Freewheeling freewriting
Email:
Dear Julie,
I am a homeschooling mom of three girls ages 13, 10 and 7. We just tried free writing this last week, and I just wanted to say thank you for writing about it. The kids enjoyed it more than almost anything else we have done for schoolwork in awhile. That sounds pretty bad, but I have been stressing out about what they are and are not learning lately, especially my 13yodd. I look at her in all her 7th grade glory and think, “Boy, I am really going to mess her up from here on out if I’m not careful to teach her properly.” That fear just stifles my instincts as to what is best for her and her sisters. I’m planning a lot more freewrites!
I know you probably get a ton of email, but I just wanted to offer my appreciation and to let you know how much my straight-laced, sweet, careful girl enjoyed knowing that spelling and punctuation didn’t count in this writing assignment. Here is her first freewrite:
The water in the cup near me looks blue Is it? I love Mommy that M is awful but I dont care haha I didn’t put any apostrophe in dont look I did it again and i like it and my I is not capitalized. I griped to thumper about being thirteen this morning and cried but then at 2:15 I went out and apologized she growled What was this guy’s name again? I love Mommy’s rolls or biskits or whaterer they are called haha look bad spelling What happens if we run out of paper before 10 minutes is up? I don’t know and I won’t care until I get there I can’t wait to go to California and tell Ggmom and GGDad that we’re 100 % tx and 100% ca! I wish we were there already I like freewriting it’s so ridiculous I was going to write something else but I forgot it 🙂 I don’t know if smileys go on paper I wish I could get into my Squirrel Band drawings whoa I’m thirsty but I still have 5 min or actually a bit less hey we’re going to a church meeting tonight I wish I could bring Thumpee don’t ask why did you know the early Celts wore hare instead of underwear? I’m spelling words I’ve known how to spell forever but I’m spelling them wrong and don’t care the Celts didn’t wear bunnies sorry they wore HAIR Mariel and Cornflower are mad at each other and I’m getting writers cramp I never realized I thought about such a wide variety of subjects!
Sincerely,
Katie Barr
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I love this freewrite! Talk about free, talk about exploration of her mind. Even her deliberate misspellings and loss of punctuation reveal that she knows the correct versions of both. Here she is playing with language, perhaps the way ee cummings or Lewis Carrol did when they were young.
What a marvelous discovery right at the end: “I never realized I thought about such a wide variety of subjects.” Indeed!
Thanks for sharing your daughter’s delightful writing and mind with the rest of us, Katie.
That was fun…thank you for sharing the freewrite!
Boy, that made me chuckle this morning and I am still smiling!!! She does have a lot to say in a humurous way.
You ought to check out Dav (wrong spelling but he embraced it) Pilkey’s books. Yes, I am talking about Captain Underpants and Yes, I initially turned a snotty nose to them when at the bookstore. I remember telling the young bookshelver, “NO, I am NOT interested in THOSE!” That was until I actually checked one out from the library and found myself “Rolling On The Floor Laughing” and passing the book to my then 10-12 year old boys (who could read potty humor and beyond without having to enlighten their younger siblings on these matters).
A natural follow-up to these “laffs” from CU is Dav Pilkey’s life story comics on his website. I literally made my hubby and older kids read them with me so I could feel that laughter again and again. It was a monumentous moment for a homeschooling mom who had the “daily stress twinge” about, “Am I doing enough????”
Enjoy!
Lora