Papernation

Time flies, and it’s already a couple of months since the Bristol Design Festival took place.  Browsing through some photos today, I came across some pics I’d taken at said festival of the ‘What Have You Left Behind?’  Project.  And so I thought I’d write about it today.

It’s basically a communications project thought up by Brazilian MA student, Mariana Mota.  Her studies have led her to consider the concept that we are all nomads, constantly leaving things behind.  Whether we physically move from place to place, or we move on because time moves on, and things never stay the same, the theory goes that we’re all on a journey – accumulating and leaving things behind.

Mariana sent out 34 notebooks to different countries around the world, asking people to answer one question: ‘What have you left behind?’.  The notebooks now form part of an exhibition/artwork/degree piece.

Here are just a couple of shots from the installation at the Bristol Design Festival, but you can see more of the notebooks online at www.whathaveyouleftbehind.com.

Mariana has also fired up on Twitter recently – follow her here.

Here are two great competitions that encourage children to improve their reading and writing skills.

First is The Times Spelling Bee – this is the UK’s first national spelling bee and it’s bound to be wildly popular.  Schools will compete in local knockout rounds before reaching a national final in June next year.  There’s still plenty of time to enter your school, so check out the Spelling Bee info page now!

The second competition is Off By Heart - it’s a poetry recital competition for children aged from 7 – 11.  The later stages of this national competition will be shown on BBC TV, and the final will be compered by Jeremy Paxman.  There’s plenty of information on how to enter at the BBC’s Off By Heart competition page.  Closing date is 19th December 2008.

Even today, more than 30 years later, I can still recite the poem I learned by heart for a primary school review. There’s something about learning poetry by heart that’s amazingly satisfying, and there’s something about young children that means they are usually exceptionally good at it.

This week sees the start of the new football season. You’re probably already wondering what this has got to do with stationery and the things that interest us here at Papernation! 

Well, one of the things we care about is finding ways to interest kids in activities that promote reading and writing.  One idea is to encourage kids to become autograph-hunters.  Keeping an autograph book and documenting who the autograph is from and when and where the autograph was collected is great for kids.  The discipline of keeping a neat book is bound up with the excitement of getting new autographs.

And don’t worry if you don’t live anywhere near a Premership club – your kids will be just as thrilled to get the autograph of a player from your local bottom-of-the-league club.  And who knows – maybe one day that player from the youth team who carefully signed your son’s or daughter’s autograph book for may become the next Rooney!

Sometimes children can find writing boring – it’s associated with school and homework and exams, after all.  But with some encouragement, and some real reasons to write, kids can see writing as something fun and enjoyable.

Here are five ideas to get your own kids enthusiastic about writing:

1. Kid’s Book List – kids love lists, and this book will help them track and write reports on the books they read
2. Thank You Cards – teach good old-fashioned manners by helping them to write thank you cards to friends and family after birthdays, Christmas and any other treat or gift occasion
3. Themed Writing Paper – this always helps with kids’ enthusiasm!  Our Charlie and Lola kits have stickers too, to embellish those letters to Grandma.
4. Autograph Books – I’m sure all kids go through that phase of wanting to collect autographs of famous (and not-so-famous) people
5. Travel Journals – not just for the grown-ups!  Guide your kids into doing something creative on holiday – it might even keep them quiet for a while!

Did you know that 2008 is The National Year of Reading?  That’s reading as in books, not Reading as in Berkshire.

It’s a year-long celebration of reading in all its forms…designed to raise awareness of literacy issues and to promote the simple joys and pleasures of reading. It’s not just a schools thing either…young and old are encouraged to read something…anything…so long as we’re reading!