Feb. 14, 2008 - Creative Writing
This morning, Ariella finished her story. She felt very accomplished and we talked about sending it in to an on-line homeschool newsletter. Getting her to do creative writing has been somewhat difficult this year. I started out the year by giving her journal topics, then when she wouldn't do that, I gave her the choice about what to write about. Well, that didn't bring about any writing, so I switched to us taking turns writing a fictional story. We were into it for a while until our story fizzled out and we kind of lost interest in it.
I went back to giving assigned topics for her journal. Each week I would give her two topics from which to choose. And each week she would do everything but her journal. I hated that she refused to write, but I knew it was just a matter of finding what would click for her. I also knew that in kindergarten, she did "Kid Writing" which was a form of a journal where she would have to write and draw a corresponding picture. She did fine with that. But then she most likely did it to comply with her teacher's request (kind of like eating spagghetti at a friend's house when she won't touch the stiff at home!)
Then I read about Charlotte Mason's technique of narrating. I decided to give this a try and it was working. I continued with the two journal topics, but since I was no longer going to require her to write the journals, I had her do both topics rather than have the choice. She did get to to choose the day and which one to do first. She told me what she wanted to say on the topic and I wrote it. When she knew that she wouldn't have to write it, she would be think a little deeper and delve a little bit more into a topic than she had been doing before.
Of course, now we're trying unschooling, so I was a little curious as to what she was going use as her outlet for writing. I am glad that she has been pouring her creative juices into her story. She's been carrying the lap top around with her, sitting down to type when the mood hit her. And she's already talking about what her next story is going to be about.
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