The Write Stuff

I realize now in retrospect that I got a lot of practice writing when I was in grade school.  Since I do a lot of writing in my day job (and keep two blogs as well), I'm glad I got a lot of reps in when I was a kid.  So when both Aaron and Jada's teachers said that writing was something I should encourage my kids to do more of, I jumped all over that.

To be specific, added to their weekend to-do list now is an essay assignment, which consists not only of a topic but of a writing style.  I feel it's important to practice lots of different kinds of writing.  Last week I asked them to come up with a fanciful tale and to go heavy on the exaggeration.  Jada of course wrote about a talking zebra, while Aaron wrote about a sister (hmmm, I wonder who) who had an encounter with a lion (zebra predators, natch) at school. 

This weekend's style is instructional, so they are to describe how to do something.  Next weekend will be to narrate an experience they had, and the week after that (oh, you best believe they're getting extra stuff on Christmas week) we'll have a bunch of things for them to write.  Write write write.  And then write some more.  That's the plan.