About Me
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I'm a home-educating mum of four children aged 12 - 21, and a published author of three picture books, Are You Sad, Little Bear? Little Grey and the Great Mystery and I Imagine, (illustrated above). My books have been published in 9 languages. I trained as a Youth Worker, ran a young people's touring theatre company and worked in schools with children at risk of exclusion. I was short-listed in 2014 for SCBWI's Undiscovered Voices with my young adult novel, Traitor Girl. My short stories, Seal Woman, The Salt Child and Wild Man appear in the Mother's Milk anthology of fairy tales for adults, The Forgotten and the Fantastical 2, 3 and 4 respectively. In March 2017 my reflective essay on parenting teenagers, A Thousand Shades, was runner up in the Mother's Milk Writing Prize. |
The Theory behind the Creative Writing Kit
My own experience of home educating left me feeling frustrated with the resources available for teaching English. There seemed to be a tendency to approach it as if it were a science rather than an art subject. There was an emphasis on analysis and even the creative aspect was approached in a logical left-brained structured way.
It made me want to create something akin to what a student might experience if their school organised an author visit or author-in-residence. Something with an emphasis on imagination, creativity and fun!
So, I created the different packages to explore different aspects of writing by using your right brain. Our world tends to rely mainly on the left brain which is very organised and likes to make plans and know what’s going to happen. The right brain is much more intuitive and surprising. It’s where imagination and good ideas happen.
You need both left and right brain to write a good story, but often it’s the right brain that’s best at beginning them.
Often, students become discouraged when they have to 'think up' stories and are puzzled when they run out of steam.
These packages aim to bypass this problem.
A Good Foundation/Companion to IGCSE English Courses.
The Creative Writing packages will encourage the ability to write vivid and compelling stories under pressure, develop language skills which can be applied to all kinds of directed writing and enable the effective use and recognition of writers' effects, (the writer's toolkit!) both in the student's own writing and in other people's. The Creativity package explores beginnings, setting, mood, sensory language, writers' effects, titles, first lines, plot etc in a subtle way so the student learns while playing.
It made me want to create something akin to what a student might experience if their school organised an author visit or author-in-residence. Something with an emphasis on imagination, creativity and fun!
So, I created the different packages to explore different aspects of writing by using your right brain. Our world tends to rely mainly on the left brain which is very organised and likes to make plans and know what’s going to happen. The right brain is much more intuitive and surprising. It’s where imagination and good ideas happen.
You need both left and right brain to write a good story, but often it’s the right brain that’s best at beginning them.
Often, students become discouraged when they have to 'think up' stories and are puzzled when they run out of steam.
These packages aim to bypass this problem.
A Good Foundation/Companion to IGCSE English Courses.
The Creative Writing packages will encourage the ability to write vivid and compelling stories under pressure, develop language skills which can be applied to all kinds of directed writing and enable the effective use and recognition of writers' effects, (the writer's toolkit!) both in the student's own writing and in other people's. The Creativity package explores beginnings, setting, mood, sensory language, writers' effects, titles, first lines, plot etc in a subtle way so the student learns while playing.
I use the packages in my tutoring with great success.
Limited Package Availability
Please note that I am a cottage industry, and only able to produce handmade packages on a small scale.
Please note that I am a cottage industry, and only able to produce handmade packages on a small scale.
