How to Write Your Own Scary Story

Spooky stories are synonymous with Halloween fun. Why not let your kids create their own scary story this year to give them writing practice and confidence as well as memorable family fun?Use a spooky story starterA story starter or prompt is one of the most effective ways to stimulate imagination and give an initial direction to creative writing. Try one of these or scare up one of your own:

• As I peered into the large bubbling cauldron, I thought I saw . . .

• When the door opened, a strange odor wafted toward me . . .

• As I walked into the forest, I had an eerie feeling about the place . . .

• Listening intently, I climbed the creaky stairs to the attic . . .

• No one had been inside the house for years. Nervously, I knocked on the door . . .

• Creating monsters sounded like fun until I met my new neighbor . . .

• I knew something was wrong when my cat stood up and growled . . .

• The ad for the haunted house read . . .

• The strange noise started yesterday . . .

Organize your writing with a story plannerMake a brief template to help your kids organize their ideas and plot their story. On a piece of paper, write an outline that includes important elements like these and lines for filling in each response:

• Name and description of main character

• Name and description of scary characters or creatures

• Location of story

• How the main character is threatened by the scary thing

• How the main character tries to get free and fails

• How the main character finally gets free or defeats the scary thing

Add online tools to the brewTo show kids how a story can be created, explore an online story maker that lets them choose items and uses their choices in a short story. These are good practice in story organization and the use of specific details. Older kids might enjoy using a plot generator that summarizes their story idea like a book blurb.Scare up the best Halloween wordsGo beyond pumpkins and ghosts. Put skulls and screams, ghouls and black cats into your tale. Look online for lists of creepy and haunting words to make your story come alive!Writing and reading their own story can give your kids the best Halloween ever!At The Literacy & Language Center, we'd love to see your stories. Bring a copy for us when next time you stop by.Have a frightfully good time this Halloween!

12 HACKS THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR STUDYING

Succeed by eating the frog from an obscure Mark Twain quote

Luckily, you can practice self-regulation, even if it's not one of your best skills.

Mark Twain once said, "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of day."

Author Brian Tracy took this to mean, do the thing you want to do the least, first, and the rest of your day will be easier.

It's a really good idea to deal with the things you hate first thing in the morning. This will make you more productive and will free the rest of the day up – without the dark cloud over your head for the rest of the day, week or month.

A great way to make this a habit is to give yourself a reward after completing the onerous task. Maybe you tie your morning coffee break to completing your worst task of the day; you don't get to stop for a cuppa until you're done. It can also help to identify the task the night before, so you don't waste time wondering what you should be doing.

Deal with the difficult things first, and you will not only be more productive, you'll be more successful, because you'll be easily surpassing those people who never eat their frogs or wait until the last possible minute.

Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141013062358-64875646-do-this-one-thing-every-day-to-get-on-the-fast-track-to-success#ixzz3GKFnA4gr

Talking To Strangers Makes People Happier, Is Less Awkward Than You Think

Think you'd feel uncomfortable if you had to talk to a random stranger on the train or in the street?

Think again. New research from the University of Chicago shows that it's a near-painless way to have a happier day. 

In a series of clever experiments, researchers Nicholas Epley

and Juliana Schroeder found that people assume that talking to strangers on their commute will make for a terribly clumsy encounter — but they end up having the opposite experience. 

The Science of Us blog has the write-up of the first experiment, which involved train commuters near Chicago:

Some (commuters) were instructed to have a conversation with whoever sat next to them, some were told to keep to themselves and enjoy their solitude, and some were told to do whatever they normally do. Afterwards, they mailed in surveys describing their experience — both how much they enjoyed the ride and how productive they felt during it. Of the three groups, those in the conversation condition reported the most positive train ride, and those in the solitude condition reported the most negative. Among those who talked, the longer the conversation, the better the ride.

Later experiments further pressed the point. 

In the second one, Eply and Schroeder asked commuters to imagine taking part in the first experiment. The commuters said they thought it would be weird to talk to a stranger on the train.

Then, in another experiment, the researchers asked train and bus riders to think about talking with a stranger. 

"In general, they expected it to be pretty pleasant," Science of Us continues. "But when asked about the process of initiating a conversation, they rated the difficulty of breaking the ice at a four on a scale of zero to six, and they guessed that fewer than half of their targets would want to talk back."

That's the thing: We think that talking to a stranger will end in catastrophic embarrassment, but it doesn't in reality. The first experiment is a case in point, since nobody got rejected when they tried to talk to someone they don't know. 

That leaves us with a dilemma.

Why don't we start conversations, especially in places like New York, where everybody keeps their distance from one another even as they're crammed shoulder to shoulder? 

Psychologists call it "pluralistic ignorance." As in, everybody would like to talk, but no one thinks anyone wants to talk. 

The dread associated with starting a convo defuses would-be connections. But as these experiments evidence, there's nothing to fear. Epley tells Science of Us that starting a conversation is "like a speed bump at the top of a hill." All you need to do is compliment their shoes, mention the weather, ask about their day — and then you're off.Need further motivation? Consider how jobs, dates, and good ideas come with forging new relationships.

"Human beings are social animals," Epley and Schroeder conclude. "Those who misunderstand the consequences of social interactions may not, in at least some contexts, be social enough for their own well-being."

That reminds us of the news about polar bears.

Did you hear about how much they weigh? 

Enough to break the ice.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/talking-to-strangers-makes-you-happier-2014-7#ixzz38gNGpmpc