InklessTales.com: Ask Elizabeth asks the Girl Scouts about Bullies.

Thinking like a kid.

Kids come right off the cabbage patch with the SAME intelligence, the SAME emotional strength as we do, but WITHOUT the experience with which to guide this prodigious power.
Therefore, their perspectives are NOT the same as ours.
I am often asked: "Would you rather be a kid, or a grownup?"
Hands-down, I say, GROWNUP.
I can drive, in my own convertible, to the grocery store, and buy myself a can of cake frosting, and I don't have to even bake a cake. I can just get a spoon, and eat the frosting if I want.
No one can stop me.
Kids have to ask permission even to EAT.
"Mom? Can I have a sandwich?"
Many kids can't even reach the tap for a glass of WATER.
What incredible powerless we take totally for granted. Imagine if you couldn't even drink water without help? Imagine how horribly frustrated you would be all the time?
Of course, we, as adults, need to balance this FOR them. We can't just let toddlers at the china and say "Go at it, I know how awful you must feel."
We need to teach them responsibility - but ALWAYS, ALWAYS, let us keep in mind the frustration they constantly feel, and try to keep positive always with them.
Remember always to "catch them doing something GOOD."

Remember how they'd rather be outside playing, than inside learning dates of battles.

Short Attention Span

I have a short attention span

I get distracted easily

I’m not that good at listening

That’s what my teachers say to me.

My mother says it’s X-Box games

My dad says it’s cartoons.

My older sister only yells

And shoos me from her room.

I really cannot stand it though

That staring at the board,

That swimmy, sinking feeling

When your brain begins to roar.

The teacher’s talking battles,

Like a lullaby, it seems,

How is it he can make a sleepy sound

Of every fighting scene?

Didn’t they have Ninjas

In the War of 1812?

If they didn’t, well, they should have.

It would make a better sell.

They can yell at me forever

They can shake their heads and frown,

But the sky will still be out there

Even if the shades are down.

If I were tall, and teaching

I would try to understand

How the sky and sunlight pull on us

How we try the best we can.

In the meantime, there’s the window,

And eventually, the door,

Someday I will be a teacher

With the window shades up more.

© 2005 Elizabeth Bushey

Blog, Blog, Blog...

What makes a good story?

I have to really think about that one, now.

That sounds like kind of a stupid question for a writer - don't we ALWAYS wonder that? But you see: I'm not one of those writers who sits around, agonizing over craft. Well, actually, I've had my moments of agony, of course, and I can sit around with the best agonizers, agonizing away...

And sure - agony of that sort can be fun. In its own, agonistic way. But it isn't very productive. And I really like to be productive. Anyone who's ever bothered to count the pages of Inkless Tales (there's nobody out there who really has the time for that kind of thing, is there?) or who's ever bothered to Google how many blogs I keep, or who's ever snuck downstairs to my office and seen the prodigious amount of prolific work I produce knows that the one thing I do is PRODUCE.

See: to me, writing is, well, surely, a craft. But to get better at any craft, you have to actually DO it, as opposed to agonizing over it.

But now, I really DO have to do some agonizing, instead of writing and then looking at it and saying: Hmmm? Is this any good?

Because it turns out the Inkless Tales Podcast for Kids is now getting some serious traffic. Moreover, some classrooms are starting to use the stories - and analyze them, to evaluate whether or not they're any good.

Yikes!

So: that actually gets me excited. I'm being graded!

I hope I pass.

I love it when someone raises the bar.

It's Time to Start Thinking Poetry.

Of course, for me, it's always time to be thinking about poetry... but I'm getting ready for American National Poetry Month and I'm mulling over launching a contest on Inkless Tales, my web site for kids, at www.inklesstales.com.

I want to encourage classes to read as much as they can during the month of April -- and I'm trying to figure out what kind of prize would be a good incentive.

I'd like to offer a free workshop, a free concert... hmmm.

What to do, what to do....

Gigs in General

I LOVE Gigs. Playing and singing for kids is the absolute best. I've been performing since I was 12 years old, and I'm used to the typical scene: you break out the guitar, sing your heart out, and people can basically ignore you while they talk, eat, or go about their business -- maybe drop a dollar in your guitar box, no matter how good you sound.

But children? They are interested in everything you do. Because they are so grateful that you care enough about them to come sing for them.

So it makes you try harder to find songs for them that will teach them something, like the one I found for this gig: Follow the Drinking Gourd.

Follow the Drinking Gourd is the last remaining "coded song" sung by slaves seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad.

Although seemingly simple, and to unknowing plantation owners, mistaken for -- perhaps -- a hymn, it was written by an itinerant carpenter named Peg Leg Joe. As he traveled from plantation to plantation, ostensibly working for the slave owners, he would secretly teach this song to the slaves, who would then use the "map" in song to run for freedom in the north.

The song gives explicit instructions for a route from Alabama and Mississippi to Ohio, via the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. Because the song makes use of Polaris, the North Star, even NASA gives an explanation of the song on their web site.

I bring an easel with me to gigs, with huge poster boards for sing-a-longs. For Follow The Drinking Gourd, on one side of the board, I created a map for the kids to view the route. (For my own little joke, I colored the southern state Confederate grey and the northern states Yankee blue.)

Then, as I taught the kids the song -- to Peg Leg Joe's everlasting credit, it's an easy song to pick up, even for kids -- I flipped the board, and along with the words, I had photographs of the actual route -- the double hills and valleys of the rivers, pictures of dead trees referenced in the song, etc.

Everything I do, I try to sneak in some learning -- while the kids have fun.

I have the best job in the world. I really do. Not only do I get to learn, but we have SO much fun together.

Gig coming up at the Interactive Museum

As I spoke to the woman in charge, I asked her: "What is it, exactly, you'd like me to do?"

She was a little confused.

"I mean, do you want me to simply give a concert -- or do a poetry workshop, too? Either way, I'll be bringing my guitar and some musical instruments."

Still a little wondering.

Poetry comes alive for kids when they hear it set to music. Particularly with an electric guitar. It means that their words -- words in general -- are relevant, real, now -- and THEY can do it, too.

Cool.

Critiques from Kids

You have no idea how handy it is having an 8-year-old on hand.

I played a new song for my daughter -- a song called "Dinosaur on the Dance Floor" -- an involved kind of opus that has real potential, but wasn't working for me, and I couldn't figure out why.

So I asked her to give it a listen.

"I keep waiting for it to get faster, like I want to dance to it," she said.

So, I said to her, it's like you have almost an anxious feeling in your belly? Like: when is it going to start to pick up?

That's it exactly! she said.

AAAHH! Voila!

Handy little loving little critic.

Love love love her.