Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 499
Having Faith in Yourself
Hello Everyone
This story is told so many times that you may well have heard it before.
But just in case you haven’t, you need to.
Her it is…
There was a little boy called Monty who lived with his horse-trainer dad.
They travelled from town to town and they didn’t have much money.
At school one day, his teacher set an essay for the children in her class to write.
She wanted them to write about what they wanted to be when they grew up.
Monty wrote that he wanted to race thoroughbred racehorses and live in a big house surrounded by a lot of land.
He worked very hard to write a good paper. He drew pictures on it as well to show the teacher exactly what he saw in his head.
But when the teacher gave the papers back to the class, she had given Monty an F grade for fail. There was also a note on the paper asking him to see her after class.
Monty was devastated and could not understand why the teacher had not liked such a well-thought-out piece of work.
The teacher explained that it was unrealistic dream for a really poor boy like him, travelling from place to place, to end up being a successful racehorse owner.
She told him to rewrite the paper and she would mark his work again.
Monty went home and told his dad how upset he was. He asked his dad what he should do.
His dad told him that he couldn’t tell him what to do; but whatever decision he made would affect him in the years to come.
Monty thought about it, went back to school the next day and walked up to the teacher and handed in very same piece of paper.
She was surprised to see the same paper being handed back to her.
Then he just said to her,
“You keep the F. l’m keeping my dreams.”
So of course the question is, did Monty fulfil his dreams?
The answer is yes.
He became a world-renown, award-winning trainer of championship horses and also a best selling author and Hollywood stuntman.
He even trained some of Queen Elizabeth ll’s horses and she was so pleased with his work she gave him an honour for personal service to her.
He has lots of money. He lives in a big house on hundreds of acres of land.
He is a foster dad to 47 children.
He is known as ‘the man who listens to horses’ because he treats them in a gentle way that appeals to their nature, rather than breaking them into submission by brute force. lt is the secret of his success.
He still has that piece of paper with the F grade that his teacher judged him to deserve framed and hanging on his wall.
Walt Disney was once fired for not having enough imagination. He went on to create one of the biggest companies in the whole world built with thanks to his imagination.
Burt Reynolds was once told he had no talent and no future in acting. He later became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
Soichiro Honda wanted a job at the Toyota motor company. After he was rejected he started his own successful motor company.
Everyone believed that it was impossible for a human to run a mile in under four minutes until Roger Bannister did it on 6th May 1954. The following year eleven people managed it too.
The authors of the Dr Seuss books and the Harry Potter books were turned down by many publishers before they went on to sell millions of books.
Steven Spielberg was rejected by the film, theatre and television college that he wanted to go to, because they didn’t consider that he had enough potential. He went on to direct some of the most successful films in recent decades.
John Lennon was told he was going nowhere.
Albert Einstein was told he was educationally subnormal.
This list goes on and on – but you get the picture.
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: Why did the school children eat their homework?
Bob: Tell me.
Bill: Because the teacher told them it was a piece of cake!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
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Picture Gallery
Burt Reynolds
Roger Bannister
Steven Spielberg
ET
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Miss Pringle asked her class an interesting question.
She said that when people become successful, other people often only see the success, and not all the hard work behind the scenes it takes to become a success.
It might take years for someone to get where they want to be.
She asked the children what kind of things you need to do to become successful, and wrote their answers up on the board.
She said that taking lots of little decisions can steer you on a course to achieve your goals.
The children said you have to work hard and be dedicated to your studies.
You might be determined to succeed in a sport or hobby as well, not just school work.
You might have to sacrifice doing other things that you like to spend time on, and concentrate on more important things. It is not easy to resist distractions.
You might have to overcome failure and disappointment and other people letting you down.
But you might also need to ask for help and advice.
Above all, you have to be persistent, even when the going gets tough. You may see no successful outcomes coming up on the horizon but you still have to keep trying.
These are important lessons to learn.
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Quick Quiz
Can you translate this British English into American English?
- to take the biscuit
- to knock your head against a brick wall
- a rough track
- feeling ill
- using a torch
- to be in hospital
- to touch wood for good luck
- a tree bough
- it begs the question
- you throw confetti at a wedding
- to break wind
- to have a tour of a fire station
- to plant things in the soil
- a school playground
- a grazed knee/playground knee
- playing Chinese whispers
- to be mean with money
- a staircase
- to catch one’s eye
- to get one’s head around it
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE AN EXERClSE RECORD CHART
We all know by now that exercise is good for us. Everyone needs to exercise to keep their body strong, fit and healthy. It can even help with sleep and improve your immune system.
If anyone particularly wants to release weight it is extra important.
But reducing your weight can be a long and, at times, disheartening journey, especially if you ‘comfort eat’ and you are going through a bit of a rough patch. 🙁
Choosing a way of exercising that you enjoy is really important.
Exercising is something you should enjoy; it shouldn’t be a punishment.
Sometimes, having a partner to work with really helps a lot. You can encourage each other and be company for each other – if you go walking, swimming or to a dance class.
Another thing that can help is to set up a record chart.
Every time you do some exercise, you can note down what you have done – and you can write down the time you spent doing it as well if you like.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that short bursts of intense exercise are really beneficial and so even the busiest of people can find 10 or 20 minutes to exercise now and again in a week.
You don’t need special equipment either – walking or running up a staircase is really good exercise.
If you want to start exercising much more than you are used to, don’t exercise very day – your muscles need time to rest. In other words – you need days off.
To set up a chart, the first thing you need to do is draw a calendar out on a sheet of paper or card.
Maybe you can start with one month.
Draw a box for each day with plenty of room inside to draw a picture or put a sticker inside and write some notes like how many minutes you exercised or what your weight is at the end of each week.
Have a key at the side, top or bottom of your calendar to show which symbol represents each type of exercise.
Day by day and week by week you should have lots of symbols, pictures or stickers build up as the month progresses.
You will be able to see at a glance how well you are doing!
In other words, focus on the activities, not the weight loss results.
Think about the process not the end goal – that will take care of itself.
Before you know it, you will have a new lifestyle.
People talk about lifestyle nowadays rather than going on a diet – so that a regime can be maintained long term.
A blue wavy line or drop of water can represent swimming, a music note could represent dancing, a ball could represent a football match and so on.
Gardening and walking are good ways to exercise.
Skipping, roller skating, and playing chase are all good ways of exercising even though it seems like you are just playing!
The next month should soon come round and you will be able to create another chart.
If you have a notice board you can put the charts up side by side.
Otherwise, you could keep them in a folder – but having the chart you are using at the moment up before your eyes at all times is a really important thing to do – for the sake of motivating you.
Look after yourself!
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- to take the biscuit – to take the cake (a shocking or annoying situation that surpasses [worse than] all that have gone before)
- to knock your head against a brick wall – stone wall
- a rough track – a dirt road
- feeling ill – feeling sick
- using a torch – a flashlight
- to be in hospital – to be in the hospital
- to touch wood for good luck – to knock on wood
- a tree bough – a tree limb
- it begs the question – beckons the question
- you throw confetti at a wedding – rice
- to break wind – to pass gas
- to have a tour of a fire station – a fire house
- to plant things in the soil/earth – dirt
- a school playground – a school yard
- a grazed knee/playground knee – a skinned knee
- playing Chinese whispers – to play telephone
- to be mean with money – to be cheap
- a staircase – stairwell (stairwell in some places of GB too)
- to catch one’s eye – to grab one’s eye
- to get one’s head around it – to get one’s mind around it = to understand a concept or situation
