Adventures of a Child learning how to write

When I first had my children, I never imagined the day when they would start learning how to read and write. Yes, I knew they would eventually learn their ABC’s and I was pretty certain those picture books would eventually turn into chapter books, but those thoughts were in the back half of my mind. After all, when they are just a baby barely able to crawl, I was more concerned about them learning to feed themselves then actually digging into a good book.

Well, the time is now among us. My oldest daughter is now in 3^rd grade and while she has been learning her alphabet and learning how to write since she was in Kindergarten, her passion has grown far above my imagination. Yet, when you see the writing of a 3^rd grader, you take for granted what you read from a person with years of experience. The writings of a 3^rd grader can definitely put a smile on your face and a chuckle in your heart.

While my daughter has been practicing her writing for some time, it wasn’t until this year when she really started to try and write stories or little notes on her own. Spelling everything phonetically, she definitely has a dictionary of her own. This year when writing in her agenda, an assignment they have to do daily, she wrote down the assignments the teacher gave to them for homework. Her agenda read, “Read for 10 min. Math work shit!” No, that is not a typo. It was supposed to say sheet, but with a couple vowel switches, she accidentally swore in her agenda. Now I understand not liking math, but didn’t think she would take it this far. Actually, I thought this was cute. When I corrected her… so the next time she spelled sheet correctly, she was thoroughly embarrassed. She corrected it immediately, but not before I took a quick snapshot. These are memories you have to preserve after all!

Today, my daughter decided she would clean her room. While normally I would think this was a miracle, because I have never witnessed my 8 year old daughter clean her room without being constantly harassed, I was more amused by the sign she put on her door. The sign read, “Do not desterd! Cleaning room!!” Of course the double exclamation points were accompanied by angry eyebrows and a frowning face! This made my day. Not only was my daughter cleaning her room, she was also actively engaging her writing muscles… even if she does need help with spelling!

While these small moments seem funny right now, I am so excited about my daughters ability to write and her love for reading. She is practicing hard every day and each day she gets a little better. I just hope that her passion rubs off on my other two children who are going to be following in her footsteps shortly. In the future, I look forward to what else she writes.

The current sign hanging on her bedroom door now reads..."Taking a break, taking a nap, going to bed." Underneath the sign in smaller print way at the bottom it reads, "Whichever one is underlined is the one that I am doing!" I am thinking we might need to get her a white erase board for her bedroom door messages!