Beginning, middle, end.

A favourite activity of ours at home is retelling of our favourite stories with our own twists, or making up completely new stories using characters we love (e.g. Charlie & Lola).

One of the literary tools I’ve been trying to convey to the young ones is that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an ending.

I find a three-panel comic format works well for this because it keeps the activity short, and everything is on one page, so no-one loses interest. I’ll do some (or most) of the line work, the Elder will do the inking (or “colouring in” as she calls it), and the Younger will leave her distinguished mark (or marks) over everything.

Here’s an example of a mouse thinking up a picture she wants to draw, going on to draw it, and ending up with a satisfactory result. How meta!