Budding Author

This is going to be a bragging mommy post, so stop now if you don't want to hear me gushing over my little princess!

I am so proud of McKenna. Academics have always been a huge deal to me...guess that's why I became a teacher! I've always loved to read and as a kid I loved school and learning and everything associated with it! So it makes me beam with pride knowing that my little girls loves this stuff just as much as I did/do!

McKenna is top notch academically. She's reading (pretty much on her own) chapter books. Her favorites are the Junie B. Jones books and The Magic Treehouse series. Today McKenna's teacher (who is losing her voice) had McKenna read a book outloud to the class. She said she was so impressed with McKenna's fluency and expression.

Her teacher recently had McKenna start writing a journal at the beginning of the school day. This has really helped McKenna develop a love of writing. Her teacher has her use inventive spelling instead of worrying about whether or not everything is spelled correctly. I think before, McKenna was too much of a perfectionist and she didn't want to write because she didn't know how to spell all of the words and now she knows that it's okay to not spell everything right. Well, now there's no stopping her from writing. Today alone, she has written 3 stories - one in the car on her way to school this morning and the other 2 on her way home.

Here's one of her stories from this afternoon (I'm going to spell the words just as he has them written in her notebook):

there wontse woz a snwman hiz naeme woz Frostie the snwman he had a carit nowse and botine eys he oslso wor a hat and butinzs for the botinzes wale thate Frostie wos my frind he wos jole and fat and skine at the top he is sutch a gode snwman wal he woz so kuwt he woz the best frind on erth the end

No punctuation, but look at those details..pretty good for a kindergartner who isn't even 6 yet!

Here's what she wrote in case you were unable to decipher: There once was a snowman. His name was Frostie the Snowman. He had a carrot nose and buttin eyes. He also wore a hat and buttons for the buttons. Well, that Frostie was my friend. He was jolly and fat and skinny at the top. He is such a good snowman. Well he was so cute. He was the best friend on earth. The End

I really need to take the time to thank McKenna's teacher for all that she does to challenge her academically in the classroom! She is a big part of the reason why McKenna has grown so much as both a reader and writer in the few short months that she's been in school and she's also a big part of the reason why McKenna LOVES reading and writing so much! McKenna's 1st grade teacher will have big shoes to fill!