WWE and Creative Writing

[Tracy]

I am considering using WWE next year for my 6yo. I am really persuaded by SWB's philosophy of teaching writing at this age. And I like the idea of having the narration passages and copywork all laid out for me. But I am a little troubled by the exclusion of creative writing. My dd is coming up with little stories all the time, and I want to encourage that.

 

What are your thoughts on creative writing at this age? Does anyone supplement with another program that includes creative writing?

[plain jane]

I'm doing WWE with my 6yo as well as Write Shop primary. She really enjoys creative writing and WRPrimary is a nice gentle approach to it so it's not too much for her at all. We both really like the program (and WWE).

[Milknhoney]

I am doing WWE1 this year with my son. He likes to make up stories on his own, too. In fact, that was his Christmas present to his grandparents this year - he wrote each of them their own book. Bet if I gave that to him as an assignment it wouldn't be fun to him anymore! And all that narration practice he had with WWE made composing sentences for his story easy for him.

[blakereese]

What I do is have DS write in a journal 3-4 times per week. This can be anything he wants, doesn't have to be the typical diary entry type of thing (which he had to do in ps and didn't like). He leans towards creative writing, so this works. I use something like this draw and write journal so he can illustrate his stories. :001_smile: We've been doing this over a year, and I love to look back on them, it is adorable.

 

I agree, I love WWE but also think some creative writing is good, too. Especially if the child wants to do it (like mine).

[abbeyej]

... My dd is coming up with little stories all the time, and I want to encourage that.

 

What are your thoughts on creative writing at this age? Does anyone supplement with another program that includes creative writing?

 

First, notice that SWB talks about not *forcing* creative writing on children this age. She does *not* discourage creative writing among children who enjoy it!!! :)

 

Personally, my approach is to give my kids lots of resources. They have notebooks, paper, journals, notepads, coloring books that leave half the drawing undone or places for writing a story to go with an illustration, colored pencils, etc, etc, etc. If they start to tell me something funny or clever or interesting or creative, I say, "Oh, that would make a great story..." And often off they go.

 

Since they were very small, they've written stories and poems and scripts for plays and restaurant menus an museum cards (for imaginary museums) and... on an on and on.

 

But I don't use a "creative writing curriculum" in the early years. We read and read and read and go see plays and learn poetry and I give them tons and tons of free time when they entertain themselves and create.

 

But... I've not seen a "curriculum" for the early years that I think truly fosters creativity in writing as much as exposure to stories, availability of resources, and lots of time.

 

My oldest chose to do a creative writing summer camp last year (between 6th and 7th grade) with a local author and loved it. He's doing a short story course with her again now, and if there's money, he'd like to do another camp with her this summer. Next year (8th), we're going to do the One Year Adventure Novel, just because he'd like to.

 

But I have no regrets about not doing a formal "creative writing" program with him when he was younger.

[abbeyej]

BTW, when ds was small, we did Classical Writing- Aesop (and maybe a few lessons of Homer -- I liked the idea more than the implementation, much as I wanted to) and several of the Imitations in Writing books from Logos School along with WTM recommendations. When WWE first came out, we did the 3 and 4 lessons from The Complete Writer, though he was mostly past that level by then. I've used WWE2, 3, and we're doing 4 now with my daughter. (She's also doing Story Grammar, which I suppose one could argue includes some creative writing -- at least some creative sentences...)

 

Anyway, so mostly we've stuck to WTM-type writing. And I've been glad of that.

 

And a couple of fun things to have on hand for a young creative writer:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Write-Me-Story-Fairy-Mix-Up/dp/B001FYNUJI/

(others in this series as well -- beautiful, inspiring stickers and a blank notebook for writing)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Write-Story-Coloring-Colouring-Books/dp/048623732X

 

http://www.pinballpublishing.com/coinop/2010/04/hot-off-the-press-scout-books-by-ian-bogost/

[Hedgehogs4]

I don't think it excludes creative writing. If your daughter wants to write, by all means encourage it. However, her creative writing will be well served by having her learn the structure and discipline that WWE teaches. My ds writes stories on his own...he also draws pictures and reads books. I don't limit him to what we do in school hours.

 

You could even have "creative days" where you dd could dictate a story to you and you write it on a piece of paper or on a white board, and she can copy it back in her own hand. I think that SWB's philosophy is in contrast to the more common approach to writing these days which is, "just write whatever comes to your mind...write anything...we'll work out the errors later (maybe)." MOST kids find this difficult to do. Those who don't find it hard should definitely be encouraged, but trained in the doing along the way.

[Tracy]

Last night, after posting this, I opened up my new Old Schoolhouse magazine, and there was an article by SWB about writing, including her take on creative writing. She said that in her experience, we don't necessarily need creative writing and that some people are just not wired for it. So creative writing assignments can leave certain kids very frustrated and confused about that elusive creativity.

 

I really identified with this, because I am definitely one of those that is not wired for creative writing. The concern about creative writing actually came from my DH, who has always dabbled in it, (even though he is a physics teacher). He has great memories of writing as a child, and he wanted that for his kids, too.

 

Anyway, I think I am not going to look for a creative writing program per se. But maybe I need to start a new thread about encouraging creative writing.

