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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 21 2006 at 10:54am | IP Logged
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About 1.5 years ago our family had great success with jump-starting our then 9yo's reading via a reading bootcamp. Ds's reading is now well above grade level and we couldn't be more pleased. Which gets me to our next challenge...
How about a writing bootcamp for this child? Since I'll be starting this on Monday and will be obsessing on this for the next few months, I thought I would ask for your feedback here from the start. As I think about this I'm thinking in terms of:
Intensity: We need to focus on writing skills several times a day for several days (weeks) in a row in a way that is humane and produces positive outcomes.
Simplicity: We need a process that is easy to follow and repeat by me, dh, and dd in order to help ds.
Goal: Ds wants to produce quality, written products. He isn't into the process for its own sake  .
Motivation: Ds will be 11 in August and wants to write at least as well as his peers. To him this means being able to sign his name in cursive, write (handwrite or keyboard) thank you notes quickly, and write (handwrite or keyboard) a short essay about baseball. He isn't as motivated to write as he was to read though.
Challenges: Poor fine motor skills which makes handwriting difficult, slow, and laborious. Poor attention to detail which bogs him down in spelling and punctuation.
Strengths: Think BIG! Great gross motor athlete, big thinker and seer. He's very practical about this matter and has a rough and tumble personality, ready to wrestle this challenge. He is a great (chatty) oral communicator and has a great big memory (produces great oral narrations.)
Activity Options: Basic handwriting (continue Handwriting without Tears,) Keyboarding, Blogging,...
I'll be jumpstarting on Monday. I hope to hit our stride come June through August when it is hot as Hades here and we're all inside more.
Thanks for giving me a place to sort this out! Any words of wisdom and/or company in this endeavor is most welcome.
Love,
__________________
Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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Karen E.
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| Posted: April 21 2006 at 11:26am | IP Logged
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Angie,
Great plan!
My first reaction is this: I think some of this stuff is going to come naturally over the next year or two, with growth and maturity. When my oldest was 10, she was still struggling with the mechanics, poor fine motor, etc. But things have really taken off in the last two years in a pretty natural way. She still doesn't have very good handwriting (but then, her father's is atrocious) but she doesn't lament over having to write a short thank-you note. She now whips them out regularly along with stories and letters.
To start with, stay really focused on what he wants: improvements in writing things he cares about (which sounds like what you're planning to do.) I'd start with that baseball essay, for example. You could work with him step-by-step, on the content and form. This was something that I think really helped Emily. We worked on an essay last year about polio (she had developed a huge interest in it after reading the autobiography of a writer who had it as a child.) She learned more about putting a 5-paragraph essay together, about research, but most importantly, she learned to let go of the expectation that the first thing that gets put on paper will be perfect. That was so freeing to her! All the talk about rough drafts gave her permission to "mess up." I can't stress enough how helpful that was to her.
Also, re: thank you notes ... since he's strong on the oral, let him keep dictating things to you. He can dictate a thank you note, you can write it out (that way, he's not agonizing over the speed of his handwriting, or over spelling/capitalization/punctuation at the same time he's trying to figure out what to say) and then he can recopy it. We did this for quite awhile. Now, Emily composes and writes at the same time, but they really are two different processes.
I'll look forward to other ideas!
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 22 2006 at 11:03am | IP Logged
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Karen E. wrote:
My first reaction is this: I think some of this stuff is going to come naturally over the next year or two, with growth and maturity. |
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Exactly. As a family and individually, we are a bunch of late bloomers and are quite comfortable (when we're not being impatient  ) with this way of being.
When we did the reading boot camp, Aiden was developmentally on the edge of making the next leap. What I learned about him that time around was the he needed intense attention and encouragement to push forward. He wanted to read but something was holding him back. I felt like it was a "which came first the chicken or the egg" situation. Did he hold back because he lacked the skill or did he lack the skill because he held back? It ended up being a bit of both, yet I was surprised that much of it was his holding back. Since then, I've noticed a similar dance with him on the baseball field. When he is pushed to his next level, one that others see he is ready for, he has a transition time where he regresses, becomes cautious, and despairs (which brings his game down.) With a lot of attentive coaching, positive encouragement, and postive pushing (not my specialty) he "goes for it" and his game improves. Interesting!
Karen E. wrote:
| To start with, stay really focused on what he wants: improvements in writing things he cares about (which sounds like what you're planning to do.) I'd start with that baseball essay, for example. |
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Yes. I keep coming back to his signature/date and the baseball essay. Interestingly, when you look at sports writing, so much of it is, umm, not beautiful literature . Yet I found some nice, age appropriate 5 paragraph essays like this one about Hank Aaron at myhero.com. I'm going to check into this resource a bit further when I have a chance as a possible place for publishing  .
Karen E. wrote:
. You could work with him step-by-step, on the content and form. This was something that I think really helped Emily. We worked on an essay last year about polio (she had developed a huge interest in it after reading the autobiography of a writer who had it as a child.) She learned more about putting a 5-paragraph essay together, about research, but most importantly, she learned to let go of the expectation that the first thing that gets put on paper will be perfect. That was so freeing to her! All the talk about rough drafts gave her permission to "mess up." I can't stress enough how helpful that was to her.
