To ask how old you think the child is who wrote this?

[Fluffylikeacoconut]

I suspect I might get some snarky comments but I’m genuinely curious - people with more experience than me (which is zero) - what age would this be ‘typical’ of. Handwriting is joined and very good.

I am typing it exactly as it is written - spelling and punctuation.

The fire lit a spark - not only in my mind but in a foot deep pile of sharp kindling. It began its first meal, desperate for the first taste of fresh air. It ate and ate until it was sated.
You could feel the tension, taut in the air as the fire grew and grew. Below, the river looked up mesmirised as it slowly crossed beneath a bridge.
The fire danced on, waltzing with the twiggy fingers of the trees, the soft silky coccoons of leaves and the old, moldy, spiky kindling. Ash floated around me like little fairys and once again the fire opened its menacing jaws. As soon as the fire strocked a bright leaf dripping with sap, its thin flamey hands turned to a cold silver and then to stone black. The fire turned and tried to flee before it suddenly disintigreated.
Now the old forest is gone but the ecosystem begins again, I watch the very first bud blossoms bloom. I savour the moment and watch as the old forest rises again, new and beautiful.

My DC is very verbal and always telling herself stories. She frequently uses similar language to that. She is admittedly kind of an odd duck! She can’t really write yet but if she could, I could absolutely see herself writing a story like that. She’s 5, almost 6. Also extremely bright.

Don’t forget mind, that everyone’s child on MN is an incredibly gifted writer/artist who swims for their county, is heading to a Russel group uni and is incredibly tall and sporty with an appetite like a horse. Obviously.

As a fellow parent of a gifted child, take it seriously. We’re sort of conditioned to not say our children are exceptional as other people view it as bragging. Some child are exceptional. If you yourself are unusually intelligent and have a very bright other child, it’s easy to down play in your head. Truly gifted children do have different needs and it can be a learning difference as much as ADHD or autism.

Yes, that's the intention but it's not what is written. The "thin flamey hands" themselves turn black.

That's why I say she's not fully in control of her prose. (Quite understandable for an 8-year old not to be, of course.)

She experienced it in her inner world,in her imagination. The poem is an account of what she saw there.

Too many philistines here.

As a child who was unintentionally made to feel less clever than her older brother please be wary of how you treat your DD. Her teachers have told you she’s gifted. Please don’t overlook their praise of her. My DS got exceeding in all his year 6 SATs & I don’t think he could have written what your DD wrote.

My darling son used to write things like this next to his crib with the shit from his diapers, when he was 18 months old. And he's my not very bright child.

OP, your DD sounds lovely!!! She is extremely talented.💖 I thought it was written by a teenager.

No, she parroted it from someone else's imagination. At 8, she has all kinds of fascinating original and unique thoughts, experiences and dreams, but "what it's like at the heart of a forest fire" is not one of them.

Not a common word to hear let alone at age 8

Chat GPT

Probably not.

But why does everyone only have to read or hear common words? Why is it surprising to you that some 8 year-olds use words that other 8 years don't?

I never would have guessed 8yo, I actually thought year 8 if anything which would be, what, about 12yo?

It's lovely, and wonderful for 8.

My two girls would have written similar at 8, but I know they were exceptional, so would have guessed a bright 8 or 9 year old. The eldest went on to get 9 grade 9s at GCSE. The younger one didn't do quite as well, but all 7-9. She was the one reading Harry Potter independently (and LOVING it) in year 1, but took an age to learn her times tables. Her sister is uncoordinated and completely impractical at 19, so they're not good at everything!!

I wrote an exam essay aged 12, and used the word, "toothsome". My English teacher tried to tell me that it wasn't a word!!!

9 was my first thought- an able Year 4 kid who enjoys reading and writing?

Yep - DS is in year 3 and every piece of writing they do has to have similes, and multiple adjectives for every single noun. So I’m going to guess a year 4 child working at greater depth, because it reads like a piece of writing where the author is trying to cram as many descriptions in as possible, instead of just writing naturally. Which isn’t a criticism, if that was the exercise.

8’s about right for a bright child. It’s lovely and fresh and full of feeling.

Nourish her spark.

I have to say I think it is excellent for her age - and so it would be if she was a bit older.

You have a clever girl.

The pp who said that good writing is concise obviously hasn't read Proust

Loads of people can’t stand Proust, for that very reason! And even he doesn’t use four adjectives for every single noun 🤣

She is 8! By the time she is 20 she will have been introduced to all kinds of writers, all kinds of styles from Hopkins to Orwell.

She will learn that overuse of adjectives and metaphors is not usually a good thing. She is not going to continue to write like this.

12, girl

The writing is good for 8. But OP, really stop and ask yourself - why do you need a forum of strangers reassuring you that your daughter's work is above average? It sounds like you only value her work if it's exceptional, and are dismissive otherwise. Why is that?

About between 9-11?

This is a good point and one that has been made by various critics of the national curriculum content.

I was observing a year 5 class where they were encouraged to use ‘wow words’ in a piece of writing. Clearly one of the words they’d been taught was ‘zealous’, and to see this teacher gushing over every child who had written it, despite it being inappropriately used in most of the sentences was teeth grating. This was a deprived school too, where the children would’ve been much better served learning meaningful vocabulary and given inspiring passages from acclaimed literature to read and discuss.

15/16
The extended metaphor is too sophisticated for a young child.