A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer. ~Karl Kraus
We read the first twelve pages in the Chapter Five: "Early Days in Egypt, Before Recorded Time" in Volume 1 of A Picturesque Tale of Progress by Olive Beaupré Miller, 1955 edition set of books that are a delight to read. (They are now back in print, to my surprise!) Then the Princess was to write her thoughts on what she had learned. Sometimes we do outlines or pick out words to create a glossary or journal with a brief description and pictures, but this time I just wanted her to write it out freestyle. I planned it to be a rough draft and I would be going over it for spelling and grammar.
At first, the Princess was confused, not having the structure and not knowing where to start and then I said, "Just tell the story." These must have been the magic words that started her creative juices to go into overdrive! She began writing and writing and writing. She stopped only to get more paper. When I realized this, I told her that she did not need to write so much. She said, without even looking up from her work, that this was fun.
Are there any sweeter words heard by the homeschooling parent than the assignment is fun?
And this is what she wrote, without the grammar and spelling corrections:
In the Valley of the river Nile, the water sparkled like gold in the glowing sunset. The beutiful Nile, in November, would rise and flood. Because of the melting snow in the mountains. This all made a layer of rich black mud, wich the people of Egypt grew food and grass, it now looks like a green stripe on a map. The Nile soaked back into the sand and once more, was a river. The people thout it was a great thing to live by the Nile, was it not?
Later people wondered about the sun. "How does the sun leap in the sky at dawn and lower down to sleep at dusk fall?" They asked each other. They began to think more and more that the sun was a god. "The sun is the one who made the earth, his name is Ra!" They shouted. They got carried away from God, once more! People began to ask Ra into there hearts right away. They made other Gods, too.
They began to go god-crazy! (In my words.) They made gods that were held in houses and were prayed to almost every day! The sun-god was the most popular one of them all. They worshipped mostly things that they could see and touch on earth, they did not follow Gods rules anymore.
This is the story of Ra who they thout made the earth: In the beginning, there was nothing be a watery mass wich filled all of space. Ther was no earth, no sea, no sky. Suddenly, on the watery mass, there came up an egg wich rose out the sun-god. Ra is his name and he is the Creator. He made himself four children - Shu and Tefnut, Keb and Nut, who lay with them flat on there backs on the watery mass. In time, Shu rose from the watery mas with his sister, Tefnut. They placed there feet on Keb and, seizing Nut, they lifted her high above them. Keb became earth, Nut became the sky, her body coverd with beutifull stars, and Shu and Tefnut air wich can hold up the sky. Ra made other gods, but he made them all. The end.
None of this is true, but if you want to think it's true, thats okay, too!
Since it is so much longer that I expected and precious just as it is, I think I will just discuss the corrections that needed to be made and leave it. I always say that even the best writer's have editors for a very good reason. So, my question to you, my dear readers:
Can this nine-year-old girl tell a story or what?
~ My Lord, thank you for my daughter enjoying her lesson and help me to make that happen more often. ~
