Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Late last month, Betsy, Ramona and I went to see the filmed version of the Broadway show Newsies. They're big fans of the movie (which I've never seen) and they couldn't wait to see the stage version (on film, that is.) It reallly was a lot of fun, and we had a great evening. 

For more than a week I couldn't get some of the songs out of my head. On Ash Wednesday, "Seize the Day" was still pulsing through my brain but as I fasted that day, my hungry, addled brain kept changing the lyric to "Feed the Day." 

~~~~~

I took my writing group girls to a coffee place last week. Our Brave Writer freewrite prompt was:

Imagine that the different kinds of food on your plate are angry at each other. Write a scene with dialogue so we can hear them fight!

Ramona wrote about the drinks we had all just ordered. Addressing the peach and cherry Italian sodas, 

Mom's coffee scoffed. 

"I will not trouble myself with such petty disagreements. I am the most mature, most robust, most sophisticated drink out there." 

Cherry Soda guffawed. "Yeah, right. You're bitter, and you stain teeth." 

I had no idea my coffee was so snooty.

She said she was channeling Jane Austen as my coffee wouldn't trouble itself with petty disagreements.

I love our writing group.

~~~~~

I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Discussion, anyone? (Tamara, I'm looking at you. Expect to be brought into an email loop for discussion.) Anyone else who wants to discuss it here? Leave a comment. 

"My beloved copy of the book began to crackle when the cover was lifted."

I recently mentioned that we do a freewrite every week at our writing group. I'm sharing Ramona's from last week because I just loved it so much. The prompt came from the Brave Writer blog:

Think of something that started out new then gradually wore old. It might be a clean softball, a bike with no rust, a fresh coat of nail polish, or a brand new year. Tell the story of how it began bright and shiny then grew worn and well-used.

Here's Ramona's response. She wants me to include the disclaimer, though, that I am not the mother she mentions, as the following is a dramatization. What's true, however, is that she deeply loves Little Women. And we do indeed have old copies that are falling apart.  💙

Is there anything better than a new book? I picked a book off of the many shelves in the store. The title was Little Women. I got home and read the whole thing. A few months later, I read the whole thing again. I read and reread my favorite parts over and over. It quickly became one of my favorites of all time. My beloved copy of the book began to crackle when the cover was lifted. With every turn of a page, a cozy popping sound emitted from the binding. One day, my mother asked, "Wouldn't you like a new copy of Little Women? This one is falling apart." I replied, "Yes, I would like a new copy, but I will not part with this one." 

If you want your kids to love writing, keep reading, reading, reading. Keep writing (for fun, without pressure.) Keep it joyful, focus on delight. Love your books until they fall apart.

What Our Writing Group Is Doing These Days

Way back when Anne-with-an-e was a sophomore in high school and Betsy was in 8th grade, we started a weekly writing group with two of the girls' friends.

The rules we established and stuck to for our no-pressure group:

1. The girls could bring anything they wanted: a story, a novel in progress, an essay written for a school assignment, a book review...anything. It could be a first draft or something they'd polished.

2. After each reading, the first reaction from listeners must be positive and encouraging: what they liked about the piece, a description, an intriguing character or plot development they admired. Then we could move on to other constructive criticism, ask questions, or share ideas.

3. When we finished the discussion, the girls headed off for lunch while I re-read the papers and offered ideas via my trusty red pen.

4. The last rule: Don't Be Afraid of the Red Pen. I assured the girls the red pen was their friend.

The most important thing for young writers to understand is that rough drafts are called rough for a reason. I don't want my suggestions and corrections to discourage them, so I stressed that edits don't mean, "Wow, you're a bad writer! Look at all the marks I had to make!" I wanted them to understand that the better the writing, the more they would see my red pen (because as their writing improved they were giving me more to work with.) If I taught them only one thing about writing, I wanted it to be that the real work of writing is in the revision. I told them I became a real writer the day I realized a great editor was my friend and biggest asset.

Our writing group became the highlight of our week. The girls shared silly stories, serious stuff, novels (completed and abandoned), essays, history reports, and stories composed entirely of inside jokes. Some weeks we dug around for a writing prompt and the girls all wrote stories for the following week based on that prompt. Sometimes we went out for hot chocolate, because all writers need to hit the coffee house now and then.

