Date : April 30, 2018
Do you have a little reluctant writer in your house? How do you encourage them to put pen to paper? It might be easier than you think.
Writing is a skill that is incredibly valuable in life, and it’s important to inspire children to love writing from early on. Writing not only helps to cultivate emotional development, it also serves to develop critical thinking skills and improve your child’s overall academic performance. It’s a wonderful way of fostering creativity and turning language into something beautiful. Writing is such a magical way of expressing yourself!
But, if your children moan and groan at the thought of writing, how do you encourage them? We’ve got a few handy hints and tips to help inspire writing in kids!
Word Play
Kids love learning new words. Their curiosity at this age is limitless and you can definitely use this as a motivator to encourage their writing. Before they even learn to read, kids are learning 9 new words on average per day. Whenever you find a new word in a song or a magazine or book that might appeal to your child’s interests, you and your child can write notes or letters to each other using these new words. You can also create a word jar full of pieces of paper that contain your child’s favourite words. At the end of the week, have fun reading and discussing what they’ve collected. In no time, they’ll be collecting words on their own and composing their own letters to their friends.
The Art of Storytelling
Reading aloud teaches your child about grammar, syntax and how stories are told. Re-reading your child’s favourites helps them pick up on storytelling cues and subtleties that they otherwise might not grasp. Inspire writing in kids by encouraging them to re-write the endings of their favourite stories or add on something new.
Make it Fun
Many kids associate writing with ‘work’. At school, they are often asked to produce a set amount of words within an allotted time. This can limit their creativity and suck all the fun out of writing. Inspiring writing in children can be as easy as changing this mindset. Try creating a fun space for your kids to write in – decorate it with their favourite books and book characters, with fun pens and pencils, and with a variety of things to write on and in. You can even create story boxes using items you know they’ll be interested in. Encouraging them to share their writing with you and their siblings and friends will also be a powerful motivator.
Writing Prompts
Sometimes the hardest part of writing is coming up with story ideas. Check out these 4 really great writing prompts to inspire writing in kids!
What they remember – use baby photos, anecdotes from their early childhood, or various well-loved objects to prompt writing.
What they observe – encourage them to write about what they see in the world around them, out the window of the car or on a school excursion.
What they wonder about – ask them to write about things they think about or things they what to know more about.
What they imagine – ask them to think about the future or create a pretend world.
May Gibbs has been inspiring writing in children for a century! Discover more about the magic of Australia’s most beloved children’s author here.
This is a contribution From Librarian Bec – Right now, Librarian Bec’s hard at work at your local library, sharing a passion for reading with little people and big. Bec writes about inspiring little readers and embracing lovely literature.