 

Thanks so much for helping me think through this!

[boscopup]

Last night, after posting this, I opened up my new Old Schoolhouse magazine, and there was an article by SWB about writing, including her take on creative writing. She said that in her experience, we don't necessarily need creative writing and that some people are just not wired for it. So creative writing assignments can leave certain kids very frustrated and confused about that elusive creativity.

 

 

Yes, she talks about this in her audio lecture on teaching writing in the elementary years as well (I *highly* recommend that lecture!!!).

 

My son was in private school up until Christmas of this past year. Last semester in first grade, they had to keep "journals", as is very common in the schools these days. When I brought home all his stuff on the last day of school, I looked through his journal. Many of the journal entries were just the writing prompts and nothing else. He couldn't think of anything to say! They were putting the cart before the horse. Now he does have a good imagination, and I won't be surprised if he writes some silly stories when he's older (I know I wrote some silly stories in middle school and high school that sparked a whole new world for my group of friends revolving around the characters I'd written about). But I don't see any reason to force him into creative writing. If he wants to write creatively, he can. It will probably be when he's older and is better at writing in general.

 

I noticed just yesterday in Rod & Staff English 2 (which we do orally), that when he was supposed to come up with words to turn "The moon ___." into a sentence, he said "The moon reflects light from the sun." as his sentence! I can tell you right now that if he'd been writing this exercise, he would have said "The moon is white" or something like that. Because the coming up with thoughts was not tied to the writing down of those thoughts, he was able to come up with much better thoughts! The writing it down will come with time. He needs to develop hand strength for writing, learn how to spell properly (he's a perfectionist and gets tripped up if he doesn't know how to spell what he wants to write), etc. So right now, all of his writing is either copywork or dictation of spelling words that he's already studied. That's it. All original thoughts are written down by me so he can focus on those two skills separately. They will come together over time, and I imagine that when he's in middle school, he might decide to write some silly stories too! That's fine! I just won't require it for school. That would totally take the fun out of it!

[TracyP]

First, notice that SWB talks about not *forcing* creative writing on children this age. She does *not* discourage creative writing among children who enjoy it!!! :)

 

Personally, my approach is to give my kids lots of resources. They have notebooks, paper, journals, notepads, coloring books that leave half the drawing undone or places for writing a story to go with an illustration, colored pencils, etc, etc, etc. If they start to tell me something funny or clever or interesting or creative, I say, "Oh, that would make a great story..." And often off they go.

 

Since they were very small, they've written stories and poems and scripts for plays and restaurant menus an museum cards (for imaginary museums) and... on an on and on.

 

But I don't use a "creative writing curriculum" in the early years. We read and read and read and go see plays and learn poetry and I give them tons and tons of free time when they entertain themselves and create.

 

But... I've not seen a "curriculum" for the early years that I think truly fosters creativity in writing as much as exposure to stories, availability of resources, and lots of time.

 

My oldest chose to do a creative writing summer camp last year (between 6th and 7th grade) with a local author and loved it. He's doing a short story course with her again now, and if there's money, he'd like to do another camp with her this summer. Next year (8th), we're going to do the One Year Adventure Novel, just because he'd like to.

 

But I have no regrets about not doing a formal "creative writing" program with him when he was younger.

 

I am in same position as OP. This is a very helpful post. I keep thinking maybe I should do something more to "help" her creative writing but at the same time I am afraid of taking the fun out of it . It's good to hear a btdt view.

 

OP, if you start a new thread I am :bigear:.

 

I have tried to be helpful without criticizing her stories. Saying, "That was an awesome story. The title is The Water Bucket but that isn't what the story is about. Why don't we make a cover with a new title that matches the story better." I would not do this if it bothered her but she is very receptive to my advice. My biggest problem is she has started a TON of stories but finished very few. Any suggestions or just let it be?

[Dolphin]

One thing with the creative writing at that age, it is one of the big reasons that we left school. Journal ling and creative writing for a large part is busy work at this age. You might get one or two kids who like it, but the rest are being frustrated and learning to dislike writing, this was what happened to my son. He used to (and luckily does again) come up with these fantastic stories, but he did not have the tools developed to write them down, and he just sorted stopped.

We follow WWE and it has been a lifesaver. He is writing again, and it is improving every week. He has started with his stories again. He narrates them to me. I help him with sentence structure, not rambling etc... At the beginning of the year I wrote them into our little books, and he illustrated. Now, we do it as copy work. He narrates to me and I write it out neatly. He then copies it into his book and illustrates. For us, that really helped.

 

Sorry, I have rambled. What I am saying, is see how your daughter goes, if she likes writing it herself, GREAT!. If you are finding that her wonderful elaborate stories are just not getting to the paper, and she isn't liking it, have her narrate her story to you. It is still your daughter's creative side being expressed, even if it is in your writing.

 

Nicole

[siloam]

My oldest is in 7th and still hasn't had creative writing. It hasn't stopped her. She already has written several books, a few of which she has "published" on the Sonlight student forums.

 

My opinion is to just get out of the way and let them have fun. The more fun and less work it is the more they will grow on their own.

 

Heather