March 1

My first post here. Why am I trying this?  Part of what I do is to help kids to write. It’s the smaller part of my day and even after all of these years I am often at a loss as to how to help. Too many times I feel if I give suggestions I will take their voice away. I will often start with a conversation.

A child tells me about her dog. She is supposed to write about how she takes care of it. She doesn’t know where to begin or what to write. I ask her to tell me something her dog does. "When I get home she jumps on me as soon as I walk in the door." "Write that!", I say, "Just like you said." She looks at me for a moment, then says, "I don't want to write that."  So we begin again.

This often happens after long conversations when a child is trying to figure out what to write.  When she finally comes out with something that encapsulates just what she is trying to say, I will again say,  "Write that,  just like you said it!" And she will look at me as if I just don’t understand what she is supposed to do. Like it can’t be that easy. Like it has to go this way or that way.  Like she doesn’t quite believe that what she has to say is actually worth writing about. She believes it has to be a big event. An exciting event. A momentous occasion. The small moment event eludes her.

Another example- A boy who has visited his grandmother for the weekend looks at me skeptically when I suggest he could even write about when he played cards with her Sunday afternoon at her kitchen table. His stare back at me transmits his feelings. How could that possibly be interesting. I am dismissed.  He communicates with a shake of his head that I just don’t get it.

So maybe I should try this slice of life to see what it's like.

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