Poor C2. For the longest time, she was only half a step behind her twin sister as far as schoolwork was concerned. I've known since she was a baby that she wasn't as intellectual as C1, but I was given glimmers of hope over the years. As I've said many times, C2 is the card sharp of the family. grasps game concepts more quickly than many of our adult friends. However, the gap between C2 and her sister has become more evident and I think it is bringing her down.
The main struggle right now is writing. There is a strong emphasis placed on writing essays and stories in the 4th and 5th grade here. Unfortunately, writing is not C2's strength. Even with a writing prompt, she can't think of anything to put down on paper. Her teacher that she is below grade level in this area, so I am trying to help her. None of the suggestions seem to stick, though.
I had a thought that maybe role-playing games would help. Tabletop RPGs are basically storytelling, right? I've read that there are some good ones for kids, and I've always wanted to try a role-playing game. Perhaps if I can build up C2's oral storytelling skills, then we can transfer that to the page.
4 comments:
That's a good idea. In fact, I bought some GURPS books a while ago, with the thought that I'd play with my daughter. That hasn't happened yet, because there's a large time commitment involved.
But she IS in a similar boat with writing. (She's 9 - third grade - I guess they start out early in Texas). What I've done with her is, I will talk to her about what she's going to write down, we'll have a conversation. And I'll record it (yay, podcasting). Then, I'll play it back to her, and she'll write down the ideas she had during the conversation.
Thanks for commiserating with me, Zach! I've been doing something similar with C2, but even getting the beginning of an idea from her is like pulling teeth. She can only come up with about 3 sentences on any topic, but the teacher expects 3 paragraphs! Today, I told her to pretend someone else wrote her paragraph and think of what questions she would ask them about it. I think it helped.
One thing that might help is to break up the tasks and do some pre-writing. If she has an essay to do, she can write point form notes on possible topics, brainstorming as much as she can. Not writing sentences, so there is less pressure, just ideas. Then she can try to organize those ideas into groups and topics, finally, she can write the paragraphs. It's very difficult to just go from a blank page to a full essay, even in rough draft. Break up the steps as much as possible. Also, if there is any freedom of topic (and, at her age there should be), make sure she is writing on things she is interested in. That makes the writing pleasurable. Or, more so.
Thanks for the tips, Drew. C2 usually doesn't get to choose her topic. The teacher gives the class a topic based on whatever novel they are reading at the time. "Describe a time when you were in a similar situation as Character A", for example. C2 can answer the question, but not with 3 paragraphs' worth of thoughts.
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