No, not really... although it is quite tempting at times after reading your little sweeties' rough drafts and thinking to yourself, "Seriously? You are in second grade and you use the word "good" in every flippin' sentence? You are eight for crying out loud! Where's your imagination?!" Oi. And now that the end of school is almost out getting them to write anything besides their name is a miraculous event in and of itself.
To make this easier on all of us, I pulled out an old book I "inherited" that usually tickles their brain. It's called "Draw Then Write." It has step by step instructions to show kids how to draw different animals, add little extra details, then gives them a graphic organizer of sorts to start their writing about their picture. I love it and so do they. Especially seeing their funny drawings! We may be all drawing the same animal, but they always look so different and cute! Heehee! I'll have to show you some later this week so you can giggle, too.
I am also trying something new this week. I have been trying my best to get my babies to self check their writing instead of coming to me every five minutes to ask, "Is this good enough?" So to hopefully prevent that and prevent myself from having to give them the stink eye, I made a new writing template for them to use. I am thinking it's going to be pretty awesome. Here's a link to it in my store. Check it out!