Poetry Teatime: Unleashing their voices
The simple things. This is year two of doing our weekly Friday morning tea time of reading and free writing with also a sweet treat to savor during our time of reflection and sharing. Some of our Fridays, the eager girls come to the table dressed in a role (strollers, baby dolls, pretend glasses) as their props for writing. The creativity of what our Fridays look like are endless fun. These are sacred moments, and despite if our week is a whirlwind (Oh, how that can happen with 4 young ones!) there is great anticipation the night before as they set out their journals and selected books in preparation for our Friday morning. We have collected various pieces of writings of poems and stories together from these cherished Fridays that is “our family book of writings” in the making. There is much value in the words from a page, the creation from the pencil, and a voice. We all have a story to be told. What these children have to say is worth to be heard, and I’m grateful I get to experience their story in the making every Friday. We talk a lot about how their voice and creativity has importance, and with time, craft, and patience, that voice can be unleashed and used for mighty things.
We enjoy making a dramatic drum roll when whoever is up in turn to share what they wrote. We end with lots of applause and encouragement for being brave with sharing their thoughts. Our 4 1/2 year old started referring this year to herself as “a writer.” She sure is, I tell her! She is recognizing that even at her young age, she too, has an important voice to be heard. Her journal is filled with scribbles of pictures and letters that all tell her story. When she sits up so proudly to share during our ritual every Friday morning tea, she looks down to her collage of pictures from her journal. and confidently shares. I record every word from that precious mouth. I re-read aloud what she narrated, and she will often say, “I wrote that!” My oldest now writes freely with limitless creativity, and my kindergartner doesn’t feel restrained since she can’t spell many words yet; she picks up the pencil and intently carries on drawing and sharing her writings. I record and re-read what my preschooler and kindergarten share, and their faces light up with such joy to hear their story being told.
Beautiful thoughts and words start early on. There just needs to be endless opportunities to unleash it. My hope is that my children discover some of their voice on this journey during our Friday mornings of writings.
Kirsten Casper, Brave Writer fan, mom to four children who have voices to be unleashed: 2nd grader, kindergartner, preschooler, & 9 month old)
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That is beautiful, Kristen!
I so love the idea of the “family book of writings”
I can say, as a mom whose children are older than yours (19, 18, 16, 11, 7 and 4) that it only gets BETTER and BETTER and more fun with these kind of activities like Bravewriter promotes. I had been doing “jot it down” instinctively (but I didn’t have such a great name for it, nor was I confident that it would work!) since my children were little, and it really pays off. All my children love to write and tell stories.
Nanci