New trick for Book Reports - Using the computer for essay writing

At 4th grade, I am using a new trick for getting home-based book reports done: use the computer.

My child already uses Google Docs as a way to submit writing assignments for school. She has become quite adept at this and even likes to share "secret" notes with her friends. Of course, the school keeps the accounts secure for all the kids. Their ID's are not connected to an active email account. The teachers are able to check in on any document that is created at any time.

So home-based book report assignments for Chinese are now on the computer, instead of being hand written. While this is a bit of a sacrifice, I am going to live with it.

Writing practice is still being supported via the ZW textbooks and in-school homework. But we can continue to drive reading comprehension and essay writing skills (which are still so critical to developing thinking skills) by allowing for the novelty of being on the computer.

My goal is to keep my child reading more stories and responding to them through writing. Given her increased impatience with how hard Chinese is compared to English, this is my latest pivot. I can't blame her - using pinyin is pretty awesome and efficient.

I do know there is some sacrifice, here. But I want to drive continued vocabulary acquisition through reading, which is vital but not so easy when you don't exist in a Chinese-speaking world.