Barcelona, Spain
Maki got a letter from his favorite cousin Mason today and was super motivated to write him back. He sat down and wrote a whole page, the whole “hamburger essay”, all by himself. There was a top bun (intro), lots of meat and fixings (juicy content) and a bottom bun (conclusion).
It’s messy, there are mistakes in it but it’s understandable, substantial and meaningful.
While he was working on his writing, Nina was motivated by a pack of Pokémon cards to sit down next to me and for the first time in two months, write something himself. He wrote a letter to his two favorite teachers, Ms Florence and Ms Lisa Young.
I helped initially with talking about his letter, how he needed to tell them where he has been, where he is now and what he has done on his trip but over 90% of the content is his.
I showed him how to spell check words that were underlined in red and he was on his way to writing his first letter of this trip. His memory was better than mine. I told him “you can tell them that you swam with baby sharks and went zip lining” and he responded with “I first did the obstacle course in Argentina”.
He then wrote that he swam with sharks and went back to clarify that they were BABY SHARKS. He said that he hiked in Peru and I told him to add that he hiked to Machi Picchu (in Peru).
He remembered that he went horseback riding in Ecuador (I completely forgot about that). He wrote that he learned new words and I told him that he needed to add “in Spanish”.
He wrote that he passed out in Peru and I suggested he adds why he passed out.
I said he could mention that he saw lots of dogs but he framed it as “many friendly dogs in Peru”.
He wanted to get to 15 points because he is 15 yrs old but then ran out of ideas at his second favorite number 12.
This is the final product or his hard work. Pokémon cards are the best motivators for him. Gotta get my hands on more of those packets ASAP.
Refresh Journey 