When I wrote about the writing activities I had set the children, a few of you expressed an interest in seeing some of the results. As I have already posted some of T11’s work and C10’s work, I thought I would post L10’s writing this time. This particular assignment was to write an informal letter to their husbands, who were fighting in the crusades, pleading with them to come home. They were not required to write any address or date, although if they wished to they could. Here is L10 working away at her letter with her medieval quill and ink (one has to get into the role, don’t you know!):
And her letter:
I really should have pencilled some lines to help her write a bit straighter. I was very happy with the letter and she was chuffed to have it posted! I’ve not changed any spelling or punctuation. Here is a close up for those of you who asked to see their writing:
This was their first persuasive assignment, done without any teaching except our speech study, and as such a very casual piece of work. I didn’t have them edit and re-edit (I would do on a more formal assignment). Really, I just wanted them to have fun. For their next assignment I will be teaching them some explicit persuasive methods to use in their formal letter to the pope. We will then look back at their informal letter to see if they used any of these methods naturally and to discuss whether their use could have made the letter more affective in persuading a husband to come home. I’d say ‘nights full of music’ was pretty persuasive and I’m not even going to mention ‘nights long ago…put out by the embers of war’…where does she get it from?!!
Also I’m not sure to what she refers when she talks about things that are too terrible to mention because of a fear of upsetting dear William. I mean, she’s already specified disembowelling; hacked off and chopped off limbs; death…what more is there?
Can I just say how much I enjoy my children’s writing. It may not be grammatically correct, it may have spelling mistakes, but every piece is so full of personality that I always have a huge smile on my face as I read it. So blessed to be a home schooler!