journal saga

claire had a sleepover with 2 frds at my place on 18th nov, the last day of sch.

i requested that she writes a journal about her sleepover experience, to store as everlasting memory.

her first piece was delivered last nite. i rejected it. reason being, it was totally disorganised and was mainly written in conversation style, which i found it redundant.

today, i requested for her 2nd submission. she started off fine but again, reverted to her old style of using unnecessary conversations.

with my headache, i was really losing my patience. my voice a lil raised when i told her the right thing to do, tantamount to telling her that she should re-do the piece again.

'devastated', she broke down and cried, unable to face with my rejection of her work. i lost my cool and started hitting her back with a small pillow. i hate it whenever the kids use crying as the weapon.

my anger came from her not paying attention to what i had said and consequently, repeating same mistakes. her frustration stemmed from not understanding what had gone wrong with her journal writing.

so, it was no communication between us for half and hour. when the heat simmered, she spoke,"i hv no idea how u want me to write it!"

anyway, i told her to sit beside me and bit by bit, we recounted the events, with special emphasis on doing away with redundancies of sentences and conversation speeches.

twds the end, she thanked me for taking the time to do it with her. i responded,"claire, i won't mind we sit through stuff like that coz u can better understand the expectation of a good journal! what i was angry about was your inattentive attitude when pple give u advice on the writing...."

seriously, no one is born a good writer. but, i told her that it's impt to develop her own writing style. shunning writing is definitely not the way to do it. submitting a piece of disorganised work only reflects her inattentive attitude.

hopefully, she will understand my intention and take writing more seriously.