It occurred to me the other day that Luna is old enough at age 7 for me to work with her over the telephone just like I do with many of my other writing students. I thought that spending a little writing time together might be a nice connecting point she and I could share since she always loves for us to write stories or songs when we are together. I asked her what she thought of the idea of me calling during the day so she and I could work on writing for one hour. I received an enthusiastic yes! I also asked Nico if he’d like a little time so he could do a “Show and Tell” with Grandma. He said yes as well. 

Last Tuesday, Luna and I had an 11 am Zoom call and decided to work on a song. We had a few connections issues, which required a few call backs, but other than that, we had a grand ole time. After an hour, Luna said, “Now let’s write a story!” I told her that we could do that next week when I called again for our session. (I want to leave her wanting more, not wanting to get off the phone.) I also spent about 5 minutes with Nico who showed me a few of his toys and then proceeded to have a big fight with all three of them. Finally, he looked at me like, “Okay, I’m done,” and I instantly said, “That’s enough for today.” He leaned in close to the screen and gave me a big kiss.

Here is the song Luna and I worked on. I wish I had her art work to go with it, but I will have to figure out how to get her mom to take a photo next time and send it to me. I am already looking forward to next week. (By the way, the best line in this song “the contact lens.” is pure Luna. 

Two Lions and A Mouse

By Luna Pacheco Beaty and Len Leatherwood

Two little lions lived in a house

They were fine till they saw a mouse

Then their stomachs started rumbling

All over the room, they started stumbling

The mouse looked into those four lion eyes

All of a sudden, he felt a surprise

He thought he was living with two big friends

But that was before he put on his contact lens.

Now he realized, much to his fright

That those two lions wanted him for dinner that night

So, he packed his bags and ran away

He did not want very much to stay

The mouse headed down to live at the beach

He sat on the sand and ate a juicy peach

The lions went back to watching tv

Instead of that mouse, they ate kiwi

The End

This photo was taken a few months ago but it captures this lively girl’s spirit perfectly.