Hey there! It’s Granny Bunny aka Mary May. My mission with this love letter from Granny Bunny is to share some ideas on how to make more magic for the children in your life. I’ve found the internet to be a powerful tool for delighting my grandchildren. In this letter, I’m sharing one of my online creations based on the life’s work of Miss Ladybug. She is the leader of the secretive Ladybug Literary Society. My husband Keith drew her portrait above. I love stories, poetry, and young adult fiction, so this has been a delightful way to share my love of reading and writing with my youngest grandchildren. I hope this inspires you to create your own little online world to explore for the little people in your life. I hope you share your interests with them, and I’d love it if you’d share them with me too . So, hold on to your wand, cuz here comes some magic spells. — Granny Bunny

One of the ways I use to engage my grandkids is through stories. Miss Ladybug and her Literary Society are one of those ongoing sagas our family has embraced.

There are so many lovely poems about ladybugs. They just seem to appear from nowhere. Not a single person knows who is writing them. Every poem says “Author Unknown.” Doesn’t that make you wonder?

Some people say there is a Ladybug Army that protects Miss Ladybug and the castle from “Book Burners.” It is said if the ladybug is very brave, it can become a Knight of the Spotted Beetle and receive spectacular armor for protection in battle.

Experts tell us when the ladybug is knighted, Miss Ladybug, writes a beautiful poem for them. Maybe these “Author Unknown” poems are really those knight poems? Many researchers think so, but nobody knows for sure. What do you think? The “About” page includes some poems and photos of some of the armor displayed in their museum. Just imagine how adorable this must look on a little ladybug.

With all the fun and learning involving my own children, and now with my grandchildren, I’ve found it works best when they are captivated. If they’re not, it feels a little more like a struggle. So if I see a flash of excitement in them, I jump on the opportunity. When the excitement or novelty wanes, I step it down. Miss Ladybug creates poetry and writing challenges for the grandkids. Most have an accompanying instruction sheet (like the one above) and a worksheet so they can practice the form or idea. An archive of these instruction sheets and worksheets can be found on the Ladybugs website. You are welcome to use them with your grandkids if you like.

For the first year, when Miss Ladybug was unfamiliar to the kids, she published a monthly magazine. It announces a writing contest in the golden block at the bottom of page one and contains photos and stories about recent happenings. These newsletters vary in length from 2-6 pages each and have moved to quarterly since summer of 2020 when childhood interests turned to the Hogwarts Online website I made for them. The main purpose of Miss Ladybug’s magazine is to allow the children to see their work in print and see themselves as writers. The secondary purpose is to create a keepsake they can look back upon when they’re older. There is an archive of past newsletters on the Ladybugs website if you’d like to browse some back issues.

There are two sections to Miss Ladybug’s blog. One section is “Writing by Kids” and the other is “Writing for Kids.” Each work has a title block like the ones above. When you are online, you click on the title block and it opens the story or poem so you can read it. The Ladybugs home page shows the most recent three posts in each category. To see all the works in a section, you just click on the “All posts in Writing by Kids” or “All posts in Writing for Kids.” These text links are in the top right side of each section as shown in the above image.

There is also an Events section that shows the upcoming activities for the Literary Society’s members. It is a mix of annual and one-off things. Annual events like Golden Week, the Thanksgiving Acrostics, World Poetry Day are tradition builders. And the one-off events, are more fluid based on interests and or celebrations. Having formal events advertised like this gives the kids the impression they are part of something bigger than playing at Granny’s house. The Ladybug Literary Society is an international organization, and there are probably kids all over the world participating in some of these activities. Right?

The mysterious Ladybug Literary Society is headquartered in this castle. The littlest kids plan to visit when they are older. The big kids play along. On the website, I made a tour of the various rooms of the castle where you can read about this fantastic place and what goes on there. To gain entrance to the castle, there’s a little trick you have to figure out. Good luck!

There are four special areas on the website you can visit by clicking on any one of the images above when you are on the website. (1) Cookie Poems: I am still building this and have lots more poems and pictures to post. When I bake a new kind of cookie for the kids, I write a poem to go with it. I also have an ongoing cookie competition with Ugly Bugly the Witch that will be playing out in this Cookie Poems section. (2) Haiku Corner: This poetry form is only three lines long and it seemed like overkill to give them each their own post in the “Writing by Kids” section, so I made this Haiku home for those. (3) Family Secrets: This section is password protected to create more mystery and intrigue. It’s reserved for photos of our Miss Ladybug outings, parties, and fun. (4) Famous Favorites: This section has links to writing and reading resources for kids.