s a long story, tell them about the story.  Be a kind of trailer and get them excited about finding out more.  Ok, this might take a bit of practice.  But watch TV and movies trailers and have some fun with it.

3. Let them see you reading books.  

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