We were unable to do our weekly Muses this week, and next Monday, we are off for Veterans' Day. I know we all miss this writing time, so here are 2 prompts to write about in your notebook by Friday November 15. Choose 1 to revise and turn into a polished piece and publish it on your blog by Monday November 18.
1. What is your favorite picture book? Why? What are your specific memories of it? Why is it relevant to your life today? If you cannot think of a specific book, write about a children's movie. Or write about both.
2. Write about something that you recently saw, did, thought or talked about, listened to, or watched that inspired you. It could be a fun activity that you did over the weekend, a sports game you participated in, movie you watched. Describe it.
Here is my example:
Growing up, my parents didn't read to me. They bought me books from Troll Catalogue quite frequently and encouraged me to read. My familiarity and love of picture books didn't come until I became a parent for the first time six years ago. Since then, I have become an avid reader of all the classics and newly published children's books; I use my children as an excuse to read these books.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a text we have read and recited numerous times in my house. It is a favorite, so much so that on Halloween in 2008, our family costumes focused on the characters from this book. My husband and I were the Wild Things and my daughter was Max in a wolf suit, a costume I made by stitching ears and a tail to an off white hooded sweatshirt and pants.
The themes in the text are so relevant to childhood. Max reminds me now of my three-year old son who is often causing mischief and having tantrums and time-outs. The book helps me appreciate when he gets all wild, and comforts me by reminding me that his period of kicking, crying, yelling, throwing and saying, "I don't like Mommy" will ebb into the horizon until a new tide flows in.
Sendak's illustrations tell the story just as well as the words do. I love the series of wordless pages of Max and the Wild Things and their wild rumpus through the forest. I like to stop at these pages and ask the kids what they see, what they think the characters are doing, and whether or not they would like to be where Max is.
The end of the book is also a wonderful transition to sleep. Max returns to his room safely, tired from his journey, and he has his supper waiting for him, "and it was still hot." It is this feeling that I wish for my children at the end of the day, an appreciation for home after sailing and stomping through the forests of childhood.
1. What is your favorite picture book? Why? What are your specific memories of it? Why is it relevant to your life today? If you cannot think of a specific book, write about a children's movie. Or write about both.
2. Write about something that you recently saw, did, thought or talked about, listened to, or watched that inspired you. It could be a fun activity that you did over the weekend, a sports game you participated in, movie you watched. Describe it.
Here is my example:
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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a text we have read and recited numerous times in my house. It is a favorite, so much so that on Halloween in 2008, our family costumes focused on the characters from this book. My husband and I were the Wild Things and my daughter was Max in a wolf suit, a costume I made by stitching ears and a tail to an off white hooded sweatshirt and pants.
The themes in the text are so relevant to childhood. Max reminds me now of my three-year old son who is often causing mischief and having tantrums and time-outs. The book helps me appreciate when he gets all wild, and comforts me by reminding me that his period of kicking, crying, yelling, throwing and saying, "I don't like Mommy" will ebb into the horizon until a new tide flows in.
Sendak's illustrations tell the story just as well as the words do. I love the series of wordless pages of Max and the Wild Things and their wild rumpus through the forest. I like to stop at these pages and ask the kids what they see, what they think the characters are doing, and whether or not they would like to be where Max is.
The end of the book is also a wonderful transition to sleep. Max returns to his room safely, tired from his journey, and he has his supper waiting for him, "and it was still hot." It is this feeling that I wish for my children at the end of the day, an appreciation for home after sailing and stomping through the forests of childhood.
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