Arielle as Louisa May Alcott

Arielle had her second literature class this week. She finished her book Invincible Louisa on time, but since she ended right before Christmas, it was difficult to get her to begin writing the three page report. What kid wants to do homework over Christmas break?

It isn't the mechanics of writing that challenges Arielle. She is fine with grammar and sentence construction. The problem is getting her to put her thoughts and ideas in logical order. She also wants to make her composition as brief as possible. I'm sure it is just a learning process and maybe if I compared her writing to another child's of her age, I might find she is doing quite well.

As she wrote and re-wrote, I helped her to take her good ideas and arrange them to flow smoothly. She was frustrated with me. But I reminded her how lucky she is to be able to compose on a computer because when I was young I had to write and re-write with pen to paper and if I made an error, I had to start again. I'm sure I never did as many drafts as Arielle did, though. By Wednesday morning, she had written a great paper.

Part of her assignment was to dress in a costume portraying her character and give an oral presentation to her class. We looked at pictures of Civil War era attire for women. I fixed her hair in a severe bun and she wore a button-down blouse with one of my long skirts. She was perfect for the role! But she wasn't happy and would not let me take her picture. After all, the outfit was not "cool."

With her sour attitude, Arielle went to her class. She came home glowing! Her teacher said she did very well and that she wrote an excellent paper. Good job, Arielle!