A funny thing about my kids is that they're a little obsessive about writing. When we're somewhere and the mood strikes them to write it's a big problem if we don't have enough paper or writing utensils for two kids. Sharing just doesn't work when it comes to writing-obsessive kids!
When I was teaching school, the last school I taught at used writing as the basis for a lot of the text the children used for learning in Language Arts. It was a brilliant approach, if you ask me. When they arrived in the morning they'd grab their writing books and they'd write about whatever they wanted. And the focus they had on that task was simply amazing. There was no rule about what they were to write, topics they were to write on, and there were no story starters needed, like you see in most classrooms. Their desks were in a circle and if one child was stuck on something they'd stand up and say, "Can I have your attention?" They'd then read what they had done so far and then ask for input from the other students. Sometimes if they didn't know what to write about they'd get inspired by the things other kids were sharing, and sometimes they'd stand up and ask for ideas from other kids. It was cooperative learning at its finest, if you ask me. Some kids seemed brilliant...and some well, they didn't quite seem as brilliant - but they all wrote. One boy in my class was really interested in tornados and he wrote about tornados every single day (no joke!) in Grade Two. And it was great!
So, since that approach was such a moving experience for me, I've always encouraged my kids to write. We don't always have a lot of time for it, but when summer rolls around I have always made the ominious announcement, "This summer we're going to write every day!" Usually they groan and roll their eyes at me. However, the funny thing is that they really do do it....as long as I leave it to them to take the initiative. I just have to provide the fertile ground.
Peirce seemed to not have the same obsession for writing as Jill - but this summer he seems to be changing that. At first he wasn't doing it, but one day about a week ago he found my stash of empty notebooks (I have a fetish for notebooks) and he went through them and found a particularly beautiful one and asked if he could have it. Since then he's been writing pretty much every day. His writing isn't anything that would make you think this boy is a potential famous author. Instead it's just simple stuff that he is interested in. In the process, he is learning a lot about language and how words are spelled and, as a result of all that, his reading is improving too. It does my "teacher-heart" good!!
This week he is into lists. The other day he started making a list of his favorite words. Then he decided he wanted to make a list of different kinds of trees (don't ask me why! I have no idea!). Today it was insects. I finally taught him how to google because he kept wanting me to find a list, and write it down on stickies so he could put it in his notebook. He spent all morning today working on his lists of insects, and along the way he's learning about spelling, learning to use the computer, learning about insects, and having a great time. We had a few little melt downs when he'd somehow lose his spot on the internet - so I taught him how to make bookmarks so he can always get back to where he was if he accidently gets away from the page.
Ahhhh.....I love to see my kids do this kind of stuff!
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