Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Stream of consciousness during homeschool family writing time

 It is homeschool family writing time, which means we are all cuddled up on the couch - cat included - typing away. It may look like a beautiful homeschooling moment on social media but let's dive into it a bit.

 We just finished up a rather frustrating attempt at completing Colonial crafts we bought in Jamestown last August. The directions were poor and with only one adult jumping between two different craft projects to provide assistance we all got a bit frustrated. What to do? Take a break and write about it in a 'small moments' style. Of course, when you are already frustrated trying to complete a group composition isn't always going to help. Ehhh... we got through it.

That text completed we dove into our fifteen minutes of independent writing. Nothing to write about? Often happens in moments of frustration... so.... diving deep into my creative writing classes from my childhood I implemented the "just write anything - even if you write "I have nothing to write about." I'm writing this... one child is writing about how tired she is and one is writing about me.

I'll write about her too.

My oldest is one of the most determined children I have ever met. She taught herself to tie shoes one afternoon in kindergarten, taught herself to tell time on Christmas morning when she was six and just got a new watch, and she follows through with whatever deep challenge she comes upon. 

Lately, we have been diving into some of my favorite books together - Wonder and Book Scavenger. It's been so lovely to share these books with her - and even more exciting to get book recommendations from her. One night I came upstairs at 9:50 and found her sheepishly still up and reading. "You HAVE to read this book, Mommy" she declared, showing me the sequel to Wonder she had been reading. So I did. It was excellent. Both the book and the fact that I now have another book-lover to give me recommendations. 

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