My unschooled children don't write!!

[rainbowmum]

They play and have fun but they don't put pen or pencil to paper to write stuff. The few times they do, their writing is not brilliant - though I never say that of course. I've tried suggesting writing to friends. My eldest doesn't do this because she doesn't like her writing and is aware most kids (schooled) her age (12) have quite tidy writing so this does cause problems eg. at guides when she has to write stuff. She even quit for a while because of it.
Now obviously it is not needed right now, but I keep thinking should I be suggesting stuff to practice their writing. After all, contrary to my eldests belief, it will improve the more often they practice.
I worry it is because I chose to unschool and haven't pushed the three R's!
Also our Local Education Authoruty (in UK) don't know about us yet and due to a change in the law, soon will. So I have to start preparing my educational philosophy and am unsure how I am going to satisfy them when it comes to my kids and their writing.

[MillingNome]

PenPal?

Maybe she would write to someone from another part of the world.

[Dar]

Rain wrote almost nothing until she was ten - like, literally, two things a year. She got really good at writing "Happy Birthday", because she generally made birthday cards for her friends, and she wrote a couple short notes and poems, but there were long stretches of nothing...

When she was ten she got online and started emailing and IMing people. Shortly after that she decided she was going to write a novel, although she only ended up with a dozen pages... but they were a dozen beautiful pages. There were some spelling errors, and some punctuation problems, but the writing itself was lovely, with complex sentence structure and higher-level vocabulary. She was just ready. Since then, she's done a lot of writing, on and offline. Her spelling and grammar are about average for her age, but her writing itself is excellent.

She started reading, mind you, at 3, and by 7 she was reading adult books. So there was a loooong latency period there. I also think she was learning about text and words by reading, and wasn't interested in putting them on paper then at all, until she thought she could write the kinds of things she read. Her handwriting is okay but not great, but most things are typed on the computer now anyway.

Oh, and besides AIM and email, Rain did some comics when she first started writing. Just another idea. But maybe your girls would like to chat? I will volunteer my daughter as a chat buddy, because I know she would love to know some unschoolers in the UK.

Dar

[simple living mama]

I think Peggy Kay's Games for writing might be beneficial to own. She's got so many good games in that book that writing becomes fun. Have your kids write the shopping list for you. Get pen pals for them. Find writing contests or places where they might be published. Nothing big just somewhere where they might see their stuff in print.

Also, make sure they see you write alot. It's hard to get kids to do something unless they see you finding joy in it so whenever you have the opportunity to write in front of them, do. Sorry, this is a quick post so I hope it comes across as helpful rather than preachy. Good luck.

[sunset]

a penpal?

If you think the idea of a penpal is good maybe your daughter could write to mine. My daughter is 13 and her written English could also do with some practice . Although she is fluent verbally her writing is ESL ( her first language is Japanese).

btw. I am originally from North Yorks.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by rainbowmum

They play and have fun but they don't put pen or pencil to paper to write stuff. The few times they do, their writing is not brilliant - though I never say that of course. I've tried suggesting writing to friends. My eldest doesn't do this because she doesn't like her writing and is aware most kids (schooled) her age (12) have quite tidy writing so this does cause problems eg. at guides when she has to write stuff. She even quit for a while because of it.

I would be surprised to see brilliant writing at that age - that's something that tends to grow with time and practice and enjoying the reading of a lot of good literature that stirs the imagination. But do you put pen or pencil to write stuff? I'll have to admit that I don't. I use the word processor. I think kids can get going a lot faster, and find more satisfaction with a word processor - and they can print it out on all sorts of pretty paper these days. They can even insert photos!

I hate to see the art of handwriting fading away the way it is, but that just seems to be the way it's going. My 90 year old mother-in-law, frail as she is these days, still has beautiful handwriting, because it was so deeply programmed into them in the old days. Even I used to have nice handwriting, but I don't have patience with it anymore, because it's such a slow way of communicating and it takes ongoing practice to keep it neat. One interesting thing about writing by hand, though, is that it does put you into a different part of the brain that draws more from the heart - I don't know the science of it, but if you experiment a bit, you'll see what I mean.

ANYWAY , where I was meaning to go with this is that my own son finally got heavily into writing through IMs and emails with friends - and I'm sure his love of reading contributed to his skill with words. This is something I've heard about many teens - they love to write creatively/cleverly for/with their friends. When my son was 11, I remember worrying that he'd never want to write, and people assured me he'd write when he had something he wanted to write about. I wasn't convinced - but it turned out that they were right!

Meanwhile, handwriting doesn't tend to develop when someone is using the word processor so much - it can be pretty laborious - but I was pleasantly surprised recently to see that my son has developed a nice looking script because of the necessity of writing in college. Same ol' story - motivation, necessity, etc... Lillian

[moma justice]

just wanted to say that i was forced to write a lot and was forced via punitive ways to write perfectly all through out elem. school,
and now as grown-up, i do not writ every well at all...i love to read, and creative writing (poems, stories, etc) but i do it typed....my script is worse than ever....and i had teachers trying to force me to write more neatly for about 12 years!

go figure.
what a bunch of wasted time!!!

[mattemma04]

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[MOM2ANSLEY]

Originally Posted by sunset

If you think the idea of a penpal is good maybe your daughter could write to mine. My daughter is 13 and her written English could also do with some practice . Although she is fluent verbally her writing is ESL ( her first language is Japanese).

btw. I am originally from North Yorks.

I was thinking penpal too.....Make them WANT to learn to write.

[Live~Laugh~Love]

Originally Posted by iamthesmilingone

Maybe she would write to someone from another part of the world.

OOh thats a good way to get motivated, good idea mama.