Gifted or just a full-on imagination

[ForMashGetSmash]

DD turned 6 in July and since she was 2 she has composed poetry and some stories...mostly poetry..she can read above age level (can't remember what the teacher said the level was though) but she cannot write fast enough to get her poems down on paper...her spelling is average at best and she also reverses a lot of letters. So she gets frustrated and "makes" me write for her whilst she dictates...we have over the years filled a small book with her poetry and some of them are moving and thought provoking..as well as conjuring up beautiful images.

I don't think she's "gifted" in the accepted way...as she seems to be doing as expected at school...although teachers have commented that her language is extremely advanced and that she is very articulate... she barely spoke in year one but now she is in year 2 she is starting to come out and speak.

Is there anything I can do to encourage or help her so she can write her own poetry down? SHould I bother? Or let her develop the skills in her own time and just enjoy her poems at home for now?

She never writes anything near the sort of thing she is capable of at home when she is in school...so her teachers are unaware of her stuff...is that ok too?

If she's going to be a gifted poet as an adult, she'll be just that, regardless of what you do now. Allow her the time and space to dream, to make up stories, and to play with words. :)

Yes...I did think that...and I suppose that when she can write her teachers can see what she does...and teach her about form.

I was wondering if I needed to teach her something about form, but I don't know much about poetry so I got her some books of childrens poems which she shows no interest in. Can anyone recommend some adult poetry which is suited to a 6 year old?

The ability to compose poetry is a great gift! Enjoy!

And don't worry too much about form: she needs to exercise her imagination first.

I would treat this as something joyful and positive in your daughter's life (which is what a gift should be), not as something to present you with niggling worries (should I be doing more? am I letting her down?).

I think it's lovely that your daughter has a gift for creative language and I'm sure she'll enjoy and benefit from exposure to all sorts of poems and stories.

This might sound a bit of an odd question, but if she doesn't read any poetry, how does she compose it? I used to write poems all the time too as a child, but I read poems voraciously and liked to learn them off by heart - that's how I knew what poetry was.

There are lots of lovely anthologies of poetry aimed at children which contain a mixture of adult and children's poetry. In my first anthology there were poems like "Ode to a nightingale" and "Kubla Khan" as well as things like "The Owl and the Pussycat". DS2 has it now.