Liana's teaching time is long. Not because she is slow to learn; she is not. She has a very quick mind. But the style of learning that she enjoys and that is most effective for her is time-consuming. She loves the artsy-crafty things. She loves me to read her stories. She loves making up stories.
Yesterday her assignment for language arts was to write a paragraph on this topic: what would you do if you woke up and found out you were two inches tall. Liana sat down to write a rough draft, asking me how long it had to be and did she have to write in cursive because she HATES handwriting. She finished quickly, a sloppy job, with half the words misspelled. I encouraged her with a few questions to continue her story. This time she dictated to me while I wrote her words down. She went on and on since I was the one doing the writing. Then she looked at the paper and said, "Oh no, I'm going to have to copy all that!" So she didn't want to say anymore. I suggested she continue with her story while I typed it. She was excited about that. We went upstairs and she dictated a long, long story, full of detail and imagination.
Now I know she needs to learn to write neatly by hand. (Although that is a debatable idea among educators since computers now dominate our lives. On the other hand many homeschoolers believe daily copywork and penmanship are important.) But should I squelch her creativity by torturing her to handwrite her ideas on paper? I don't think so.
The answer is obvious to me as I write this. I need to teach her to type. Then her fingers can fly at the same speed as her lively brain.
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