This year when we started "Write with the Best", I wondered if my ds would be able to write very well creatively. He had enjoyed the creative writing lessons in PHFHG so much the year before, but I knew this being the next year of writing, and it being taught several times a week from the classics, that it was going to be more difficult for him (as it should be each year). I found myself being so inspired to write and brimming with ideas as we did the writing lessons together (how I wish I'd learned to write this way myself

). My ds had ideas too, but he was more unsure of them, kind of approaching it in a cautious way rather than diving in. I probably overwhelmed him in my zeal.

Anyway, as the year progressed, his writing kept improving, and so did his confidence. The final lesson of WwtB was for him to write a poem. We talked about it and put down some prewriting ideas together, as the lessons had us do, but then I just let him totally write it on his own. He worked and labored over it for a very long time, wanting to get it just right. This was concentrated but happy labor - he was enjoying the writing process, and I was enjoying seeing him get so into it. I just was so happy with these results, though it's by no means "perfect", I thought I'd share his poem here. I think it shows both his love for the garden and his newer love for writing.
The Garden
Taking advantage of all God's leads
Rotatillerin', hoeing, watching the weeds
Gingerly placing all of those seeds
I carefully do all those wonderful deeds.
Plants fasting, drinking, stretching up high
Sometimes just barely... getting by
While others a little too close die
Without the time to say goodbye.
Calloused hands reaching for stalks
Pulling them out of the dirt and the rocks
Juicy strawberries, tender corn
Feasting happily all the morn'.
By: Wyatt James Grosz
In Christ,
Julie