Reflection on my Research Paper (9)

Over the last 2-3 weeks I have been involved in collecting research and data to enable me to write an 8-10 page paper with this title: "Bedtime Stories: Recognizing Their Effect on Child Development."

We had to choose a family story and then base our paper off that. I decided to choose all of my family stories and write about their effect on child development because it is actually something which I am interested in.

This semester I am taking a child development class so I knew that I would have a lot of background knowledge on the subject and also lots of sources to back up my information. One thing which I really enjoyed was going to the library. We were taught how to find resources on their online data base which is so huge. I had no idea it was so incredible, it makes me feel blessed to be here - even more than I felt before.

I found this paper challenging to write in some ways because it was such a scientific paper. I wrote about social, emotional, and cognitive development. I found myself using terms which I was unfamiliar with, but this definitely helped broaden my knowledge on the subject. At least if I don't get an A in my writing paper I should get one in my child development class!

I also found this paper rewarding. It helped me reach out and ask my grandparents for some information, and I reflected on my own family stories. Being so far away from home, this was a nice way to remember funny stories from my own childhood and reminisce on the good times when my parents would read my sister and I bedtime stories.

When I started the paper I had a theory about what affect I thought child development had, but by the end of the paper I realized that I actually do believe that children can be affected by the social interaction that bedtime stories provide.

I know what tradition I want to begin when I have my own children, based on my own experience and also my research.

Thesis For My Research Paper - Bedtime Stories (8)

A time-honored tradition ensures that most, if not all, children have heard a story at some stage in their childhood. While some believe that bedtime stories are nothing more than just that, there is evidence that the development of a child can be greatly enhanced by the reading or telling of simple bedtime stories, both fictional and those from a parent’s own life. Child development theorists have suggested that cognitive, emotional, and social development may all be enhanced and affected through the parent-child interactions that result from story-telling.

Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority (7)

As I said on my previous blog post, I was able to attend conference this past week. I was actually in attendance for my favourite talk of the conference, which was delivered by Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As a part of my writing class we are learning what makes a talk or speech persuasive and effective. This talk made a huge impact on my life and on the lives of my roommates. I want to explain how he was able to be so persuasive and make such an impact using his words.

Firstly, his talk was well presented, having four clear points that he wanted us to pick up on. This made taking notes easy and so I was able to clearly see what he wanted me to learn. Elder Scott listed four tools which the Lord has given us to come unto Christ and exercise faith in His atonement, namely prayer, scripture study, family home evening, and attending the Temple.

We come to conference to be taught, so I feel that the use of the imperative (or command voice) in his talk helped the people feel that they were being taught. I certainly did, as I heard him say, "Choose to converse...", "Make time every day...", "Tell him everything...", "Share with him...". Elder Scott gave us steps to take to effectively use prayer in our lives. He taught us and made it clear what we should do.

Another thing that made his talk so persuasive was his ethos. He didn't just speak to the world-wide congregation, but rather he added his own testimony. "I add my voice with this promise." The members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that Elder Scott is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a special witness of him. His word is so important to us.

These are just a few literary devices which Elder Scott used to make his talk be influential to the people. It changed my life in a few ways. My roommates and I pray together every night before bed, we made time to attend the Temple on Wednesday and will do so every week, and we read our scriptures after room prayer every night. We also attend our Ward Home Evening activities which always seemed to get in the way of school work. As we attended with happy hearts on Monday, we were able to relax and make new friends. Before, we had been anxious for it to be over so we could continue working.

The words of a prophet make all the difference!

October Conference Weekend (6)

This weekend was once again SO BUSY! It went like this:

FRIDAY

We started off the weekend with a home football game against Utah State University. We lost, but I'm basically certain that's because we lost our quarter back to a broken leg during the game and we lost a few other players. Otherwise we'd have beat them blindfolded. Go Cougars!

Me, Meg, Jess, and Trent. 

Who starts a football game at 8:15pm? This school. Seriously! We finally got in after midnight and then Nancy, Meg, Jess, and I all slept in mine and Jess' room. Nancy slept in my bed and Meg slept in Jessica's. It was cramped but we enjoyed being together! I have the funniest, quirkiest roommates!

Crazy scenes in room 2109.

SATURDAY

We got up bright and early and traveled to Salt Lake City in Nancy's sister's car. Nancy has it for the next month. We had to get to SLC by 10am so we could watch the first session of conference in Meg's house. That's where Meg is from. We met her super cute family! They welcomed all of us and fed us good food. We got lots of hugs and dessert. 

 Ready for our mini road trip

 We had to stop at McD's...it's a 45 minute drive after

all...Meg loves life.

