Idea Box

 

            Give your child a neat box, such as a cigar box or shoebox, and provide materials for your child to make it very special. Gift wrap? Fake fur? Costume jewelry? Pretty contact paper? Whatever would make the box into a point of pride should be made available to your child.

 

            Then, in this special box, your child can store ideas for future writing projects:

 

            Photographs

            Pictures from magazines

            Postcards

            Small toys

            Objects found outside (as long as they aren't alive, like frogs!)

            Favorite words

            Quotations

            Well-written paragraphs from ads or junk mail

            Interesting ads clipped from the newspaper

           

            You might give your child a simple spiral notebook dedicated to little stories and essays inspired by these items, and keep it with the box, always at hand.

By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Grammar Granny 041 • © 2006