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Which gets me to MY goal for my son. I want to help him to produce a clean product. This harkens back to another thread. I'm thinking that using Word and/or Blogger will help us. Still working out the organization on this.
Karen E. wrote:
Also, re: thank you notes ... since he's strong on the oral, let him keep dictating things to you. He can dictate a thank you note, you can write it out (that way, he's not agonizing over the speed of his handwriting, or over spelling/capitalization/punctuation at the same time he's trying to figure out what to say) and then he can recopy it. We did this for quite awhile. Now, Emily composes and writes at the same time, but they really are two different processes.
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Agreed. This is what we have been doing all along and will continue to do so. It will be encouraging to ds to remind him of the difficulty of combining two distinct skills, composing (communicating thoughts out) and writing (producing thoughts onto a medium.) This is where a 4Real/CM style of education really excels. For example, ds always considered himself a "reader" even when he didn't read himself. We read together and he told us the stories back and we discused books and I wrote his narrations, etc. I'm seeing the same thing with writing. He considers himself a writer because he can compose stories and communicate well, I just happen to be doing his writing for him for now  .
Thank you, Karen, for your thoughtful and encouraging words. Coming from a woman who loves writing, your suggestions mean a lot to me.
Love,
__________________
Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 22 2006 at 3:37pm | IP Logged
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Still brainstorming here...(remember that you were warned that I would be obsessing!)
The micro level is where most people start and "work up" to macro level writing skills. For example, learn the alphabet, then put letters together as words, then put words together as sentences, eventually getting to broad communication and comprehension. But...Aiden's strengths are at the macro level so I will focus there and "work down" to the micro level. I will eventually pull micro level work from there.
Micro level work:
1. Print and write in cursive his signature and date (3X) daily with immediate feedback on details.
2. Continue keyboarding program - increase time.
3. Practice keyboarding on blog.
4. Once signature is to his satisfaction, continue handwriting work using HWT and/or spelling words pulled from essays.
5. (Use essays for copywork?)
Micro level work:
1. Create blog.
2. Read examples of five paragraph essays.
3. Narrate to mom original baseball essay onto blog (Word too?).
4. Rewrite with mom until satisfactory.
5. (Take words from essay and practice at micro level.)
With his sprinter personality, I'm looking to continue with short lessons but will increase the number of times a day and the number of days per week that we work together (increase intensity.) We'll also keep in mind that doing something 3X in a row is very beneficial to ds.
I think I'm close. We'll see how this works in reality.
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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Karen E.
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| Posted: April 22 2006 at 5:40pm | IP Logged
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Angie Mc wrote:
Thank you, Karen, for your thoughtful and encouraging words. Coming from a woman who loves writing, your suggestions mean a lot to me.
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I don't think they were anything more than affirmations of all your great ideas, Angie!
Keep 'em coming! 
__________________
God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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Willa
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| Posted: April 23 2006 at 9:19am | IP Logged
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Angie, I love the "writing camp" idea especially if he's on the same page. You sound like you are in tune with your son!
I have one a bit like that --- athletic, responds very well to a bit of pressure and immersion IF he is ready -- quite goal-oriented. But has to watch himself because if he gets the pressure when he's NOT ready he almost kills himself trying. He was a later reader, too, and became fluent almost overnight; loved read-alouds for many years before that.
Your ideas sound so practical and nicely focused. I don't have any suggestions for you but I like the way you approach things! Maybe I'll have to look at my son and see if I think he's ready for that type of thing (he's 13 and so his fine motor skills are actually OK but his spelling and punctuation aren't there yet).
My son read tons and tons of sports articles and sports bios last year -- no, not great literature but he picked up a sort of catchy way of describing action. He liked to write out play by plays of games from his fantasy league -- Describing action can help build organizational and clarity and descriptive skills.
Anyway, keep updating!
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Elizabeth
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What about a baseball blog? I'm finding that my dd-9 is more than happy to write a couple of times a day when she's blogging for her private blog and she gets regualr feedback from a small group of girls across the country. I have a ds-11 who would do a soccer blog in a heartbeat.What if we hooked these guys and some other Real kids together with some sports blogs? I think we could generate a football blog from Northern California... WIth Mary Beth, the rule has become that she can post only after I proofread--it's amazing the editing and real life "style" work she's grasping.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: April 23 2006 at 12:31pm | IP Logged
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Chelsea (age 8) has been wanting to start an online book club blog for girls (she's thick into the American Girl books right now). She's been pestering me since before the Easter Holiday. I've dragged my feet, but how can you tell your child 'no'?
I told her I'd help her. It'll be closely monitored.
I guess I'll have to go Plus (or is it Pro  ) to add another blog. 
Stay tuned.
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Cay Gibson
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: writing bootcamp for 10yo boy
