Oh my god, you guys. The child has a report due on fire ants tomorrow morning, and we spent a few blocks of time typing up the information she had collected. First of all, this was not an extensive, or even well researched, report. I imagine it's all of 150 words. And double spaced. And it still only took up half the paper. To be fair, that is all that was required, and she didn't skimp on her information.
Aspects of the report that she "is not a fan of," include: using the shift key for capitalizing instead of her preferred method, the caps lock key for that one letter; adding extra explanatory words or sentences; not banging on the keyboard; describing something with words instead of just showing a picture; and putting a space after punctuation.
I think you can see why this report was an experience in pain for me. Cripes, this was the worst of all things. I wasn't permitted to read it on my own; she read each sentence to me. I was allowed to spell words for her, and recite how some sentences would sound better, but she would either take or leave either of these two options.
Example of an editorial conversation from tonight ~
Sydney: Fire ant predators are phorid flies and people. We are predators of fire ants.
Me: That's repetitive. Both sentences say the same thing. You don't need that second sentence.
Sydney: But she needs to understand that. I'm leaving it this way.
So I nod my head and say okay, because it's her report, not mine. And she'll learn from it in every way. And granted, this was the first of many reports that I'll have to help with, so it was the first and roughest of collaborations for us. But holy crap, she needs to get better at this or I'll go crazy. After all, I may have been a mom for seven years, but I've been an editor for 18.
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