“Mom, Can You Listen To My Story?” Four Listening Secrets That No One Ever Told You “Mom will you listen to my story?” is such

How To Create a Fairy Tale Family Tradition When my daughters were little, my dad used to tell them his version of The Three Little

Write Out Loud; Your Child is Listening Growing up, every so often I heard my mom in the next room talking to herself while she

The Writing Process & Why It Matters Above the board in my classroom, I have a writing process wall.  It goes straight across the top

Our Best Editing Tip Several years ago, I worked as a feature reporter for a small newspaper in my city. One of the best parts

Two Tips To Help Your Child Spelling is often the number one “Go To” place where parents help their children with writing.  Let’s face it,

Read Like a Writer: Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream”   Reading like a writer is a powerful exercise that helps writers see

Word games keep us connected… Staying connected with my children with all our busy lives is a challenge to say the least! With one grown child in

This month we invite writers to put their own spin on favorite fairy tales. Fairy tale writing has long been one of our favorite tools

As a parents to young writers, we often hear the question: “Want to hear my story?” What our young writers most need from us at

How do you define your family culture? One of my daughters was a volleyball player for a while. This was a new sport (for all

From day one, we are encouraged to read with our children. But what about writing with our children? Educator Ralph Fletcher writes, “Childhood is the

Hello friends! Young writers come in all varieties. If your family is anything like mine, there are a variety of personalities growing up under one

Hello friends! Flying to Florida this month, I found myself sitting next to a woman who had an infant strapped to her front and her

Hello friends! Sooo, I’m back in the classroom this week teaching 7th and 8th grade. When I first started working, my main worry was my

Hello friends! On Monday, Steven sat and sat. It was the first day of Writer’s Workshop in first grade. He did not write one word

Hello friends! Most writers can never say no to a book. But even so, we should keep a good eye on our young writer’s reading life

Hello friends! The whole world is homeschooling right now. Some are probably doing it better than others. For me, it’s going about as well as

Hello friends! One of the most common questions parents have asked me since we started online school is, “How can I best support my child’s

Hello friends! Usually here, we like to talk about the stories our children are writing. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the stories we

Hello friends! My brother stopped by the other day for a porch chat. (Porch chats are starting to be really normal now, aren’t they?) We

Hello friends! We hoped online camp would work, but we didn’t expect this. From one mom: “My daughters are waking up excited each morning. This

Hello friends! In the middle of this pandemic summer, it’s been a surprising gift to have Hamilton lyrics running through our heads. (You too?)  Almost

Hello friends! How are you enjoying the 5th month “summer”? In our house, we’ve found more of a rhythm now. Masks are the norm when we go

I (Carrie) now have a Little Free Library in my front yard. I’ve wanted one for at least a decade, and this was the year

Using our imagination for better things than WORRY A little story from Carrie:  From the day my youngest daughter Anna was born, I have been

Some things (like growing writers) take time Once I (Carrie) visited Red Butte Garden (this amazing garden in Salt Lake City) during the off season.

There is little we can do to control the climate of the world right now, but still lots we can do to influence the climate

We’ve spent the past couple of weeks encouraging writing friends to buy our Writing Station in the name of keeping young writers organized. And YES

A very common mistake we see teachers and parents make is feeling responsible for figuring out what children are going to write about. From our