Learning writing style, and journal entries

Calvin has been writing for a while now. He started keeping his journal almost a year ago. At that time it was mostly a sentence, or even just a few words, describing an activity from the day, or sometimes a book that we'd read, and I was helping him form his sentences and sound out and spell the words. I got him started on the journal before he could read in part because he was interested in doing so—he'd noticed me keeping journals for some time by then—and also because I thought it might be empowering to be able to share his thoughts with the world at large. He enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure the process helped him learn to read a few months later, though learning is a very fluid process, and like the proverbial chicken and egg I can't tell which drove the other—the journal the reading, or the reading the journal. And as Calvin gained his own writing legs I slowly stopped helping him with his journal, and some time early this year I left him sitting on the couch writing while I ran on the treadmill, and since that time all the entries have been entirely his—spelling, punctuation, composition, and all.

Recently he and I had a chance to talk about sentence formation and about telling stories with written words. The topic presented itself because after having read all the Oz books by L. Frank Baum we graduated to the subsequent books by Ruth Plumly Thompson, only her writing just isn't as good—it's not as clear, it's not as bright, it's not as enjoyable. We compared some of their methods for story telling, and some examples of their sentence formation as well. From there we started talking more about what makes a sentence interesting in general, and about rhythm and flow in a short work.

We explored Calvin's own journal next, and found that some entries were more fun to read than others—he found that the ones that had been short, quick, and easy to write were the least interesting to read later. Then we tried something: he wrote a quick entry about our Log Cabin Weekend trip, then asked me to help him rewrite it. I helped him by asking leading questions about the day itself, by talking about different ways to phrase the same thing, and by encouraging him to vary his sentence length. He seemed surprised by the difference between the two entries, and excited, too, as though a new window had opened in his mind, or a new door in his life.

Journal entry original:

Journal entry rewrite:

Writing and illustrating

It was towards the end of a particularly difficult day (chores, bad weather, snuffles) that Calvin up and declared he was going to write a poem and illustrate it. When he finished I suggested that he write a story about the same topic to feel the difference in composition. He illustrated that as well, and the next day he proceeded to write more poem and story combos with fun illustrations. I love this new found confidence not just in writing, but in creating.

The A, A, B, A down the left side is his plan for the rhyming scheme.

Note that the pig is clearly singing. *love

As he was drawing this one he made a line for the mat and told me that he knew that was how a mat would look from the side, but he wanted people to be able to see the pattern on the mat so he was drawing "a different perspective." *more love

I am linking this to the wonderful Saturday's Artist.

Reading

I have long been opposed to teaching reading at young ages. I think I have previously expounded the virtues of waiting to teach that skill, and my goal was to have Calvin reading around the age of six. I should know by now, however, that my son has his own ideas about learning (I still remember carefully researching all the important theories on potty training only to have him wake up one day completely potty trained all by himself). So I guess I can't say I'm surprised that at the library last week Calvin asked to check out a collection of phonics books, then at home proceeded to work his way through them methodically and voraciously, with little help from me. In the short span of a weekend he mastered all the words in the first set of Bob phonics books we brought home and is proudly asking for more.  Homeschooling is nothing if not exciting, being full of misdirections, u-turns, and somtimes complete transportations. I may have intended to save reading for another couple of years, but Calvin had other ideas.

Journaling

I haven't blogged about our general activities in a while, but that's not to say that we haven't been busy. I am dedicated to a life of routine, though equally as dedicated to breaking out of it. It's both comforting and pacing to have at least a few landmarks along our daily road; there isn't a day of the week that we don't read and play the piano, for instance. And there are other things that I am careful to squeeze in at least a  minimum of times over any given week, and this month we've added journaling to that list.

Honestly I've never been very good at keeping a journal. I love to write and am continually thinking in terms of journaling, but rarely do my thoughts ever make it onto paper. I believe that writing is an empowering activity, though, and it has always been our plan to involve Calvin in the blog as soon as he grasps the art of reading and writing. With the advent of school for everyone else, and months of cold, indoor days upon us, I decided to get us started on actually keeping journals.

The rule is that we write at least three days a week. I am keeping a reading journal, writing about the books I am reading, and Calvin is keeping more of a daily activity journal recorded in a combination of writing and drawing/coloring. I think he's pretty excited about the endeavor and his writing (both the actual writing and his ability to sound out words) is already maturing with the increased practice. And maybe, just maybe, as a team we'll be able to stick to this writing resolution. It's something I've always wanted to do.

Never underestimate

I was in the kitchen preparing a meal to go in the crockpot, looking forward to a day of fun and relaxing since the chores were done. Calvin was in his play room coloring on his easel and calling out every once and again about his work.

"This is a big window in brown"

"I'm using green to make hand turkeys."

The final cry announced that he was finished drawing and would move on to playing with his trains, so, out of a habit that has yet to form, I said "make sure you put your name on your artwork!" wondering, as I said it, at the futility of the statement. To whom else could it possibly belong? And he can't write anyhow, let alone spell out his own name on paper.

A few minutes later I finished with the crockpot meal and joined the little guy in the play room. Well I'll be.

Many times I have told myself, and others, to be careful about underestimating the abilities of children. In my care to follow a learning path that was unschooled and desire driven we have yet to work on any reading or writing skills, and though we've often spelled his name out together verbally or with magnets, we have never practiced forming letters in any way physically. Jon, when he got home, called this an obvious desire to learn how to read and write and declared open season on that subject. I'm not sold yet, but I do think this is pretty darn neat.