Drawing Narrations

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  • June 13, 2009 at 3:20 pm
    gr8tfulCMmom
    Participant

    My younger DD began “drawing” her narrations several months ago. She is 7. She takes scraps of paper, staples one side, and writes and illustrates what she calls “books” about whatever she has read or heard. She gives me adequate oral narrations, but her “books” are where I get the REAL narration. She has 100’s of them. She does them all throughout the day and some times days after she has read a particular book.

    My question though, is about the spelling. Ms. Mason said not to allow them to see a misspelled word. To remove it immediately before it became imprinted in their minds. Well, her “books” are completely phonetic, horrifyingly misspelled (it takes a good bit of work to decipher them) and using words as she knows them (doornogs instead of doorknobs and eyebulbs instead of eyeballs). I think Ms. Mason would shiver if she saw them.

    These “books” are not something I ask her to do. She just does them. I’ll find her outside with paper and crayons making books. She completely enjoys making them and reading them over and over. They’re very accurate as far as information goes, but as I said, they are horribly misspelled.

    Does anyone see this as a problem? I can see her spelling slowly correcting itself as the months go by, but I just wonder sometimes if I need to be concerned based on what Ms. Mason says on the subject. To date, I have only applauded the efforts and praised the accurate details.

    Thanks again for any input…Tonni

    June 13, 2009 at 7:56 pm
    Esby
    Member

    Wow, your DD’s books sound wonderful! What a fun hobby she has created for herself, and I’m sure her collection will bring her lots of enjoyment over the years. My kids do drawings of books they’ve read, too, but not to this extent. I’m really impressed and I hope she continues.

    About the spelling, I run into that situation, too. It’s probably not “CM-correct,” but I let the spelling go in situations like this. Since these books are her own personal amusement and activity, I wouldn’t meddle with the spelling. Eventually she will figure it out and I’m sure you’ll see the spelling in her books improve over time. At most, you might want to say, “Let me know if you ever want help with spelling in your books.” I’m not even sure I would do that much.

    Of course, with spelling lessons in your school day, you’ll want to correct mistakes immediately. I would trust your DD to make the spelling connections on her own.

    Keep those books…they are treasures.

    June 13, 2009 at 9:36 pm
    Jodie Apple
    Participant

    Tonni, we have a dd (8 year old) who does the same thing!! I have a hard time keeping enough paper in the house for her! I’ve not been concerned with her misspellings on these. Sometimes she’ll ask me how to spell something and I’ll help her then, but she enjoys making these books so much-I don’t want it to become a drudgery for her by having to go back and correct all those misspelled words. I’ve seen improvement as time goes by and I’m sure when she’s doing Spelling Wisdom in a year or so this will improve even more. I’m not a veteran in this, so I’d love to hear others responses to this too.

    mj

    June 14, 2009 at 12:04 pm
    caroline4kids
    Member

    I thought I was alone in this! My 8 year old does this too! Reams of paper have been eaten in my house, LOL. I know that I cringe (internally) when I see the words all wrong, but I just smile and appreciate what he is trying to do.

    He has started more copywork and dictation and I am noticing fewer mistakes. Also, since starting dictation he asks me for spellings more frequently when doing his “fun” school. So maybe it will all work out fine in the end.

    June 15, 2009 at 10:14 am
    gr8tfulCMmom
    Participant

    How funny…glad to hear that others share in this joy! You know, for paper, my husband started collecting it at work. He sets a box out and the office contributes their throw away papers to it. He brings it home when it’s full. I have actually stopped buying paper, and use this pretty much exclusively. We do all our notebooking, copywork, math…everything…with it. It’s not as pretty as white paper (has all the writing on the backside), but the kids don’t seem to mind. I would guess that this ream of new paper I have was purchased well over a year ago. I take out single sheets when I need to, but surprisingly, this used paper is adequate for our needs around the house. And it sure helps with the mountains of “books” and artwork that get produced.

    And thanks for making me feel better about the spelling. My instinct was to let it go and it’s nice to have it affirmed.

    Tonni

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