I usually give my daughter choices. Often I’ll suggest something to see if she balks. If she balks, I’ll give her a different choice most of the time, but sometimes I insist if I think the assignment is a particularly good one.
I encourage my daughter to type at least a 5 paragraph/500 wordish essay for the most part. I will accept shorter ones occasionally as long as it doesn’t become a habit. Since my daughter is a girl, her papers are usually longer.
I handled my son’s highschool years quite differently when it comes to writing. I only required one paper a week and it had to be at least 5 paragraphs/500 words as well. He disliked writing and it took him much longer to write his papers so I gave him a little more room. He also preferred to use outlines and other methods that caused his writing assignments to take longer. He would usually write the outline on Monday, 1/2 the paper on Tuesday, the other 1/2 on Wednesday. We would correct it together on Thursday and the final copy would be due on Friday.
My daughter is a natural writer (as girls often are) and she will easily sit down and give me a 700 word essay in 25 minutes. She doesn’t use outlines and we check it together which takes about 10 minutes more. The process comes much more easily for her so I require more from her.
I also usually allowed my son to write narrative/descriptive type essays because those were his favorite. I only required the other types of essays here and there from him.
Every child is different!
I think I’m going to add coming up with several essay topics to my lesson planning. It’s hard to come up with them on the spot sometimes. This is how it went today at my house for instance.
My daughter, “Mom, what do I have to write about today?”
Me, “Um……….I don’t know. A character analysis from the Scarlett Pimpernel?”
My daughter, “No, I need to finish reading the book first.”
Me, “Um…….A persuasive essay? Is there something you want to persuade someone to do or something you think everyone should do or like?”
My daughter, “Cats! Everyone should like cats!”
Me, “Sounds good to me! Get started.”
Lol. It doesn’t sound very intellectual does it? 🙂 I let her write on silly topics sometimes too. I just want her to write something on a regular basis so that the process of getting her thoughts down on paper using a certain essay format becomes easy for her. Next week’s essay will be more academic as a result of letting her slide with a silly topic this week.