Instead, the story developed into a king who had a princess he cared for and wanted to give her a magical ring. Unfortunately, he happened upon a dragon who ate him. Princess Sally (who we later learn is a little mean) goes to fight the dragon and defeats him with a really long stick in the neck. Then, the animals of the forrest are freed and they run over Sally. (At this time in the creative process, Coy stood up and said, "like this" and proceeded to run around the basement so that I could visualize the animals' frenzy.)
Despite my desire to really let this be Sequoia's story, I kept trying to get her to fasten on a tidy ending. So, does the princes find the magical ring? What happens to her? Is she satisfied now that she has slain the dragon? What happens to the kingdom? How does this epic end, three-year-old daughter? Unashamed, I even suggested endings, thinking that if she just would parrot them back, I could write them in and somehow claim a respectable plot line for the novella.
Nope. The animals ran her down. The end.
We did revisit the title and spent a good while discussing titles and their purpose. Sequoia's suggested alternate titles included "Poshi and the Arruga" and "Slaqua Shehim." This isn't gibberish. She has always had a flair with proper nouns. By this time she was really bored and the conversation turned to...
Me - So who is this book about?
Coy - What?
Me - What is the princess' name?
Coy - Sally
Me - And what does Sally do in the book?
Coy - She is a little mean
Me - Yes, but what does she do?
Coy - The animals run over her really fast
Me - True, but what does she do?
Coy - What?
Me - What does Sally do to the dragon?
Coy - Poke it in the neck?
Me - Okay! Why don't we call the book, "Sally Fights the Dragon"?!
Coy - (No answer, bored, starts coloring)
Me - Yes then, excellent! (writing a new title page to replace "Pouk, The Dragon Who Bumped His Head")
You'd think that book writing activity would have taken a good hour, but we were done in 20 minutes. Lesson learned - write the titles last.
Our afternoon main activity was to paint up a few canvases in the garage via Pinterest inspiration. During their naps, I dug out some painter's tape and etched out their nicknames on canvas. Later, they painted them all over and when the paint dried, we peeled off the tape to see some negative space names.
Delightful and a fun little project - quite pleased with the results.
For the sake of fun, here's a breakdown of the activity time commitment:
30 minutes - Me taping down names on the canvas in some artsy way
10 minutes - Talking about what we are going to do with the girls
3 minutes - Getting off fancy clothes to paint
6 minutes - Paint
10 minutes - Allow girls to paint the other stuff in the room that I don't mind getting paint on it because they finished the canvases 10 minutes ago
4 minutes - Consoling Amelie because paining is over now
3 minutes - Getting dressed again
5 minutes - Washing hands (saving the rest of the body covered in paint for husband to deal with at bath time.
Memorable Moments
After painting, we went outside to play in the shade and get "really dirty now." Coya told me she was my mom and kept brining me rocks and grass bits to stir up with a stick. Amelie, much to my dismay, enjoyed walking over and around every potential obstacle in the front yard. The daredevil.
Sequoia: GiGi and Grandaddy are my favorite girls. Grandaddy lets me have pop (not true).
Amelie: Teething and mostly miserable. Continues to eat yogurt like it will disappear tomorrow.
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