Father’s Day – 20th June 2021

See https://eileenmoynihan.wordpress.com/kids-and-teens-fan-club/ as well. Daddies come in all shapes and sizes, Do their best to love and guide us; Loved us from the day we were born. And love us until they're old and worn. They make mistakes as people do But I know, they'll always love you. So remember them in a special way,…

Cruinniú na nÓg -A day of free creativity for children and young people – Saturday 12th June 2021

'Ireland is the first, and only, country in the world to have a national day of free creativity for children and young people under 18. Cruinniú na nÓg is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme’s Creative Youth Plan to enable the creative potential of children and young people. The inaugural Cruinniú na nÓg took place on 23rd June 2018…

ENDINGS: Some Of My Favourites

Good endings make sense; evoke emotion like contentment, anger, sadness, or curiosity; shift the reader’s perspective; or open her mind to new ideas. They do not confuse or cast the whole story as a hoax. Good endings bring the hero—and, more importantly, the reader—to some kind of destination (even if it’s a trap)https://refiction.com/articles/making-ends-meet-how-to-write-a-good-ending-to-a-story. Alex J…

Celebrate the Hawthorn, make it our national flowering tree!

Ann Gerety Smyth

Longford is wild and beautiful. Have you ever noticed?

Living in the middle of it sometimes we forget. I like to admire it in the quietness when letting my dinosaurs loose in the early morning. By dinosaurs I mean chickens but that is how wild and wonderful Longford is, she takes you right back if you’ll let her.

Back to when time began and the world was young and full of hope.
If you stay still enough you might even see through the veil of this time and into all that ages that went before us in the very spot we stand. People populated Longford very early on, the county is covered in raths, dolmens and ancient burial grounds.

Sometime I think “I see dead people”, or maybe otherworldly ones. Either way they’re not frightening, they just are. 

Often it takes someone from outside the county to show us how…

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How To Help Children Become Independent Readers

Choice 'Independent reading, both at school and at home, builds successful readers. What’s more, the research shows that giving our students a say in what they read is key. And from our experience, we also know frequent reading leads to becoming a proficient reader, which helps a child thrive personally and academically.'https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/09/how-to-get-kids-to-read-independently/ Back in October…

When will it all stop?

This broke my heart but gives me hope too.

Ann Gerety Smyth

My baby girl cried herself to sleep last night. I held her as she spoke of all her fears and her observations of the the world we live in.

She sobbed as she talked of how we are killing each other and the world and kept asking

“What is wrong with us?”

She talked of how we hurt each other, animals, the rivers land and sea, the very air we breathe, the little babies dying, she talked of all the hunger in the greed.

“When will it all stop?”

“Will it only end when humans have destroyed everything and everyone? The world must hate us so much. We hurt her so much. She is in so much pain. It hurts so much.”

Her sob hurt me.

“This is why God doesn’t answer any prayers anymore, because we are just horrible.”

I held her tighter.

I let her download all her…

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Friendship

See https://eileenmoynihan.wordpress.com/kids-and-teens-fan-club/ too Us Two Wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. Whatever I do, he wants to do, "Where are you going today?" says Pooh: "Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too. Let's go together," says Pooh, says he. "Let's go together," says Pooh. "What's twice eleven?" I said…

BEALTAINE/ MAY – A TIME TO BLOSSOM

Whitethorn/ the blossom of the hawthorn 'Bealtaine is a festival which occurs on May 1st and also refers to the month of May. It typifies our recent Irish ancestors’ dual spiritual tradition: predominantly Christian but with pagan aspects remaining. The Roman Catholic church tried and failed many times to get the Irish people to fully renounce…

Let Your Writing Flow

Killukin Cascade Waterfalls, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. Photo by Eileen Moynihan Undamming Our Blockages To Creative Flow Mary E. Knippel, gives some great tips of how to get those creative juices flowing in a guest post on Nina Amir's blog- Write Nonfiction Now ...https://writenonfictionnow.com/5-ways-to-tap-into-your-creativity-and-let-your-writing-flow/ Prime your pump – 'Warm up to set the stage for the main…

The Importance Of Poetry For Children

'Giving children access to a wide variety of poetry experiences is essential. Ithas long been accepted practice that children's own writing should be interleavedwith their reading of poetry. There are dangers of falling into habitual-teachingpatterns here and 'creative writing' is both an uncomfortable phrase and an easyvictim. Yet, in recent years, there have been many…