Merryyon, all I've been asking is 2 sentences!! For example, on Pres. Day I wanted her to finish these 2 sentences- If I were President I would.. I would also.. We had read about the president's duties. When I gave her this assignment I gave her time to think about what she would do if she were president. When I started hearing crickets in the silence(!) I started giving her ideas- real ones as well as goofy ones. She shoved her paper away and said she can't do it. Back and forth we went and finally I sent her for a nap. I don't expect too much from her, if anything I think I let her get away with too little and it's going to come back and bite us one day in the form of her being behind in that skill.
bribes! On those hard days, I give a sticker for every good task completed. If its a really trying day, I offer a piece of candy for every 4-5 tasks done.--like a dum dum sucker or smarties.
Oh , I have to agree with the letting them slack or allowing them to get away with not writing back biting us! My ds15 is finding he has to write all his stuff out, at private school they are leaniant because they know he had to get the hang of it, but he was lazy at writing long enough sentences and paragraphs for me so I got tired of forcing the issue, I let him get away with too much and now he struggles with having to write a page of study reports , he types it but still is not full page... it is well worth th eextra effort I put on my younger two!
I agree with bribes! I also agree that she needs to know that you're in control not her. It's not a suggestion, it's a demand, and she needs to do that. When she is done with it, she can _________________ (fill in the blank with her favorite thing in the world). This is a big hump that you need to "win", Becky! Can you have her just do copywork? Write a sentence out, and have her copy it? Start way back on something very simple, like, "The cat ran." Tell her when she writes that you'll take her out for icecream! Of course you can't do that every time, but she needs some big stuff right now. Negative consequences often don't work as well as "positive reinforcement"! Maybe you can find stories of people, like Thomas Edison, who worked hard and kept at it and finally succeeded. But they didn't succeed by saying, "I can't"! They had to make it a challenge and work at it to be able to succeed! Tell her that if she's going to be president, she'll need to know how to write things! I'll pray for you and Jeannie!!! This is tough, but God can help work it out!
Becky, tell her if she is going to be the President of the USA she needs to get on the ball and get this learning done.
Question: For "Creative Writing", would you consider allowing her to try and type her sentences/paragraph on the computer? Then you could give separate consideration to "Handwriting" by using something like AOP Horizons "Penmanship". Another alternative JUST focusing on developing correct sentence/paragraph structure would be to allow her to use a tape recorder to complete the "writing prompts" you give her. Not as a final solution, but just as a break from the impasse while still working towards the goal in mind, maybe to help her get the ball rolling. Personally, I've always HATED to write anything out by hand. Sometimes I even get frustrated w/ having to type things out! My thoughts seem to fly out so quickly that I have a very hard time capturing them while typing, much LESS while pushing a pencil, so I can empathize w/ your dd. MY dd is much the same way. So we adapted and try different approaches to isolate what I really am trying to help her learn to do composition(ie- is this any less a paragraph because it wasn't written by hand?) versus handwriting (which I feel should not be neglected but maybe tackled as it's own seperate subject to minimize the drudgery while freeing up "Language Arts" to focus on the concepts) I hope this makes sense. If I've understood your situation correctly, we've gone through a very similar struggle and this solution has REALLY helped the both of us! Bev
Bev, that is a great suggestion! My dd is the same way and loves using the computer or my old word processor for english or even typing up spelling words. It did take the pressure and drudgery off of writing paragraphs. She hates writing things out! I can understand that.
What makes them hate it, though?? She has enjoyed learning cursive- she finished the entire alphabet in cursive. Where is the breakdown- where does the love of cursive stop and hate of putting ideas together start??
don't forget you reminded me she has been sick too. Wow, cursive, I havn't even started doing that with the twins. (they will start soon)
okay, re writing ti takes time. that is why my kids have hated it. now I made those print and copy things from George Washingtons rules and ds9 was going at it easy, but his hands were cramping up, he said "mom I think I have tendonitis" lol. Too much mouse not enough writing folks! We need to make sure we force our kids to write , copy work is great so print up those learning to print things no matter how old our kids are, they need the find motor skills!
Good point, T'mom. Everything in moderation. Typing is great but writing is also important. Becky, my dd doesn't like writing because she has an active imagination. She cannot seem to capture her imagination in her writing so she is always dissatisfied. She also hates writing down anything she can't spell. lol. Of course, she is bored when having to write about anything that doesn't spark that brain that is always in high gear! Her mind moves faster than the pen and she gets frustrated and bored.
Yeah, Amy, we're all sick. Although Jeannie and Kevin are nearly over it. The last two days have been supremely peaceful. She has done all her work each day, but no bunch of writing was required. Next week I'll freak- her LA is all about book reports.
Well start with verbal book reports, maybe even print out the book repot pages from pizza huts book it site. they have some there. On the writing: they have some very creative writing prompts at www.enchantedlearning.com, even if you are not a member, you can just get the Sentence starters and coppy them to writing paper for her, the kind where you draw a picture on top. Eva did one yesterday, "Dump trucks drove through the desert to...."
I like what Amy said do it Verbal, with my little one I had her do it in a tape recorder every other one. That was her reward.
Thats what we ended up doing for book reports, now I have some great speech givers ( preachers?) but I still have to fight with them for written reports... I give them the fill in the blanks reports to do and that helps me to get the work done and makes it kinda fun for them. I know dd will go into shock when inlaws get thier chance to pay for her to go to school, they really are enjoying being blessings, since they dont see my kids often they feel this way they at least get to help them enjoy school where they want. dd only wants to go out in 11th grade so far though cause she likes home school but wants to go out when she and brotehr can be in same private school class. he will be senior when she is jr. ( Oops rambling can you tell I did not sleep last night?) Back to point--- do book reports how ever you can get them, my kid tested in college level reading comp at end of 8th grade!
You know, I never did book reports with my kids! The closest thing is Rachael doing a Book Study, using "Total Language Plus". HOWEVER...Phillip just finished reading "The Boxcar Children", and about every other day he's been coming to me on his own, telling me all about what happened. Of course, he finished it this morning at 7:30, and came into our room then letting me know the end, lol!