These days, our little writing group is made up of Ramona, another 14 year old, and a twelve year old. The basic rules are the same, and hopefully the kindliness of the red pen is still understood. We've also added a couple of things to our weekly itinerary.

After the girls share the stories they've brought, we do a freewrite. I usually use Julie Bogart's prompts from her Friday Freewrite.

When I first introduced freewriting to Ramona's group, they wrote for only two minutes. Completely unintimidating, and they were excited to do it. I told them that the only rule about what they wrote was that they had to keep writing until the timer went off. (Julie thoroughly explains the process of a freewrite here.) Kids love having permission to write stuff like, "I can't think of anything to write...I am blank...Ramona is laughing while she's writing...I am hungry." After a few freewrites, we extended the time to 6-10 minutes, depending on the prompt.

Last week, I pulled a random prompt from a different site instead of using one of Julie's. The prompt was, "The happiest moment of my life." I always do the freewrite along with the girls, and when we finished, I told them, "I don't know about you, but this was the most boring freewrite I've ever done. The last thing I wrote before the timer went off was, 'This is so stupid.'" The girls thought that was hilarious and it prompted good discussion about writing in general, zeroing in on concrete details, and trying to write about broad, bland topics.

The girls' favorite freewrite from last semester was this one from Brave Writer:

I slowly opened my eyes.  Moonlight streaked across my blanket. I turned over and hoped to drift back to sleep. But…what was that sound? Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Was it coming from under my bed?! I…

We came up with such fun stories. Mine was about finding a trap door under the bed, and descending the stairs to ... I don't know where yet, but now I want to write that story.

The other new thing we added this year was at the girls' suggestion. One of Ramona's friends suggested the girls write and bring a haiku every week. I thought rather than having one more thing to bring to the group, it might be fun to write the haiku while we were together. So now we each write a haiku that pulls together details from each of the stories the girls brought that week.

~~~~~

Final writing group note:

Last week, one of the girls brought a story about zebras. Then we all wondered what a herd of zebras is called, so, we looked it up.

A dazzle of zebras.

Made my day.

But then, writing group always makes my day.

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

* Last week included the final primping of Pumpkindore which -- Ramona was delighted to learn -- won second place in the family division of the pumpkin decorating contest, hurray! On Halloween, Ramona trick-or-treated as Luna Lovegood while Anne and Betsy, (aka Joy and Sadness) passed out candy.

~~~~~

 * We also prepped for our Harry Potter movie marathon (Deathly Hallows 1 and 2) and the accompanying feast, which included owl/pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs, popcorn (not Harry-related, just a movie-viewing must), Atticus's oven-fried chicken, and butterbeer (actually, the girls decided they wanted root beer floats, and I opted for a Sam Adams cream stout.) We finished the book last month, and that whole experience deserves its own post. First, the fact that we kept so many huge spoilers a secret from Ramona delights me to no end. I really thought we'd have inadvertently ruined the books for her over the years, but we didn't, so, yay for all of us.

And then, there was Ramona's reaction to parts of the final chapters: "It's so Christian!" she said, between sobs at one point. Ah, yes, my dear, in so many ways. As I said, it deserves its own post.

It's the end of an era, though maybe not.  I fully expect to talk to grandchildren about Harry one day.

~~~~~

* Ramona and I are now reading A Wrinkle in Time together, and recently finished The Phantom Tollbooth.

~~~~~

* Betsy and Ramona are both participating in NaNoWriMo. It's the third time for Ramona, and the fifth time for Betsy. And in added writerly news, the two girls in Ramona's weekly writing group have decided to join Ramona in the NaNo young writers' program. I couldn't be happier!

~~~~~

* I spent a chunk of last week going over the final edits to my upcoming book. It's due out in February of 2016, and I'll have more news on it soon!

~~~~~ 

* I just got new glasses. Please tell me I'll adjust to bifocals quickly. Anyone, anyone? I don't care that they make me feel old, I just don't want to get motion sickness from my glasses. Bueller? Bueller?

Poetry Friday: Ramona's Haiku

One of Ramona's best friends had an idea for their writing group. They were each to compose three haiku about animals, then read the poems aloud to one another, and guess the animals that have been immortalized in five syllables, then seven, then five.

