Writing Books

Today, your child is bringing home their "Idea Notebook" and a not quite completed book.  
During the month of May, instead of writing in their journals, the children worked on writing books. The first step was getting down ideas for a story in an "Idea Notebook".  Next, they dictated their stories to me while I typed the final version on the computer.  

Unfortunately, we ran short of time, so the last page for many of the books' read: "To be continued..."  I suggested to the children that maybe over the summer an adult might help them type more of their stories or they can do the writing on their own. 

I also wanted let you know that some of the stories have a bit of a morbid twist in them.  Many of the themes deal with death and dying.  At first I was a bit perplexed when I noticed this trend in the tales.  I have such a light hearted group, why did so many of the stories have grisly themes. Then it occurred to me that before they started writing we talked about how most stories have a problem in them.  The problem help make the story interesting.  We talked about books we read over the year and some of the problems in the stories.  Even though death and dying are not common to the books we read, I think for the children this seemed like an interesting problem to write about.  So, if your child's story seems a bit gruesome, I don't think you have to worry.  Remember it is just one story.

I hope you enjoy reading them.  I know the children enjoyed writing them.