Many people think kids need to be pushed. If we don’t tell them what to do, they won’t do much at all. But, of course, this isn’t true. Kids are curious people. They are wired to learn. If we don’t keep them busy fulfilling our goals, they will challenge themselves, they’ll work hard and achieve amazing things. Some kids might end up writing and publishing a novel. Or two.
Several months ago, my daughter Imogen published her second novel, The Shattering Song. It’s the sequel to her fantasy story, The Crystal Tree.
Did you hear that Imogen dedicated The Shattering Song to me?
For my mum. You’re the reason I became a writer.
I’ve been thinking about how I helped Imogen become a writer. I didn’t teach her the basics of writing by making her do formal writing lessons. I didn’t test her spelling. She didn’t have to analyse books and write essays. She didn’t do any punctuation and grammar exercises. So what did I do?
When Imogen was younger, I encouraged her love of writing and reading. I valued what was important to her. I believed in her. I guess Imogen also observed my own passion for words.
So Imogen is now the author of a fantasy duology. (I love that word!) What is she doing now that The Shattering Song has been launched into the world? Well, I know Imogen has written another novel set in the same Song Magic world as her duology. I think it’s at the first draft stage. And then there are her superhero novels. A couple of weeks ago, I read the beta version of the first one in the series. Imogen has plenty of ideas and writing projects to keep her busy for a very long time!
In this week’s podcast, episode 167, I’m talking about unschool writing. I’m sharing some stories and discussing these questions:
- Did my school lessons give me the necessary skills to write, edit and publish my books?
- Can kids really learn all they need to know about writing without us pushing them to complete formal exercises?
- If we insist kids learn things before they’re ready, are we wasting our time?
- Is following someone’s example a good way to learn?
- And do we all have hundreds of stories worth writing down?
I’m also:
- Sharing some feedback about episode 166, Unschooling Sausages and Other History Stories.
- Telling four unschool writing stories.
- Discussing each story.
- Sharing some resources.
- And talking about podcast chapters.
Show Notes
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
Imogen’s novels
Blog Posts
What About Grammar and Punctuation?
Learning About Punctuation the Lewis Carroll Way
The Writing Game: No Shortage of Writing Ideas
Podcasts
Our Writing Unrules for Unschoolers
More Unschool Writing Ideas and Resources
Resources
Where You Can Find Me
Youtube
Photos
Of course, the photos are of my daughters Imogen and Gemma-Rose with Imogen’s two published novels! (These are Sophie’s photos.)
I’m wondering…
Do you ever have punctuation or grammar questions? Do you google such things as ‘which or that’?
Have any of your kids picked up spelling as they’ve gone along?
And have you or your children ever published a book?
Perhaps that’s something you’d like to do?
Please feel welcome to stop by and say hello. It would be lovely if you left some feedback that I can share on next week’s episode!
I’ve just finished listening to your two latest podcasts, Sue, and I love the idea of chapters. Thanks for explaining how to find them by scrolling down – I didn’t even know there was anything to scroll down to! I love the idea of you reading out your older posts too. Whether I’ve read them myself or not, I’d love to hear you read them and give comments.
My older daughter (aged 15), is always typing copious amounts of notes about characters and plots for story ideas. She especially loves to think about Harry Potter fan fictions. A complete story hasn’t come out from all her notes yet and we’ve talked at times about working through a story to its conclusion. I’m glad she has so much time to think about story ideas though.
When my younger daughter (11), reads to me, I sometimes point out things about spelling, punctuation and grammar. She has a huge story with many characters in her mind, which she has been building on for a number of years (!) and she still almost daily thinks about it and adds to it. She enjoys telling me about various characters and their relationships to each other, as well as what happens to them over time. She has enjoyed making Gacha characters of them on her iPad or drawing them. She tells me she’s going to make animated videos of her story when she’s about 15 years old and has explained to me which of our family members and friends will be voicing each character. She doesn’t seem interested in writing out the script needed for her story to be animated yet but I will keep gently encouraging her. 🙂
Alison,
It sounds like your daughters have wonderful imaginations! Creating characters, inventing worlds and developing plots is a lot of fun!
I’m glad you like the podcast feature. Yes, a podcast episode could be divided into chapters and we wouldn’t notice… unless we’re looking for them!
Thank you so much for listening to my podcasts and leaving a comment. I appreciate your feedback!