O/T Creative Writing

[Happy2bMommyof3]

Hi, my oldest dd8 in Bigger loves to write stories on her own. I need to add... that is the only time she loves to write. I love for her to express her creativity in this way and I don't want to discourage her, but her spelling needs so much improvement (to put it kindly). She is doing well with spelling in dictation, etc. but when she lets it pour from her imagination onto paper, it comes out very phonetically and rudimentary. I know that we are not supposed to let them see a mis-spelled word and we are supposed to correct as soon as possible, but how do I do this without discouraging her? If I corrected her and/or asked her to rewrite anything I'm sure I would not be blessed with any more of these wonderful stories. Has anyone experienced this?

[cirons]

Hi,

I have one child like this....we try and encourage him to tell us the stories and we either type them or write it down for him, then he can copy it. That is, do you think your daughter could narrate her creativeness to you and then she copy it down? Maybe into a special notebook/diary etc...

[my3sons]

How exciting she wants to creatively write - I have longed for my sons to choose this on their own! May I ask how long her creative writing pieces are - or more specifically, how much she may write for them each day? If it's a paragraph or less, could you just tell her that you LOVE her writing creatively, but you don't want her to get into the habit of spelling words incorrectly, so you'd be glad to jot the correct spellings above the misspelled words for her? Or, you'd like her to learn to use spellcheck on the computer, so maybe she could type it? Just a few ideas!

In Christ,
Julie

[Happy2bMommyof3]

Thanks for your feedback!

Cirons, I think putting it in a diary would be wonderful and if she thinks we're going to keep it in a special place, maybe she wouldn't become discouraged over some spelling corrections...What a great idea!

Julie, she will write from time to time, not on a daily basis, but tonight was her longest piece yet...over 200 words. It was great, here is my paraphrase of the story while she entitled "The Unicorn and the Animals"...

The unicorn went into the forest to find some friends. She didn't find anyone to play with, but she did find a lion who chased her "super fast" because he was really hungry, but she got away from him. She came upon a crocodile and she knew she was in big trouble. He chased her too. She then met a monster and decided she would not run. She killed the monster and she was now called the brave unicorn and she really liked her new name. She was sad because she still had not met a friend, but she did not give up and went back into the woods again... The end

[Carrie]

Heather,

You've already gotten some great responses, so I'll just post a link to a past thread that may be of help to you as you ponder this area: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7506

Blessings,
Carrie