Young Author's Contest

Check it out! Your kids (ages 8-17) can write their own story and enter this fun contest.

Storybooks about young people are usually full of milestone stories and family events. For this project, encourage your child to add depth to such stories by capturing his or her thoughts, feelings, personality quirks, likes and dislikes. Let your kids tell their own story any way they wish to or ask a few of the following questions to help capture this rapidly fleeting moment in time.
Check the link for full details, prizes and deadlines!

http://www.heritagemakers.com/contest/2009/youngAuthors

Here are some great ideas, suggested by HM, to get your child started:

my family

1. What activities have you and your family done together that you’ll always remember?
2. What can you do better than mom/dad/grandma?
3. What’s the nicest thing a family member has ever said to you?
4. How are you most like your mom/your dad?
5. What do you and your siblings enjoy doing most together?

all about food

1. What’s your favorite breakfast cereal/candy bar/fruit/type of food?
2. What food would you like to eat everyday if you were allowed to?
3. What’s your favorite vegetable?
4. Are there any foods you really dislike?
5. If you could only eat at one restaurant for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

my friends

1. What are the names of your closest friends?
2. What do you and your friends like to do together?
3. What’s the first thing you show friends when they visit your house?
4. Do you have friends who are also relatives?
5. What’s the nicest thing a friend has done for you?

at home

1. What do you like best about your room/your home/your yard/your neighborhood?
2. Is there anything of yours displayed on the fridge/on the walls?
3. What chores are you responsible for at your house?
4. What’s under your bed?
5. What do the kids in your neighborhood do for fun?

family traditions

1. What’s your favorite holiday and why?
2. What’s the best present you ever got?
3. What was your best Halloween costume ever?
4. What makes your family different from your friends’ families?
5. What family stories do you think you’ll be telling your own children?

my favorites

1. Do you have a favorite joke you love to tell?
2. What’s your favorite TV show?
3. What’s your favorite song/singing group/singer?
4. Which movie could you watch a million times?
5. Which toy or game would you never give away?

hope & dreams

1. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life so far?
2. Is there anything you really want to do that you haven’t been able to do yet?
3. If you inherited lots of money, what would you buy first?
4. If you had one super-power, what would it be and how would you use it?
5. If you could be someone different, who would you be?

school life

1. What would you most like to learn in school next year?
2. What book did you like reading best in the last year?
3. What school subject do you have to work hardest at?
4. What school subject is easiest for you?
5. What do you do at recess?

getting along

1. How do you think you and your brothers and sisters will get along when you are grown-ups?
2. Who in your family would you miss most if they were not there?
3. What’s the nicest thing you’ve done for somebody recently?
4. Have you ever learned something from someone you didn’t like?
5. How do you think you make the world a better place?

random facts about me

1. What’s your nickname and how did you get it?
2. What makes you laugh?
3. What are you really good at?
4. What did you eat for lunch today?