Writing Without Tears

Geekling has been improving his writing skills this week while playing with other homeschoolers on a Minecraft server while I was sick. I'm amazed at how quickly he's learned to improve his written communication, it's definitely been more effective than anything I've imparted through repeated attempts. The fact is he hates writing, and this has inspired me to stop trying to use "traditional" methods, and just focus on providing opportunities for him to use writing more naturally when it makes sense in his every day life.

We've had a lot of fun chatting in Skype and writing Monty Python style insults to improve spelling and vocabulary. My favorite thus far this week was "You grass eating mammal!" He came up with this when encountering a sheep in Minecraft. It may be my favorite new "insult."

I'm still trying to come up with ways for him to enjoy writing with a pencil and paper, but at the moment I think I'll enjoy watching him progress with composing and communicating his thoughts via keyboard. Now that he's getting into more Graphic Novels, I'm hoping we can learn to draw comics in order to exercise his fine motor skills and improve his handwriting.