Please forgive me if I've asked this before. My memory isn't always on it's game. I figure for my 5yo ds, it's copywork. There's no question there. He's still working on the penmanship thing. For my 9yo ds, however, I'm wondering if I should have him do creative/essay writing or have him still stick to copywork? I'm asking as I get the impression that he'd rather inhale raw mashed veggies through his nose than write anything creative or anything else he doesn't absolutely have to write. He's got a great imagination, though, and I think that writing it would help to cultivate it. What do you all think?
I am looking for something for my 9 yo too. she is like your son. I saw something awhile back called Story Starters, there is stuff from edhelper I could use. I have looked into Language Arts thru Literature and another similar program that had some interesting creative writing work in them. I look forward to reading responses
good luck, I am working to get my teen to write still so conquer it now! my 11 yr old will write what I tell him fighting but still will do it. my teen will claim it is done though I will not see it... I am stil lwondering where it went.
Why can't he do both? You can do one for a while then switch to the other, or copywork M-Th and writing on Friday, or do copywork and journal writing daily.... However would work best for you/him.
Jackie that is a great idea then he wont get bored with either and will have the creative thoughts for the writing on his own!
Not sure if it will mess up your schedule... but I often have my son write a couple of sentences (sometimes just one) at a time........ Usually around a time he has a snack Something about having a snack and doing a sentence makes it seem less like *work* LOL But throughout the day, in between other subjects, he will *add* to his story. Often something will come to mind in the meantime and if not, only having to do one or two at a time really really helps, and at the end of the day he has more than a paragraph. He actually thinks it's pretty cool that he *wrote* something! lol. He is not thinking it took all day!LOL He is thinking *hmmm, *I* did that. Just a thought D. I have even had days when he will say "hey, I could put that in my story!" about something that happened. If it is jumbled at first, leave it. LOL The flow will happen.....eventually and w/o pain! Blessings, Sherri
Having a journal is a good thing. It's something you should look over, but NEVER correct a journal! A journal is for them to be creative, to write thoughts and ideas and bits and pieces of things, but it can't be graded or corrected, because it will take away from the freedom of expression, from feeling able to express thoughts without having them corrected. It's really hard sometimes when you see misspelled words, sloppy writing, choppy sentences, no punctuation, etc.! But, it helps the writing process begin to flow! If your child has a hard time at first, give them story starters, or ideas of possible things he/she could write. My oldest did NOT like story starters, because he wanted to come up with his own ideas, and his mind would go blank when he felt he HAD to do something he wasn't even interested in! But my second ds liked the story starters--they jumpstarted his imagination and he could really go with them! So, don't be surprised which ever way your child acts, each child is an individual! Sometimes you can get them going with something they're passionate about. If your child loves baseball, let him/her check out books about baseball and players and read them to him/her, or have them read them. Once they've read a little, have them tell you about it orally, then explain how well they did, and how writing a story is just telling it, like they just told you! Some children don't like the process of writing. I let my ds15 write things on the computer keyboard. He is older now, and still hates the act of writing, but he does quite well if he can type it instead. He has the ability, he just doesn't like the physical act of writing. Don't let that hold back their imaginations and writing ability! Let them do some on the computer too! Copywork is good too, so I'd do both, and do a variety of things to keep the imagination fired up and the interest stronger! Best wishes!
i think what i would do to start the transition is this... I would have him orally create a story, and i would neatly write it out or print it out, then once it is how he wants it, have him copy it. That way hes not having to do the boring writing, lol, at the same time hes having to use his imagination. My 8 year old has had to do a lot of creative writing this year in abeka, and so we give starter sentence help, write out some topics that might be included in the story and then she writes it. But i think this is something im going to try, bc sometimes its like pulling teeth with her, she will say" i dont know what to write" but if i work with her some orally, she gets it all thought out. I think it depends on what type of learner he is also, i think she is an auditory learner. So it helps to hear it. Good luck!
Oh, I meant to mention with finding a topic they are passionate about: There are large tablets of paper you can get that have a blank space at the top, and lines at the bottom. Letting them write and draw the picture for what is written can get their attention. There are also books on how to make books. They're not that hard: the child writes the story and illustrates it and you make it into a book. Kids love theat they are the author of a "published" book!
Ems loves her journal because she writes so many things in it from going to the store to flying to the moon with her dogs. LOL
My oldest HATES to write.. be it copywork type stuff, rewriting grammar sentences properly, even writing his name on something... he HATES it. We are going to do some basic writing next year. We are using Painless Writing as our spine. It's simple and fun enough that he doesn't seem to mind what little I have exposed him to... I also plan on having him keep a journal everyday. I will offer up a list of topics, but he is free to not write about them.. as long as he is putting in effort. It will also not be graded or judged by me in any way.
At what age should you have them start a journal? What about writing in general? My 3 oldest have had some experience with writing in school but my youngest is just learning to read. She will be 6 in October. She can write anything I ask her to if I tell her the letters to write or have her copy something that I've written. I don't know how to start her out. Like I said she can write any letter you tell her to. She knows them like the back of her hand.
Have her start a picture journal. Have her tell you what she would like to write, then help her spell it. It can be a simple sentence or just a word. She can draw a picture to go with the word or sentence. Ems still draws pictires in her journal.
my ds had a journal going for a while he is a writer at heart, and when he gets an idea he needs to write it down. one thing they teach at writers conferences is to keep a note book with you always. Maybe we can get a notebook that fits in thier pocket, or something really flashy looking and cool so they can pull it out and write when they are "inspired" I am thinking I will do this with dd and ds both next week during our break. I will give them each a small notebook and tell them to write what we do each day even if its just a small discriptive sentence. Just to get them into it again! Thanks for the question! It spured me on, and I hope this helps you too! Oh really read Deena's post about journals, they do not get graded! They are to be creative writing btw, so encourage them to write in different shapes, back wards, nonsense stuff etc! Ds sat and wrote for a full page words he heard on TV one day. He did the click a channel write a word method! It makes writing fun!
T Mom.. when I was in highschool I used to sit during "lectures" and write out the words to songs that were running through my head. I would be singing in my head and instead of the words coming out of my mouth, they would flow out of my fingers. The funny thing is, I rarely took notes, hardly cracked a book, never ever studied and graduated with an over all high A average.. so technically I had a 4.0 (although our school didn't grade that way), for some reason when my fingers were flowing my brain was subconsiously absorbing all the stuff the teachers were spitting out.
We started my dd with a journal when she was 3 because her brothers had one. We started it on a trip we took. She would draw and color a picture on a page, then tell me about it, and I wrote what she said. Sometimes she would just draw a picture and tell me all the parts: roof, table, chair, tornado, and I'd write those in by the appropriate thing. We drew a line around her hand a few times, so when you look at it now, you can see how her hand grew. Also, she's a lefty, and used to write her name perfectly--just backwards (mirror image), and there are pages from when she first started writing and wrote phonetically. Stuff like that is priceless! It's a part of her we wouldn't have remembered, but there it is now in her journal. Our kids love looking back on their old journals! My ds, now 15, went through a stage around age 7 or 8, of writing, "Today is sunny" in his journal everyday. When I figured it out, I told him to try to use his imagination and come up with other things to say too---especially since when you live in Washington state, you KNOW it's not sunny every day! As they got older they stopped doing journals, but I'm glad we have what they did then! Plus it was great practice on putting thoughts to words and writing it down!
