The Author

Since David discovered the joys of writing, his works have been rather prolific.  I think we've almost gone through a whole pack of computer paper and of course each drawing is precious and he wants to keep them all.  I had a sudden inspiration as I stared at the growing pile and considered hiding his colored pencils and instead handed him an extra blank moleskin journal I had on hand.  

I just wanted him to have something to keep all of his drawings contained, but he did me one better and announced that it was his "chapter book" and we needed to fill it up with his stories.  He dictates the stories to me to write down (usually hilarious!) and then he illustrates them.  Since he has pretty much completely given up napping, we've been using that time to work on his book which has been good for him I think.  He has desperately needed some special time of his own with my undivided attention--well as long as the baby is napping anyway.   

When I was younger and working as a nanny I used to do this with my little four year old charge all the time so I'm surprised that I didn't think of it first.  It's funny how much better I was at taking care of kids when I got to go back to my own house afterwards and get a full nights sleep....

He is so excited about his "chapter book" that he begs to take it everywhere to show pretty much anyone who will pay attention.  He's so proud of himself!

PS these are the best colored pencils ever for early writers! They're short with a bit of a triangle grip (so they don't roll away!) and they color beautifully--I'm pretty sure I'm going to chuck out our sad Crayola ones since no one wants to use them anymore after experiencing these lovelies :)