Mom2twoboys,

Thanks for the response. those are some great ideas. I'm thinking a pen pal might be really good for her. She really wants to get mail, and is disappointed when there's none for her. Maybe some friends who live 5+ hours away will be game for it.

We've (at home and at school) tried to get her to caption her pictures. She's so verbal that she'd rather just tell everyone what's in the picture rather than write it. I think it's frustrating for her teacher, because DD is reading at a 3rd grade level, but will hardly write more than a sentence at a time. If we ask her to draw a picture, she will spend all her time on the picture, (seemingly) purposely not writing about it.

We've tried to reinforce the idea that spelling isn't important, but she really seems focused on it. My hope is that with a spelling dictionary she'll still have to spend time on sounding out the word (in order to find it) and she'll be able to be independently writing because she'll have the words in her book (since she can already read them). We were going to set up a word wall in our dining room. She started asking for more words than would fit (even if I papered all the walls).

Soon we're going to be taking a weekend trip out of town. I'm hoping to have her journal about it. Perhaps letting her do it on the computer will help.

Thanks again for the feedback. I'll let you know how it goes.