Here are Ramona's contributions:

Large, and hairy, too. 
Sharp teeth, glowing eyes as well. 
I'm gonna say ... Yuck. 

Hippity, hop, hop. 
Fluffy and adorable. 
I have lots of them. 

Slow and steadily
makes its way across my yard. 
Hey! Don't be so shy!

(Answers in the comments. And, fyi, I was wrong and far too narrow-thinking on the first one.)

Irene Latham has the round up at Live Your Poem.

Caillou, Anne Dissects an Eye, and Welcome to Editing

Most recent FB posts/Tweets:

No, "Amazon Recommends" -- just because I liked Sponge-Bob Square Pants that does NOT mean I will like Caillou. *No one* likes Caillou.

.....

Anne-with-an-e, after she got home from Anatomy lab: "I just dissected a cow's eye. I don't think I want to eat jelly for awhile."

.....

From a boy who used to come to my Writing Group for teens, after his cousin edited and changed a short story: "He mutilated it. But then he made it better."

Welcome to having an editor, sweetie.

Bits and Pieces of Our Days (Or, There's a Guillotine On My Dining Room Table)

* Okay, not a real guillotine. It's a vivid black-and-white image, appropriately captioned, "Madame Guillotine."  Betsy's using it in her research project, which is coming together nicely, for her French class. This class at the community college has been the perfect introduction for Betsy (a high school junior) into classroom dynamics and workloads. I couldn't be happier with her schoolwork, or with her terrific teacher.

* Speaking of horrifying things (guillotines, that is, not college classes), Betsy and Anne-with-an-e went to see Jurassic Park in 3D yesterday.

Possibly one of my favorite movie lines ever: "Yeah, but, John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

* We had a wonderful Octave of Easter, tinged with just a bit of data worry. What's data worry, you ask? It's the anxiety that looms over us as we live in the age of, "But my whole life is on that laptop!"

My laptop is dying. I spent a good chunk of my week backing things up.

* Writing Group. It's been fun and gratifying, over this school year, to see our new Writing Group come together. We've moved from an all-girl dynamic to two teen girls and two boys, and it's working out beautifully. And it still never ceases to amaze me that all kinds of kids become better writers simply by writing. Every day, every week. Write, and your writing will improve.

* Books read lately, some of which most definitely deserve their own blog post:

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (a reread, but I think it's been almost 20 years)
Half-Magic, Edward Eager (magical)
My Sisters the Saints, Colleen Carroll Campbell (review here)
The Way We Fall, Megan Crewe (at the request of Anne)
Meet Marie-Grace and Meet Cecile (American Girl series -- at the request of Ramona) 
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (for which I fell hard)

Homeschooling High School: Writing and Composition

Writing with teens?

The single best piece of advice I have to offer is this:

Start a writing group.

(A friend of mine who runs a homeschool learning center started some teen writing groups and I stole his idea.)

When Anne was a sophomore, and Betsy was in eighth grade, we started a weekly group. Simple premise: four teen girls, a piece of writing from each of them every week, to be read aloud to the group.

The rules for our no-pressure group were:

1. The girls could bring any kind of prose they wanted to share -- a short story, part of a novel in progress, an essay written for a school assignment, a report, a book review ... anything. It could be a first draft or something they'd polished.

2. After each reading, the first reaction from the listeners had to be a positive, encouraging comment -- what they especially liked about the piece, a favorite description, an intriguing character or plot development, etc.  Then we could move on to other, more detailed constructive criticism and ask questions, share ideas, etc.

3. When we were finished with all the reading and discussion (and generally a lot of laughter and fun), the girls headed off for some free time and lunch while I re-read the papers more closely and offered editing and ideas via my trusty red pen.

4. The last rule: Don't Be Afraid of the Red Pen. Early on, I assured the girls that my red pen was their friend. (The single most important thing for young writers to understand is that rough drafts are called "rough" for a reason.) I didn't want my comments, corrections, or suggestions to discourage them. I stressed that edits do not mean, "Wow, you're a very bad writer -- oh, my, look at the many marks I had to make!" No -- I wanted them to understand that the better the writing, the more they would see my red pen (because as their writing improved they gave me more to work with.) If I taught them only one thing about writing, I wanted them to know that all the real work comes in revision. Anyone can write something; a real writer revises. And revises and revises again. I told them that I became a real writer the day I realized that a great editor was my friend.

