Abstract

‘Sunday morning when I wake up...’ is a collection of Sunday morning rituals, written by the children from Group 3 (ages 5-6 years). The handwriting of each child is fully their own; their letters have a strong character and a striking connection with drawing. The task set the children was to describe their Sunday morning in writing only, but in many cases this led directly to drawing, which then became part of the story. The power of the texts reproduced here sits as much in this free style of writing, as well as in the phonetic spelling. It becomes clear how difficult it is to translate from the spoken to the written word, in which all sorts of rules apply. When writing down these stories the children didn’t know the correct spelling, and so followed their own sense of sound. For those of us for whom, in contrast to the children, the rules of reading and spelling are self-evident, it is important to read the text aloud in order to follow this first step from telling to writing. The children’s texts are accompanied by scanned images of each child’s favourite pyjamas, which form a background to their written experiences.

For just a moment, the door on Sunday morning cracks open.