Essay writing tips for kids and preschoolers.
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
It often happens that children do not like essay writing. Each second kid finds professional essay writers or asks a question “Can I find someone to do my essay?” What is the reason for such hate towards such homework? It usually happens that people do not understand how to write an essay. Nobody likes to do things one does not understand. Consequently, they feel bored and even irritated by writing assignments. How to help preschoolers fall in love with writing?
3 great ways to “domesticate” essay writing?
Essay writing can be not only informative but also entertaining. Adults can use three tricks to encourage children to write essays.
Explain basic things
Children’s brains need proper teaching. Parents always look for better educational institutions trying to find the best teachers. They know that only professionals can provide their off-springs with an excellent education. Unfortunately, there are too many schoolchildren in classes. That is why it is hard for a tutor to pay attention to each pupil. Parents can become good assistants. These are some hints to make kids “understand essays”.
- Thesis statement: one should just say that thesis statements contain the core of the essay’s idea and have not more than 2 sentences. Firstly, it may sound too complicated for a child but soon they will get accustomed to it. One should look for samples on the Internet and study them with a child.
- Outline: kids got used to schedules at school. An outline resembles it because it provides a step-by-step plan. One can brainstorm trying to collect ideas and set the time limitation.
- Samples: many websites present examples of A-level essays. One should let a child read and analyze them.
- Essay types: there are four basic types of essays. They are descriptive, narrative, argumentative, and expository. Descriptive ones involve 5 senses (smelling, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching) and try to convey words into a picture. The narrative paper provides chronology or details about the event or personality. The argumentative essay gives two viewpoints of one problem and supports the author’s side with facts and statistics. Expository one gives only reliable and checked information. Its purpose is to inform the reader about something or someone.
Explore apps and online tools
Children of the XXI century cannot imagine their life without gadgets. Tablets, smartphones, and laptops are their best friends. Kids explore the world when surfing the Internet. That is why the second step is to find some tools which help children clear out problematic points. For example, WritingPopulist simplifies grammar issues. Writing agencies give free samples of excellent writings. Studydemic contains many interesting and informative articles devoted to essay writing. Let’s Go and Learn helps parents and kids learn more about essay writing and various educational details. These are just sample websites. Other educational websites can also serve as perfect writing assistants. Articles and videos contain vivid pictures, tables, schemes, and illustrations to better understand writing. It is beneficial for both children with eye or ear memory.
Competition time for practice
Games help everybody study subconsciously. Different writing competitions stimulate brain activity and mold essay writing habits. Children like to have some family traditions. Parents can organize evenings devoted to essay writing. For example, when one has a birthday, the whole family can write essays about the birthday person. Moreover, the family can write using different essay types and even post essays on social networks or blogs. The essay that gets more ‘likes’ can win and the winner can be the first who will get a piece of cake or help a chief person check present boxes.
Things to avoid when teaching kids essay writing
It is also very important to figure out a list of “not-to-do things” for preschoolers and schoolchildren.
- Neglect of a structure: there must be an introduction, body, and conclusion separated by paragraphs. It lets a reader scan the paper and understands its purpose due to selective reading.
- Plagiarism: the Internet presents thousands of samples but kids are only to study them but not to copy.
- Paraphrasing instead of idea development: sometimes children repeat information from one paragraph to another. It is better to teach them to develop the idea by presenting new facts. The paper must not be too watery.
- Slang: kids often write the way they speak. Adults should check whether there are slang words or not.
- Ambiguity: argumentative essays present two ideas. Nevertheless, it must not be ambiguous. A writer chooses one side and supports it with facts.
- Too much and too little: a school usually sets the limit. A paper usually demands some concrete number of words or pages. A child should be sure that the idea is not too narrow or wide. Otherwise, it will be difficult to present a decent paper focused on one idea.
It is important to try different approaches and one of them will definitely work.