Life at Oak Grove

For this specific blog post, I needed to answer one of the questions asked in the article "Do People Know Your Story?" from John Jantsch for one of the courses I am taking to complete my Social Media certificate. I decided to answer the question: What about your childhood shaped you for this moment?

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Recently, while doing an earlier assignment for the Digital Communications course I am currently doing to complete my Certificate in Social Media at Algonquin College, I realized that a specific experience in my life had prepared me somewhat to become an online journalism doing reviews.

While I was in high school, I was part of the student newspaper called “L’Informateur” back in 1985-1986. I was responsible of the middle section of the newspaper which consisted of the numerous news of what was going on at the school during that particular week. As a reporter I would meet with the various teachers/nurse/event organizers and so on to ask them what news would they want to see in the next edition. I would then organize the information so that it would be easy to read in the middle section of the newspaper. Sometimes there was so much information to post that I needed to include another page. Here’s an example of the page I was responsible of. The scan is not perfect but in case you are wondering yes I still have all my copies of “L’Informateur” from the year I was part of the writing team. What can I say… I am sort of a packrat!

At one point during the year, we also created a weekly story called “Super Gaétan” and everyone was responsible to the story line at one specific time during the year. The highlight of my participation to the student newspaper was definitively our visit to the headquarters of La Presse in Montreal during the printing of the next day’s paper. We learned quite a bit on how a newspaper was produced (The arrow indicates me in the picture!).

But after high school, I concentrated on my studies and worked as well. It is not until I was a stay-at-home mom and starting to consider homeschooling that I renewed my interest in writing but this time via a blog post. Before that every now and then I would write in a journal about what was going on in my life. But blogging was different… and when a friend of mine encouraged me to participate to the new viral marketing project of a homeschool magazine in the US I discovered reviewing products was interesting. Once my nine month commitment for that first year was completed, I started reviewing novels. During my third year with the TOS Crew where I reviewed numerous homeschool products, it dawned on me that I could do this for other products as well like toys for example.

In a way I am still informing other about products/books available out there and give them my honest opinion about them. Though the way of doing it is different – after all I am doing it online now, the idea behind it is similar than when I was responsible of the middle section of the student newspaper. Essentially, I test the product at home and give the positive and negative on the said product. If it is a book, I say what I honestly think about it and how it touched me in some ways.

So in a way I consider myself as a digital reporter who is involved in the product testing and reviewing of products and books. Who would have known that being involved in a student newspaper would have opened doors later in life in doing something that I enjoy.

How about you? What childhood activity has shaped you for whatever is going on in your life right now?

Note to my readers: I am currently doing two courses to complete my Social Media Certificate. One of the course is Digital Communication. This is my second blog post assignment. I will post my assignments here.

The author of this blog also post regularly on Canadianladybug Reviews!

Recently I have learned quite a bit on target audiences and the importance of knowing the audience we are trying to reach. For the purpose of this blog post I have decided to identify the target audiences of my review blog, Canadianladybug Reviews!.

Most of my readers would be homeschoolers as I review many homeschool products as well as anyone interested in a particular book, product or toy. My readers come from all around the world as shown in this map below.

People reading my blog obviously come from a wide ethnic community as I have visitors from around the world. Consequently, I consider that I have to be professional in my writing and be careful in wording my thoughts while writing a post.

People reading my blog could come from various classes with various income and budget. I also know that many of my regular readers are some friends I have made while participating to the TOS Homeschool Crew in the past three years. These women are homeschoolers themselves, have various hobbies from sewing, knitting, crocheting to photography like myself. They are mostly Christian women who have chosen to homeschool their kids for various reasons.

Knowing the fact that homeschoolers are always looking for good products at good price, I could blog more about the opportunities of free products available on a more regular basis which I am not currently doing. I have discovered numerous great products that were free for a period of time and it never really dawned on me that I could blog about it. And if these products are fabulous for me why wouldn’t others enjoy them as well?

Another way to reach out to my readers would be to offer more giveaways. Unfortunately, this is difficult to do because not all companies are willing to provide extra products for such a thing.

Note to my readers: I am currently doing two courses to complete my Social Media Certificate. One of the course is Digital Communication. This is my second blog post assignment. I will post my assignments here.

This week I have learned how to transform myself as a digital storyteller. As part of my readings I had to read an article on persuasive writing that inspired me to become a better writer.

Essentially, writing in a persuasive way will influence the reader to pursue their reading and eventually do something at the end. But to do so, I need to identify my audience and catch their attention somehow by being specific in what I am writing. In my review blog, Canadianladybug Reviews!, I know that whoever reads my posts has an interest in discovering what I think about a specific product or book.

What I always try to do is to present the product/book, indicate who is behind it (whether a company or an author), explain how our family has use the product or how the book has touched me and finally where you can find it (when possible). To make it more personal, I include pictures of our family using the product or explain how a book spoke to me while I was reading it. I find that if I personalize a post as much as possible it makes it more real for my readers and they would accept the review better.

However, I have discovered this week that using an active voice will make the blog post clearer, precise and might encourage the reader to react by leaving a comment. Ideally, I would love to have more interaction with my readers on both of my blogs.

English is not my first language and my husband graciously offered me to review some of my writings a while back. Recently he told me that I have made tremendous improvement in my writings. But going through the material this week I have learned more on how to write better with some tips on how to improve my post. I am looking forward to see how my writings will be by the end of my Digital Communication course.

What specific aspect of writing do you think you need to improve?  Please share your thoughts on this.

Note to my readers: I am currently doing two courses to complete my Social Media Certificate. One of the course is Digital Communication. This is my second blog post assignment. I will post my assignments here.

This year our summer vacation was mostly spent close to home.

In June I had the opportunity to photograph a robin’s nest and discover for the first time its eggs. I was quite pleased with this as I am an amateur ornithologist. We also went to explore the City of Ottawa during the Open Doors events. At one point during that month we also took a small trip to the city of Syracuse. Finally the month finished with some action… A few days before the 10^th birthday of our oldest son, our street became a beehive of activities with numerous fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. A house was burning down on another street so it was quite an event let me tell you. Have you ever witness firemen working? It is impressive!

During the month of July, we continued camping at our RV site. The first week, my husband went on training in Calgary which was a first for our family. Never before had he had to leave our home for an extended period of time. That week, I also had to deal with two sick children – one having a mysterious rash and the other one affected with poison ivy (which he got again two weeks later!). Later that month we also went fishing on the Ottawa River and enjoyed seeing bald eagles in the wild. My oldest son even learned to filet a fish (and dissect its stomach) How many kids have the opportunity of learn these skills? Not that many I think.

August arrived a little bit faster than we expected. Being homeschoolers, we started slowly to introduce some school work in our days. But the big even of the month was definitively the wedding of our friends in Lac-Sainte-Marie. Being an outdoor wedding, we were at the mercy of the weather and unfortunately the plans had to be changed at the last minute due to rain. My daughter was the flower girl and did a beautiful job. This was a dream of mine to have one of my kids involved in a wedding when they are younger. Have you ever had a dream come true? What was it and how did you felt? I was so proud of her when she walked down the aisle helping the little ring bearer. That following week, we decided to bring the kids to Toronto for a week. We owned a membership to the Toronto Zoo and went there to experience some much needed family time. Our whole family was able to see a new facet of the animals there!

I believe we came back from this trip refreshed and ready for the fall season. My highlight during this summer time was to be able to explore new possibilities with my camera. Photography is a passion of mine. What is one of your passions that you would like to explore more in the future?

Note to my readers: I am currently having two courses to complete my Social Media Certificate. One of the course is Digital Communication. I will post my assignments here.