This is Joshua's latest picture using the Draw, Write Now curriculum.  I am having mixed feelings about the curriculum.  On the one hand, Joshua is actually drawing and coloring and applying a bit of creativity.  But in reality he is completely copy-catting the subject.  I suppose you have to start somewhere.  He does vary the backgrounds from the illustrations in the book.  But the work is also frustrating (for me) because I'm not too good at instructing him in drawing skills.  So when he makes a "mistake" I'm not sure how to direct him appropriately.
    For the last two drawings (the barn and these ducks), I instructed Joshua to write the story all on his own.  In the past Joshua has dictated the story to me, I have written it down with blank lines in between and Joshua would then copy the words.  This was going ok, but Joshua was getting very little "from memory" handwriting practice.  It was also limiting his story--since we were trying to get it all on one page of writing paper. 
    With this exercise I even told him to "figure out" the spellings on his own. He was especially frustrated with this because he was absolutely positive that he had to get it perfect the first time (my perfectionism showing up in him?!).  I reassured him that it was ok to make mistakes.  And after much conserted effort Joshua came up with two great stories. 
    This one about ducks goes like this: "Mommy sat in her nest. In two minutes she got up and she saw eggs. She quacked to daddy. Daddy came and they both looked in the nest. The End" 
    You know the spelling is not bad. I sat with him and showed him the corrections for each word he misspelled.  Then I had him copy the words spelled correctly.  I wonder if this is a good method?
    And you know, I would have to say, after looking closely at his work, his handwriting is really not bad at all.  In fact, I can really see some excellent effort.  I think that this work is outstanding for his age and especially considering that handwriting was his weakest area.    I might keep this curriculum going.  If anything, it gives Joshua some creative writing practice.  Hmmm.  Something to think about.  I just wish it wasn't so time consuming (and at times frustrating--only because maybe I'm expecting something I shouldn't be?!).