It went great! We ended up with 10 paying students and 3 children of the leaders. (My friend, Cecile, whom I'm starting this business with helped and brought her 2 daughters.) Everyone knew each other from school and half of them were in the same class, so that made for smooth dynamics. We had three boys, and I made sure they got to sit next to each other.

I had carefully planned out the lesson and then I let it metamorphosize. So, I had assumed we would generate a list of questions and then apply them to our own work privately, but we ended up coming up with a question and then all trying it out together. I had assumed everyone would just copy my structure, but they immediately developed their own or used ones I had taught them in class. And I had left no time for formal readings, and they all wanted to read each other their poems. So, we did.

I had thought of the poetry as the main gist of the workshop, and the decorating, make it into a present for dad, as a little extra bonus. But it became clear, they dug the fancy hole punches and stamps. So, I'll make sure to include an art component in future poetry workshops.

The kids were engaged, generous, respectful, creative, . . .who wouldn't want to spend a morning writing poetry with them?