Epidaurus was an ancient healing place. It was a beautiful place in nature that let people who had been injured in war or had gotten sick to escape from the city and heal.
Myth and Medicine: Unraveling the Secrets of Epidaurus
Epidaurus was dedicated to Asclepios. Asclepios was the god of healing and medicine. He was not as famous as Zeus or Athena, but he was still very important. The patients believed that Asclepios would visit them at night while they were sleeping in the form of a snake! If Asclepios visited them they would wake up healed!
Epidaurus was not just a place of worship. Scientific medicine was practiced there as well, and all sorts of medical instruments were found when archeologists explored the ruins.
The Majestic Amphitheater of Epidaurus: Witnessing Healing and Performances
Despite being ill, there were some fun things to do at Epidaurus. The healing place is also the site of a huge amphitheater, which was used as an outdoor stage to put on plays and other performances! This amphitheater was huge, but was so well built that if an actor whispered in the center of the stage, the audience could hear it even if they were all the way up at the top seats.
Exploring Epidaurus: A Journey into Ancient Healing
I was fortunate to visit Epidavros with my son and husband. My son was 18 months old and he was delighted by the pathways in between the ruins, he loved to run down them! He also liked to collect the small pebbles on the ground and we joked that he was trying to reconstruct the ruins by putting them into piles. The whole area felt like it renewed our spirits and energy, really connecting us to that healing place.
Complete a fun craft to go along with this reading (only $1 for downloadable instructions)
Healing Staff Activity
Did you know where the symbol on first aid kits and ambulances came from?
This activity helps your learner’s fine motor skills as they make a pencil healing staff, while also learning a little about ancient Greece.
To write a book the first thing you should do is read a lot! Go to your library and browse through all sorts of different books. Make sure you read some books that are from a different genre than you want to write as well. You might get some interesting and different ideas from something outside your genre.
If you want to write a children’s book than pay close attention to the way the pictures and story work together. Note what you like about each book and what you don’t like.
Start writing
The next step to writing a book is to start writing! I recommend writing before you worry too much about what the book will be about. Writing every day will improve your ability to write and will also get the ideas flowing. You can use writing prompts like this (add a link) to get you started. Write for 5-15 minutes for each writing prompt. Writing prompts are a great warm up as well, once you start writing your story.
Pick a story idea
You can dig through your writing prompts for inspiration, base the story on things that have happened in your own life, get inspiration from a dream, or use an idea that you have already been thinking about for a long time. Write down notes on what will happen in the story, and what characters will be included.
Develop the plot.
Decide what is going to happen in your book. Even if one of your writing prompts led to a completed story this is still an important step! Think about the plot and make sure you include an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Introduction: Introduce your characters in a fun way.
Rising action: Think about challenges that your character has to face, and slowly make them larger and larger challenges as the story progresses.
Climax: This is where you want to include the most exciting part of the book and the most challenging thing for your character to overcome.
Falling action: Think of a good way to lower the tension and ease the reader towards the ending.
Resolution: Wrap your story up by showing your reader what happens to your characters after the story ends
Make changes
A lot of people think that the work is all done once they have written their book, but actually there is a lot more to writing than that! After you write your book, read it. I recommend reading it out loud to a friend or family member. That way you can make sure everything makes sense. If anything in your story is confusing, change it so that it makes more sense!
You might also notice that there are some parts of your book that seem a little bit boring, and you might want to add something interesting to spice it up! Or there might be part of your story that is too action packed and hard to follow, and you might want to add some more description and explanation.
Edit
When you’re happy with your story you can read it again and fix any mistakes you’ve made. Have a friend or family member read it too and ask them to circle spelling and grammar mistakes so that you can find them!
Decide if you want to publish
Did you know that you could be an author? All of the tools you need are online! You can publish your book, order printed copies, and sell your book online, and there’s no age limit! (The youngest author I know is only 5). You can decide if you want to publish your story, or if you just want to keep it for yourself, but either way printed copies for friends and family make a great gift! (and if you don’t want to publish you can print them right at home on your own printer and staple them together with a nice cover!)
If you think writing your own book sounds like a ton of fun check out my online classes!
In this class I will teach students how to plan, write, edit, and publish their own story. Each learner will be working at their own pace. Each week will include assigned writing time, and a recorded lesson on a different topic, which may be modified to reflect the learners’ progress. Learners will be expected to post their work in the classroom or by direct message to the teacher. They will peer review each others’ writing and will leave comments, suggestions, and edits for each other. Students are encouraged to join the class no matter what stage of the writing process they are in.
In this class we learn strategies to finish writing a story, how to edit your book, and how to publish your story. This class is perfect for students who already have part, most, or all of a book written, but are not sure what to do next. In the first five weeks we will learn writing exercises and strategies to help you finish your first draft of your story, modified content will be posted for students who already have a completed first draft. The next 6 weeks will cover how to edit your story. The last 5 weeks of the course will be all about getting your book ready for publication.
