The Cowboy Kid
Back in January Ian saw an advertisement to enter a PBS Kids writing contest and was very motivated to enter. It was a great experience and we talked about the elements of stories together and spent a day working together on his story. He dictated, I typed, then he illustrated. The result was, "The Cowboy Kid". When Tanner and Ashlyn saw Ian's finished product they immediately wanted to enter the contest too. Months and months went by and we never heard the results of the contest and then one day towards the end of school we got a call from PBS notifying us that Ian had won second place with his story among all of the Kindergarten entries in our Idaho PBS district! He was so excited.
He was invited to read his story to an audience at ISU campus, where he received a gift bag and a certificate for his efforts. He read his story like a champ and was tickled with the gifts he received (a Jack Perlutsky poetry book, a story book, an Arthur DVD, and pencils, pens, notepads, bookmarks, etc.)
For dessert PBS had a large cake made with all of the winner's names on it.
To make things even more special, Ian's old class in Shelley that he left halfway through the year printed out his story and had all of the Kindergarten classes read it. Each of his old classmates wrote him a letter and drew a picture of a part that they liked from his story. What a surprise when we got it in the mail and what an ego boost for this 6-year old!
Ian's story is now up on PBS Kids website and you can read it here:
It is totally worth your time to read, but I must warn you, if you want to name a future child "Saddlin" after Ian's main character, we have copyrighted the name and you will have to pay us a fee. :)
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