Happy New Year! We hope that 2017 will bring you happiness, health, and inspiration. For this month’s blog post, we want to help you kick start your inspiration, with 31 journaling prompts. Write your heart out, then come back to read through it, and get inspired to take action.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, pick a prompt, and start writing unfiltered. Whatever comes to mind, write it down. Don’t’ worry about grammar or editing (yes, we said that), just get your thoughts onto paper. You’re only writing this for yourself, not for marking! 

If you get into a habit of journaling, you’re in good company. Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Mark Twain regularly wrote in their journals. And journaling is not a thing of the past, people like Lady Gaga and Jennifer Aniston are avid note takers.

It’s the last month of 2016, and we’re celebrating Language Month at SCIDES. Did you know there are over 6,900 languages in the world? There are 6,909 to be exact, as documented by the Linguistic Society in 2009. That’s close to seven billion people in the world, speaking over 6,900 languages – wow! Some languages are only spoken by a handful of people, while the most-spoken language in the world (by population) is Chinese, with over 1.2 billion native speakers.

Can you believe fall snuck up on us like that? It’s in full swing and we’re dedicated to staying healthy and active during the cold and wet season – so we’re declaring November Sports Month at SCIDES! Let’s have a look at what we can do for you and your fitness (if you participate!) and what’s in store for this month.

October is Art Month at SCIDES! We’re kicking off the new school year with creativity. Last school year, we had Art Month in May, and you can read about it in our blog archive. Just like last time, we have another trip planned to 4Cats Studio, and we’ll be offering various activities at SCIDES and online. But there is more! On October 21, 2016 is a non-instructional day (in School District 58), and we challenge you to create something that day.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

In our last blog post, we talked about study and success tips for students in Grades K-9. This month, we want to tell our students in Grades 10-12 how to settle into the new school year, get the most out of their experience at SCIDES, and have a successful academic year.