creative writing… do I correct??

I’d ask her if there is one piece (maybe one a month?) that she wants to edit and publish. If not, don’t correct anything. If you see a common error, address that seperately. Like a spelling error, later on that day or that week you can work on that word, without relating it back to her writing. Just correct it and give her time to make the connection. For any pieces she chooses to correct, I would let her make her changes first and then you can pick one or two things and address them with her.

That is great that she likes to write! My daughter is the same age and has recently took up writing. I called it her journal. She called it her autobiography. I called her a writer, but she corrected me again. She is an author! It is so exciting to see her want to write. I was not going to correct anything, but soon changed my mind since she and her older brother keep reading it out loud over and over again. I know she wants to spell better, but just can’t yet. If there is the word she wants printed on a box or book title, she copies it correctly, so I know she is making a good effort. I am glad that does not stop her from writing. But I remember that in CM, we always want them to see words spelled correctly. Since her brother was poking fun at her misspellings, I offered to edit the spelling in it for her. She wrote in pencil and mostly there was a lot of inserting of a letter e. But there were some really off I had to erase and re-write, like todde for today and xsided for excited. She was glad I helped her like this. I had asked first and did not criticize any of her writing or grammar. She asks me more now as she writes of how to spell words. Also the journal I got her is from Learning Resources and has a list of 100 high frequency words on the front cover and a list of 100 commonly misspelled words on the back cover. I had her start her own list of spelling words at the back too. So my main focus now is correct spelling. We can work on grammar in a few years yet.

Also, when I can find the time, I will sit at the computer with her dictating her story to me. This is when I will correct grammar as I am typing or I may ask her to expand on the idea more, like “what kind of doll?” Then we print it out. It would be more fun to call it “publishing” though. Great idea!