Kids – Page 6 – Writing Wrongs

They might want to rethink that

What Andrew and Kyra were singing this morning:

Tis the season to be naughty …

They may want to rethink that.

And now, the Boy Scout

He was all dressed up (if slightly wrinkled) for popcorn and wreath sales yesterday. Yes, it’s that time of year. Get your orders in.

My kids, they kick

We took the plunge this week and signed up for karate–all of us. Well, three of us so far (we may have to drag Bob to class kicking and screaming, but we’ll get him there).

Andrew took some karate when he was five or so. We stopped for various reasons (the school closed, he started other activities, and so on). But recently, he’s wanted to get back into it. Kyra’s wanted to try it. And–little known fact–I took tae kwon do for about four years when I was in college.

So today we all earned our white belts. Kyra was so excited she was quivering. But wow. I haven’t done so many round kicks in … twenty years. (Gah. Yes. I did the math on that one then immediately wished I hadn’t.)

Our instructor says that for me and Andrew it might actually be harder initially because of muscle memory. We know how to do the moves with precision and power and wear ourselves out faster.

Uh, yeah. He’s right. At least in my case.

In non-kicking news, Andrew got an A- on his paper (a comma splice, a few misspellings–it runs in the family). But the teacher’s comment was:

You have a great writing voice!

Sniff. I’m so proud.

When life hands you lemons … or an early snowfall

Here’s one thing you can do:

After getting completely soaked, they came inside, drank hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, and played board games. It felt a lot like December instead of October. I’m hoping for a few nice days before Halloween since we haven’t made our annual Halloween movie yet.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Monster Party

Are you ready for Halloween? Anticipating it with much excitement? Clearly, we are:

Any given Sunday

Yes, it’s football season here at Chez Tahmaseb:

Andrew in his practice jersey. As you can see, one does not smile while wearing the practice jersey. Football is very serious business.

In his game jersey. With mouth guard! It’s impossible to smile with a mouth guard in, but even if it wasn’t, I’m sure he wouldn’t be. See above about football = serious business.

Of course, everyone wants to get in on the game:

My kids, they write

Our school district recently changed their curriculum to place more emphasis on writing. This is one of those changes that has been a very good thing.

Andrew has always disliked having to write things like essays and reports. And honestly? I’ve never liked it either. Worse, when you’re a writer, people sometimes expect help with that sort of thing. The conventional wisdom being: Dude, you’re a writer, why can’t you write a scholarship application essay/grant application/whatever.

Well, for the same reason that if I didn’t write installation instructions five days a week, I wouldn’t be very good at that.

Anyway, I’ve seen a huge turnaround in Andrew’s writing in the last year. And they have designated free writing times for the younger grades as well. They do learn proper spelling, punctuation, and so on, but for free writing they’re encourage to sound things out of their own and keep going.

I’ve been amazed at their progress.

Here’s a “journal” entry that Kyra wrote. I cleaned up the spelling, but I feel compelled to add that she got all the apostrophes correct.

I’m a little girl. It’s close to Halloween. I’m going to get a costume that’s a devil. It’s going to be fun.

Kyra would like everyone to know that she’s going to be a good devil.

Here’s part of an essay that Andrew wrote, the goal being to write about yourself in the third person:

Andrew is so messy you cannot see the floor of his room because it is covered in stuff, mostly books and junk. Unless the floor is clean and the mess is really holograms. But what is the point to go through all that trouble. Unless he does that so when his mom or dad asks him to clean his room, he turns off the projection of the holograms, and then gets a raise in his allowance. I guess that theory does not work because sometimes when he cleans it, it actually gets messier. IT ACTUALLY GETS MESSIER.

I’m hoping his English teacher doesn’t ding him for the use of all caps.

As you probably guessed, I’m psyched that both of them are writing. Whether they become writers is neither here nor there. I think being able to express themselves in writing will server them well.