Love notes

Hannah has started obsessively writing. She writes all the time, intently focused on her goal. I love it. I mentioned to Kevin that I want to save all of her writings and he commented back that I didn't have the same opinion on her art work. It is true--I can easily toss the art, but the writing I treasure. Here are a few recent notes that I found special.

This one she wrote on Thursday when I came home sick. I had to cancel a lunch date with her due to my stomach bug. She sweetly made me this during her recess. If you need translation, it says "Mommy I hope you feel better"

This next note she gave me this morning as I was on my way out the door for a church retreat. She got to spend the mid-morning to mid-afternoon with a dear church friend, which she loved, but she wanted me to hurry home. Translation: "Mommy please come home soon"

This last is more of an attempt. In true teacher fashion, I wanted to see what she could do. I did help her stretch it out, but did not correct any assumptions on letters.

My maiden name: Falkenstein

I'm of the school of thought that correcting spelling is unnecessary at this age (and, for the most part, 2nd grade too). I believe that children will write more when left uncorrected and that, as they learn more, will spell more correctly. This has worked pretty well with Hannah (her love recently morphed from "l-u-v" to "l-o-v" and her from now has a "o" instead of a "u"), especially given the fact that my oldest is a bit of a perfectionist and gets upset when corrected. Not too say I ignore her when she asks repeatedly if the "k" sound is a c or a k--I find it easier to just tell her the letter so she will move on... or to say she doesn't have complete melt downs when she gets frustrated with her writing (like literally right now--the words didn't all fit onto the page correctly and the notebook was thrown down as she stormed out... I'm staying out and hoping she calms down...)

I am always excited to see what Hannah will write next and will undoubtedly be posting more of her writings. Next weekend we are attending the Whitworth Writing Rally together, where she will write and publish her own book -- I can't wait!