“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 [...]
Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, started by John Baur and Mark Summers, aka Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket aka eight years ago. Here’s a treasure chest of ideas for pirate-themed writing: Ask your crew to make up their own pirate names and to describe what they look like, what adventures they’ve been [...]
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 [...]
The earlier your child begins writing, the earlier he or she will begin enjoying making their mark on the world. Hopefully, those marks are contained to paper, rather than spread over walls. The doodling and drawing that toddlers and preschoolers do IS prewriting, and it does have its place in literacy learning. So, how can [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
“Fall fell: so that’s it for the leaf poetry” from AR Ammons, Called into Play Autumn can be especially inspirational to writers. Change is often an impetus for creativity, and big transformations occur as we begin the creep toward winter. To while away a Saturday morning last week, we made some leaf prints on heavy-bond [...]
The only time I ever got into trouble in junior high was related to an “underground” newspaper I wrote and distributed using an old typewriter, carbons, and the Xerox machine at the local library. I recall that my mom was called as I sat on one side of the principal’s desk. I was frozen in [...]