Creativity is contagious
Hi Julie,
I attended your sessions at the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers last March, and I came away very inspired. I wanted to drop you a quick note to say thanks for your encouragement in meeting my child where she is at in writing. We casually used (and are using) Jot It Down last year and this year. After the conference, I added into our program a 5 minute free-write once a week. As you talked about in your presentation, my daughter was very resistant. But, I offered to have her dictate to me, and she became more agreeable.
This morning she begged to start working on a story on our home computer, by herself. I’m attaching what she’s written so far. I’m so grateful for your advice in your presentation to not edit her creative work!!!! Thank you!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Her excitement about her creativity in her story is contagious, and, had I not heard you speak, I’m afraid I would have accidentally squashed it by editing her work or by being resistant to helping her spell words as she went.
Without further ado, here is her (un)edited story (she’s 8.5):
Chapter 1
Then I saw it the castle the hunted castle. I opened the doors and saw that frankenstein was down under me. I was scared. I tiptoed past where I can see him. Then there was many other doors in the room. I opened a door and there was ghost! I was scared. The next door I opened there was potions. I saw one potions that gave you a horse! I tried it out. It worked! I got a black painted horse. You can travel with it if you keep the glass bottle with it. I read it of the note by the way. I figure out how to put it in and out of the glass bottle. I put the horse in the glass bottle. Then I went to the next room. It was a jungle! I moved to the next room. It was where you can try your new horse! I got my horse out and went riding. It was so much fun! Once I put my horse back in the glass bottle then I went to the next room and it was a winter wonder land! I played for a while. The next room I went in there was chocolate chips! Big and small!
Thank you again for your guidance,
Renee
Image (cc)
