Day sixteen, erm . . .

So, Day sixteen, Tuesday, being caught up on several days after the fact . . .

The kids did some book work - to be honest I'm getting bored of listing what they've done, so I'll summarise . . .

Each of them did some maths, some English and some science, L also did ICT, A and M read.

J wrote a short story for Cubs - it was hard going, and messed with his head. He'd been told by the leaders he HAD to write a short story or poem.  He WANTED the badge (even though he had no idea which badge it  is for) but he hates writing and finds making up stories very very hard.

So, torn between following the rules, wanting the badge, but not wanting to do the work there was no way it was going to be calm and easy going. We went through repeated requests for me to do it for him - me to write it, me to make it up, me to type it, but I refused (because, really, I had to refuse.  It needs to be his work, and the leaders will ask and he will tell the truth.)

In the end he dictated the story, and I wrote it out, then he copied what I had written.  It still caused tears and stress, but the suggestion of not doing it caused those too.

I read a while ago about all the processes involved in creative writing - the positioning of the hand and pencil, applying the right pressure, forming the letters, planning the word, keeping in mind the sentence you are writing etc.  By breaking the task down - creating the story first, then copying letter by letter, we separated or removed quite a few of the processes.  It seems to have helped, but it made everything take longer!

Another part of this being hard was J desperately trying to make the story as true as possible.  He wrote about our dog escaping and going to the park.  He wanted the park to only have things that the nearest park has, he wanted the story to reflect something that had actually happened.

I am sure the Cub leaders have no idea how hard this was for J, or how much their words affect him, but in the end it is J himself that applies the pressure.  He wanted the end result but not the work, and somehow he needs to settle his mind with the fact that we need to work for things. 

The younger three went to beavers / cubs / scouts, A also spent time "playing out" and life continued as it generally does.