Our writing group became the highlight of everyone's week. The girls shared silly stories, serious work,  novels (completed and abandoned), essays, history reports, and stories that were composed entirely of the inside jokes of this quartet. Some weeks we (sometimes me, sometimes one of the girls) shared a writing prompt and the girls all wrote on that prompt for the next meeting. Sometimes we went out for hot chocolate and pastries. (Writers do need their sustenance.)

The greatest benefit that a writing group offers for teens is simply this: it keeps them writing. If they write regularly, they will become better writers.

And the pastries are a lovely fringe benefit.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Homeschool High School Carnival this month is at Take Up and Read. 

Our First Days of School

Recently (oh, was that really back on August 21st?) I mentioned that we'd be getting back to school after Labor Day. We did indeed start and it's been pronounced "Good!" by those in the know (that would be Ramona.)

First Day of School:

Went to Mass. Lovely, quiet, daily Mass. Lovely, quiet way to start and fortify our day.

Went to breakfast (though I would argue that Ramona's #1 choice -- a McGriddle at MacDonald's -- is not, in actuality, food).

Music lessons for Betsy and Ramona. We are the scum at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to keeping up with instruments over the summer. When there is no routine -- when no one named Mom is writing on Whiteboard Central in the kitchen, "Practice Today!" -- it doesn't seem to happen. Apparently, I am completely to blame. But, they're getting back up to speed quickly, and all is well and all will be well.

Math for everyone! Because we love it so much! Oh, wait. No. That's not the reason.
(Fact: I have five posts labeled "Math" on this blog. And one of them is a rerun.)

The park. Because it was a gorgeous day. Because it's fall. Because that means I'm coming back to life after wilting like old lettuce for months.

A spelling book! Because Ramona likes to challenge me.

Writing. Because we love it so much! And this time that's true!
(Fact: I have 133 posts labeled "Writing", "Blogging", or "Writing With the Kids." And those are just the ones I remembered to label.)

We're starting our Writing Groups up again. Ramona meets with hers at a friend's house, and I host one here for the teens. This year's a little different, though. For the past three years, Writing Group has been "my girls" -- Anne-with-an-e, Betsy, and their two best friends. So, we can be as girly as we want to be, and Betsy can write as many Jane Austen-y romance-y subplots as she likes, and these four such-best-friends-you-can-barely-tell-them-apart can write stories that include every inside joke they've ever split their sides over.

But this year, Anne and her best friend are busy with college classes, and meeting with us during the week doesn't work. Ack! What are we to do?

It happens that there are now two teen boys who are also interested in coming to Writing Group, so the dynamic has changed. Everyone has agreed not to laugh at anyone else's idea of good writing, whether that idea includes true love or things blowing up real good.

Days since the first day have included: 

The Prairie Thief read-aloud (which can be accomplished only when both Anne and Betsy are home and free to listen because they've made it clear they'll kill me if we read Lissa's new book without them.)

A visit to the library to hear a Laura Ingalls Wilder Chautauqua. Will probably do a separate post about it.

Betsy is reading Quiet, and a Sherlock Holmes book. (And doing math! Because she loves it so much! Just keep saying it, Karen....)

You Find What Works and You Do It, Part II

Part 1 is here.

Today I'm taking a look at this question:

"What did you think high school would look like for your oldest and how that has become a reality?"

I'm not sure I had any idea what high school would look like. (I apparently once told my daughters, "We'll deal with that when we get to it.") But that lines up neatly with not really knowing what my life will look like from one year to the next. I like to make plans, but I'm always open to the changes that I know life will throw our way.  And I know that living a deliberate life can certainly be compatible with flexibility and surprises.

What we did know was that we wanted to consider the following as Anne headed into high school:

• Anne's strengths and interests
• Her goals (personal, spiritual, educational, vocational) 
• Her gaps/areas of complete disinterest/weaker areas
• My strengths as a teacher 
• Atticus' strengths as a teacher 
• Outside resources (such as job shadowing or community college classes) 
• What an education means, what it is for: in high school, in college
• The reasons we started homeschooling in the first place 

Atticus adds: "As Robert Frost said, we must have 'the courage to start with insufficient knowledge.'"

