writing typing help

[Monica Manzano]

Tom wants to write his own Spore descriptions. He doesn't know how to type but he wants to learn. I've offered two different solutions and he turns me away. 1 was that he dictate his description (for the Spore creatures) to me and I type. Another that he do our Timun and Pumba typing cd-rom, to learn.

I believe from what he said about dictation he doesn't quite get what it is. I may return to that idea slowly visavis an ex. say write down something he is talking about and illustrate it. 2nd he mentioned something that I don't quite get 'he can't say names', it's a game of Laurence's making. I thought they only play it sometimes.

I've been involved with the 'I can't say names' when I'm in a conversation and I forget a movie name or character from a movie. I always thought Laurence was just giving me a hard time or playing some joke to trip me up. I have to ask more questions on the 'I can't say names game'.

Let me casually observe Tom for a bit, and see if I can't encourage him to write short descriptions say a list. If he is comparing himself to his brother and wants to write paragraphs it's an ambitious goal, which is totally cool with me, but he needs to accomplish the 1st - 2nd - and etc goals of learning the keyboard, then writing words, then writing sentences, and you get the picture.

I'm thrilled he wants to do this, I just hate to see him saying negative things to his Dad like last night. He said, "i'll just make my creatures and save the writing for my brother". It sounded like he was giving up before he even gave it a go. I'm not sure yet.

Perhaps another solution is to play with Microsoft word on a blank document. Just play around with typing 'til he gets to know the positions of the letters and symbols. I intend to wait for a 'teachable moment', or an opening, like always. Patience prudence, I don't want to step in so much as to solve his problem. Moe

[Monica Manzano]

I chose that order: words, sentence, paragraphs since he would be writing them in Spore. He has say an 1 hour turn. The writing can be saved and editted later. Begin with the short descriptions and come back, then add more. It's my idea, I don't think I'll share immediately, I'll wait and see.