Since I’m already swimming in children (as a homeschooling mother of 5 and co-op teacher/volunteer), I took on the role of Chairman of the Youth Outreach Program with my local writers guild the Saturday Writers.

For months now, I’ve been reaching out to schools. Public schools, private schools, and homeschooling groups have been contacted a-plenty. And everything is coming together.

Soon, writers from my guild will be visiting the schools that wish to host us to discuss what we do, answer questions for students, and invite them to a youth writers workshop that I will be teaching in June.

Working in journalism gives me a different perspective than what people typically expect of writers, but my guild has plenty of poets and fiction writers who will be able to encourage students’ imaginations as well.

There is nothing like sharing the art of writing. Especially with budding minds. Everyone writes differently. How we translate thought onto a page is like a fingerprint. But the beauty of writing is that each “fingerprint” can be changed and shaped as the author sees fit, and that offers us more freedom than we can ever imagine.

It’s part of the reason I love teaching writing at my homeschooling co-op, SALT. Each student has their own way with words. Some need a little help getting their work out, but once they start writing, they get it.

You can’t teach, “These are the rules of writing, and you must write this way.” English is the antithesis of Math. Sure, spelling and structure exist, but even Shakespeare made up words, so there is a lot of opportunity in writing that doesn’t exist in other subjects.

This is also why I am happy to run my co-op’s literary magazine: The Pepper Paper. This student paper is open to submissions from homeschooled students ages 10-18 who live anywhere in the United States. We accept art and writing. So if anyone has any students who fit this criteria, check out the Submission Guidelines here: https://thepepperpaper.wordpress.com/submissions/