Ooooh, brilliant idea Kriston.
I'm used to the old-fashioned tape recorders from the by-gone era. Do they make kid-friendly digital ones these days? (i.e. cheap and indestructible?)
I've tried bribing him this summer, starting with small monetary sums for small stories, and finally a fairly large lego set that he really wanted for a 1000 word story. It didn't matter how long he took to write the story, if he chose to write it at all. The lego set was promised when he was finished. Was this an unreasonable length story for an eight year old? I wanted something that he would have to work on and put forth some effort in order for him to earn his heart's desire. I also wanted him to practice his handwriting this summer. But even trying to get him to write a 50 word description of the beach during our vacation met with great resistance. How hard is it to write a few sentences about finding a crab or a jellyfish on the beach?
I don't know. Maybe I should start a writing thread? But it seemed to me to be connected to his low WMI score.
Dottie: I just saw your post. Thanks. It makes me feel better. I've been struggling to figure out whether it was some form of focusing issue, or just an avoidance issue since he really doesn't like to write. (He loves to make up stories though). I even spent some time this summer pointing out the real life instance of writing in various professions, such as seeing a police officer at the side of the road with a speeder and explaining to DS how much paperwork they have to fill out in order to document the ticket. Or if a scientist discovered a cure for a disease, but never wrote the answer down, then how would the world ever know if his or her discovery. Scientists have to publish papers in order to propagate the knowledge to other scientists. <sigh>
Maybe we will give the voice recorder a try and see if it is a memory issue. I just tend to think that his ideas are streaming through his brain so fast that he can't get them down before they evaporate!
