Writing Tales Day 1

Since we are using a new program I am very excited to be able to document our time using it . I hope that this will help other families decide when it comes to using this curriculum .

Day 1:

Day one was today . A Saturday . We decided we would start and get our feet wet and see how things would go .

Katie automatically took a liking to the program knowing that she was going to get to write her 'own' stories . So she was very willing to give it a try

Marilyn on the other hand was pretty reluctant at first . She pretty much refused to give it a try and I believe that was because she viewed this as the same frustrating work that we have been doing with Calvert's writing . She was digging her heals telling me that she wasn't going to like it and that she refused to do any of it . Even though I told her it would help her in writing her own stories . So Katie and I sat and read the first story " The Crow and the Pitcher " . Marilyn was within ear shot so I knew she could hear us . After a bit of more coaxing , meaning lots of " Please do this for mommy " , with funny faces . She gave in to giving Writing Tales a try . And guess what everyone ? She LOVES it ! We did quite a few lessons today . Both girls just wanted to keep going and going with it . So I took some pictures of what we did today .

Marilyn worked her way up to writing her first rough draft and the next workbook page with writing her misspelled words correctly today . Even when we stopped after doing a few pages in the workbook . The girls came to me later on in the afternoon and wanted to do more ! So I happily let them .

I am so thrilled that I finally found something that works . It really works and my girls are doing it willingly . No begging , or tears , or horrible frustration . I was so happy that with this first rough draft that Marilyn actually put punctuation at the end of her sentences ! There was a beginning , and an end to each of them. She had only forgot one period but she caught it !

Katie will start on her rough draft tomorrow so we will see how it goes tomorrow .

I am also happy to say that I had gotten in touch with the writer of Writing Tales and she was willing to pop in and out of the yahoo group that I've started . So that will be a wonderful plus added in for those using this curriculum as well . She also had a great idea of having the familes share their children's stories with the group and I think this will be so wonderful to read so many other 'versions' of the same stories we're writing about ! If anyone is intersted in learning more about Writing Tales our group is just starting up but feel free to join at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writingtales