Hitting a wall with poetry and being more creative

[MamaBear23Cubs]

With our travels at an end for now we are back to using Preparing and are on Unit 8. My daughter is giving me a hard time with the poetry and creative writing. She doesn't like it and so now she is giving me a hard time about the subject. She is back talking and saying I am not leting her do it her way. It was a bear to get her to write about the desert. Any ideas to help me with getting her to do the up and beyond the basic sentences. Yes on her own time she can write about what ever but when it come to my time (school) it's what in the books. I also think part of the issue is that she rather focus on her speech paper than her school work. She was working on it right before we started up the language lesson but it was time to stop and she didn't save it and the laptop shut down. She is all negative at the moment.
I have been told by hubby that I need to let her start doing things her way more like with the speech, I been telling her what to do because she always always say I don't know. I backed off and now he is helping her in speech but with the LA in preparing and the creative writing, maybe I am not letting her do it her way.

This is what she did:
Deserts are really hot places. The rocks become burning hot by the heat of the bright sun. This was done with the help from me. She came up with the first sentence. Then she said the rocks get hot by the heat. I asked her how hot, by the heat of what.
The posionous snakes slyther along the traveling sand dunes looking for their dinner. We did this one together. She said all the animals come out at night. I asked to pick on. So it was snake. What kind of snake. poisonous. what do they do and she came up with sylther after saying crawling and wiggling. travling sand dunes was on our list. After painfully getting thru this sentence she just wrote
The snakes, rats, mice, and all the other animals come out at night when the air is cold.
Am I asking to much for her? Is her last sentence okay, it isn't creative but she wrote something out.

[Tansy]

Well it is creative writing... maybe you can take a draft approach. Let her write it her way first.
She has to leave a line in between each sentence. Then you can go and work though each sentence with her say the next day. When she has some distance from it. and maybe will see its not interesting/descriptive. I would make her correct it, and add more descriptive words etc.

[MamaBear23Cubs]

Her daddy had a talkin to her and she is going to work on it some more tomorrow. She went on a whole shabang about not liking it and not wanting to do it. He told her that out in school and real life you will have to write and stuff. So I'll see how tomorrow goes.

[Carrie]

MamaBear23Cubs,

Since you're just starting back with Preparing Hearts after a break, it's likely that your daughter is feeling a little owly in getting back to the business of schooling overall. I know I always feel a bit put-out at the thought of starting school after summer, and she's probably feeling that same way. So, as you ease back into her schooling, you may need to give her even more encouragement with her work than usual as you allow time for her to get comfortable with the routine of schooling once again.

Tansy had a great suggestion about putting aside the work until the next day, and giving it a fresh look then. For now, I would likely focus more on dealing with her overall attitude toward school, rather than focusing on making this one particular assignment outstanding. Just let her know you'll be expecting more from her in this area next week and let the assignment be done pretty quickly without making it a monumental battle.

I'd instead work through finding the heart issue in this and think about how best to deal with that if you can. Focusing on Scriptures about doing tasks cheerfully or without complaining is always helpful with my own children in situations like this.

While there are many excellent Scriptures on this, one that comes to mind that we often share with our boys in this situation is the following:
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, and not for men". Colossians 3:23

Then, we pray with them over the concern and ask for the Lord to help us together work to glorify Him with our work. If the child is still complaining after that, we have him sit on the couch (with nothing to do) or stand facing the corner (or other designated area) until he's done complaining and feels ready to rejoin us with a cheerful heart.

Just some thoughts I had, although you will know the full situation much better than me (and I could be off the mark in interpreting your comments correctly).

Blessings,
Carrie

[momof2n2]

Mamabear,

I do not know how old your daughter is, what grade she is in, if she has always been homeschooled, or went to school, etc. So please take my reply with that in mind.

I have had some [short but miserable] seasons with my boys when they have had less than stellar attitudes toward school. I find that we can pour in the academics when they are working with me, and we can barely squeeze in 10% when they have a reluctant or rebellious spirit. After hitting many walls, I finally am in a place where I recognize it quickly [usually meaning early in the day] and we stop the school and deal with the attitude. As Carrie mentions, scriptural references, usually a lot of hugs, and yes, yes, yes to Col 3:23! Much of the time I have found that the resistance has less to do with what they have been asked to do and more a product of their emotional tanks.

