My Pleasant Surprise

I've mentioned before that I am really trying hard to apply the 7 principles of great teaching from the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy.  One of the most important principles is "Inspire not Require".  I told myself that I would give it an all out effort this year and really, truly not require academic things from the kids.  It made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to give it an honest effort.   I figured that if it didn't look like it was working well, I could always go back to requiring some things next year.

 It's been a challenge sometimes when I see them not opening their math workbooks or choosing not to write.  I know the kids at school are doing a lot of required writing and I worried a little that my kids were getting "behind" if they didn't do the same things their friends were doing.  I was tempted to go back to requiring math and writing, but I refrained - since I had told myself I'd really give it a try it for a year.

I've had a couple of concerns as we've been doing this. One of them was Spice and her math. She didn't want to study math at first. I talked to her about the importance of math and analytical thinking for her brain. I got math books disguised as stories from the library and we played analytical games. She eventually decided that she wanted to understand math so she gets out her math workbook once in a while. I've been amazed at what she is able to understand from daily living though - Me: "Spice, we need to triple this recipe - it says we need 3/4 cup of sugar - how much should I put in?" Spice: "Umm.....2 1/4 cups?" How did she know that? She hasn't reached the part in her math book that talks about multiplying fractions and converting them to whole numbers! I think she'll understand it pretty well when she does though.

My major concern was not Spice, however, it was Bud and his writing. He really did not like to write. When he did write, it was a few words on a picture to point out what someone was saying. When I was requiring him to write last year, he would break down if I wanted him to write more than one sentence.  It would take him a really long time to write down a few words because he was thinking of other things and not at all focused on his task.

I wondered if I was doing him a disservice by letting him play Chess and Blokus or just reading during study time.  I really wanted him to write as well!  I explained the importance of writing so we could share and preserve our ideas, sort our thoughts, etc.  He still rarely wrote.   Once in a while he decided to practice writing so he'd write a few words on a picture.  Not quite what I had in mind.  I was very tempted to just require it again, but I stuck to my goal and let him choose.

Family night at the storytelling festival

I took them to a Storytelling festival last week and they were mesmerized by the stories.  Then a couple of days later, we found a set of Beatrix Potter books at a thrift store.  I thought we could have a little lesson about Beatrix for Discovery Time.  On Monday, we read a little about her, read one of her books, and I asked the kids to think of an animal that they wanted to make a book about.

At first Bud panicked, "Do we have to write a book?!?" he asked.  I said, "No, you can just draw pictures if you'd like.  I just thought it would be fun to think of a story like Beatrix Potter did."

Little Miss decided that she would make a coloring book of animals.  Spice was very exited about this project (she LOVES writing stories) and instantly began her book about a squirrel.  Bud couldn't think of an animal he wanted to do a story about.  I told him it could be a bug, if he preferred, or some other living thing - he got excited about drawing a picture of a praying mantis so he got to work.

Suddenly, he had an idea.  We had recently finished listening to the Tales of Brer Rabbit by Uncle Remus.  He exclaimed, "What if I wrote a story about a praying mantis that is always trying to catch a grasshopper, but the grasshopper keeps tricking him and getting away?"  I told him I thought that sounded like a great story, and he began to WRITE!

I was surprised.  He kept on writing.  I didn't know he could put more than two sentences together!  An hour went by - he was still writing. He said, "Mom, I like this part of expression."  I said, "Well, good, because that is what "Expression" is for - sharing your ideas!"

Two hours went by.  He said, "Mom, this is fun, can I do this for study time?"  "Oh, well, I guess so, if you must."

Three hours went by - he complained that his hand hurt a little because he was not used to writing for so long.  I urged him to take a break and maybe write some more tomorrow (I didn't want him to overdo it!), but he kept on writing.

After four hours, he finally agreed to a break so he could read his story to his dad who had gotten home from work by then.

