| | Kids Have All The Write Stuff.....
Inspiring your children to put pencil to paper....
by Sharon Edwards and Robert Maloy
I picked this book off the shelf at the library last week. I have thumbed through it a bit,a nd so far really like it! It's basically a study of how children learn to express themselves through drawings, symbols and words, and how they can find joy in creating through writing in all sorts of ways.
It's very unschooly in that it's all about having all sorts of writing materials available,and assisting/encouraging children when they ask for it. They encourage the development of writing through all sorts of informal ways....through rhyming, telling/writing stories, creating fantasy menus, making their own books, etc. The authors support the use of inventive spelling, and encourage phoenetic and "correct" dictionary spelling, too.
So right now the kids are each at their desks and writing each other letters and drawing pictures...they are each make messages to the other, folding them up, sliding them under the other's door, knocking, running away, and waiting for a reply. I suggested the activity, and they both really jumped on it!
The activity lasted about 10 minutes. Then they were ready to move on. More to say about it, but that will be later. Time to Play Sorry! now. Sorry! 
Back later after sleeping on the experience.
I think the kids mostly had fun with this. I think Son had trouble trying to come up with something to write...and he started out with things like, "Stay out of my room". I had to remind him that the spirit of this was to be fun and playful, and that might not be such a nice thing for his sister to read. Then he switched to his favorite line from a Nate The Great book he read today..."have a sandwich made out of sand!" Daughter giggled over that one. She mostly wrote invented words to her brother, and they both drew pictures for each other. The both would come to me puzzled over what the other had just given him or her, and I helped them to figure it out.
This little activity gave me a view of some of the inner workings of their learning. I can see that Daughter has picked up some knowledge about how vowels and consonants go together...even though she made up her words, her words were easy to pronounce..she put vowels in places that made her words flow. (While reading her words today, I didn't sound like a Klingon with the series of guttural choppy string of consonants that kids give us to read.....and that make us all laugh so much) She can read simple, short paragraphs now, and she is grasping how this written language thing goes. She is very playful in her learning....she is lightly and joyfully experimental. I hope she holds on to that quality. I'm trying my best to stay out of the way of it's flowering, and provide the environment to let it grow.
Son is at the stage where he is comfortable enough with reading now that he is beginning to spontaneously use words when putting pencil to paper. He's a great artist, and for most of his life, has been completely at home with drawing pictures. His favorite pastime this past year has been making comic books...he has filled stacks of notebooks with his comic book series....about a set of super heroes that are part Star Trek, part Star Wars, part Spiderman, part Batman, part Superman, and part "Sonman" (himself) . At first, there were no words in his comic books. Now more and more words are appearing, and sentences as well. It's a very nice compliment to his pictures, and I can see that he is gradually finding written language useful and less daunting. That is Good, capitol G good!
Son can be joyful with his learning too...but all his life he has had a "perfectionist "streak. Even as a toddler, his frustration level was very high when things didn't turn out as he envisioned. He is very hard on himself, and has been very brave forging ahead into areas that are difficult for him. HIs drive to accomplish something is stronger than his frustration though...for even when he throws a project he's working on down in a heap and stomps off in utter frustration, he always comes back and figures it out. A pure unschooling approach worked great for him all of his life, but I strongly started feeling almost 2 years ago that he would need some guidance and structure in the verbal world. He was frustrated with himself, and needed to be shown as well as be supported in figuring out written language. He's doing beautifully....I am doing my best to not push him too hard, given his perfectionist nature, and hope not to tip the balance of his learning and frustration.
SO over all, this writing game was fun. I hope they decide to do it again sometime. I'm sure as they grow, their written communication will get to the point that they understand each other better. But for now, there is head-scratching over inventive spelling the other can't decode, made up words that have to be interpreted with imagination, and silly drawings to giggle at.
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| | Posted 10/3/2006 4:52 PM - 2 views - 5 comments
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