How to raise great writers? Here are 7 fun ways to help your child improve their writing.
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Sometimes, children can find writing to be challenging and anxiety-inducing. It can be a struggle from learning to hold the pencil the correct way, to forming words, to coming up with ideas for independent story writing. What can you do as a parent to help them improve their writing skills? Here are 7 great ways to help your child become a better writer.
Play a game with pictures
If your child struggles with coming up with things to write about, using pictures can be a great way to get their imaginations working. Just cut out some pictures, paste them on their writing page and have them use the pictures to create a story. You can encourage them to describe people or objects in the picture or even explain the action in the picture.
Play “Tell Me How”
Children love to be the boss or the leader. Have them pretend that they are writing a letter to a space alien, who doesn’t know anything about our culture and will do everything exactly as written or spoken. Then have your kid write down the instructions for an everyday task, like brushing your teeth. Then pretend to be the alien and follow your kid’s instructions verbatim. It’s a great way to make writing more exciting.
Write a “Convince me” letter
“If your child is particularly vocal then having them write a letter to persuade you is a great way to encourage persuasive writing,” says Exie Lorosa, an educational blogger at Essay Services and Academized. Have them pick a family rule they think is unfair and write you a letter to try and convince you to change it. The catch is they can only use facts, logic, and quotes to back up their argument.
Play “Fortunately/ Unfortunately”
This game is based on a classic book by Remy Charlip called, Fortunately. Take a piece of paper and write a sentence that begins with the word Fortunately, then pass the form to the next player who has to come up with a sentence that starts with “unfortunately”. Keep taking turns until the story gets too silly.
Write an “I Remember” poem
“Ask your child to think of several memories of a recent event or experience,” says Marie Anderson, a writer at Simplegrad and Assignment Services. Be sure to include as many sensory memories as possible. Then write the words ‘I remember …’ on several lines of notebook paper and let them complete the sentences using the recent memory. This exercise can be tailored to suit the age of the child by adding more or less “I remember” lines and having them use more descriptive language.
Create a scrapbook of the family
Combining pictures with words is a great way to encourage young writers, and a family scrapbook is a fantastic way to do this. Get your hands on an inexpensive photo album and collect souvenirs of what you do together. Have them write the date and a sentence about what you did and where you did it. Then work together to write out more details-be sure to include the funny and annoying moments!
Make a journal jar
Why not make journal prompts more exciting? Decorate a clean, empty wide-mouthed jar. Then add slips of paper with journal prompts on them. Have your child pick one out each day and write about the prompt in their journal.
These 7 great ideas will help teach your children to be better writers and show them that writing is fun.
Author BIO
Emily Henry writes for Essay writing services and Best coursework services. She writes about parenting. Emily also is a tutor at Top Canadian Writers.