The Lost Art of Listening 
by Jill Novak  

   They say that storytelling is a lost art. Well, I don't believe it. The ability to tell a story isn't lost as much as the ability to listen to a story being told. In our world of “instant this, instant that,” young children’s conversations get lost in the shuffle. All kinds of electronic gadgets compete for our attention, and the immediacy of life robs us of the ability to focus. “In one ear and out the other” could very well be a catch-phrase to describe the amount of concentration we give to our children’s conversations on any given day. But what if those conversations were worth their weight in gold? Would we listen closer? Would we train our ears to “perk up” instead of “tune out?”     

    The progression from speaking a few sentences to telling a complete story is an amazing process that reveals what your child thinks and feels about the world around him. These precious beginnings in oral storytelling are the foundation of your child’s writing experience and can be preserved by journaling his life stories.

    Children are always telling us what matters to them. They can’t help it. They’re born with the desire to give shape to their experiences and share them, so why do adults take their conversations for granted? Our children's oral storytelling skills are the very foundation of their ability to write confidently later in life. 
 

 Learn how to make the most out of your child's natural desire to talk about his personal experiences!   

 

 Learn how to use the methods that "real" writers
use to help your child give a detailed account
of his experience.

 

 
Learn how to help your child magnify his experience and write creatively about normal everyday events.   
 

 

Discover how The Gift of Family Writing will inspire
your whole family to write from what you know!

Read More About How The Gift of Family Writing
Will Make Writers Out of All of Your Children 

A Quarterly
E-Newsletter full of tips
and tidbits to inspire your
whole family to write and
draw from life.




The Gift of Family Writing
by Jill Novak

The Girlhood Home Companion 

 
The Girlhood Home Companion
Back Issue Album

The Pebbly Brook Farm Stories
for Boys and Girls 

Sketch Baby Barn Swallows
with Jill Novak

 
  Wings and Stings
~by Agnes McCleellan Daulton
 A Delightful Nature Narrative
Including the
Author's Illustrations 

  
Haircuts for Little Men
by Nancy Baetz