Reading Rainbow 14th Annual Young Illustrators & Writers Contest

This is the second time the kids are entering this contest. The first time I entered them in the Reading Rainbow Annual Young Writers & Illustrators Contest, all three entered. Now, since S is too old for it, only H and S are entering. Since our local PBS station does not hold this contest, N and H are entering as independent entries. They have been working on their stories diligently for about a month, though I have to say, it took a lot of work on my part too.

N and H's OHVA teacher had sent me a very helpful PDF file that contains tips on perfecting a child's writing, and I went over those tips with both N and H. And mashaallah, the tips were written very well, and it was really easy to go over it with the kids, as it was tailored for them.

Since N had entered NanoWrimo last year, she was somewhat used to writing towards a huge word count, and even though I told her the maximum word limit for this contest was 350, she didn't quite have a sense of what a 350-word story would be like. Her first draft ended up with close to 1000 words or maybe more. H went over the word limit too, though nowhere close to 1000 words. With N, she really went to great details with her story, and as I went over her story with her to trim it, I shared her grief. I told her we would save her first draft because it was a really great story with great details, but that for the contest, we would trim it to a compact 350 word story.

As I sat with her to help her trim her story, I found that she really had trouble doing it, and I understand the feeling perfectly. As all writers know, carving out your writing is a bittersweet experience. You feel sad that you're throwing away some 'great' writing, but at the end of the trimming, you do end up with a more tight and better story. Nevertheless, it took longer for N to trim hers than H.

It took a lot of juggling on my part to find time to work with them on their stories. We have had to email their files so that one person could do it on the computer downstairs, and the other on the computer upstairs. I had to sit through the whole trimming session, guiding them without helping too much. If it was up to me, I would have done it for them, but that would have defeated the purpose, wouldn't it? Same case with filling out the forms for the library cards. Oh, what we mothers have to go through with our children! I think fathers (especially those men who value efficiency over effectiveness) would have done it the 'efficient' way rather than do it the 'effective' way.

'Working on their Reading Rainbow stories' was one of the items on my to do list that remained on the to do list for quite some time. On Monday Mar 24, I was finally able to delete the 'mail their Reading Rainbow entries' off the To Do widget on the desktop with great relief. By the way, that widget really is helpful, convenient, and most importantly, saves the trees! jazahu allah khair hubby!

N's story: Smiley's Spelling Surprise

H's story: The Mystery of the Money Thief

Reading their story, I could see the marked improvement in their creative writing. When they entered the contest last year, they had done their story on Windows Paint, incorporating the text into the illustrations, but now, they seem to be placing more emphasis on the text than the illustrations. I even had to cajole them into making more illustrations.

I love how S's 2006 entry centered on a common problem children have, and the solution for her character's problem was ingenious, and maybe one that I should use (hmm...). One of the objective of parenting is to guide our children to resolve conflicts on their own. In a way, I do think creative writing paves a way for them to learn just that, as a story is not a story without a problem and a solution!

N's 2006 entry was really colorful. She has an eye and ear for noticing human personality and quirks. Her stories always amaze me with colorful and interesting characters. When we were both doing the Nanowrimo, I have to say that she was able to get past the 'editor' (since she basically had no editor in her) and just write without worrying about how it would turn out, whereas I couldn't get past the 'editor' in me. That's the beauty of writing like a kid. No worries.

H's 2006 entry compared to his most recent one, displayed a marked improvement in vocabulary, word choice, and sentence structure. He was in Kindergarten when he sent this in, and now he's in 2nd grade, but doing 3rd grade Language Arts. Though, his stories still center around mysteries and action. I suppose those are typical boy stories?

At any rate, they are enjoying creative writing, and it's great to have outlets such as these writing contests for them to hone their writing skills and encourage creativity. Alhamdulillah!