My Girls' Writings

Sand monster

Once there was a boy & girl named Larry & Marry.
One sunny day they were SO hot!
They had to eat popsicles or ice-cream!
While Larry & Marry ate they went in the sandbox & they saw an ugly shape of a monster! AAH! cried Larry, the younger one. Don't be silly! said Marry gently, it's just a picture of a monster. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? RUN! cried Marry, the older one. But do know that MY brother cried:AAH! like Larry?
The End

By N

THE WATER MONSTER!
There were two boys, one was 7 and the other one was 10. They had 1 sister, the boys name were Harry & Tom, Tom was the oldest. They were going to go to the beach today and the were so excited. Their sister, Torry, was 9 and liked to scare Harry. She had a plan for the trick she was going to do to Harry. But, Harry didn't know it. When they got to the ocean, Torry dove into the water without the boys knowing it. She was the best swimmer among them all. When Harry finaly looked at the water she burst up, but when she did it was like a wave coming up, so Harry thought she was a real monster! She went back down as quickly as she came up. AHHHHH! screamed Harry. Tom asked : "What is the matter? Harry said :"I saw a monster! Tom said :"oh really? after that he asked mom where Torry was. Mom said : "She went in the water. Tom called :"Torry did you trick Harry again! Silence. Torry finaly came out and said:"You caught me again, Tom! They grinned at each other and both said:"Silly Harry!
The End!

By S

My kids have their own blogs, but I really hesitate to link them here just because the internet is such a dangerous place. So I'll have to be content with simply putting up some of their work on this blog. These two recent pieces of writings really surprised me. S claimed she didn't like to write, but I think she actually does. She just doesn't want to do it under pressure. N on the other hand likes to write AND draw, especialy draw. What surprised me about these two pieces is the improvement apparent from their sentence structure and story line. S had been reading a lot lately and I can see her writing improving a lot from before. N has her own 'voice' as she does in everything else. S is more of a 'follow-the-rules' kind of person, which at times inhibits her creativity in coming up with an idea and going through with it. In this regard she is very much like me. I remember being stumped after art class, not knowing what to draw because the teacher had told us to draw anything we want. The only time I remember getting an A in art class was when we had to do a stamping activity with cut potatoes. I had chosen black paint and carved the potato myself. To me, my work looked horrendous but surprisingly I received an A. I can see S's difficulty in coming up with an idea of her own and everytime it brings back memories of my own struggle. It's like, I can't be told exactly what to do, because that would inhibit my so called creativity, yet if given the freedom of creating my own artwork, I would just sit there dumbfounded, grappling at empty air.

F had said to S last night, while she sat in the swivel chair in front of the computer,

"Just write. You can always fix it later, but just write."

She did and that was she came up with, which is pretty good for a first draft. I'll let her off this time, without actually making her do a second or final draft. She's currently working on writing a report on penguins and I don't want to put a damper on her effort. I'll let her free write just so she could get a release from the restraining inhibitions I had passed down to her, and then maybe after she's used to it, we'll work on finessing her work.