The Storyteller

As I mentioned recently here of my little Chip's progress in reading and writing, he has been entertaining his family with short stories. 

On average, he churns out 2 stories a day voluntarily. Some just don't make much sense at first read, while others are funny snippets dotted with evidence of his trademark cheekiness. They provide good glimpses into his imaginative mind and I especially love the child-like quality of his current stories. A trait which I know will be lost in a few years' time. 

Now that he can read a fair bit, he likes to open up many books in front of him, perhaps for inspirations. I often see him sitting or lying on the floor quietly, armed with papers and pencil, writing his little stories. Sometimes he just copied the words straight from the books to form his sentences, a clever attempt for one who has yet to learn how to spell.

Throughout the day, he would also ask for help to spell words that he can't find in the books, regardless where I was or what I was doing. No consideration was given even when I was in my personal space of a bathroom. Hmmph! 

Here was one of his earliest writing that consisted of several lines. He penned it for Kenneth, an ex-classmate of Marcus whom I have encouraged Marcus to be pen-pals with. Seeing the postcard exchanges between the two older boys, Chip insisted on writing his note too. 

 

Despite our offer, he denied any help or comments from us, except with spelling. The last sentence just didn't make sense but I think he had given up by then, so he just wanted to finish it quickly.

The next one was based on the character Stig, whom he is so fond of lately. (More about this in separate post).

(Stig go for a walk. A walk that hurt. Stig don't know why he don't like it so he go to monster of the deep)

There is spacing between the words now. What I find odd is the really poor grammer in his writing when his speech is normally filled with grammatically correct sentences. But then again, what does a 3+ kid know about grammer rules! Something to keep an eye on, nevertheless! 

A week and over ten more pieces of stories later, he produced this one (below). He saw a picture and made up a few sentences. I helped with his spelling and guided him on punctuation marks and capital letters. But all sentences were entirely his with not even a word of suggestion from me. I think the improvement has something to do with the lapbooking activities that we had been doing then, so I am very pleased with how fast he has picked up. 

One of the best things I noticed with all these writings is how he likes to read them aloud. 

The next few are random drawings. A lot of 'poo poo' has emerged in recent drawings and stories. Every picture is accompanied by long explanations and stories. :> 

My little boy has been keeping himself real busy. That's my self-motivated little baby!