April 20, 2007

Last night I took my children to the Mesa Southwest Museum to listen to a children's author speak. I'd never heard of her before, her name is Cynthia Kadohata and two of her books are named "Weedflower" and "Kira-kira". I thought she was very interesting, even though I had no clue what she was referring to from her books. Maybe one day I'll find the time to read them. She also spoke a little of her writing process, how she needed to research her books, and write many rough drafts. My children were invited to do some paper crafts in the back of the room after the author was finished with her speech. Annika and Lily made flowers out of delicate tissue paper and Christopher and Annika made whales out of regular paper.
As we were walking back to the car, I talked to my children about the process of writing. Christopher had understood the part about doing research, and we talked about how this research allows the author to make her stories seem more credible. Then I talked about how some authors may write an outline before moving on to the rough draft. I asked Christopher if he knew what a rough draft is. He said that a rough draft is written with a pencil held too tightly so that the color is very strong and dark and the writing makes dents in the paper, like he does when he's angry and doing his math problems!!! Lol. He thought such drafts are roughly written in the physical sense! What a hoot. It is such a pleasure for me to see the world through his eyes. He's wonderful.
The older kids spent today at Casa Vida again. Mrs. Oaks, Christopher's teacher, has taken some time off. She has uterine cancer, and will be out of commission for a while. I sincerely hope that she will recover from this. She's a wonderful teacher, and I like her style of lightly patting each child on the shoulder or back and speaking a few personal words to each child when they line up to follow her to class. She also has a very kind face.
Mike is still in Las Vegas, and we don't think we'll be spending much time with him this weekend due to "pre-inventory" at work, or something like it.
I plan on getting some more homeschooling done tomorrow. I will take the children to Michaels in the morning for their craft time. Lily calls the store "Mrs. C's house". We don't know why, since the craft lady is known by everyone as Miss Mindy. Her last name doesn't start with a C, either.
If I'm in the mood, I will take the kids to a gymnastics class at Fitness Forum. I've been tired and having to get up early every morning, and would like to get some rest, too. We'll see.