Stuff

[lls_mutant]

Have you ever gotten one of those ideas that just makes you clap your hands in glee? I was looking at buttfacemakini's new drawings, and the one of Alice, and I got one of those ideas for my reverseathon fic. Now I just need to write it...

I'm really looking forward to this morning. My neighbors (the nicest people in the world) have 3 girls. The oldest is 10 and very gifted. She wants to keep her brain going over the summer, but her parents don't want her to take a structured class because they feel that anything hard enough to challenge her that they can find is too structured, and they want her to have time to be a kid, too. So "Anna" suggested that she work with me some. It works out great for everyone, because Anna's mom is going to take Toby. I get a break, Anna gets the mental stimulation, Toby gets interaction with other people, and Anna's mom gets her baby fix.

I'm debating what we're going to do. She's a huge Harry Potter fan and LOVES to write, and in a way, I wish I could introduce her to fanfiction. But so not a good idea. For one, I wouldn't want her reading half of the stuff out there, given that she's only ten. And even if I pointed her to omniocular or femgenficathon (which I'd love to have her write an entry for!), because if she googled "Harry Potter fanfiction".... well, you all know. But more than that, I'd like to see her get grounded in her own ideas. Fanfic is an awesome playground and training ground, but it has its limitations. Plus, I think you don't learn much about writing setting or introducing new characters in fanfic. And finally, there's so much cruddy writing out there... if I could be sure she'd just be reading the good stuff, great. But so many people can't even spell or use good grammar. So no fanfic.

My two big thoughts at the moment is either we're going to learn a language (I'll teach her some Chinese or we can try to pick up a totally new language together), or we'll create our own world and write in it. I'm not sure which I'd rather do. Another fun thought is we learn a completely different language like Arabic (I'm sure I can get my hands on textbooks), and also research the culture and history, and by the end of the summer have her write a story set over in the Middle East. That would be a lot of fun, too. But does anyone know any good world-building resources?

I feel like there was something else I was going to comment on, but I forget what. :P It wasn't the two more people die and one person gets a reprieve thing from the interview, though. Too many characters to make any sort of speculation, I think, and it doesn't address how many characters ACTUALLY die- just how the death tally changed. And I hear someone waking up, so oh well. Maybe it will occur to me later.

Comments

[busaikko]

If you decide you wnat to study Japan, just let me know! I live here and have two kids. The grammar is dead easy to learn, it's just the writing that's tricky.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Thanks! She seemed a bit more into the writing thing, but who knows what the summer will bring?

[busaikko]

Not saying she oughtn't to learn written Japanese, just that it's tricky! There are 2 syllabaries and Chinese characters are also used.

[magic-at-mungos.livejournal.com]

Tamora Pierce isn't the best writer in the world but some of her Circle of Magic books are based are on an Eastern world.

If it was an Olympic year, it might have been fun for her to pick one of the countries and do a project on it. The World Cup is nearly over and I don't know how much she's into football (soccer).

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Actually, her Dad's a Brit, so soccer's a big deal in that family. But what she really wants to do is write, so we're having a ball with that already. We began world-building today. It's good for her, because we have to decide on everything from government to what people eat, and it gives her a really good idea of how all parts of life are connected, logic, and all sorts of fun things. (Plus, let's face it, we're both having a blast already!)

[magic-at-mungos.livejournal.com]

Well it sounds like you're having a good time. It was worth a thought :)

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

Verry cool!!

For world-building, it's silly, but you can always get good ideas looking through Lonely Planet guides from different real countries. Gives you a taste for the things that are of interest in new places.

Can you really just pick up a language like that? *is envious* I only do Spanish because my dad grew up in Latin America...

Although, for a really interesting change, ASL is really interesting. Took it for two years in college, and there's some good videos and stuff. I could even send you my first year ones if you're interested. And if I can find them.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the idea about the guide books! We'll have to look through some. We started our world building, and we're having a blast already.

I can't really pick up a language like that, but I thought it would be good for her for us to learn something together. That way she could really see the process of learning independently, which is more important than the language. Even if we only learned the barest few words... y'know?

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

She's a huge Harry Potter fan and LOVES to write, and in a way, I wish I could introduce her to fanfiction.

You could still do fanficcish activities without actually showing her any of the stuff on the internet. Some of the ideas from the omniocular non-fiction challenge would work really well as an activity for her.

Or you could try a variation on one of my favourite ever primary school activities. (We spent a whole term on this but you can compress it, of course.) A round-the-world trip, with research about each country visited, cooking various national dishes, art work that relates to different countries and a fictional story about having various adventures in all these places.

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

I was just going to suggest the same thing Shaggy did - using the prompts from omniocular - anywhere but here especially because then she (and you! *g*) would get to combine geography, culture and history studies with writing, as well as tie it in to Harry Potter. The non-fiction challenge would be great, too!

And you don't even have to mention or discuss the whole internet fandom thing, though you can use the Lexicon for a resource. It's very kid-safe.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

This sounds fantastic for both of you! Creating your own world sounds like a great idea. Will you keep us updated on your new world? :-)