#blogging4charity – The Apollo Mission

Source: http://www.space-images.com/

For my next #blogging4charity challenge, I will need help from all my readers and followers of Dyslexia and Me! Yes, that means you!

I want to raise as much money this year as I can for the British Dyslexia Association by boldly going on my very own Apollo Mission!!! 

Dyslexia and Me: Genealogy, Poetry and Degrees

Source: http://www.lushland.co.uk

Genealogy

In the last month I have been doing a lot of genealogical research. I find it highly addictive and I am sure that between myself and my mum we have spent a small fortune on delving into our family’s history. I love trying to put the bits of the jigsaw together and find it more relaxing than tasking. I think the only thing I find highly irritating is the amount of misinformation people have on their family trees on Ancestry which takes you off down the wrong path completely.

A great example of this was when someone had assumed that our common ancestor, who was a shepherd from Fife in Scotland, was somehow linked to a lord and lady and linked through generations to Charlemagne and the Roman Empire. Actually there were two families with very similar names, both the husband and wife, who were married within a few years of each other in Fife. One was the family of a lord and lady, the other was the family of more shepherds. Think it’s safe to say which one my family was tied to, but there were several family trees that had gone with the misinformation. 

#blogging4charity – P is for Poetry

I hated English at school. I hated reading out loud and I could never read books in time for the book reviews. However, I LOVED poetry! I love writing it, I loved reading it and I loved analysing it.

I remember when I dropped out of my English class (after asking for help for weeks from school) one of the girls came up to me and said she couldn’t understand why I was dropping out because I was the only person in the class that seemed to ‘get’ poetry. To me a lot of it seemed very obvious to me and I thought it was people just being shy about putting up their hands. Apparently there was more to it than that. 

#blogging4charity – M is for Memory

When I was 10 I sang this on stage for three nights in a row in a school concert. I wasn’t going to be given the part. I auditioned for so many different parts, but the music teacher didn’t want any of the p6 students to take any of the main parts. Any time there were auditions there was the same girls going forward and rejected because she only wanted p7s to get the parts. 

#blogging4charity – J is for Joy

Source: http://blog.beeminder.com

Somewhere over the rainbow
A long way from school
There’s a daydreamer drifting
Trying to change the rules.

Should she walk the yellow path
Or should she pick the red?
No guidance from the Munchkin host
Or signposts overhead. 

#blogging4charity – I is for Ireland

From a young age, I always had a huge interest in the island of Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. I always remember wanting to go to visit or even to move there. Some of my favourite music comes from Ireland as well as favourite actors, TV programs etc. Here is my blog celebrating the Emerald Isle! 

The Letters on the Page

In the light of day
I see the shadows move.
They encircle and dance
And twist their way through
The letters on the page.

The words start to party
As the disco lights begin.
Flashing all the colours
So they don’t blend or fit in
With the letters on the page. 

Dyspraxia and Me: Is it funny that I cannot swim?

Is it funny that I cannot swim?
And struggle trying to keep trim?
My problems with coordination,
Make any sport a sheer frustration.

Is it funny that I can’t ride a bike?
That my balance skills went out on strike?
So when I climbed a tree or wall,
I was sure that I would always fall.

Dyslexia and Me: The Superhero Inside

Anyone who knows me is aware that when it comes to essay time, I suddenly turn into The Hulk! Or as my boyfriend says ‘The Incredible Sulk’. I find writing excruciatingly difficult! I know what I want to say, but being able to get my ideas from my head onto a page, whether typed or handwritten, is extremely painful. Although I understand writing is difficult for all (which I have been told by non dyslexic students, much to my anger for their ignorance) but with dyslexia it really is an uphill battle. Not all dyslexics have the same problems. For example, my spelling is often on the same level as my non dyslexic family and friends, or sometimes even better! That wasn’t always the case though and I put it down to spending hours type talking to people over the internet without the lazy tlk lyk dis (I may have a rant about txt tlk at a later date). The areas I struggle in are writing and reading rather than spelling.