Help for my son at school

Jennie_2

My son is very bright and excels at maths. He reads like it is going out of fashion. He loves fiction; books that are full of "rich" wording and elaborate story lines.

He is only just and I mean just starting to write anything that remotely resembles creative writing. It has been like getting blood out of a stone.

When he was in year 5 if the homework stated write 8 lines about something he would write 8 lines. Only 8 lines. Not one word more. This would be a bunch of sentences with very little, if any flow.

I do wonder if boys are slower to write more creatively. My 7 year old daughter already writes "beyond" my sons capability, yet we have been told he could take GCSE maths now.

I have persevered with this. Bitten my tongue and would win an academy award for sitting on my frustration. With our encouragement he is getting there and his work is now much more readable.

Please don't despair...as with my son it may just be taking a little longer to "come right" .

As Andycarmi has suggested Mind Mapping may help you. We use it at home and it really does work.

Good luck, I hope this shows you are not alone.

Jen

Jennie_2

Forgot to say.... my son is 11. Year 7

Savvy_Sue

Jennie wrote:

When he was in year 5 if the homework stated write 8 lines about something he would write 8 lines. Only 8 lines. Not one word more. This would be a bunch of sentences with very little, if any flow.

:rotfl: Well, as they get older they are always told "Make sure you read the instructions at the top of the exam paper", so it's a good habit to get into ...

Bossyboots

troll35 wrote:

After tea I asked him to convert the words into sentences and suddenly he couldn't do it and got all sulky and 'kevin' like. Yet he's often had to convert random words into sentences. We used to play games like that with his spellings and other word/story games.

This was the bit my daughter struggled with and it took a good few weeks of helping her before she could manage it herself. Don't try to get him to run before he can walk or his confidence will be knocked. Try doing a sentence yourself and then coaxing him to do one and so on. Yes it means you write half the story. So what? Eventually he will get there. After a couple of goes, you do one line he does two and just carry on like that until he can manage on his own. I don't think I will ever forget the day my daughter came downstairs to announce she had done her homework on her own and gave me her story to read. She was just so incredibly proud I think I am going to cry just remembering it.