Story Writing

It probably shouldn't surprise me that my eldest daughter spends almost all of her time "writing" stories. From about five years old on if I didn't have my face in a book I had my pen in a notebook, writing. There are whole boxes of stories like these sitting in boxes in my basement. Cheyenne is definitely my kid.

Although at barely five years old her actual writing ability is limited, her imagination is not. She locks herself in her room or hides in the tent on the deck with a notebook and pens, gathers with crayons and journals at my feet while I feed the baby, or at the breakfast bar while I cook and all day long, she writes and draws stories about mermaids. This one is about a mermaid who meets a young man traveling in a submarine.

"Mom, how do you spell move?" "Did I spell Mermaid right?" "What letters did I miss?" Her natural curiosity for language and how it works excites me. She's really understanding writing not only as a tool for communication, but as a form of creative play. I love it.