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For Christmas, following the success of last years ‘Wreck this Journal’, I purchased my eight-year-old step-daughter ‘The Pocket Scavenger‘  by Keri Smith.

The premise of the book is easy enough:  find simple, inconsequential, everyday items around the house, or immediate neighborhood and then, after detailing the when and where the item was found, tell a short story about it – either real or imagined.  There’s also the second part about altering that item in some way so that it becomes either a hat, or magically turns into a mathematical equation or a political poster of some kind, but we’re choosing to ignore that step right now and just focus on the story-telling bit.  She’s eight-years-old for God sakes!  What she know of being political?  Likewise, blogs don’t make for good hats.  Anyway, my intention is for her to become more accustomed to Detail, something her Grade Three teacher tells us she needs practice with, so this seemed to be a perfect solution to not only help develop her creative writing skills, but have fun in the process.

The thing is, this also appeals to me as a hobby writer.

So everyday she comes home from school and after cleaning her room, we have a little fun with this ‘Pocket Scavenger‘  project.  While she dutifully fills out her own journal, I keep this online blog version for those of you who might be interested to see what I come up with myself.  Eventually, I might even share it with her.  It is our goal then to accomplish one new scavenger hunt and resulting story at least once a day, time and schedule permitting of course.

(Edited: October 11th, 2020)

Okay, so it has been many years and one global pandemic later and I discovered this book laying in a box under the stairs while cleaning up today. Since I’m more or less housebound and bored out of my mind at the best of times, I’ve decided to pick up this blog once more even though the kid is now a teenager and far too old to think it cool anymore.

I still do though.  Even nearly seven years later.