The Writing Flow

There's a lot of writing going on around here lately. 

It seems that Lu is finding his writing flow. 

And writing is becoming second nature.

 

Questions like:

Does it have to be that long? 

How do I start it?

Can you give me some ideas?

have become a thing of the past.

(knocking on wood so that it lasts)

He recently finished the first two books of the Narnia series,

so he wrote a few paragraphs summarizing, comparing,

and critiquing them.

Lu originally wanted to read straight through the whole series, but then decided he needed a bit of a break after Prince Caspian. So he read a very fun book in Spanish about a bowl of story-telling noodles, and wrote a short summary about it. 

I asked him to limit himself to two paragraphs. He said it was impossible to fit it into so few words, and tried to get me to up it. So we talked about how it can be very useful to know how to get your point across in as few words as possible.

Anyway, I'm thrilled that he's asking to write more 

rather than less.

As we are bilingual, I try to make time every week 

for written work in both languages.

Much writing also happens in

history and science.

 Lu does most of the writing, but sometimes I give him a hand

by writing what he dictates.

I try to vary writing assignments as much as possible - reports, reviews, creative writing, dialogues, descriptive paragraphs, summaries, note-taking....

I used to make the mistake of correcting

spelling and grammar in the first read.

Now, instead of handing in his work to me, when Lu is done he reads aloud what he wrote. Then, he edits his own work. 

Reading it to me helps him find his mistakes. 

Then we put it away. I won't check spelling or grammar until a few days have passed, and only comment on content and wording. I give as much praise as I can, to compensate for having been overly critical in the past. And his writer's confidence has definitely improved.