Taking the Ugh out of Writing

Or at least trying to.

In his traditional/classical school setting, Sam learned to hate writing. They didn't take into consideration a student's aversion to pencils. My darling boy is so full of ideas he is often stricken with the dreaded disease--talking pneunomia. As far as we know there is no cure. Once it hits (around age 2), it seems to revisit the victim at random moments. Last night it was struggling to take over during church service. My son, finally prevailed against it, but it was a struggle.

So, all these wonderful, crazy, ideas that spill out in fits and spurts are the perfect fodder for writing. But the pencil allergy seems to spread to keyboard allergy, too. I think the slowness of writing and typing and the speed of his thoughts are just too disparate.

Now that we have had a good six months outside of a classroom, it might be time to awaken the writer within Sam. The question is how to do this in a positive way. One source of good writing suggestions is at bravewriter.com. This woman has written a book to help homeschool parents teach their children to become writers. The book is called "The Writer's Jungle" and costs $75. I sure wish I could see it before I buy it. Or get it cheap (none on ebay so far).

At her website, Julie Bogart does give a lot of information that makes me think we can begin the baby steps without purchasing the book and maybe get it for next fall. Many of her ideas are already happening in our home (reading aloud, enjoying poetry together) because they are a part of the Sonlight curriculum. Some other ideas (copying favorite quotes in a notebook, dictation from a favorite book) we could begin without buying her book.

One of my ideas was to alter her copying, freewriting suggestions into something that Sam would embrace by getting him a blog. I would monitor this, prevent comments from strangers. One thing that would make it work is if people he knows would email him with comments on his blogs. Then my little techie may very possibly become a writer without any "ugh."