Being a Miss Agnes: Writing for Our Kids

There’s a sweet little book called The Year of Miss Agnes, by Kirkpatrick Hill, about a teacher who moves to a remote part of Alaska to teach in a one-room schoolhouse (back in the late 1940’s). The families in the area rely on the fishing industry, and previous teachers were annoyed by the constant smell of fish on the children and their inability to relate to simple American reading primers like Dick and Jane. The children are far behind in their academic skills and have little hope that a new teacher will be different.

But Miss Agnes is different. She embraces the culture and the children from the get-go, hanging their artwork on the walls, reading them stories they’ve never heard before like Robin Hood, and best of all, she writes them stories they can relate to–stories about the children themselves and their families!

Halloween Poems (and How They Can Inspire Your Child’s Creativity)

Certain Halloween poetry takes me right back to childhood.

 Three little ghostesses,                                                                                                              

Sitting on postesses,                                                                                                                

Eating buttered toastesses.                                                                                                  

Greasing their fistesses,                                                                                                                  

Up to their wristesses,                                                                                                                        

Oh! What beastesses,                                                                                                                      

To make such feastesses! 

I always preferred fun rhythmic, rhyming poetry, and throwing in a little nonsense made it even better. I still prefer this style of poetry above all others, as do most of our children.

If children read poetry they truly enjoy, it will inspire many of them to create their own poetry.