NaNo & My Stick Family

November is fast approaching but it isn't too late to sign up for National Novel Writing Month! You've always wanted to write a novel one day, haven't you? Well, NaNoWriMo is the end of the One Day Novelist! Yes, that is you -- the one who is always keeps saying "One day, I'm going to write a novel."

This will be my second year participating (and finishing, I hope!). So far, I know two people writing this year -- my sister and Robin at My Two Blessings. If you're going to be writing (I know you want to!) and would like to be Writing Buddies, just go to my Author Info page and either send me a Nano Mail or add me as a buddy.

What is a Writing Buddy? Someone who is there to encourage you -- either via email, on the msg boards or just through the word count bar! Everyday you write you upload your word count and the little bar moves a little farther to the right, a little closer to victory!


Now, who are these cute stick families that I heard about at Pheasant Ridge Academy? My family!

This first one I made. That is my Harley Honey, myself, Ginger 12, Momo 10, Tullius 7, Zamakee 5 and Beanie 2.


This second one my daughters, Ginger & Momo, made (without having seen mine).


Funny how we didn't pick the same options! All the kids wanted to know why Daddy was bald in my picture! Well, I couldn't have the beard and hair, it wasn't an option. Nor did they have a motorcycle helmet. So I did the best I could! There is only one thing exactly the same in both pictures -- can you find it? If you make a Stick Family, I'd love to see it!

Week 11 Report & more Neopian Fables

Ah, the weekly report...the belated weekly report. I love the idea, but I'd rather read about what everyone else has been doing that write up my own.

Look at this great check box Local Homeschooler taught me!! Actually, it looks cute in Safari but not in Firefox. I'm not sure what it looks like in Internet Explorer.

Several of you have asked about the blender. It still works. It never occured to me that it might be ruined or the blades dulled. My blender doesn't get much use -- making bread crumbs, creaming cooked broccoli & potatoes to make my delicious broccoli soup, mixing bananas and a can of pineapple to freeze for popsicles...this is not strenuous use of a blender. But perhaps we won't make more paper until we come back to TOG Yr 1 again!

So what did we do last week...well, we studied Ancient China and um, did school, and the kids wrote their next fables. Click on them to see the text larger!
The Eizzil and the Turtum, by Momo (10):

The Beakadoodle and the Veespa, by Ginger (12):

Two Petpets and Balthazar, by Tullius (7):


Can you guess what the original fable for each of these was? Last weeks winners were: Lisa at Koninonia Academy and The Genie Bottle! I wish I had a prize for you...ummm, I could draw you a picture! :)

To see the kids first attempt at Fable writings, check out the previous blog entry: Aesop's Neopian Fables

Aesop's Neopian Fables

Ever been to Neopets.com ? My kids love it! I even have an account...although I can't say I've played recently.

Writing this past week was done progymnasmata-style: Read a fable, write 3 or so key words per sentence and then re-write the fable in your own words. The kids all enjoyed this, especially the "own words" part. All the illustrations and the names too are Copyright 2000-2007 Neopets, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission.

Click on each story to read it! Can you guess what each original fable was called?

Illusen & the Xweetok, by Ginger

The Weewoo & the Vase, by Momo

The Gnorbu & the Load of Salt, by Tullius


I can't wait to see what they write this week!

Revising Writing

I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with teaching writing! This year we're using Tapestry of Grace's Writing Aids. At first I was unsure about it -- it is in beta right now. All the assignements are complete and integrated into each week of TOG for Year 1, however the Teacher's Notes and Talking Points and Graphic Organizers must be printed off the computer and organized by me. But I decided I would use only Writing Aids for the first 18 weeks (2 units of TOG) and then decide if I needed to add more. We're in Week 6...and just got to polishing the first rough draft paragraphs.

So far it has actually gone well. At first it was putting information into Graphic Organizers, then writing sentences with the information, then writing a rough draft...all that was pretty good. But "polishing" a rough draft? I tried to work w/ Momo yesterday. She had 2 rough drafts, an expository paragraph on plant cells and a descriptive narrative on building the pyramids -- written in the first person.

Other than a few possessive apostrophes, her writing was grammatically correct. However, I would have worded things differently -- stronger, more expressively, etc, especially on the pyramid paper. But I just do not know how to express this without telling her what to change, specifically. And do not want to do that. I want it to be her writing!

Perhaps I'm just not good at revising myself. In fact, I know I'm not! I learned that from NaNoWriMo ...50,000 word novel written in 30 days -- don't edit (lock up your inner editor!) just write, write, write! And I did -- I'm a 2006 NaNoWriMo winner. Hey, I can put that on my sidebar! But have I revised it? NO. I can't. I know there are things that don't sound right, lots of things. But I just don't know how to change it. A huge part of the problem is the storyline changed so dramatically as I wrote -- the beginning doesn't fit. If I can just get the first chapter into a semblence of order, I'm going to send it to Jennifer at I Will Read 10 Pages. I still love my main characters of my story, Stone Scroll Saber, Robin and Meganna. These are their eLouai.com pictures.

Anyway...I haven't even worked with Ginger on her writing yet this week! Although, with hers we can focus on punctuation and capitolization and such! I obviously do better with the concrete.

I am looking forward to NaNoWriMo 2007 and so are the kids! And hopefully, we'll ALL be better writers by November 1st!

Edited to add -- you can be a NaNo winner too! You just have to write 50,000 words in November! And no, according to the official rules, it can't be the same word 50,000 times!