When I was about Bianca's age, probably a little younger, I told my mom as I was drawing pictures that I wished I could write so that I could make up the story to go along with my drawings. I used to glue the insides of the pages together to make books.
Over the last several months, Bianca's taken quite an interest in writing stories. Her first story was about six-seven pages and was about a princess who had eight pet birds. The birds turn into fairies in the story's climactic ending. Not bad. Pretty creative.
Her next story she wrote was about a princess whose sister died. The sister would come to the princess while she slept and take her to heaven, to do all sorts of different fun things together. She illustrated it too. I submitted it to a contest (I'll let you know how that turns out) for kindergarteners.
She has this amazing creativity and I've been so proud.
In Bianca's phonics class, they've spent the last several weeks writing stories. I couldn't have been happier. All the parents were invited to this "Author's Tea." I couldn't wait to see what Bianca came up with in class. At 9:30 this morning, Eric and I were both there, sitting on kindergartener-sized chairs packed in to see the 15 kids.
Bianca went up to the front to read her story. It was about a Cheetah, which incidentally was the topic of about seven other of the kids' stories as well. It went like this: "Cheetah maxe friends. One day there was a cheetah. It hunted for lions. The End."
Of course I clapped like she'd just won the pulitzer prize. After all, she wasn't scared to get up there and read to the entire class with all the parents. But I looked to Eric like what-just-happened-here. It's not that I thought the story was bad, but it was just like most of the other kids' stories. I know Bianca has the potential to write a much better story. I've heard it. I've seen her do it. And here she is, reading something so below what I know she can do.
Why do I care? I'm not sure. I'm never going to say anything about it. I want her to keep writing stories. But it's just so hard for me to stand back and watch.