Frustration, anger, sadness, anxiousness, loneliness, guilt and fear are all really hard emotions to manage. In fact a lot of adults have trouble with these feelings as well! Fortunately there are lots of things you can do to help you manage your emotions.
To process your emotions remember “CATS Distract”
Calm: Take some deep breaths and calm down first.
Art: Put your feelings on paper.
Talking: Tell someone from your circle of trust.
Sports: Move those emotions out!
Distract: Do something you enjoy.
Find your inner calm
Even taking a couple of deep breaths can help you calm down when your feelings threaten to overflow. You can also try meditating or doing yoga. Calm music, a warm bath, or a cuddle (with a loved one, a pet, or a favorite stuffy) are also great ways to feel better.
Put your feelings on paper
You can write, draw, or paint what you’re feeling. You could even make your feelings into a song or dance!
Talk about it
One of the most important things you can do is talk to someone about how you are feeling. Find some friends and family members (2-5 people) that you can trust and ask them to be part of your circle of trust. Ask them if it is OK for you to talk about anything with them, even difficult things, without them getting angry.
When you are dealing with something difficult, tell them you need a safe space to talk. You can even come up with a super cool codeword that lets them know you’re dealing with something difficult. Nothing is off limits to talk about in your circle of trust!
Even if you are feeling great right now you should start building your circle of trust so you know it is there when you need it.
Move those emotions out!
When you move you help your brain work better and you let out a lot of stress. Even crying can help you deal with a hard feeling!
Try exercising with sports, jumping jacks, walking/ running around, hugging a stuffed animal really tightly, or squeezing something over and over again in your hands.
Find a distraction
Emotions don’t just go away, and that is OK. Do anything you like to do so that you’re not thinking about the bad feeling. This could be listening to music, doing art, playing with friends, or reading a book. Distractions can give you a break from difficult emotions even if the distraction won’t make them go away forever.
Does your child find spelling and grammar boring? You can easily change that! These spelling lists are on topics that kids love. Mix in some fun games like spelling blasters and your kid will practically be begging you to practice spelling.
Spelling and pronunciation don’t always match in the English language, making these different spelling combinations hard to memorize. The sport loving kid will have fun practicing them with this sports spelling list.
Training a goldfish is simple! You only need a few tools to get you started.
A feeding stick: this lets you deliver food anywhere in your goldfish’s tank.
Fish food: use this as a reward but be careful not to give too much!
It is really important to remember not to overfeed your goldfish so make sure that you work training into your feeding routine and only give your fish the amount of food recommended to keep them healthy.
Follow the Leader
A great first trick to teach your fish is to teach your fish to follow your training stick.
First put a small piece of food on your training stick and let your fish eat it.
Offer your fish food on your training stick again but this time move it very slowly away from your fish.
Practice each day moving the training stick more and more before your fish gets the food. Soon your fish will follow the training stick anywhere!
Obstacle course
A great trick to teach your fish once he/ she has clued into what the training stick means is to swim through an obstacle course.
You can use any fish safe objects that are clean and soap free, or simply move your fish tank plants around, to create obstacles for your fish to swim over or between.
Simply lead your fish through the obstacle course to complete the challenge.
Experiments by moving or adding obstacles.
Swim through a hoop
Teaching your fish to swim through a hoop is easier than it sounds! All you need is your trusty training stick, some food, and a hoop. You can buy kits to train this trick and more!
Place the hoop in your fish’s tank.
Watch your fish as he/ she checks out the hoop.
Wait until your fish swims through the hoop (if your fish isn’t interested in the hoop at all you can try and coax him/ her through with some food)
When your fish swims through the hoop give him/ her a treat.
Repeat each day!
Play with a ball
You can either purchase a kit to do this trick or use another lightweight ball, just make sure it is a safe material for your fish tank and it is clean without and soap on it.
Place the ball in your fish tank.
Give your fish a treat for touching the ball.
Next wait until your fish pushes the ball a little bit before giving a treat.
Each day wait until the fish pushes the ball farther before giving a treat.
There is a popular myth that goldfish can only remember things for 3 seconds. That is not true. If you own a goldfish you have probably figured out that your little orange pet remembers something very important, when it is food time!
Rory Stokes proved the 3 second myth wrong at only 15 years old. He knew better than to believe everything he heard, and so he conducted an experiment. He put a red Lego block in his goldfish’s tank every time he fed it. It only took three weeks before the fish caught on and started to swim to the Lego block looking for food. He stopped using the Lego block, but a week later the fish still knew that the block meant food!
