“We should make another movie on the computer, Mom. That was fun.” Logan reminded me this morning of a major project we did some time ago that involved scripting a story and making a photo slideshow: ‘The Baby Who Ate the World!” A 12″ foam model of the planet Earth and Logan’s little brother, Luke, inspired us [...]
When I talk about reading with my kids with other parents—-that is, either me or my husband sitting down with them to read aloud or share the reading duties—-I hear these responses like these: “I wish I could find the time to do that,” or “we’re just too busy to read.” I understand completely. Between [...]
While we wait for the first of the leaves to make their way to the ground, how about some seasonal reading, the kind that you can fall into to escape all the raking? Here are my autumn favorites–Each makes creative use of language and is richly illustrated.These are books you can fall into as if they were piles of [...]
It is a weekday, and for most of us, that means that we are juggling work, homework, practices, and who knows what else. It is rare that the kids do any additional writing at home. But, today is Constitution Day, the anniversary of the signing of the nation’s founding document, and as is every day–an opportunity for writing! You [...]
It Takes A Long Time to See A Flower Georgia O’Keeffe once said this when referring to the observation skills necessary to paint the intricate details of flowers in large scale. I like to apply it to the practice of writing description. Rather than really taking the time to observe and note details, my college [...]
Saturdays are a good day here for writing stories. Though we have plenty to do, we can usually find some time for writing. Often, my ten-year-old grabs some paper and illustrates a story on his own while everyone else is working around the house…Today, he spent some downtime writing a 500-word story to enter into [...]
If your writers-in-training resist sitting for a fifteen-minute jounal entry or other writing exercise, you might have some success weaning them into writing “a sentence a day.” This can be done on a computer, or handwritten in a notebook. I prefer the latter, since flipping to the story will maintain the quick and easy nature [...]
I just saw a news-piece about the top passwords that people use to guard their access to their electronic accounts. The fact that so many use PASSWORD, 123456, 654321, ABC123, not only demonstrates a disturbing lack of concern for information security, but also a frightening lack of creativity. While some are born with the “creativity [...]
My first grade teacher, Miss Mary Bodi, spent a lot of time bringing out the writer in her students. Regularly throughout the year, she asked us to choose a picture from a file. In it were magazine advertisements, clipped comics, and other images she’d collected. One-by-one, were called to sit next to her at a [...]
This December, we read and enjoyed a couple of Christmas books this season with a similar theme–destroying a Christmas play. Both books focus on abhorent characters who display an offensive behavior or two or three, but while this will attract your young reader’s attention, he/she will absorb the overall positive lesson behind the tale. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever–By Barbara [...]