Early the next morning, I went down to fix breakfast.  Guess who I found sitting at the table WRITING!?  Yep.  He was so excited that he went to work on his book as soon as he got up.  The same thing happened the next day.

The next two days we were gone for field trips and clubs and today he was busy cleaning and playing with friends so he hasn't finished his story yet, but I had to post what he has written so far.

It is so funny and imaginative.  You can really see his little personality through it.  I couldn't not post my little boys very first story!  I took pictures and then I typed what he wrote because the pictures are a little blurry.  I've changed some of the spelling and added some punctuation that expresses how he read it to me. You can see the original in the picture.  If he paused to explain something as he read, I added that in parenthesis.  (I didn't say I was exited because he knew how to write properly, I am exited because he now loves to write. The rest will come in time!)

The Tale of Mantis by Bud

Introduction

Well, this story is about a praying mantis that is always trying to get a grasshopper. But this grasshopper is extra smart so he is extra hard to catch.

Once upon a time there was a praying mantis thinking about how he was going to catch the grasshopper he always wanted to eat.

"I wonder if that grasshopper falls for any tricks," he said, pouring some grasshopper cereal in his bowl and drinking a grasshoper smoothie and smoothing his antenna.  We don't want to talk about what he was doing with his other three hands.  That would be boring.  Just then, he heard a knock at the door.  He started hoping it was the ant delivering the chocolate caterpillars that he ordered.

So he ran to the door in a flash with his tongue hanging out like a dog when you haven't fed it in three days.  To his surprise, it was Mrs. Beetle.  She was looking surprised.  "Why did you open the door so fast with your tongue hanging out?"  Mrs. Beetle said, "That almost gave me a heart attack!  My son, TJ, wants to come over and play with your son, Riley, because my husband is at work, and I am going to the store, and he is only 4," she said.

Mantis was a little worried because TJ was a big handfull and that's probably why Mrs. Beetle wanted to get rid of him.  So TJ came and he asked if we could go to the park.  Mantis had to say yes because TJ would throw a tantrum, and when TJ throws a tantrum you do not want to mess with him.  Even though he is only 4 years old, TJ is pretty tough and that's why nobody asks him to wrestle.

So when we got there, Mantis started looking for the grasshopper traps Mantis set earlier.  When Mantis got the traps, he found a grasshopper that looked just like the grasshopper he always wanted - this is weird to us because all the grasshoppers look the same to us!

When he saw it, he did a little dance and laughed, "Ha, ha" and started singing a song.  It went like this:

"I got him, I got him

I got you, I got you

and before you can 

say Jack Robinson

You'll be in my tummy

Yum Yum Yum Yum"

Just then he heard Bzzzzzzzzzzz. He turned around and saw Mr. Bee.  "Why don't you put some of my honey on your grasshopper?" said Mr. Bee.  "That would be yummy," Mantis said.  So with that, he gave some of his honey and flew away, and Mrs. Dragonfly gave some of her mosquitos.

Just then, he heard a "Hee hee hee hee hee hee ha ha ha".  Mantis turned around and saw the grasshopper that he always wanted. "I tricked you again!  Ha He.  You'll never get me!"  (The other grasshopper had been a stuffed grasshopper toy). Mantis was so mad he almost grabbed the grasshopper, but he was so mad he couldn't.  He just sat there looking mad.  And the grasshopper jumped away.  "I need to get that grasshopper somehow," he said.

Just then he heard "Aaaaaaaaaaaaeee!"  He rushed to the place where he heard it.  He saw his son, Riley, up in a tree.  He was yelling for dragonfly.  "I'm gonna kill you for this Jake Dragonfly!" Riley yelled.  Jake Dragonfly is Mrs. Dragonfly's son.  He was a trouble maker and Mantis was guessing Jaked did that, so he flew up and got Riley down.

The only problem now is where was TJ?!  "Oh no, Mrs. Beetle will kill me!"

