The Re-Weirds of Parenting #2

For their journal writing today I told the boys to write about where chocolate milk comes from. In case you have trouble reading them, I'll write out the text, unedited. Bear in mind that I usually try to leave the room while they're writing these because I want them to work them out for themselves. I don't correct their "GPS" (grammar, punctuation or spelling) in their journals. These are just to get them loosened up and WRITING.


GUNNAR, who is 7 years old, is the only one who went for realism. I suspect he may have talked Wyatt into helping him with some of the spelling, but I'm actually thrilled to see words he misspelled. I know that sounds weird, but he is very cautious about just launching out and trying to sound things out for himself, so writing "huny" for "honey" is a big success. He put down an appropriate letter for every sound in the word. He even remembered the apostrophe in "it's"! Anyway... We've been reading about the Aztecs this week, so he wrote:

How we get chocolate milk.

We get a been from a tree and we add sweet huny a (and) add yumyyy chocolate and add milk and mix and ta daa it's chocolate milk

Nice :0)











WYATT loves dramatic stories, and came up with this, supporting the idea that you can explain anything using aliens, (thanks to my friend the Babylonian Squirrel for the link), with a multitude of sound effects I won't even try to replicate:

Once upon a time, on a farm, in a field, the cows were grazing peacefully. When suddenly, the aliens were upon them! The UFO chased the cows around the barnyard until it cornered one against a fence... ZZZAP! They took the cow to their planet, and their atmosphere had a wierd affect on the cow; it turned brown. the aliens, who had taken the cow to supply them with fresh white milk, now got chocolate milk. And when they tried to drink it... they coughed, belched, farted, and exploded... eeeeeeeewww. So the aliens quickly took the cow back to earth and put it back in the barnyard, and left. That cow's descendants all made chocolate milk, and thats why we have it, and its also why aliens never come to earth anymore!!!!!

The end




TATE, however, always goes for humor. I have to say how impressed I was that he incorporated "poetry" (to a kid, if it rhymes, it's poetry), music (an imitation of the song from the old "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"), and - more poetry - a haiku, at the end. And, yes, I know his handwriting isn't great, and his spelling isn't great. Part of that is related to hearing loss and part of it is impatient 10 year old boy who would much rather do hard manual labor that painstakingly write out his thoughts. I'm thrilled with how much he wrote, and all the different elements he included - even checking with me to make sure he was using "intently" correctly. (Deaf/HoH kids commonly struggle with word meaning. Tate is often so close, but not quite right... like offering to give me an "interview", rather than a "review" of a book.)

But I'm rambling. Here is pure 10 year old boy:

Chocolate milk coms from cows of cors, but not just any cows...
45 foot brown cud chuwing, crud pewing, cocolate cows!
They eat chocolate, they dringk cholate. Everything abowt them is chocolaty. They mow dawn any thing in their path like giant 45 foot chocolat lan mowers!
(music notes) Attac of the killer (music notes) chocolat cows they eat and eat? until ther feet turn brown (music notes) ther 45 foot cows (music notes) the size ? of 50 sows (music notes) But... their milk is so chokolaty that they hav to put it thrug a straner befor they can sell it!

40 foot brown cow
chewing its cud intently
lying in the shade