How Much Help is Too Much?

Certainly, on occasion I wondered if I'd helped too much or if one of the children was being lazy and using me to do his thinking. I believe it was Susan Richman who counseled me about how professional writers benefitted greatly from their editorial staff. How many times have I heard of authors who felt their published pieces seemed to only slightly resemble their original works! The key to me was to make sure that my child really liked any changes or additions I proposed and that he felt ownership of the final product. My goal was for each child to come to recognize what ingredients yielded a piece that they would want someone else to read. I think our success is measured in each of my three children's growth as writers and by the proficiency and place that writing occupies in Alexa's life occupied in Zach's, and is starting to occupy in Samantha's. (I stumbled upon a blogging site that Sam put up just last week where she was writing about current events!)

There are two pieces(a book report on George Washinton Carver and a soliloquy of a WWI soldier that was to reflect an indepth study she'd done of trench warfare) of Samantha's from the upper elementary years for which I obviously provided quite a bit of assistance. She could have written either assignment on her own, but, for example, I wanted her to see what a really good report on George Washington Carver would look like. And, therefore, we spent a great deal of time talking about him and writing down our observations as we went along. I probably asked questioned and typed as she talked and was led to conclusions about his life.

The second example of whre I was very involved was with the soliloquy of the WWI soldier. This was a situation where there was a deadline. She'd done a ton of work and made a spectacular display board all about the realities of trench warefare. Then together we worked out this dialog that someone in the trenches might have engaged in and we put together a costume for her to dress up in and actually give the soliloquy at a homeschool fair. We were trying to do way too much in this particular week. The day before the fair she had it memorized and went over it and over it, but the next day, she had a 6 a.m. soccer game from which we rushed her to the hs fair and she was so nervous and tired that when she got up in front of everyone, all she could do was cry. She laid down beside me during some other presentations and fell asleep. So, this was one instance when I really went too far. You can read both pieces if you go to Elementary Grades.