Day 70

I was reading Peter Elbow's book, Vernacular Eloquence and came across inkshedding. It's like freewriting as a group in order to communicate with each other. I think he was talking about it being used in business, where a group has to collaborate and they each write their ideas and pass them around for others to read. I can't remember all the details; I'll have to read it again. But it sounded great to me. I thought it would be fun if the kids and I just wrote a conversation instead of speaking it. I'm hoping Sam will become more comfortable writing just what he's thinking instead of thinking he has to write something formal. He says his brain locks up whenever he has to write something instead of saying it. It happens to Jeff too.

Another idea of inkshedding is also that afterward you trash whatever you wrote It's not intended to be kept for posterity, just used in the moment and discarded. It reminded me of emailing and especially texting. We usually don't keep those; they serve their purpose and get deleted. That might also make it easier to not worry so much about the accuracy of the writing, since it isn't kept. I sent Sam an email, but he hasn't responded yet. I think I'd like to get a small dry erase board and have an ongoing conversation on the board. Maybe I'll leave it in his room. Or I guess we could just use sticky notes. Either way, I'm excited to try it.

I showed the kids that preview of the new Anne of Green Gables movie today. They didn't like it any better than I did. Of course, I told them it was awful before we started, but they agreed anyway. Then we had to go pick up the DVD that I reserved at the library. I think we'll have to watch it tomorrow afternoon. It's just so good.

Rachel's getting closer to the end of her college application. Today, I think she finished drafting the essays. Now she wants me to help her go over them. She also got her ACT score. I still wonder if there's any way to get mine from all those years ago. I'd love to know what it was. I have no recollection at all. I don't remember my college application being this long. And I only remember writing one essay. I wish I had kept a copy of it to show her. She'd probably get a kick out of it, like my sappy love poems I wrote when I was 14. I just found those the other day, and the kids are dying to read them. How embarrassing!

I think Sam's thinking he wants to do the Pre-Algebra this year after all. I need to talk to him some more about it and maybe try a bit more of it again. He's had some time to think about it since I decided he would wait til next year. He's listening to what Sarah's doing, and I think it's interesting him. I'm not sure that's how he would describe it though.

See you tomorrow!