Part 2: Dandelion Time
In Part 1 of this article we looked at how parents can nourish a natural writer by providing room to write. Room to write includes physical room (a place), schedule room (a time) and psychological room (permission).
Time to write and permission to write involve what I call “dandelion time.”
One summer I walked past a park and my attention was snagged by a T-ball game. The small batter had just stepped up ready to knock the ball over the chain-link fence. Meanwhile, the outfield was not exactly prepared. The left fielder was bent over picking dandelions. The second baseman was gazing at the clouds. When a grounder came rolling out between them, the coach had to call it to their attention. Then they both rushed at the ball, knocking their heads together.
I wanted to yell at those two dreamy fielders, “You! And you! You’re outta the game! Go back to your notebooks or your drawing pads or your sculpting clay where you belong!” Clearly those kids were artist types who needed some unstructured time to do nothing.
Artists of all kinds, writers included, need time for picking dandelions and staring at clouds. I have read it and read it from people who are professional writers today. Downtime is what made them writers.
Growing up, I spent enormous amounts of time down in the woods which started at the edge of our back yard and spread through steep gullies in all directions. I never took pencil and paper into the woods. But while I was there, whether with the neighborhood kids or alone, I was writing. Even while “doing nothing”—especially while “doing nothing”—the writer is observing, taking in, sorting out. Some of this is conscious work; some is unconscious experience.
Dandelion time is difficult to incorporate into a summer recreation program. It’s almost impossible to insert into traditional school. As a homeschooling family, you have a huge advantage. Your schedule is inherently flexible and under your control. The very nature of dandelion time is unprogrammed, and it’s exactly what your young natural writer needs.
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Sandy Larsen is a professional freelance writer and the author of the “Igniting Your Writing” homeschool writing curriculum, available on HomeschoolEStore.com.
Okay, here are my "random facts:"
1. I was born in the town that killed Jumbo the elephant
2. If you want to know the time period from which a person knows me, just listen to how I am addressed. Kris is really way back there, or intimate family friend, Kristine was high school, and Kristina is everyone else ... which morphs into Kris over time (or Katrina, which I dislike completely but politely respond to ... sometimes)
3. I was on the high school rowing team and we were good.
4. I can drink from a cup to cure my hiccups ... from the opposite rim, with my head down. This has yet to fail me.
5. I wore bell bottoms under my dresses in order to stay warm while walking to school, but was not aware that I should remove the pants once at school. I would be reluctant to repeat it ...
6. I would really love to know "for sure"
7. My name never was called on Romper Room, but my brother made it.
8. i wish I wasn't such a deep thinker.
I wish I didn't have to tag people, especially since I have been spending so little time on HSB ... but I will tag the following:
AmericanEagleGirl
Ekulboy14
oldnavyflipflop
Animallver
csbb2
jbaxley
redwallreader
bloggerjoe