And so, with insufficient knowledge, we started.

What we knew:

Reading and discussion have always been at the center of education in our house, so (as I always have) I made booklists:

• books I love
• books Atticus loves
• books Anne loves
• books Anne will love once she reads them
• books everyone should read
• books no one should have to read but everyone does
• books about history
• books about our faith
• books about science
• books about culture
• books about art
• biographies
• poetry
• Shakespeare
• books that defy categorization

I knew I wanted Anne to start keeping her own list -- she kept track of everything she read (which was very helpful down the road at transcript time.)

I knew that we would write (and we've had a weekly writing group with friends since Anne's sophomore year.)

I knew that we would probably use some stuff from The Teaching Company. (Budget note: you can often buy these on sale, or find used copies that are very inexpensive.)*

I knew that we would make use of a math curriculum (because I don't unschool Algebra well. I'm too busy hating advanced math to live it/learn it joyfully and my daughters inherited the anti-math gene from me).

I knew that I would continue making use of Living is Learning Guides -- for ideas, checklists, and resources.

I knew that we would use the community college* (via the early enrollment program), especially for foreign language classes.

I knew that I would be grateful for homeschoolers who blazed the trail and inspired me.

I knew that I would read books about homeschooling through high school. My list:  College Prep Homeschooling, Homeschooling the Teen Years, Homeschooling: A Family's Journey,  Homeschooling Through High School.  I can't say any single book is the book to get but I did take away helpful bits and pieces from each of these. (These days, I would add A Little Way of Homeschooling, but not my chapter -- I didn't have high schoolers when I wrote that, but other contributors did.)

