Mission Creep

Virginia Creeper is a pretty vine that grows in a lot of different places.

The Heber Creeper is what we used to call the old train that ran through the mountains between the Utah towns of Heber and Park City.
Today I'm talking about a different creeper---Mission Creep.

I had an idea to help the kids learn to love books. Wouldn't that be fun to let them record their own story?
And when the kids didn't want to record their own stories, I talked with an author friend who loves to collaborate. What if the kids did one of her children's books and she put it up on her website? In that way, the kids could even be famous for a few minutes.

And when recording started, it was obvious that there is a difference between narrating a book and learning to love a book by recording it. When the kids record for fun, their voice is lively and they add their own natural sound effects and inflections--it's magical. 

Narrating an audiobook is boring and perfectionistic; while reading a book in the recorder and bringing a book to life is exciting. Maybe instead of producing audiobooks, we should be practicing reading aloud to other kids. 

So, back to the creeper. My goal was to help kids love books. I guess working with creative kids and my personal style of 'let the kids lead,' Book Club is a bit of a creeper or meanderer. While kids show up and want to draw, we draw stories; when kids show up and want to read books, we read books; and when kids show up and want to have fun recording, we do that.