Home Spun comic strip #592

My kids did not enjoy writing. As someone who spends a lot of time writing, this was very difficult to accept. You want your children to share your interests, and in my early years of homeschooling, I envisioned happy hours of making up stories, writing poetry, and researching topics together. It would be idyllic.

What I got was complaints. Marina complained about how much it hurt to write. Part of the problem was her death grip on the pencil to create painstakingly neat lettering. Chase wrote rushed sentences with words spelled phonetically. I never did convince him to hold his pencil properly. Both wanted their work to be perfect the first time so they could move on to other things.

Luckily, I have a long memory. My own writing method was similar to Marina's when I was in school. I remember how painful writing was, and I had no choice in the matter. My fingers were often cramped and my handwriting could not match the speed of my imagination. On my own, I would revert to drawings to capture my stories. When I was younger, my mom would write down my poems for me. As I got older, my parents let me use the typewriter, but I was about as fast with that as with writing. I did get used to writing by hand--in college. That was when I started penning my longest story and a spiral notebook was the most portable method for writing. After I got married and we bought our first computer, words began to flow faster than ever as my typing speed improved. I suppose I have always had stories and essays in me and they were simply waiting for me to find the best way to let them out.

These writing memories tell me that I shouldn't worry too much about my kids. If they have tales to tell, those stories will find a way out. I'm hoping I'm setting a good example by finding time for writing in my own life, and by having my family read what I write and check my work. They are very good at catching my mistakes!