We arrived at Meg's safe and happy with one huge suitcase

and lots of clothes!

We watched the first session and then got into our Sunday best so that we could attend the second session of General Conference in person! Nancy's dad managed to get the four of us tickets. When you consider that there are 15,000,000 Mormons in the world, being 4 out of 22,000 people in the conference centre was so amazing! And we got to go to two sessions. Blessed and a half.

 Our tickets!

 We got to sit on the very top balcony. We could see everything!

Thanks Nancy for being our photographer!

After conference we went back to the car and got changed. Then we went shopping in City Creek Mall. It was pay day on Friday so I bought a jacket...then had buyer's remorse...so now I don't have a jacket anymore but I do have an extra $75! We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner! It was so good! Meg and I got pasta, Nancy and Jess got steak. Then we shared a cheesecake. SO GOOD.

SUNDAY 

Round two. We watched the 10am-12pm session at Meg's just like on Saturday, and we also ate a great breakfast and lunch thanks to Sister Kelly. Then Brother Kelly dropped us off for our 2pm-4pm session. We had so much fun again. I just loved being there with my girls.

 Outside the conference centre

 Outside the SLC Temple. It's like a castle, it's that beautiful.

Inside the conference centre, after conference. That's 

an organ in the background!

That night we had a yum dinner. Home cooked food is just impossible to beat. We left to go back home at about 6:30pm. It was surprisingly nice to go back home. Provo has become familiar to me now. I also know what the I-15 is. I feel like I'm going up in the world. Such an adult: directing Nancy to conference, knowing where East is, counting out American change correctly, getting paid. Ah dear.

When we got home we had to get our washing in the machine and tidy up, getting ready for the week ahead. I attended ward prayer and then totally messed up my sleep pattern by staying up late talking to Jeremy from my ward and Alex who is a South African dude brought here to play rugby. Because South Africans are just the best at everything. Especially rugby and blogs.

Conference was such an amazing experience. We stood when the prophet walked in and it was so quiet. It was great being surrounded by so many people who shared your beliefs. I loved knowing I was in the same room as the Prophet of God. It is just something else entirely. I do prefer watching the TV and seeing their faces up close but I love the music and being there right when they are talking. My favourite talk was by Elder Scott. My roommates and I all loved it. When we were walking out, I told them what thoughts I'd had based on his talk. It was amazing because they all had the same thoughts! Jess nearly pounced on me in excitement when I told her my ideas because she was about to share the same ones!

So here is our plan to try follow the prophet's counsel:

• Attend FHE (well...in our case it's Ward Home Evening, not Family!)
• Have room prayer (since we can't have family prayer we are going to pray together)
• Go to the temple every Thursday (or at least once a week)
• Read our personal scriptures
• Watch a talk from any General Conference every night that we can. We are going to start with October 1995 tonight, because that is when Meg was born and she is the oldest!

It's easy to leave out the simple things in life which keep you strong, so that is why we are going to try our best to do this.

I got so lucky with my roommates. We are honest and frank with eachother, so we don't fight, we have a good time together, we laugh and cry and dance and sing. I can't wait to get home at the end of the night to be with them.

Have a great week! To all you LDS peeps out there, make the most of what happened this weekend. It only happens every six months! To all you non-LDS peeps, there was a talk SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU at this conference. It was so random to have a talk addressed to non-members. But it was really funny and true and well explained. Have a look here!

Have a great week!!

How do bedtime stories affect children? (5)

As a child, every night before bed one of my parents would relate a story to my sister and I as we lay tucked up in bed. Dad would tuck us in so that our legs looked like a mermaid's tail and Mom would give us a kiss, then story time would begin. My mom used to read us stories, I remember the first time we were read a "big girl's book", Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. My dad preferred to tell us stories of his childhood or stories that he would make up on the spot.

I love to read and have since I was about 8 years old. I wonder what it was that made me love reading so much. Do my parents have anything to do with it? Was I influenced by their example? Does reading bed time stories strengthen family bonds? Does reading the scriptures? Do family stories strengthen a child's character? Why do children want to know about their parents' childhood so much? What makes reading so appealing or unappealing?

I plan to write my research paper for my writing class on these questions. I want to know what affect story telling has on a child. If anyone has any opinions on it then please comment! I emailed my grandparents to ask if their parents loved to read. Maybe it's inherited (though just skipping dad!).

Thought for the day: “No book is really worth reading at the age of 10 which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of 50 – except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all.” (C. S. Lewis)

Granny reading us The Magician's Nephew 

by C. S. Lewis.