Andrew and Alex

Yay! Time for a weekend cottage trip! This trip was organized by my father two moths ago for more than 20 families, including our friends, Sherry and Helen’s families. The place is called Blue Water Acres in Muskoka. Blue Water Acres has cottages, playgrounds, game rooms, and many types of boats. I hoped the trip would be really fun.

Normally the driving should take about three hours considering the traffic jams on Friday afternoons. However, my mother drove onto the highway 409 when we were supposed to get on highway 400, so we ended up with taking an extra hour for the whole journey.

We quickly got off highway 409 once we realized there was a mistake. Man, come on! The drive took forever because of the jam on local highway! Wait a minute, what’s happening!? Everything was dark and a huge wind blew against our car, almost lifting it. I thought a tornado was forming and was very scared. Fortunately after a few minutes the storm stopped and we drove on. Later, Helen’s family joined us on the highway 400 and we drove together.

We arrived at about 8 o’clock after 4 hours driving. Blue Water Acres looked beautiful even from the car. Sherry’s family was already here. Helen’s family got a cottage next to ours and they were both close to the beach. The beach was beautiful. There was a huge lake there and on the shore parked canoe, kayaks, paddleboats, and motorboats. Wow! I was excited about going boating the next day.

Next day early in the morning, Helen came to our cottage and woke me. She wanted to go find Sherry so I took her to Sherry’s cottage. Sherry came out and we decided to go canoeing. After we got to the beach, I discovered we had to wear lifejackets so each of us got a lifejacket and a paddle. We paddled madly across the lake and Helen and Sherry wanted me to let them play GM, a game that I made up for fun. In the game, random things happen and I would give the players choices of what to do. Sherry and Helen’s favourite option was “dance” because the person in front of them would be Mexican and he would give them money.

We boated for about 3 hours and then three boys canoed up to us when we were in a paddleboat. The three boys saw Helen in the boat and immediately started teasing us. I thought that they were crazy because their insults were very lousy and old and they were just bullies. They splashed water at us and Helen tried to bump into them but she was too afraid she would get into trouble so she turned away right when we almost got them.

After we went canoeing, I saw many people using a kayak with a double paddle. I thought it would be a good idea to try the kayak. I first went kayaking with Sherry and it was way faster than the canoe! I saw a boy that I met on the previous night and Sherry suggested we kayak with him. I went kayaking with him and he told me he wants to be called Joe.

Sherry, Helen, and a girl named Ilene went in another canoe. We paddled around
with them for a while and we played GM. Unfortunately, the three boys interrupted us when we were playing.

They forced the girls in into the end of the lake we tried to help them boys. We tried bumping into them but they always dodged and splashed water at us so we paddled away.

I saw my brother Alex playing with the sand and water with Xixi, Sherry’s sister, when we reached shore.

When we paddled safe to shore, the girls were angry because they were bullied by the boys and blamed me for not helping them. Joe and Helen went swimming and I stayed at home to rest. After a while, Helen came to the cottage and her eyes were all red. I was surprised that she told me that the swimming pool had salt water in it. Helen suggested we play a game called war, using poker cards. We were going to go to find Sherry but unfortunately, the day was over and it was dinnertime. We had a delicious meal of chicken wings and porridge.

Suddenly, I remembered I had to do a presentation of how to write a journal to everyone at night. Dad took out the computer and we went over to the campfire. I was so nervous! My legs were shaking badly and I breathed heavily.

The presentation was long but everyone seemed to like it. They ask weird personal questions like “how old are you” but I answered them. Whew! I think I did fine. I had a good night’s sleep afterwards.

We went home the next day after going to a big park. The park had a long trail and it had many cool things in it. I sure hope we could go kayaking again someday!

My father often told me that some early grade students had difficulties to start writing journals. Today I am going to share with you some basic techniques I learned from my father and teachers.

When I started writing in my 10, my father taught me four basic steps: brainstorming, outline, draft and review.

Brainstorming: Rough ideas of what happened or what features and things that will be covered in your story, for example: people, location, and features.

Outline: An outline is about writing down what you have in your brainstorming, but written more structurally and in order of how things happened.

Draft: Then, you start your rough draft. Start with an introduction explaining what your journal is about. This paragraph must hold your reader’s attention, especially the first sentence because the reader might not be interested in your story if your first lines are not attractive enough to the readers. Then, write your main body. This will be based on what you wrote in your outline, but with more detail of your topic. Finally, write an ending for your story. The ending will be based on your introduction and must relate to what you said there. This is your first draft.

Review: Now, you should read through the story four or five times and fix any grammar or spelling errors you made. After that, you should review your journal with your teacher, parent, or even your friends. They can always find more errors in your story that you didn’t realize about because they think differently than you do. They can also give you some good ideas of your topic that they know and remember about. My dad sometimes helps me on this and at school, my friends exchange stories and we edit each other’s work.

Outline Sample: French Class Field Trip

1. The restaurant was located downtown and I didn’t get in the Finch subway.
2. We went to St. Lawrence market and had free time buying things.
3. The restaurant Le Papillon was wonderful and everything was delicious.
4. We went to the distillery and there was a candy shop with long tubes of sugar.
5. Mr. H. walked us past our houses and allowed us to go home at school.

Tips:

1. Oral and Written English
2. Numbers Writing (1 ~5)
3. Research online about your topic for ideas.