The amazing quote this week is-

“If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that – warm things, kind things, sweet things – help and comfort and laughter…” –A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The paragraph of the week should be a respond to that-

Brainstorm ways you can be a ”giver” and create a list of small, random acts of kindness and love that you can perform during the month of December. Choose one of the acts and explain in detail how you will do it and who may benefit from your act of kindness.

My Paragraph of the Week

There are so many small, random acts of kindness and love that you can perform. Here are just three ideas of kind acts that we can all perform in our free time:

1. Baking a big amount of cookies and give them out to the homeless people.
2. Clean the street that you live in (pick up litters, pick up the leaves).
3. In the morning, hold the door in the entrance to the school instead of the teacher who stands there and tell “good morning” to the students who come in.

I want to focus on the first idea and explain it in details because that’s the idea that I connect to more than the others. I know that as a thirteen-year-old girl, I can’t just save the homeless people, buy them house, and give them food, but I can just do a little act that would make them a little happier and that would make them a little less hungry. Baking cookies, then walking around the area where you know that the homeless people stay, and giving each of them 3 cookies is not going to save their life, but it might save their day, it might make just one day out of their hard life a bit easier, and it might give them a little more hope.

This week, our Paragraph of the Week’s quote is-

“Courage is…knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” –To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The question for this week is-

When have you had to demonstrate bravery and courage? What is the hardest thing about having courage?

My Paragraph of the Week

It was hard for me to think of a situation where I had to demonstrate bravery and courage because most people would probablt talk about ziplining, Halloween haunted houses, and this type of stuff, but I am usually not scared of these stuff, and therefore I don’t feel brave after experiencing these adventures. But like everyone else, I do have things that I am scared of. For example, a year and a half ago, when I moved to Canada from Israel, I was kind of terrified. New country, new language, new school, new teachers, and the most terrifing- new friends. But going through it, slowly slowly, I made progress. I was so quiet when I just started school, I barely spoke. But now, a year and a half later, I talk as much as any other girl. And to get to the place I am at today, I had to be brave. Every day, I had to get over my fears, and talk a little more. And today, I don’t even need to think about it before I talk to the other girls. I think that the hardest thing about having courage is actually using it in the most important situations. You need to use your courage when you are scared, which is what makes it hard to use your courage. When you are scared, or stressed out, it makes it harder to think straight and use the courage that you have. I got it, though. I know I have courage, so I just hope that I will always be able to use it when it’s actually necessary.

Just like any other Monday, we need to write the Paragraph of the Week. This week our quote is-

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir (naturalist and author).

The question we need to answer this week is-

Describe a place that you have traveled to that you hold close to your heart. What is so special about this place? (It doesn’t have to be a vacation spot. Some of the most special places may be close to home!)

My Paragraph of the Week

I have traveled to 7 different countries in my life. All of them such beautiful countries. Such beautiful views. Such beautiful nature. But from all the places I have traveled to, the place that I hold close to my heart more than I do with any other place, is actually about 5 minutes away driving from my house. It’s my grandparents’ house. Right now, that I am in Canada, it might be at the other side of Earth, but at the end of the year, when I go back to Israel, it will be 5 minutes away again. It’s a special place for me. A place where I feel comfortable, a place where I feel loved, and a place where I would always want to be. You don’t need to travel to the other side of earth to find a special place, a place that you hold close to your heart. Sometimes this place is closer than you think.