What We've Been Up To Lately

Zines

We've just produced yet another zine. We have decided to do them bi-monthly from now on, to give ourselves a bit more time to get them together.

The next one, in the planning stages, will be for children. We're creating it specifically for children in our two local hospitals, to enliven their time there – but it will be suitable for any youngsters. The hospitals concerned are thrilled with this initiative, which came not from me but from the group. I think it might have been Margaret who first suggested it, but the whole group was instantly enthusiastic.

Writing exercise

Dinah, a member of our group, came up with a wonderful exercise recently. She invited us to draw a map of a real or imaginary country and write about a journey there, either to or within the country. We were to include some excitement and/or a disaster to be overcome. And we were to answer the questions: Who? Where? When? How? Why?

It was an amazingly productive exercise – except that, with our usual time limit, some people got so absorbed in creating the map that they didn't leave themselves much writing time! We produced stories, or beginnings of stories, which we felt we'd like to continue with later.

From the horse's mouth

Angela, the wonderful Coordinator of Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre, asked me today how WordsFlow is going. So I thought I'd ask the participants to answer that question. These are the answers they called out as I jotted them down:

Stimulating
We love Fridays
Brain-activating
Friendship-building
Laughter-generating
We're a community
Skills-developing
Self-determining
We even sing during tea-breaks!

It's my philosophy that learning happens best in an atmosphere of laughter.

- Rosemary (Facilitator)