I'd love to share a sample of dd's writing...

[Kfamily]

but I am hesitant. I'd really like some feedback on her writing, but I don't want to share if this is perceived as anything but a true wish for some new perspectives. :001_smile: I hope this is okay...

 

 

Introduction

 

Once on a faraway planet, on the back side of Earth, there lived a dagger. Not just an ordinary dagger, but a dangerous darkpowered dagger. No one wanted it except Uradon, commonly known, in dangerous spots, as The Evil King. He had many evil, dangerous powers, but his one weakness was The Dagger Of The Green Lightening World. It was so contagious that no one dared go even a step further, to its special box, except The Queen of Laelius. You see her husband died, and she was left alone to The Throne. She was very sad for her unfortunate loss. She weeped at his very grave in the rain with dark veils covering her face. She was still sad a year later. It was so sad and miserable that she moved her troops to a less-dangerous place called Pearl Stallion. Queen Ezra had a good dragon called Aquarius.

 

 

This is all she has so far. This is typed exactly as she wrote this. She did ask for help with the spelling of introduction and contagious. I'm fascinated by what she writes. I truly don't know where she gets some of these ideas. She has read The Hobbit and is about 1/3 of the way through The Fellowship of the Ring. We've been watching the movies (the first two so far) and there is definitely Tolkien fever going on here. My older dd has been reading/learning how to speak elvish. She certainly passes this on to my younger dd since they talk about this daily.

 

What should I do with her for English? I've figured out the basics for MCT Town level, but it will cost a fair bit more than we have right now. It will either have to wait, or I need to pick out only one or two books, or I need a new plan altogether. I think this might be easier if I could just get a grasp of where she is and what skills I could focus on with her. Any advice? Please? I'm overwhelmed, I think.:lol:

 

This would be for my younger dd whose 7.

[Gooblink]

;) She's very creative! This does have a Tolkien feel to it. She seems to have a good grasp of sentence structure and grammar, especially for 7 years-old; this reads like the work of someone a bit older.

 

Since this is creative work, I'd simply encourage her to develop the story and her characters. I fear that if you turn it into an academic exercise, she may lose the passion for it. (maybe that's just how my boys work!)

 

You might want to work in some lessons on paragraph construction, she's got a lot going on in these few sentences.

 

Let her fly with it! My 10 year-old has been writing for the past few years - doing graphic stories for much longer. His writing and story development are improving immensely just by virtue of our normal language arts studies. (We use MCT)

 

Tell her I want to read her book when she's finished. :)

[Kfamily]

Thank you, Cindy. It is really such a relief to get some feedback. Thank you.

Yes, I will definitely leave her creative writing alone. She writes daily in her notebooks just because she likes to do this. This is just the advice I needed. I will look at finding ways to encourage her to develop her characters and the story more within the work we do for school. I think this has been part of my problem. I need to bump up the level of her school work so that we are working on new skills. She seems to do this to me...I have her work set up for her and then, suddenly, she needs a whole new set. I need to keep up better. :D I'll see if I can at least pick up a couple of the MCT books I need. It is frustrating since I would prefer to get all that I need.

[love2read]

Excellent! What a great imagination, natural understanding of sentence structure and understanding of commas :) I've used IEW with two children who were gifted in language arts with great results, but not until they were older (around age 9.) Before that I let them run wild with creative writing. Enjoy and don't be surprised if she gives you a real blooper every now and then. Occasionally they seem to copy another style with horrible results.

[love2read]

Just wanted to add, I didn't start my youngest in MCT until she was an older 8 year old and she went into the Grammar Town level. The books go so well together, that you may want to wait until you can get all of them. She'll love Building Poems!! These children with an ear for English usually love grammar. Before I put her in MCT I put my then 7 year old in the 4th grade level Seton English workbook (rigorous-similar to Rod & Staff probably) and I let her do traditional diagramming to her hearts content. Just throwing some ideas out here :)

[Kfamily]

Thank you so much!

 

Thank you for your added advice about waiting for MCT. I was feeling frustrated about not being able to purchase all that I needed right away. Knowing I can wait until next year really helps a lot. I have a R&S grade 4 book that I had picked up for a good price. I've wondered if I could just make use of this. I could use the R&S grade 4 right away, and then start her in MCT next year when I could purchase all of it. This would be similiar to what you did with your dd, I think? I also have a few other things on hand that might work as well, but I would definitely still let her creative writing flow naturally and uninhibited.

 

Thank you, I really appreciate your help.:grouphug:

[catz]

Just wanted to add, I didn't start my youngest in MCT until she was an older 8 year old and she went into the Grammar Town level. The books go so well together, that you may want to wait until you can get all of them. She'll love Building Poems!! These children with an ear for English usually love grammar. Before I put her in MCT I put my then 7 year old in the 4th grade level Seton English workbook (rigorous-similar to Rod & Staff probably) and I let her do traditional diagramming to her hearts content. Just throwing some ideas out here :)

 

:iagree: I did Island level with a highly to profoundly gifted 3rd grader last year and it went great. We just did more discussion and writing than we would have a year or 2 earlier, and he was set up well to move directly into Town level. Town level is going GREAT for us. We love it. I think the whole package is the way to go. The pieces don't stand alone nearly as well as they fit together.

 

She's a lovely writer. My son has a very similar writing style and especially likes to include weapons in his stories! :001_smile: He's going to unveil his 5000+ word NaNoWriMo story end of day tomorrow that no one has peeked at yet. And BTW - I'm sure you're daughter would LOVE to do NaNoWriMo next fall if you didn't do it this year.

 

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

[Kfamily]

Thank you! I am going to wait until I can afford the whole package. I really think this is what will fit her best. I think I might just start saving for it now and by next year maybe...

 

Great idea about the NaNoWriMo, I hadn't thought of that! My older dd would love it too. I've read about it but didn't think about it....:lol:

 

Wow, 5000 words! When it is revealed is there anyway it can be shared. We'd love to read it if that is possible. If not, I'm sure it is wonderful and please tell your ds congratulations on such an accomplishment.:001_smile:

Thanks for the link!