I must say that this task is quite different from writing lines. For one thing, you can't let your mind wander off. When writing (short) lines there comes a point where you can switch to auto-pilot (that is, until you make a mistake and curse yourself for not paying attention). However you have to pay full attention when writing squares the entire time. Because if you don't, the second difference causes quite an impact.
If you do a mistake while writing lines at the end of the page, and therefore have to start the page again, you lose maybe 15-20 minutes of work. If you make that mistake at the end of the squares page, you lose 2 full hours of work.
So it's really hard mentally. You have to pay full attention all the time and you are much, much longer under pressure to keep up the attention.
-Cornelia
I find this very interesting. I had not heard about this task or any other new exciting tasks from the Written Punishment Group on Yahoo (because I can not access it). Please write more about this and any variations. Should the paper have a certain number of squares? Could the task be more than one page? Is it suitable for a weekend task? In combination with other tasks and/or corner time? Do you think it is a good punishment task?
ReplyDeletePS. The new name for your blog is very good.
Sorry for the late reply.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first time I was writing squares, so I can't answer all your questions because I lack the experience.
Of course there can be more pages to written. There can always be more pages. ;-)
Not sure if it's a suitable weekend task. The "grid" of the squares gets a bit hard to look at when times goes on, so I wouldn't recommend it to look at it for many hours (from an eye-health-perspective).
I'm not quite sure if it's a "good" punishment. But as every other written task it keeps you occupied for quite a while.
In order to avoid the strain on the eyes that you rightly point out, it would be better to let the squares be somewhat bigger.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this also means filling up more pages! And for this kind of task, with no mistakes allowed, having to write on both sides of the paper is essential.
(Writing lines, btw, also becomes more "interesting" when both sides of the paper must be used.)
This task could also consist of writing all the dates [DDMMYYYY] of a number of calendar years, for example last year, this year, and next year (incl. one leap year!).
It is not quite as easy as it may sound ;-)
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteMiss Melanie insisted that I use this exact type of paper. I doubt she'll allow bigger (and therefore fewer) squares on a page.
Writing squares on both sides of a paper is very, very cruel. Even just having to fill one side without mistakes is very hard because you need to focus for two hours. Imagine getting to the end of page 2 and make a mistake - 4 hours of work would be lost.
being ordered to write squares is useful to train diligence and permanent attention during longer times. its not as easy as writing simple lines
ReplyDelete