Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Recources for child advanced in writing & reading

DD is 9 and has tested at high school levels for reading comprehension and to a lesser extent, writing. She is crazy about writing and would stay up all night writing in her journal or reading non-fiction (even old encyclopedias). I see so many references to online math classes (we do ALEKS). How do people work with kids who are advanced in writing and reading (besides providing opportunities to just soak up at the library of course)? DD does well on spelling tests, but when she writes, she is a horrible speller!! I would like to know a way to help her fine tune her writing and give her the chance to run with her imagination.

Mon gave you excellent advice. My 12 year old is loves loves writing and is extremely prolific. She's the child that if I really needed to keep her occupied when she was bored or if I needed to get her temporarily busy so I could do something else, all I had to do was to tell her to write a story. This is what we've done for her and it's worked out well (so far):

1) Wordly Wise for vocab.

2) Sending her to local short-term writing camps - they come up frequently in our area but aren't advertised widely. Some of them I've found through watching the bulletin board at our local homeschool place, others I've found by watching our school district website. There are also young writer's workshops and groups that you can find through our local library. Sometimes even just a google search with "young writers + (your city)" will turn up opportunities and events.

3) Let her read to her heart's content - I'm a firm believer that the more you read the better developed your writing will become.

4) Encourage her to follow her imagination, give her lots of opportunities for play, take her to interesting events and places and talk talk talk about them. She doesn't actually need practice "talking" (she's very good at that - to the point it's annoying lol!)... but it's all about nurturing her creative thoughts.

5) Give her workbooks to work on that focus specifically on grammar, editing, and also genre in writing. I'm not generally a workbook-oriented person, but my dd likes them and they can be worked on briefly and set aside so they're convenient when she has little chunks of time here and there with nothing to do.

6) Take her to talks given by local authors.


I wouldn't focus on her spelling (which I would like to kick myself for saying!). Here's the deal - I am a great speller and I think it's important. None of my children spell worth a darn while they are writing - they just weren't born to be great spellers and when they are writing they are using their brain for the other multiple tasks that go into writing. If you want to give your dd room to exercise her creativity, give her spell-check or word prediction and have her use a keyboard. If she's handwriting, don't worry about the spelling. Focus on the content of her writing, not the mechanics School will most likely help her with spelling

Best wishes,

polarbear

Did you use the Wordly Wise books, or online?

We used the books. I've heard that the books aren't published anymore though, so online might be the best option now. We can still find the books at our local homeschool bookstore, and you can also find them at Amazon through resellers. I personally like the books because you can take them with you when you're driving kids around to lessons etc - where wifi isn't always available.

I've also heard some feedback that the books are a bit more rigorous and better for long-term retention than going through it online. I personally haven't seen the online version, so I don't have any input on that.

polarbear

Okay, sorry to hijack the thread but one more question... Is there a teacher book plus student books? I'm researching it online. I'm trying not to do much this coming year but this struck a chord as our son writes constantly... books, poems, and he blogs.

KTPie, I don't know about a teacher's book - you might be able to find one by searching online - but honestly, I don't think you need a teacher's book - it's a very straightforward set of lessons.

polarbear

Thank you!

Polarbear, KTPie, master of none,
I have responded to all of you below:

What kind of writing does she do? Is she doing creative type writing? Or writing nonfiction that she is learning? Or detailing her days in a journal?

She writes in her journals – I can’t keep count how many notebooks she has filled. She also illustrates them and creates greeting cards and invents slogans for products.


You say you want her to fine tune her writing. Is she getting stuck on something?
At home she just writes and writes. At school the teacher states that it is hard for her to reign in her thoughts – she wants to write about everything and finds it hard to choose just one aspect of a subject.

young writer's workshops and groups that you can find through our local library
This is great – I will check this out in a minute.

Let her read to her heart's content

It’s hard to get her to stop. I have to keep her from sneaking in a book after lights out.

If she's handwriting, don't worry about the spelling.

Will do (but I don’t usually even get to see the journaling).

Wordly Wise books

I will check these out as well.
Thank you so much to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! Big big help!!!

It is wonderful that your daughter enjoys writing so much. You have received some good ideas! I was a prolific reader/writer when I was young and had some nice encouragement along the way. Here are some of the things that helped me that come to mind.

My aunt was a big cheerleader, frequently sending me information about things like how to copyright one's work, quirky poetry (her own and writers like Shel Silverstein). She made me feel like I was a writer and would grow up to be a great one if I kept at it. (I didn't, lol. Or at least haven't lately.)

My mom is an excellent editor and was very patient in editing my work, but more importantly, explaining to me how to make improvements on my own. Books like "How to Edit Your Own Writing" have been helpful to me. Learning to outline, while slightly annoying, taught me how to structure my thought and arrange/rearrange before I'd gone to the trouble of writing the story/article.

I just saw some reviews that were very good for a book called "Guiding Readers and Writers." She likely won't need the readers guidance, but you might consider checking it out for the writing portion (it is aimed at educators).

Absolute best resource for writing I can suggest is the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Program. My son has completed it three years in a row and spends the bulk of the year talking about what he'll do next November. They have a full free curriculum online, and November is full of inspirational talks by professional authors as well as many "underground" local events.

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

If your daughter loves it, there's also Script Frenzy in April and Camp NaNo in the summer.