Katie's mother writes, "My daughter Katie (almost four) dictated a story to me today and I really wanted to share it here if it is appropriate. Because of her age we are not formally homeschooling--we're not even sure we will homeschool (though the possibility exists and I like the idea in theory), but we have been working with her on her letters as she has been interested ever since she was about 2 1/2. That's when she opened a book and wanted to read to me, looked at it for a second and cried, "Mama, I don't know the words. Teach me the words!" She knows all the letters and their sounds, but has not actually progressed to sounding words out on her own. But she taught herself to write each letter and loves to write words with my help. For this, though, she let me take dictation. The words and story are her own (I don't even know where she got the idea, since we don't do monster stories)--occasionally I asked her to elaborate, but I only wrote what she came up with herself. I gave it the rather unimaginative title; if she were awake, I'm sure she could do better."

The Little Girl and the Monster
by Katie

There was a little girl who was nice, and then she visited a monster one day. And the monster sprayed some mean monster magic bad glitter on her. She was mean then! She ate the monster's pizza. He was brave; he let the little girl have it. But he was kind of sad too and he turned mean too. The monster knew she wanted to be little again like a cutie baby. With invisible monster magic water that was nice, he sprayed all the mean monster glitter off and he put new cutie baby glitter on her and she turned into a baby. Then she turned nice and the monster turned nice again. And the the baby girl said good-bye and the monster carried her home because he was nice again.

The End

Katie's mother adds, "I wish I could scan the picture she drew underneath the text. She drew the little girl's face and the monster's face in great detail (her monster has six eyes and Katie was sure to include not only the girl's eyes, nose, and mouth, but also chin and cheeks). The monster, being a boy, has only a little hair, but the little girl's hair is piled high ("all the way up to your letters, Mama."). She also drew the pizza and the girl's hand reaching out to grab it. Then she added a tear to the monster's face and explained to me, 'He's crying, but he is wearing a brave look too.'"
 
 
 
 

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