ebeth - have you read any of Jessie Wise Bauer's info on writing? She talks about exactly what you are talking about ....hhm bad sentence I know. Classical education model uses dictation to train DC to hold the information in their head while getting it on paper. My friend, after listing to Jessie's CD "Writing w/out Fear" started doing this with her son. SHe was shocked to find that he couldn't hold more than half a sentence in his head. Since she's been doing narration and dictation, his writing has improved a great deal and he actually writes more in his journal on his own.