Sibling Rivalry

Sibling rivalry is “a competition between siblings especially for the attention, affection, and approval of their parents.” This means that siblings are having a competition against each other to get their parents to like them more. That is not a good thing. You should support your siblings. Well, what do you do if you have sibling rivalry?

One morning at home, I started thinking about my loss at the chess tournament. I thought of my brother who got all the good things, “won at the chess tournament,” “won at the writing competition,” “got a good teacher,” “got on the pre-swim team,” and “got on a really good basketball team.” I felt so unhappy that I decided to stop letting my brother use my Diamond Membership chess account. Obviously, my brother told on me. That morning my mom had a discussion with me about sibling rivalry. She told me that I had it. She said that I should let my brother use my account. You should support your brother. Not get jealous of him, she reminded me. Slowly I understood that even if I felt my brother had better things than me, I had to support him, encourage him, just like he did to me. I finally told my brother the changed password of my account. I definitely learned a lesson; never be jealous of a sibling.

If you are having sibling rivalry, a parent should have an open discussion with you. Just like my mom had with me. Also, think of things you’ve had that your sibling has not. We are all good at different things and get things at different time in life. Also if your sibling is good at things, it benefits you; you can learn from them. If your sibling has a problem, you can help them and they can learn from you! All of these strategies can inspire siblings to work with each other through learning, teaching, and having fun rather than being jealous of each other.

Here is the post I did on the day I was miserable after I didn't make it to the chess travel team and my brother did: My loss at the chess tournament.

Writing Girl (WG)

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day to honor all the military people who lost their lives protecting our nation. Memorial Day started when the Civil War ended. At that time, it was called Decoration Day and was on May 30th. On Decoration Day, people would decorate soldiers graves with flowers, notes, and tiny toys. During 1882, people started remembering Decoration Day as Memorial Day. In 1971, Memorial Day was changed to the last Monday in May.

Our family payed respect to the soldiers by walking through a Memorial Day parade. I’m also going to send letters to soldiers. Did you know that you can write letters or emails and send them to organizations who forward them to soldiers deployed in war zones? I’m sending mine to Kids4Troops. Go here for a list of organizations that can connect you with providing help, services, and thanks directly to our soldiers.

Dear Soldier,

      Thank you for risking your life to help our country. We all really appreciate your kindness. We hope all of you are fine. Today on Memorial Day, we are honoring your brave friends who lost their lives serving our country. We pause to remember their contributions and service. They will never be forgotten.

-Writing Girl (WG)

Should School lunch be trash-free?

                                                        -an opinion essay

          People are debating about whether or not schools should require kids to pack a trash-free lunch. Many people think that student lunches create lots of unnecessary garbage. Others feel that making a trash-free lunch is a big hassle. After considering both sides, I believe that kids should bring trash-free lunches.

          Packing a trash-free lunch can prevent 1.2 billion pounds of waste from ending up in landfills. If your lunch is in a reusable container, there is much less trash. Very little school lunch is recycled and ends up ruining the earth. Your lunch doesn’t reach recycling centers, instead it winds up in landfills where it takes centuries to break up. Trash-free lunches are not only a blessing for our earth, they also cost less money. Miniature packages, although convenient, are expensive.

          Some people complain that reusable containers are expensive. I disagree because pre-packaged snacks cost more than buying one or a few reusable containers. For example, a 16-ounce bag of baby carrots cost $1.50, but one 4-ounce pack of baby carrot costs $0.75.

          There is enough evidence that schools should require students to pack trash-free lunches. Parents would need to figure out the extra time needed in cleaning out reusable containers and in packing trash-free lunches. Kids can help with some of this extra work. After all, we all have a duty to protect our planet and doing some extra work due to it is all worth it for our future generations.  

-WG

I love you the Purplest

-  a poem by Writing Girl 

Mom, I love you the purplest. 

I love you the color of a star shining in the dark night sky. 

I love you the color of the vast blue sea where dolphins swim peacefully

enjoying the day.   
 

The shimmer of a lake
The brightness of a full moon

The call of a bluebird

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love Riya
May 7, 2015

A Video Game Marathon

The weekend before my spring break ended on April 12th, I decided to have a video game marathon. Just before I started, I figured I could write a tiny post for sharing my experience and viewpoint on each game. Below are the games I played, and my review for each.