I knew that I would take notes and keep records. I have always kept lots of notes on what we do, no matter how off-the-beaten-school-track it seems.

~~~~~

That's what we knew going in. And my half-formed vision did come into focus, did become the reality. I had a vague idea that high school would be a continuation of the ways in which we've always approached education at our house. For the most part it was, with various periods of panic, doubt, terror, or fatigue. Punctuated with happiness and delight, and saturated in gratitude that we kept going. 

I still have insufficient knowledge, and I'm still tweaking the process -- I'm guessing I won't have this whole high school thing perfected until sometime after Ramona's graduation. Too late for my own girls, but then I can pass my sufficient knowledge on to my daughters, in case they homeschool their offspring. Then they can say, "Mom, everything you did is old and out of date! This is insufficient knowledge!" 

And I'll say, "Yes! It is! Now go read some Robert Frost to your children."

* We ended up using Teaching Company courses for some American history, neurobiology, and math. Anne took courses at the community college and did a great job with Spanish I and II.

Part III is here.
Part IV is here. 

Why I Save Old Writing Magazines

Because sometimes one just needs a brainstorming session:

Anne-with-an-e craved just such a session to ignite some new story ideas. She found a list of writing warm-ups in an old issue of The Writer.

The timer started ticking and Anne pounded out a list of settings. Here's what she came up with. Have fun with yours!

1. A secret (government?) lab

2. An assisted living home

3. A hospital

4. A mental institution

5. Another planet

6. The future

7. 1940’s Europe

8. A submarine

9. A bakery

10. Another country

11. Pioneer times

12. The Great Depression

13. A pizza parlor

14. An ice cream parlor

15. Early 20th century

16. A forest

17. An island

18. A grocery store

19. The year you were born

20. The Civil War

21. A factory

22. A farm

23. A vet clinic

24. A school

25. A zoo

26. An operating room

27. An old attic

28. A mechanic’s shop

29. An apartment shared by two best friends

30. A convent

31. A monastery

32. A church

33. The 1700’s

34. A photography studio

35. A mansion

36. A castle

37. A national landmark

38. Your family’s vehicle

39. A classroom

40. A fancy restaurant

41. A family reunion

42. Backstage before/after/during a play

43. An alien spaceship

44. A big city

45. A writer’s house

46. A ship/cruise ship

47. A historical event

48. Your grandparent’s house

49. A back/front yard

50. A police station

51. A TV/movie studio

52. A space shuttle

53. A scary basement

54. A newspaper printing place

55. An abandoned warehouse

56. A kidnapper’s hideout

57. An orphanage

58. A tenement apartment

59. A subway/train/bus station

60. A courtroom

61. A small town

62. A poor village

63. A haunted house

64. Prehistoric times

65. Another universe

66. A quarantined town

67. The cell of a wrongly convicted criminal

68. An animal shelter

69. A Native American village

70. A doctor’s office

71. A counselor's office

72. A microscopic world

73. A cave

74. A jungle

75. The ocean

76. An opera house

77. A marine biology station

78. A politician's office

79. Hollywood

80. A residential treatment center

81. An apple orchard

82. A gold/silver/jewel mine

83. A movie theater

84. A desert

85. The Savannah

86. A knitting club

87. A book group

88. An artist’s studio

89. A shoe store

90. A park/playground

91. A fast-food place

92. Heaven

93. An old house in the British countryside

94. Jumanji (haha, fanfiction!)

95. The roof of an old building

96. A skyscraper

97. A garden

98. A waiting room

99 .An epidemic

100. An earthquake

101. A flood

102. An avalanche

103. A video game

104. A parking lot

105. The Pyramids

Ramona's Latest Story For Her Writers' Group

I host a weekly writing group with my older girls and their friends. Ramona and her friends decided they wanted to have a writing group, too. 

Two eight-year-olds and a six-year-old sit around once a week and read their stories to one another. How incredibly cute is that, if I do say so myself?

Here's Ramona's latest. I haven't corrected it at all -- she's currently skipping capitalization as she feverishly creates, and I'm letting it go. She likes workbooks, so when we do a workbook page, I show her correct capitalization, but when she's writing for fun, I just want her to keep the creative juices flowing. (And I'm lucky that she's a natural speller -- she usually just needs to see a word once or twice to remember it.)

The Big Bad Bear

it was a usual morning. i got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, washed my face and headed off to school. but, when i opened the door to go to school, something shocking happened. there i stood. face-to-face with a big, fat mama grizzly bear. i screamed and slammed the door.

i ran to my mama and told her what happened. she said not to scream, and she knows what to do. i said i wouldn’t scream if she told me what to do. and she told me to grab the jar of honey. bears love honey. everybody knows that. and so, i opened the jar of honey, poured it out into a bowl and threw it for the bear. once i had thrown it, the bear whipped her thick head to the direction i threw it. she walked over to it and then back into the woods. i asked mama how she knew what to do, and she told me the same thing happened to her when she was a little girl. and she asked her mama how she knew what to do. and said it happened to her when she was little. and all of my grandmas.

The End

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Recent Reading: 
I got half way through Michael Pollan's  The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals before I had to return it to the library, so I'll reserve lengthy comments until I pick it up again and finish it. My impressions so far?  a.) It's fascinating, and b.) I'm completely unqualified to comment on the intricacies of our food systems.

Ultimately, most things in my life keep coming back to a comment I once made at Jennifer's blog: I want Walden Pond and a laptop.  Can you say cognitive dissonance? 

The older girls and I read The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, and we loved it. Lots of fun, surprises, suspense, silliness, and heart.  Highly recommended.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- I have to say that my first reaction to the premise was very much like Lissa's.  I plucked this book off the shelf at the library, read the jacket flap, shuddered, thought, "No, thank you," and put it back.  Then I read Lissa's post (linked above) and saw that her first reaction was also surprise (that something so dark was classified as YA literature) but that in the end, she loved it. I decided to give it a chance. I raced through the book in a day or two (and, mind you, I have no time to read right now) and loved it. Powerful. Well written and executed. The girls haven't read it yet -- we're still deciding if my sensitive daughters even want to read this one right now. Lots of fodder for great discussion, though -- terrific social and cultural commentary.

*****

Recent Talking: 

I gave a little witness talk about Mary at an RCIA session yesterday. I rambled too much, but hopefully something somewhere was what someone needed. You never really know, and just have to trust God to help you hit the mark.

*****

Recent Writing: 

I started a writing group for the girls and a couple of their friends, and we're really enjoying it. We get together here and they share their latest pieces. They read them aloud and then we take time for comments and discussion. We're planning a coffeehouse outing soon, combining writing group with a birthday celebration. I love homeschooling.

I'm at work on a project and am under a deadline, so my next Bits and Pieces post may be only Bits.