Parent Tips: Practice 2.4.3
If Practice 2.4.1 was a Big Brain Leap, this is an even bigger Big Brain Leap; in yes, what is a long series of Big Brain Leaps in this chapter. This is the big moment! Even if your child is used to writing paragraphs at school, it is unlikely they’ve ever been asked to build a paragraph around a complex thought process.
If your child doesn’t know where to start, please remind them that they should use the numbers they’ve put on the bubbles in their bubble web to guide their writing. Some kids think that it’s cheating to write what they have in their bubbles. It’s not! The actual writing of the paragraph will now mostly be copying all the hard-won thought they put into their bubble webs into paragraph form, with some adjustments and additional connections. Please assure them that this is OK and strongly recommended. You can also observe to them that the writing experience likely feels much easier than all the pre-writing work. Helping them notice this phenomenon will reinforce the value and importance of this pre-writing thought work.
Note that it’s OK to feed your child prompts to help them write. But for now, please focus on helping them connect high-quality thought, and less on whether they’re catching every comma. We promise that will come soon. Practice 2.4.3 is a very big brain leap, and you’ll be helping your child solidify their understanding of writing as mainly a process of expressing thought; aka, we’re teaching them the hard way for now, because the mechanical parts of writing are much easier to learn than the thinking. Deep breaths. This is a huge moment for your child. Give them a high five!