I do have an exception to this - and that is my 9 y.o. can become pokey and resentful when everyone else is done their work and he is the only one left working. And it is usually LANGUAGE/WRITING assingnments. He is an excellent writer, and does so well when the negative attitude isn't' there, but when it sets in, it is horrible, horrible. Part of the problem is this is usually the last thing in the day, the others are playing, I am anxious to dig into MY housework, etc., and he is becoming fatigued. One thing that has worked, is I don't leave him to work on it and go work around the house. I find something to do sitting next to him [work on meal calendar, or cards I need to write, etc.] and sort of keep him company. But still - a lot comes down to discipline. Him BEING disciplined, I mean, not just me disciplining him. Because they are not in a class with 20-30 relatively same age, same work kids and have the peer pressure to get it done, I do think that sometimes my oldest has a hard time wrapping his brain around the concept of what is expected of him and why it might be more than the day before. And that really is part of our jobs - to prepare them to identify what they have to do and do it well.

I hope this season passes quickly for you and your daughter. And how great for Dad to get involved and being direct. I have had to call my husband at work a few times to talk to the boys on the phone. Amazing what that does for incentive!!!

[MamaBear23Cubs]

thanks for the replies.as it happens that we didnt do school on Friday due to late night, late rising and having dad home early. (yippee!) She will work on it again on Monday with dad along with the writting she wants to do.
She doesn't get to do 'fun' stuff like her brother and sister but she's 4/5 years older and November started our 4th year of homeschooling so it isn't new.
I think I am gonna print out that verse on pretty paper and hang it for everyone to see because I know Dh and I could use that reminder as well.

[Carrie]

MamaBear23cubs,

I agree that having the verse as a reference is a great idea. We have ours on the refridgerator with a magnet to help us all remember it. You are so right that I need it as much as the kiddos, and it a good reference for me too.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my original post, as I knew you weren't new to homeschooling, but I was thinking you had just returned from a trip. I must have misunderstood and apologize for the confusion.

I've found that the training with my boys often goes in spurts where it seems like we go from having many character issues to deal with daily down to a few for awhile, and then we pop back up to dealing with more again. I'll pray that this will be a spurt for you too. It's wonderful that your husband is on board with supporting you. This is so helpful!

Blessings,
Carrie

[MamaBear23Cubs]

We did return from a trip too. During that time, she just did read, used math workbooks and had life learning. The first week the first week of January we got back into Preparing and Little Hearts.

[Carrie]

Thanks for responding! I'm glad to know that I'm not completely off-base. I was thinking that whenever we head back to doing full-school after returning from a trip or a break, it takes a bit for my boys (and often me too) to get back into the routine of school. It also often takes some renewed habit training for both myself and my boys to do "school" cheerfully. I'm thinking this could have something to do with your little honey's spirits too, as she adjusts to a fuller school schedule.

Blessings,
Carrie

[MamaBear23Cubs]

The poisonous hungry rattlesnake was going across the flowing sand dunes looking for tiny fat mice to eat during the cool night.
This is the end product.

[Carrie]

MamaBear23cubs,

Thanks for sharing! I'm thinking when coupled with the sentences that you originally shared in your first post that the two of you did a great job! She was very descriptive and (with your prompting and guiding) came up with some good ideas. This may not be an area that she loves or in which she's comfortable, so it's fine for you to prompt and guide her as needed.

You are giving her a great model of what thinking through the process of putting thoughts on paper looks like. Eventually, she'll get more comfortable with putting her own thoughts on paper, but as Charlotte Mason pointed out it's easier to borrow words and phrases from another author until budding writers eventually get their own style.

One other things that may be a factor is that this may be a case of the first-born child being strong-willed in how she/he wants something to be done and consequently not liking the fact that she/he is being asked to do an assignment in a certain way. We have this with our own first-born son.

Blessings,
Carrie