When Back To School Is In The Air

It is true that both my children are in college. My son is a senior at Ithaca College and my daughter is a junior at Northeastern (you can see them singing with me at www.ibelivebunny.com). Even though I no longer watch them get on and off the school bus, it always feel like September is a time to start the calendar anew. The air is crisper and the days a bit shorter and it feels like its time to take a fresh look at things and jump back into work after the warm, summer months. When I do my Author Visits at schools, I encourage my students to always carry a Writer's Notebook with them just like I do. For me, these are one subject spiral bound notebooks I buy in a myriad of colors. I always wonder as I put them in the cart what will eventually be written on all those blank pages. Will the blue one be a book on oceans? Will the red one be a new book for the Cat in the Hat? Will the pale green one be a new story for The I Believe Bunny? As I stand at the check out line I watch moms with their kids holding pens, paper, and notebooks like mine. Soon those pages will be filled with notes, ideas, scribbles and squiggles. About what? We'll soon find out. It's a wonderful time of year.

Oklahoma Friendliness

A few months ago I had the honor of visiting a large school in Sperry, Oklahoma and it was a wonderful experience. I'd never been to Oklahoma and was amazed as we drove through the flat farm lands and then suddenly- there was a school! I was touched by the lovely hand made banner they made to welcome me and presented The I Believe Bunny to hundreds of students in grades K-5. The kids sat in bleachers in the gym that reached to the ceiling and at first I wondered how I could reach so many kids at one time, but they were an amazing audience. When I left they gave me a school T shirt, a wonderful thank-you note and this picture and I will cherish it always.

From Children's Songs to Rap

I have been doing school presentations for years, but my children were in college by the time I started, so neither of them has ever seen me in a classroom. That was changed last week when my son Johnny, who is 21 and a junior at Ithaca College School of Music (where I went!) came to see me present my books at a third grade classroom in White Plains, N.Y. It was fun to get his insights into what I do and, because he is a music education major and spends a lot of time with kids, I was able to get his input on things that went well and which could have gone better. I sing a song with the younger kids in grades K-2 and he had an idea for a rap song for the older grades. We wrote it together so here for the first time is the Reading and Writing Rap!

The Reading and Writing Rap by Johnny and Tish Rabe

When you get an idea don't try and reject it
You can write a story when you least expect it
Write down your ideas there's no right or wrong
You can write a story, a book or a song
Keep reading and writing and when you do
You'll find out you're a writer too