Sunday, September 30, 2018

Greetings and Happy Fall,



Fall.  A time of transition and change.  I lovingly brought all of my plants inside the last few nights to save them from the creeping frost. I admired their determination to hang on as the sun and her glorious warmth fade away.  A slice of a memory came to me as I was pulled back to lounging in my chair on a sultry summer night, the colors of my plants bursting with vibrant summer-color love.  



And now, it is time for rest.  The end of one season; the beginning of another.  Transition can be a challenging time for us all, even if we are not consciously aware.  As I packed away summer things this weekend, nestled way at the bottom of a beach bag, peeking up at me, was a sun-faded, small pink journal.  It was our summer writer's notebook.  A writer's notebook is a place to jot down thoughts, ideas, funny things people say~a place for you to capture humorous, serious, or sad memories.  Think of these little pieces of life as "seeds" that you capture, and tuck into a writer's notebook, for safe keeping~for later writing. 



When writers learn how to compose a piece of writing, sometimes generating an idea is the hardest part. This is where the writer's notebook comes in and this is how you can help at home:


  • put a writer's notebook and writing utensil(s) in a centrally located part of your house.  A word on writing utensils~try out different ones to see what you like. I promise, for a reluctant writer, sometimes the simple act of being able to choose the tool(s) can make a big difference.  We must nudge the writer him/herself, along with each piece they create.  Colored flairs are most often a hit!


  • A writer's notebook can be a simple composition notebook, big or small, or something more decorative.  Lined, or unlined is entirely up to the owner.  Unlined or mixed-lined pages allow for drawing and sketching, which is extremely important to emerging writers, and also important for visual thinkers like myself.


  • Spend some time in this transitional season sitting down together as a family, walking back in time, remembering people, places, events, that you have  experienced, together or individually.  Think of the following exercise as family storytelling and try this: In the writer's notebook, title one blank page, "People".  Title another one "Places", the next one "Things/Objects", the next one "Emotions".  Choose one page a night and sit down to generate little seed ideas for each page...memories of people, places, etc...Here is an example.  In the writer's notebook I fished out today, under the "Places" title, there were a few entries about a camping trip our family took to Colorado this past summer.  One was a memory of the hike that my daughter and husband took, which was a good lesson for our daughter in preparedness in high altitudes and sudden fluctuation of weather patterns in the mountains!  In the notebook, we didn't tell the whole story, but rather penned a quick snippet of the memory, just enough to jog the memory later.  I laughed out lout this morning as I remembered the two of them making a mad dash for the tent as golf-ball sized hail came bolting down...screaming and laughing all the way! As a young writer, I can pluck this seed idea out later, when my teacher says we are going to write a personal narrative, or realistic fiction, or memoir~all genres of writing we have in our writing curriculum.  Helping your children stockpile memories not only helps them get ready for writing at school, it has mental health benefits as well.


Telling family stories and taking the time to stroll down memory lane with your family has benefits beyond the academic world, as referenced in this New York Times article.  Storytelling can help your children develop a strong sense of self and know that they have control over their own lives.  They know they belong somewhere.  They have roots.



So as fall wraps her arms around us, engage in some family storytelling. All grade levels at Stone Bank School have some sort of writer's notebook, tailored to their developmental age.  Ask your child about it.  Maybe they can bring it home one night for you to see (make sure it comes back right away as it is a crucial tool in the writer's workshop).  If you have a family writer's notebook at home and your child wants to pull a seed idea out of that and bring it to school, just jot the memory down on a sticky note and he/she can simply post the sticky note in their own WN (writer's notebook) at school~~and now they have a seed idea, that can be planted on a page and grown into a story.  

As the earth around us dies or goes into a deep sleep, the memories can be planted, and kept alive.

"Listen! the wind is rising,
and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings,
now for October eves!"
          ~Humbert Wolfe


Happy Storytelling!
Beth
Stone Bank Curriculum Coach






1 comment:

  1. These are awesome suggestions, Beth- Thank you so much for taking the time to write them down for all of us parents! Looking forward to your next installment of relevant info & articles :)

    ReplyDelete

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