Book Reviews & Writing

Shawna have been having a blast reviewing books at the Barnes & Noble website. Because of a B&N policy, she isn't allowed to use her first names on the site so she goes by 'S' an unschooler. So far she's reviewed, Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen, Annie & the Wild Animals by Jan Brett and Girls Hold up this World by Jada Pickett Smith.

She's really enjoying it and she's getting a kick out of going back and reading her reviews on the site. :-)

This is quite a new concept for her....that she could actually enjoy writing. She used to hate writing in school. Who could blame her? Being told what to write and then being told it wasn't good enough, turned her off to anything that resembled school writing. Not only that, it made her feel that she wasn't good at writing.

Just like I did with reading, when I removed her from school, I backed off. I gave her the freedom to deschool, while at the same time, made things available to her and showed her how writing benefits my everyday life. That was key to her learning. Shawna is the type of learner that needs meaning and connections in what she's learning. School can't offer her that.

She saw me writing shopping lists, sending e-mails, working on this blog, writing letters to family in NYC, jotting down thoughts in a journal, etc. Soon, she was writing the shopping list, typing her own e-mails, writing to several penpals and having fun with mad libs.

Again, as with reading, her confidence started to build.

She decided she wanted to write a story so we're woring on one together, about a horse who becomes a pegasus by helping a fairy. :-) I'll post it here when it's done. :-)
I bought her a Harry Potter journal the other day and she's been writing it in ever since. She writes her thoughts and her plans for the day.

But...the best writing is when we write notes to each other. :-) I have all her little love notes taped to my computer and she uses mine as book marks.

That's real writing. :-)

Related Tags: unschooling, unschool