Email Love Notes from a Six-Year-Old with an iPod Touch

My six year old got an iPod Touch for Christmas, fully loaded with age-appropriate games, music and his own email account. Email for a six year old?  Sure.  Why not?

It's all about writing for a purpose. When he writes an email, it's because he chooses to - not because he has to - and he writes what he wants to write because he has something he wants to communicate.  He will learn more about the purpose and conventions of through this practice than he will through a whole collection of artificial writing activities and lessons.

I pre-entered a few key email addresses for him - mine, his dad's, his older brother's and his teacher's. I gave him a 5 minute lesson, and he was off. He has already sent 20 emails.

The first was to his teacher to tell her he got an iPod and to make sure she had his email address (smart boy!). The second was to his brother to taunt him a bit (isn't that what brothers do?).

My favorite one is the one he sent to me at work to tell me he missed me and he wanted me to come home.

And when I want to tell him I love him when I can't call, I can send him a quick email. The reply always comes back quickly:

"I love you, too, Mommy."

Email doesn't get any better than that.

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Bookshelf Porn

I love to read.  I read books. I read periodicals.  I also read blogs, lots of blogs.  From time to time I like to share some of my favorites.  Today I found myself browsing through Bookshelf Porn.

Bookshelf Porn calls itself "porn for book lovers." It certainly is a guilty pleasure of mine to casually peruse the many photos of bookshelves in this photoblog and imagine myself living in a world where reading is sexy and bookshelves line the walls of my boudoir.

I love used bookstores, too.  You can learn more about that by reading my post The Magic of Used Book Stores.

Are you a book lover, too?

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Best of A Writer's Journey in 2010

If you are new to A Writer's Journey (or even if you're not), take a look at the best of our posts for 2010:

What Men Really Mean -  Learn what "I'm going to Home Depot" and "How do you feel?" really mean.

A Million Stories in My Head - A million memories make a million stories to write - or not.

How Having a School Age Child Cramps My Style - A humorous look at the start of the school year.

A Day in the Life of a Writer, Mom, Wife, Business Owner, Employer, and Giants Fan - Where does the time go?


Just Like Breathing - Is reading optional for you or is it as important to your life as breathing?

The Rogue Daffodil - What is it that people don't expect you to do?  Do it!

Dealing with Rejection - Rejection feels the same, whether it's in love or writing.

Things I Can Do Now That Baseball Season is Over - The end of of baseball season marks the beginning of catching up on everything else.


If You Can Read This Be Grateful - Literacy is Not Universal  Why literacy matters.

A Life in 140 Words or Less - Mom's obituary.  How do you capture a life in 140 words or less?

Remember, you can sign up for am email subscription to A Writer's Journey (see the column on the right side of the page) to have posts delivered to your email in-box.

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Real Women Don't Need New Year's Resolutions

Every year is the same. The new year rolls around and I'm faced with the decision about resolutions.  Will I choose a set of resolutions (or even just one) to work on again this year? If I do, I'm setting myself up for that pathetic cycle of failure and guilt that I have spent a lifetime trying to stop. If I don't, I look like someone who's not interested in self-improvement.

As I was pondering this little dilemma (that loomed larger as the new year approached), it occurred to me that self-improvement is a year-round activity.  Establishing goals and action plans to achieve them is an ongoing process, not just something that you do once a year.

Real women (those are women who live in the real world, with crazy schedules, family obligations, and more tasks than time) live in a continuous improvement mode because we simply can't afford not to.  We don't have time to make the same mistakes over and over again (even though we do sometimes). If something is not working for us, we can't afford to wait until January to change things.

When we fail, we try again.  When we fall down, we get up.

You see, failure to achieve a goal within a certain period of time isn't so devastating when it's just a normal part of your life, but when it is elevated to the status of an annual resolution, it becomes a much bigger deal.  Why?  Just chalk it up as one of life's mysteries, like why men won't ask for directions or where the second sock goes to in the dryer.

So I, being a real woman in the truest sense of the term, choose to live my life in a state of continuous improvement, rather than  raising the stakes (and the stress) by making a resolution once a year.

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