This summer our kid is going to have to continue to do about an hour worth of "home work" per night because of struggles during this past school year. Just simple stuff like 20 minutes of reading, some basic math and some writing.
By the end of the school year one of his homework assignments was to write 10 sentences about 3 times per week. He absolutely hated doing it because while he is creative and can tell a story for hours on end making up things, when he is forced to sit down and do that exact same thing for homework his brain goes blank and he comes up with one or two sentences without help and usually boring plain sentences.
So, my thought process on this is that he and I will collaborate to write a story over the course of the summer and hopefully this stimulates his interest and creativity.
He will have to come up with 10 sentences 3-5 times per week. Three will be the minimum no matter what but if he's having fun with it then I will encourage him to do more or even to come up with more than just ten sentences if he wants.
I will take those sentences and his ideas and construct a story around them. This will give us about 2 and a half months to churn out a fun story for everyone. I'll probably try to take an hour or two on my days off to go over what he is writing and piece everything together but I think this is a highly doable idea and I'm hoping that he is interested in it and enjoys it as well.
I guess it could all fall flat quickly as he'll still hate it, but I'm hoping that when I read back to him my version with his sentences included that he wants to continue.
So, above I alluded to the fact that the idea was stolen.
For those of you not into comic books I point you in this direction.
Axe Cop
This blurb is stolen Directly from this LINK - Go to the site and check things out.
"The AXE COP saga began on a Christmas visit to see my family. My Father, a man with very healthy loins, has managed to produce a variety of children, ranging from me, a 29 year old comic book artist, to my 5 year old brother Malachai, a 5 year old boy genius, with four other siblings in between. During the visit Malchai was running around with his toy fireman axe and he said he was playing "Axe Cop." he asked me to play with him and I asked what my weapon was... so he brought me a toy flute (actually a recorder). I told him I would rather be axe Cop then Flute Cop, and he seemed just fine with being Flute Cop. The story that followed became more and more brilliant, until I couldn't contain myself and I had to draw the whole thing into a one page comic. From there the saga continued, and over the course of my week-long visit we cranked out the first four episodes of AXE COP. I posted the comics to my blog and on Facebook and they got great responses. I decided to give AXE COP a home on the internet here and attempt to continue the saga as often as I have time to draw them, and I can get Malachai to write them.
The writing process is basically just me quizzing Malachai as he develops the saga. I'll just try to pry all the details out of him and write them down until something like a complete little story has been formed. Everything in AXE COP started in Malachai's head, all I do is sort it out and draw it."
There is more on the page as well including a video of the "writing" process. Axe Cop has gone on to actually be a comic book publication that continues currently. I don't own any of them as I just recently discovered this but what I have read just amuses the shit out of me.
So, since I don't have any artistic talent I'm hoping that I can be skillful enough with words to help create a fun story out of our kids sentences, thoughts and ideas. I'll just be adding in details and pizzazz or whatever.
In boy scouts we had this oral campfire thing that we'd do. You tell a story and when you had the hero in trouble, you'd pass it to the next guy and he'd have to get the hero out of trouble and then get him in trouble for the next guy. There had to be some semblance of sanity to it but not a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou could do that with him in writing. It'd sort of be a text version of your comic books so I doubt the kid will kick your ass to badly if you cheat/steal.
You could even do it by email and might find that the pencil/paper are a hangup that doesn't carry over to keyboarding.
I like the idea but I think we have to stick with pencil/paper because he needs practice actually writing stuff down as well as his hand writing is all over the place (I don't know what a 7 year old'd hand writing should look like but his is pretty manic).
DeleteI think my oldest boy would like something like this. He could use the same type of help this summer.
ReplyDeleteYeah - I figure if I try to make it fun it will be easier.
DeleteThat's my only hope lol
Son you make proud more and more everyday keep up yhe good work
ReplyDeleteI will keep up yhe good work.
DeleteIt's what I do yo!
Serge,
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your posts for about a year now, and you have certainly grown as a person, while shrinking physically.
You are stepping up and will be the difference in a young man's life, a rare exception for a soon to be step-father. You should be commended and I am sure that karma will swing in your favor.
I worked with my daughter to develop her writing skills during the summer, years ago, doing something similar. I would write a few paragraphs of a story and she would pick it up and have to write a few paragraphs, her Mom would write a few and then it would go back to me. Sometimes, a grandparent, aunt, uncle or other visitor would write a few “guest” paragraphs. At the end of the summer, we had an entire book of around 130 pages, it was great.
My daughter is now an elementary school teacher and tells me this book is her most prized possession.
Keep up the good work!
Good luck,
snevman
That's for the thoughts.
DeleteI have changed quite a bit over the course of the last year and I hope to continue.
I am looking forward to this writing project this summer - I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I like the idea of trying to get others involved in it as well.
This are wonderful ideas..Thanks a lot for sharing this..
ReplyDeletebusiness credibility