Newsletter Contents

• Publisher's Pen
• Empowering Parents and Teachers
• Empowering K.I.D.S. (Kids In Daily Situations)

Publisher's Pen: Angel Codes

“Good night sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”
                                                                                      Wm. Shakespeare

Add the amount of shopping to the extra activities, subtract the days school is in session, multiply the excitement over the upcoming holiday, and you’ve got stress cubed.

It can be the best of times or the worst of times. Staying grounded and on track can be tough, especially is there are adolescents and/or teenagers in your house.  Add to that the fact that we try to compensate during holidays for our shortcomings during the year. We also tend to have high expectations for the love and recognition from our family members. Family expert and psychologist Frank Pittman says that,  “at holiday times, family ties are tightest, but so are tensions.”

So, how do we overcome this dilemma of modern life to which we have all fallen prey? I believe that part of the answer to that question comes in the form of angels. Legions of them. I believe that they are watching over us and stand ready, willing and able to help. All we have to do is call on them.

There are many books on the market concerning angels. One of my favorite authors is Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.  Some of Doreen’s titles are, “Healing with the Angels, “ “Angel Therapy,” and “Messages from your Angels.” These titles share the shelf on my bookcase with Dr. Spock, Daniel Goleman, Howard Gardner, Tom Lickona along with other educational and parenting authors. The messages written in these books are a “God-send” during holiday stress.

May we take time out this season to take care of ourselves by walking hand in hand with the angels, asking guidance on how to continue to mine the gold within our children.

Smiles,

Elaine

Empowering Parents and Teachers:

Looking at angel from a different angle: create discussions from this lesson plan on the word, “angel” to enhance reading and writing across the curriculum. Also explore anagrams; creating a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as angel to angle.

Write as many anagrams as you can think of using the words, angel, nature gratitude, exercise and legions:

Angel ______________________________________________________

Nature______________________________________________________

Gratitude____________________________________________________

Exercise____________________________________________________

Legions_____________________________________________________

Empowering K.I.D.S. (Kids In Daily Situations):

Create secret codes through the use of anagrams, such as author Dan Brown did in his book, “The DaVinci Code.”  

For example, the art museum director wanted to tell his daughter that something was hidden in the painting of The Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci. So, he wrote down a secret code for her that read:

O Draconian Devil!  (Leonardo DaVinci)

O Lame Saint!  (The Mona Lisa)

Rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to create a new word or phrase is called an anagram. The art director’s daughter figured out the secret anagrams above and found a special gold key behind the painting of The Mona Lisa.

Here’s how you can use the secret code of anagrams:

1. Using the word Christmas, and the names of the presents you want, tell your friend what you are asking for, and see if they can guess it.
    

1. Scramble a word describing an object or place in your house and write it on a card telling your parents or your brother and sisters where their present is hidden.
    

1. Create secret code words by rearranging the letters of the following words: Archangel, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa. Do this with your friends sitting around a table. Each person puts a piece of candy in the center of the table. The person with an anagram for each word gets all of the candy.
    

1. Practice using anagrams to create secret messages for your friends.
    

1. Practice using anagrams to create secret messages for yourself.

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