After weeks of begging me to help her write a story, I finally sat down with my 7 year old. I pulled out her sister's discarded copy of an IEW book (Aesop's Fables) we have on a shelf.
The classical structure for education introduces concepts like writing through modeling. In today's exercise, I read her the story. We discussed the vocabulary words. While writing out examples, I talked out how I was outlining the story. Then I showed her how to use that outline to retell the story in her own words.
After the first sentence, she already understood what to do. Thoughtfully, she dictated to me what to write. Her first draft is already full of her flourishes and personality...very similarly to how she talks.
Anyone who's listed to this girl tell a story knows that she loves words. She's my only child so far who actually wants me to read poetry aloud. Poetry. For months, she listened to Tolkein's The Hobbit on repeat. Every time I heard the CD player broadcast that British dude reading that book again, I marveled at her long attention span.
I suppose that patience to hear long, complex sentences from one of the true masters of the English language taught my little girl as much or more than I can ever convey through grammar exercises. Observing her keen attention to stories and now seeing the first buds of her growth as a storyteller make me so happy.
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