We were settling into the quiet part of the night, the time
for reading just before bed, when my middle guy announced that he had something
to read. He went to his back pack and pulled out a staple bound bundle of
notebook paper filled with handwritten stories. He went on to tell me that he
and his friends wrote them at school, not because they had to as part of an
assignment, but because they had some extra time and thought it would be fun. We
postponed our impending bed times and read the book together right there on the
spot. The stories were filled with humor and also the sources of pride and
worry that exist in the minds and experiences of 10 year old boys.
Soon after, the oldest presented an alphabet he had
created. He had fashioned 26 new
characters to replace those used in traditional English writing. I again
inquired about the motivation for the alphabet, thinking it was an assignment
for school, only to hear again that he had just done it for fun. The characters
were as unique as their author and thoughtfully expressive in their visual
equivalent to the onomatopoeic relationship they share with the sounds they will
make when spoken.
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