Adora plans to raise $10,000 for 'Children's Relief Effort' in Haiti

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Adora Svitak is a 12 year old child who is attempting to raise $10,000 for 'Save the Children’s relief efforts in Haiti' through her Twitter account. She plans to write inspirational messages, and post videos of her teaching, which she hopes will motivate others to develop their own talents.

She is a child prodigy, a genius and is called ‘A tiny literary giant’. There is, it seems, no end to Adora's talents. She published her first book, a collection of short stories called Flying Fingers, at age seven. Her second, Dancing Fingers (a collection of poetry written with her older sister), was published last year and she's currently working on another four.

And she teaches too. Yeah! Her family has now converted the basement of their home in Redmond, Washington DC, into a TV studio from which Adora gives daily video conferences to children, adults and teachers, earning $300 per 50-minute lesson. She's in big demand in the corporate world, too, where she can command up to $10,000 for an appearance speaking to educators and business people about the impact technology can have on the creative process and has recently been hired by Microsoft to do demonstrations about educational computing.

Interested? Read more about her here

Krishy reads about telephones.

Tring! tring!!! hello! Who is this???

Krishy can’t find her mobile. She looks everywhere, she looks in her bedroom, she climbs her bed to look into her toys cabinet, she even walks down to her garage to look in the car, but she really cannot find it.

“Mom, do you know where is my phone?” She asks her mother

“Look, now you are a big girl, u must learn to take care of your things I don’t have time to take care of your things.” Scolds her mom

Krishy starts to sob. She wanted to make a program of a birthday party for her friend and she does not know how to call her friend.

She sits in front of her TV, sobbing.

Her brother Tryan sees her crying.

Tryan never likes to see his sister crying. He thinks about a trick to cheer up his sister. He run quickly to his father’s library and returns back with a thick book full of photographs of the telephones.

“Look Krishy, what I have here, want to see the pictures of telephones in this book?” says Tryan.

Krishy looks into the book through her wet eyes. She starts to turn the pages in the book to see the pictures of different types of photographs.

“Wow! So kewl” she says

“Can you read it to me? What is written there in this book?” asks Tryan

Krishy is happy that she can read. She begins to read for her brother......

“It is almost hard to imagine that with all the ingenuity Bell and Watson had going for them, the first commercial telephone instrument was nothing more than a wood box about the size of a shoe box, with one hole on the end for both talking and listening. With this box phone, signaling was done by tapping on the diaphragm with a pencil.

And while Krishy reads what is written in the book, Tryan watched the pictures of different types of telephones that he never knew it existed.

Suddenly they heard their mom shouting from the next room,
"Krishy, Tryan, where are you? Look your mobile is here in my purse, come and get it”, said their mom.

Tryan and Krishy ran outside the room, leaving their book in the library.

If you wish to know what Tryan and Krishy read about the telephone instrument from 1877 to 1900, you can peep into their pages right now

My weed garden

Mother gave me a patch of garden.

I ploughed it with a trowel
and seeded it with
dahlias,
geraniums,
marigolds,
and chrysanthemums.

I watered it everyday
and watched with delight
as they began to sprout.

Then one day I saw a new plant,
with tiny bright green leaves.
Mother didn't know what it was.
Se called it a weed.
She told me to remove it.
I didn't. I thought it was pretty.

Prettier still, when it had
tiny, yellow flowers.
And then there were other plants -
short ones,
tall ones,
prickly ones,
with white,
yellow,
even red flowers.
One flower had petals
that were violet outside
and yellow inside.
Mother called them all weeds.

The geraniums
and dahlias
and chrysanthemums
didn't seem to grow well.
They were short
and had small flowers,
not like mother's patch
which had big, pretty ones.
Mother said it was because
I had let weeds grow.

But I had lots of little
flowers - like little me.
Mother said I had grown
a weed garden.
So she took it away.

But it was a nice garden
while it lasted.

School Friends

School Friends

The good thing about school friends is that
you can always make fun of them,
even if you last met thirty years ago.

They may be have got a Padma Vibhushan
for distinguished service in medicine,
with FRCS, FACS after their name,
but to you they are still Snotnose,
Kombda, Gotya and Monkeybrain.

You never forget their birthdays
and their children's names
though you forget your wife's
or your own children's.

You may not attend your cousin's wedding,
but something will make you travel
halfway around the planet,
to attend that of your school friend.

At school reunions you instinctively
head for the same spot in the
school canteen, crack the same jokes,
though the others stare at you.

They'll send you the same cliched
birthday cards (rarely gifts)
but you'll treasure them above all else.

And when you have been forgotten
by your colleagues after retirement,
and your children after they move out,
it is your school friends who will come
to be your pall-bearers.

Something for you

Tanya Motwani lives in Mumbai and she likes to read books, she writes poems in her free time. She was inspired to write this poem after reading 'Chicken Soup for Teenage Souls'

When life has turned its back on you,
Just go out and see the morning dew.
Each drop has a separate job to do,
Just like there’s something for you too.

We come into this world for a cause,
And life goes on without a pause.
When you feel angry, sad or hurt,
Just punch a balloon till it bursts.

You fight with mother, brother or sister
Or even just have a tiny blister,
Just try to have a little talk,
Or just go out there for a walk.

When things don’t seem right,
Before you sleep at night,
Before you say Amen,
Just ask God to help you again.

Life has a lot in store for you,
So remember
There’s always something for you too.

- Tanya Motwani

Thank you Tanya, for sharing your beautiful poem with us.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

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Do you watch Sesame street? Do you like it? Did you know that it has celebrated its' 40 years of telecast? That means that even your mom/dad used to watch it when they were as young as you are…..

The show was first premiered on 10th November 1969. The "Big Bird" was its biggest star and it still is.
Caroll Spinney has been playing the giant flightless emus from the very start.

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Ever wondered how he manages to perform in the show underneath the feathered yellow body suit? Well, after he wriggles into his suit, he adjusts the tiny television monitor harnessed to his chest that lets him see the outside world. When he recites Big Birds's droll one-liners, he uses his hands to support the head and animate the mouth and eyes.

The characters were created by Jim Henson, who died in 1990 at the age of 53. He and so many other producers pioneered a strategy to harness the power of television to help underprivileged children.

Supported by generous donations and a non-profit organization, the mission continues, reaching out now to middle-income kids, too. A recent study found that teens who watched "Sesame Street" in pre-school had higher grades than those who did not. New York City once honored the show by temporarily naming a street Sesame Street, and has designated November 9th Sesame Street day.

And the show is still going strong.

Last season, "Sesame Street" averaged more than 5 million viewers each week.

(Source: CCTV.com)

Imagination has wings!!!

Do you like this bridge??



Or this one??



These are made from many, many toothpicks…yeah.. it requires patience to make this and Mr.Stan Munro has lots of it.



Mr Stan Munro, a former television presenter has spent six years building famous landmarks - out of six million toothpicks. He uses glue, toothpicks and works for more than six months to make one model.

Read and See more of his models here

Would like to try making a small house ? start collecting toothpicks and start having fun....you might enjoy it..I am sure...