School are going to think DD(8) has a warped mind!!!

[Jourdain11]

DD2's Year 4 class are writing "urban wildlife diaries" this week and I took a look at what DD had written so far this evening.

"There were rats at the bottom of the garden. I saw two it was the size of a cat."

"At night I could hear foxes fighting and they make a sound like ladys screeming ." (At least she didn't know what they were actually doing.)

"On the way home I saw a dead squirel and two pigeons were eating it."

"There are lots of spiders in our house and my dad washed them down the plug drownde them."

Urgh... I'm sure the teacher was expecting different kinds of birds singing outside the window and late summer butterflies. DH thought it was hilarious but I'm sure the teacher is going to think she's a Disturbed Child.

Yes, IABU: let her get on with it and see how grim it gets

No, IANBU: encourage her to look at, er, more pleasant urban wildlife.

Look at the language, authentic, use of similes. The teacher is not going to think your child is disturbed, rather that she has put in a large amount of effort and this is the product of her own work. This is something my 13 yo is struggling to do. Please do not squash her creativity. It will stand her in good stead for English GCSE.

Don't worry that will be tame in sure. I work in primary and we hear all sorts. While discussing the work we'd probably talk about kinder ways to dispose of spiders etc though. I'm always talking to dc in the playground if they go to step on bugs or help them put worms and snails back somewhere safe.

Is this a stealth boast 😂

i love it

Give her your phone to photograph butterflies or other insects.

When home schooling was happening, DSs English teacher took it into his head to ask a bunch of 8 year olds to write him a horror story. If DSs was anything to go by then I sincerely hope the poor man had a strong stomach of he was getting that x 30.

Your DDs teacher will be glad of a break from the norm

To be fair , writing an "Urban wildlife diary" is quite tricky! Urban wildlife is that which has evolved to live alongside humans or scavenge off them in a dense town or city.

I'm sure the whole class has been learning about foxes, pigeons and rats and how they scavenge. It's probably what most have written about!

@TimeForTeaAndG

She's 8, my DD would probably write similar. Apart from the spiders, we don't kill spiders in our house (mummy makes daddy put them outside) as they eat the flies.

Putting house spiders outside also kills them, so it's not really better!

I parent helped at DS1s primary when he was in years 1 and 2. Best quotes from that time:
Teacher question:?What electrical things do your family have at home?
One child’s answer: My mum has an electric willy.
Another question on a separate day: How do you help at home? Same child’s answer: I get my mum’s beers out of the fridge for her.

Tallies with my experiences of urban wildlife, to be honest - at least it’s accurate!

We went for a walk the other day with some friends whose kids are around that age and found a dead vole. They were fascinated, so it sounds like your DD is completely normal to me!

Posted too soon - meant to add that you don’t have anything to worry about ! My boys would have written very similar. They wouldn’t have written about robins and butterflies if there was a dead rat to write about.

@NotMyCat

We had to write about what we did for Christmas Mine "we ate scraps and dad was in the pub as usual" School Mum "scraps are what we call M&S nibbles/buffet (I couldn't remember the word) and yes we were ALL in the pub. Because we live there!"

M&S oven food is still known as scraps now

That's brilliant!!

@sweeneytoddsrazor

Leave her to it. I think its great. I once took a group of girls Brownie age on a survival course, and the instructor asked what they would do for food if the were lost in the woods. One girl piped up I would put some nice dandelion leaves on the floor, sit in a tree with a brick and when a rabbit comes to eat the leaves I will drop the brick on him.

It's a practical idea but not what i was expecting. 😂

Not warped, just a bit unfiltered. Saying it as she’s seeing it.

Your child's teacher will just surmise she'he is writing about the gore to get attention.

If you then waste her time with a pointless phone call/email.f to f chat then you will simply confirm this.

I'd be more embarrassed at having a DH who gets his kicks from drowning spiders/too lazy to put them in the garden. I'm having visions of him gleefully turning the tap and looking proud of himself. Yuk.

Am I right in thinking you’re in central London @Jourdain11? We’re in Hackney and rats and mangy foxes sound fairly standard, plus the odd deformed pigeon eating KFC leftovers in the gutter.
And your DD’s spelling is much better than my 8 year old’s!

I'd much rather read a slightly dark piece of work than a twee one

Expose your child to casual killing, then wonder why they write about it casually🤔

If you want her to see the wonder in nature, how about leading by example, not removing the inconvenient bits of it from your life by killing it? Leave the spiders alive to spin their webs and she can wax lyrical about the marvellous patterns instead of their untimely death.

I love it, sounds like the sort of thing my 9yo would write

As a TA I would have loved this. It's real gritty urban wildlife. Excellent writing.
Drownding spiders aside.

I think her observations are honest, and fine. But your husband is a dick for drowning spiders

DD had to write about her summer holidays. This was the highlight: “We went to the beach and we found a dead eyul (eel) and we threw stones at it” 🤦‍♀️

In primary school I had to describe my weekend and wrote that my mum and her boyfriend stayed in bed and I brought them food. Complete with a drawing of them in bed together and me at the side with a tray. It was entirely fabricated.

Your daughter is writing it as it is. Don't encourage her to write about sugar and spice and all things nice if she's more into the frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails.

When my ds was that age, he had a sea animal project. He picked the angler fish. His report included 20 pages of recipes for cooking the angler fish and then my scientist mum came to visit and all of a sudden the report included several pages on the breeding habits of angler fish. I didn't know anything about my mum's helpful addition until the parent teacher conference when his teacher told me about his "colorful" presentation to the classroom of 7 year olds.