You Can Drag a Kid to Paper, but You Can't Make Them Write

The big focus this year at the girls' school is writing.  All the kids are being encouraged to become detailed writers.  Both girls have reading comprehension-type questions on their homework each week.  Vicki has had a lot of homework assignments that require her to read about an issue and then write an argument for or against the issue.  Lexi has simpler assignments, but they encourage writing nonetheless.

I love to write (hence the blog), so I think this is a great thing.  My children, unfortunately, do not tend to agree with me on this.  Vicki complains every night about how much she hates writing and how hard it is, and how stupid and boring and unfair, blah, blah, blah.  Lexi, however, has chosen a more passive-aggressive tactic.

She brought home a worksheet the other day that she'd apparently done in class.  The top of the worksheet said, "Draw a castle" with a nice big box underneath for drawing said castle.  Lexi's castle is magnificent.  It has turrets and ramparts and flags, and is even so detailed as to include a drawbridge, which, at the moment, is lowered, presumably to allow entrance to the princess waiting just outside the borders of the picture.

Underneath the drawing box it says, "Write about the castle", followed by a series of prompts.  Here is what my too-smart-for-her-own-good daughter had to say about her castle:

• Who or what? a castle
• Did what? sat thare
• Where? thare
• When? 2:00 am
• Why? it’s a castle

Alrighty then.