Just then he heard a panting, "Hahahahahaha".  It was TJ.  "I chased Jake after I saw him put Riley in that tree.  I chased him all the way to his house and then told his mom.  And he is in time-out right now, and he is grounded for a week," said TJ.

"Well, I got him down and that's all that matters," said Mantis.

"No it isn't!  I'm glad TJ chased him!  He deserved it!" said Riley.

"Well, anyway, do you want to go on a picnic?" said Mantis.

"Sure," said TJ and Riley together.

"Do you want a stawberry sandwich TJ?" said Mantis.

"Yes" said TJ.

"And Riley, would you like bread with butter-fly and grasshopper?"

"Yes" said Riley.  So Mantis gave them their food and Mantis gave himself a hot caterpillar (like a hot dog) and all the time Mantis was thinking about how he was going to get the grasshopper he always wanted, and Riley was thinking about how he was going to get Jake Dragonfly, and TJ was thinking about how good his strawberry sandwich was.

After the picnic, Mantis thought of an idea.  He saw a field.  He put a grasshopper trap in the field and went home and took TJ and Riley with me and took TJ home.

When we got home, someone was knocking on our door.  It was the ant that delivered the chocolate caterpillars.  Mantis was so hungry, he grabbed the box and forgot that most delivery boxes have peanuts in them.  So without looking he put his face and his hands in the box.  He tasted a foam taste and when he took his head and hands out, his hands and head were covered with peanuts.

"You look like Santa Mantis!"

"I forgot that most delivery boxes have peanuts in them," said Mantis spitting peanuts out.

Knock. Knock.

"Riley, will you get the door while I get these peanuts off me?" said Mantis.

Riley ran to the door and yelled, "Dad!  It's Mr. Ladybug!" So Mantis ran to the door and saw Mr. Ladybug

"Mr. Mantis, today is my girls's birthday.  She invited Riley.  She wants everybody's dads to come.  It's at 2:00 okay?" said Mr. Ladybug.

"Okay," said Mantis.  With that he walked away.  Mr. Ladybug's girl's name was Ginne.

"You know more about her, so what is she like?  What does she like?" said Mantis.

"Well, she is a girly-girl so when I play with her, I always have to be a prince and she always has to be a princess and we always have to get married," said Riley with a sigh, "So I'm not excited about it.  The only thing that TJ is happy about is that he gets cake, if he is invited," said Riley with another sigh.

"Well, I guess we'll have to get a girly thing," said Mantis, "Let's go to the store and see what we can find."

"Okay," said Riley.

So when they got there, Mantis said, "Riley, go look in that section and I'll look in this section."  Now, Mantis forgot that there is a boy and girl section and he got the boy's.

"Spiderbug! Holy Cow! That's a boyish thing," he said.  "Batbug.  That's a boyish thing too.  Ironbug. Oh my gosh! So much boys stuff today!" he said

Just then he heard Riley calling him.  He walked to the place where he heard it.  Things were getting girlier.  He saw Buggy and the Spider (Beauty and the Beast), and Buggy Beauty and My Little Ladybugs.  Finally, he got there.  Riley was holding a red bow with black dots with a ladybug on it.

"Wow!  Where did you get that?" said Mantis.

Riley pointed to the section he had been looking at.  Right above it was a sign that said "Girls" and the place where Mantis was looking at had a sign that said "Boys".

"Oops!  I was looking in the wrong section," said Mantis, "and that bow will go perfect with her shell."

"It will," said Riley.

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The rest is to be continued because that is all he has written so far.  You'll have to handle the suspense until he finishes.  

This experience taught me the importance of reading and hearing stories when you are little.  They have really sparked his imagination.  He is very happy with what he has been able to create so far and it has given him a sense of confidence in himself.  It also taught me the importance of letting them find for themselves how exciting an education can be.  I would have dampened his spirits about it if I had been pushing him to write this whole time.  

My little boy likes to write!  What a pleasant surprise!