Rory discovered that goldfish could remember things for up to a week, but scientists have discovered that goldfish can remember much longer than that! Some scientists trained goldfish by playing music at dinner time. They let the goldfish go into the wild, and SIX MONTHS LATER they used a loud speaker to play the dinner time music. THE GOLDFISH CAME BACK!
Scientists are only just starting to understand fish intelligence. The Manta ray is thought to be the smartest fish in the sea, and there is more and more proof that they could compete with mammals for level of intelligence.
So is it time to start bringing your goldfish to school with you? Do you think you should start writing fishy math problems on the side of the tank? Probably not, but your fishy little buddy is much smarter than you think.
Today I’m writing about a modern day hero from the GTA.
When I was given an assignment in high school I worked on it until it’s due date, handed it in, patted myself on the back for my hard work and moved on. I never considered starting a homework assignment and continuing it past its due date… for eight years into the future!
Aiza’s Teddy Bear Foundation started as a grade 10 Civics assignment in 2013. She had been assigned a project in which she had to take action in her community. She saw this as an opportunity to start a charity.
Aiza has been motivated to make a difference ever since she was a child. She remembers witnessing a bunch of kids about her age lining up for scraps of stale bread and wondering why there were kids who didn’t have good food to eat. That was when she was only seven years old. When Aiza gave out her first Teddy Bear it was to a boy who was around 7 years old himself. His smile was so big! The boy had been fighting cancer for most of his life, and his mom pulled Aiza aside to thank her and let her know that he was the happiest she had seen him in a long time.
When I talked to Aiza about her charity and how it had started, she answered as if starting a charity was just an obvious and natural thing to do for a high school student. This incredible woman is a true local hero who is actively making the world a better place with her school supplies and teddy bear cuddles.
Oedipus was the adopted son of King Polybus, who ruled over a place called Corinth. When he was grown up Oedipus learned that he was adopted and left his home to try and learn more about his past. His journey took him to a place called Thebes, which was actually where he was from (though he didn’t know it yet). Thebes had quite an impressive wall all the way around it, which was meant to keep the enemies out, but unfortunately for the people of Thebes it was also being used to keep them all in!
A fearsome beast called a sphinx was guarding the city and would not let anyone in or out! The only way to beat the sphinx was to answer a riddle correctly. Everyone who had tried had failed and had been eaten by the sphinx!
So Oedipus approached the gates of Thebes and a terrible creature appeared in front of him. She had the head of a woman, but her body was feline, covered in soft fur, had powerful muscles and long sharp claws. She had these big powerful wings on her back that looked like they belonged to an eagle, and her tail was like a snake’s!
“Can I get into the city?” Oedipus asked.
“Only if you answer my riddle.” The sphinx thundered, “and if you fail I WILL EAT YOU!”
Oedipus was a little bit taken aback by the sphinx but he was also very brave and clever, so he accepted the sphinx’s challenge.
“What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?”
Oedipus thought for a moment before he answered, “Well the answer must be a human! When a person is born they crawl on all fours, then they walk on two when they grow up, but when they get old they need a cane to walk with so they have three legs!”
“AAAAHHHHHH!” screamed the sphinx for Oedipus had guessed her riddle correctly. She stormed off in a mad rage, for she did not like being bested, and left the city of Thebes behind for good.
Once there were two giants (also known as titans) known as the Aloadae. Their names were Ephialtes and Otos and they decided to attack the gods! They attacked the gods with mountains! They piled three mountains on top of each other like a tower! Their plan was to use the mountain tower to climb to the realm of the gods!
Ares was known as the god of war. He was strong, fierce and relentless. He rushed into battle to defeat the giants, but sometimes being strong and fierce isn’t enough. Ares was not so well known for his smarts, and he underestimated how strong the giants were. The giants managed to capture him in a vase where all of his rage and strength made no difference.
Now Ares, being the brute that he was, was not the most popular of the Greek gods, but he was still a deity after all. When the gods learned that Ares had been captured Hermes was sent to free him. Hermes was Zeus’s (the king of the gods) personal messenger. He was also a trickster and could be very sneaky. Hermes managed to free Ares from the jar, but there was still a big problem (or rather two big problems) the two giants were still “at large” and still wanted to defeat the gods and rule over their home.
It was not a god of war that defeated the giants in the end, but clever Artemis. Artemis was a goddess that loved the forest and had a tendency to keep to herself. Artemis was known as the goddess of the hunt, and it was her knowledge of hunting and nature that let her defeat the giants. She turned herself into a deer and ran in between the two giants. They both drew their bows and fired at her but missed and hit each other instead.
Learn more about Greek Myths!
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This book is one of my absolute favorite children’s books about the brain. It introduces all of the brain parts in a simple but fun way. It also talks about how your brain is flexible and can stretch! Use the affiliate link above to check it out, it is a must have!
Did you know that learning about the brain from an early age can help children develop a growth mindset?
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