Jetpack Joyride: The challenging part is; getting very far and beating missions that require you to collect no coins for a certain length. I would recommend this game because the hard missions teach you patience and a lesson that things don’t come easy. I like that you can buy cool objects that do amazing things. I  would rate this game 7.99 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Subway Surfers: I like it because the game makes you want more and you can’t stop playing. The challenging part is the way you have to go through lots of obstacles early in the game. I would recommend this game because it helps your imagination and creativity grow. I would rate this game 10 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Temple Run 1: I don’t like this game because there are many monkeys chasing one person. It should be one on one just like it’s in Temple Run 2. I like that there are different stages, like bridge, mountain, and wood. I think the challenging part is getting off all of those stages safely. The mountains are really the hardest. I would recommend this game because it teaches people that sometimes a group of other people will be after you when you are the only person in your group and if you are in that situation you just have to stand up for yourself. I would rate this game 9.87 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Temple Run 2: I like than you can catch items like treasure chests to win a prize. This game teaches you that you have to work hard to get something. I don’t like that you have to buy some of the people. I think the people should come free. Also, I think that you should have more than one person to start off the game. I would recommend this game because it helps you think big. Unfortunately, I have to rate this game 6.35 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Pocketcraft: I would not recommend this game because it is very confusing to operate. I hate this game because you can’t do anything but dig holes. After you dig a hole you get lost in it. Even if you find the entrance out, your tank can’t go forward. Also, there are no directions to tell you how you play. In survival mode, you can’t kill a cow. I tried to kill one and even though I stuck my tank into it, the cow didn't die. The cow even started bleeding, but it wouldn't die. Instead the cow blew my tank up into a thousand pieces. I hate this game and would rate it 0 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Angry Birds Go: I like this game because you can race other people’s cars and own things. You can also race the computer. You can buy strength. I would recommend this game because it teaches you about real life. In life you have to race people in inventions just like you have to race people’s cars in this game. The people in real life want to invent something before you. It’s the same thing in this game, except with cars. I hate that there are many bugs (software bugs) in this game. When I was trying to race, it didn’t let me launch my car. Instead dancing pigs were everywhere. On top of that, it made me lose a cupcake, the object that allows you to race. I would rate this game 9.35 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the game marathon! At least now I am not tempted on a daily basis to play video games. One thing though is that these games give you a false impression that all video games are good and we may get addicted to video games which is a bad habit indeed.

Summary Rating for Video games
Game Name	Rating by Writing Girl	Rating from internet
Jetpack Joyride	9.00/10.00	93/100
Subway Surfers	10.00/10.00	80/100
Temple Run 1	9.87/10.00	83.57/100
Temple Run 2	6.35/10.00	80.00/100
Minecraft	0.00/10.00	85.00/100
Angry Birds Go	9.35/10.00	80.00/100

The People Charmer

Today was a day the town named Stutsa was gloomy with fright. The news had said a pirate was coming to town. And of course pirates are bad. The days passed weeks and months passed too. Just no happiness. The news kept getting worser and worser. It got so bad people didn't believe the news reporters! The least bad news said that 3 people had gone missing! In fact, only 300 people stayed, the rest moved away because of the bad things than were happening. Before this news, there had been 33,000 people!

One bright sunny morning, as the gloom went on, an airplane was seen flying. It landed in Stutsa. People thought a pirate would come out. Instead out came a people charmer. His name was Codvac. He said he would do anything you told him to do. All he needed was unlimited water. There was nothing else he needed. Since this was the case, the town of Stutsa gave him unlimited water. For many weeks the town was happy. Once when there was a hurricane, Codvac warned everyone and made sure they were safe.

One day as the wind blew over the river, a boat came to sight. Everyone rushed to the river to see who was there. As the boat arrived they saw men with guns and many other weapons. Mrs.Jidda thought Codvac had called them to protect the town. Everyone rushed over to Codvac and carried him on their backs and in no time Codvac was famous in the world. The town of Stutsa bragged than they had the best army ever. And indeed that was true. As everyone was celebrating, Mrs.Jidda felt a bomb crash into her foot. That’s when she realized Codvac had called the strangers to attack, not to protect. Than meant the men had to be pirates. Than meant Codvac was a pirate too. Not a people charmer.

Mrs.Jidda immediately let go of Codvac causing him to fall. “Hey” Codvac said, “Why did you do that?” “Codvac, you’re a pirate.” Mrs.Jidda replied. “That’s true.” “I’m a good pirate.” Codvac  said. “Then why did you call the other evil pirates?” asked Mrs.Jidda. The conversation was interrupted by a loud BOOM. Stutsa lost 50 people. As people hurried toward the unbreakable shelter, everyone knew than Codvac  was not just a pirate, a bad one.

The local army was not even prepared. They had started thinking that Codvac could take care of all their problems and stopped working. Now it would be harder than ever to get the pirates away. Slowly the plan of Codvac and the pirates came together. The alive people ran to the shelter and locked the door. Everyone had lunch and helped the army prepare for the battle against the evil pirates. In 1 month the army went out to attack. 

Right before the battle was about to start and Stutsa would die, one brave citizen named Cicada stepped forward, and asked, "why do you want to kill us?" Codvac immediately responded "We're poor pirates. When we heard that this town is rich, we thought of a plan to get all the money." "Wait I've got an idea.How much money does your community of pirates have?" "$300 dollars each." "If we work in jobs all around the world and you do the same, in one year we'll have 8,000,000,000 dollars. (I did all the calculation in the unbreakable shelter on a piece of paper.) That's more than what we got here. We got 5,000 here. We'll give you the money we get for our jobs too so in one year you will have 8,000,000,000 dollars." "That's a great idea Cicada" replied Codvac. "We'll go for it. So in the end there was no battle. Only the sounds of cars driving to work. The town of Stutsa was saved, all thanks to one brave citizen.

Picture of the real Codvac.

Moral: Speak up for yourself and the people around you. Cicada did that and saved his town, Stutsa.