pasijm

He dislikes his other homework too, but none of the other are as much of a pain as creative writing is. Ultimate repercussions for failing to enforce homework would be a "customer" relationship with child welfare services of the state and potentially losing the custody of the child(ren). I don't know how easily it would come to that just because of homework, but it's a possibility and the child welfare services are known to be unpredictable and arbitrary in their decisions, and unaccountable at that as well. However, I don't think the problem is with creative writing by itself. If the topics were more interesting and less childish, it probably wouldn't be such a problem. For example, he likes games and parkour, so writing about those shouldn't be a pain as the stories about silly rabbits and such assigned by the teacher. Maybe I should just ask the teacher to allow kids to write about topics that are interesting to them? No, he didn't choose to go there and I didn't choose to send him there. Alas, there's no such choice here in Finland. If there were, probably both he and I would choose differently. But what I meant by that statement was that he can choose and follow his own interests and is not forced to live up to our expectations. This is in contrast to many Finnish parents who make their kids play ice hockey in hopes that they will become the next Teemu Selänne or something, regardless of the kids' own interests. And like I wrote in the post above, you are likely very near to the point with that last question. The topics assigned by the teacher are silly and naive. I'm not surprised that they don't interest him. And maybe the whole creative writing thing doesn't interest him either... Homework in general certainly doesn't, and in that he's following my footsteps closely, as I skipped most of my homework when I was in school. In our discussions about homework I have tried to use my own experience of not doing homework as an example to avoid, because not doing homework for nine years in elementary and middle school bit me back in high school, when not doing homework wasn't enough any more.

I have considered that issue too, but I think I have been able to avoid being both a show-off and too pushy in this regard. I have been trying to let him choose his own path and avoid pushing any expectations or "be just like dad" mentality to him. That shouldn't be the problem, but if it were, how could I help him ease off that anxiety? I actually think the issue is anxiety of some kind. He doesn't like talking about it though, so I don't know what kind it is. Your wondering could even be on the right track, in spite of my efforts to the contrary. If so, what to do?

Hi everyone. I'm looking for ideas to help my son overcome his major "writer's block" issues. This is a problem that we have been dealing with for a couple of years now and I'm totally at loss, as is the public school he's attending to. But now it occurred to me that people on this forum might have good ideas... So, a little background. He's 9 years old, soon to be ten, and he's quite a good student at school. He writes well, he's very good in math, he's very good for his age in a second language (English) and used to know a third language (Mandarin) when he was younger. And as objectively as I can as a father, I would estimate that his IQ is well above the average. Like I said, he writes well, and reads too. He's always in a bit of a hurry though, so he doesn't pay attention to minute details such as pausing at a period when reading aloud. But whenever he needs to think of something to write about, he grinds to a complete standstill. Usually this is homework from school, such as writing a short story or a poem, like today. He asks for help, and we try to help, we even offer him ideas but we refuse to dictate what to write, and he gets angry, sometimes even starts crying. He can be locked in this state of trying, but not really trying, just waiting for the story to complete itself, asking for help but refusing to accept any, for hours even. And then suddenly, he goes to his room, writes the story down in five minutes and is done with it, and the result is usually quite good actually. As for myself, I find it very hard to relate to his problem, as writing has always been a passion and a joy to me. I find it very easy to sit down and conjure up words and stories out of thin air on the keyboard. When I was his age, I both read and wrote a lot already, maybe even too much at the expense of more social pastimes. And my wife is pretty much the same, so she's out of ideas too. Has anyone here experience with anything like this? Any help and ideas are greatly appreciated. As an aside, I really don't like having to ask him to complete this kind of homework that he clearly doesn't enjoy, but in this socialist paradise it's mandatory by law. On the other hand, I feel that writing and thinking of what to write about belong to the most important skills that you hope your child would possess.