When constructing your jungle mural you should also keep in mind that your mural is not only limited to walls, you can also paint on ceiling. For instance, if you are painting a lot of trees in your child’s jungle mural, extend tress to make their leaves travel over ceiling.

You may even consider coloring center of ceiling blue, to make it look as if sky is peeking through a hole in trees.

If you are not interested in adding a lot of trees, you can always make your child’s jungle mural more animal focused, by placing animals in different corners of his of her room. Don’t forget that you can use shape of your child’s room to your advantage when creating a jungle mural.

If you choose to make a jungle mural in your child’s room, another nifty idea is to purchase for them a bunk bed or a loft bed. The reason is because these beds give a more tree house effect, which would really encourage imagination of your child, and will improve upon whole authenticity of room.

You will discover that more you brainstorm ideas with your child, more creative you will be. Plus, not only will you discover that creating a jungle mural will be a lot of fun, but it is also a project that can bring together whole family, making it a task that everyone can enjoy and take pride in.

6. Repeat steps of drawing arrows and circles and writing down words or phrases that come to mind.

7. At some point in exercise, you will suddenly think of an introductory sentence and you will feel a STRONG urge to start writing. Do not ignore urge. Take another sheet of paper and start writing immediately. Do not try to edit what you are writing. Do not try to over-think what you are writing. Let yourself write what comes to mind.

8. Write for as long as words keep coming.

9. When you feel that you have nothing more to say on subject, put down your pen or pencil and relax for a few moments, then read what you have written. Whether it's one paragraph, a whole page, or several pages — congratulations! You have just written first of your life stories!

10. Set your story aside for an hour or two or even a day or two. When you read it again, you may find that you have remembered more details that you would like to add. If so, go ahead and add them. If not, and you are satisfied with piece, that's fine, too.

This exercise can be repeated for virtually any subject. You can also use it to help flesh out parts of your story to add more detail. Focus on a key word for a certain section of story and see where clustering technique takes you.

If you are interested in interviewing family members to record their life stories, be sure to check out LeAnn's e-book: "Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Writing Oral Histories)" at http://ruralroute2.com -- "Preserve Your Family History" ($7.95) contains more than 400 questions on 30 different topics to help you conduct your interviews. Even if you only record those interviews on tape (and don't actually write oral history), you will still have collected some of your family stories. And isn't that important thing?

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Copyright LeAnn R. Ralph 2004

ABOUT THE AUTHOR; LeAnn R. Ralph is an expert at writing her life stories. She is author of books "Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)" (July 2003) and "Give Me a Home Where Dairy Cows Roam" (October 2004). "Highly recommended reading…" James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief/Midwest Book Review. You are invited to read sample chapters and to sign up for FREE! monthly newsletter from Rural Route 2. Visit http://ruralroute2.com