Do you have a reluctant writer in your home?
Writing can be a challenge for any child because it requires going out on a limb and putting down one’s ideas at the risk of being judged. Not to mention the fact that the writing should also be well organized, clear, concise, and use good spelling and grammar.
That’s a lot for a child to do which is why I’m a firm believer in starting kids off with copywork, and then progressing to sentence writing, paragraph writing, and, finally, compositions.
However, when your child is ready to go beyond copywork to writing her own works, you may find that she becomes very reluctant to put her thoughts down on paper. That’s why I thought I’d put together some suggestions for you that can help you get your reluctant writer past her fears and inhibitions about putting words to paper.
Let’s get started.
Provide Models
Children learn by imitating. That’s why it is important to provide your child with good role models when it comes to writing. You can do this easily enough by giving your child good literature to read. If you’d like some ideas for books, you might want to check out my Homeschoolers’ List of Lists. It has some links to helpful lists of books by grade level.
Help Your Child Understand the Purpose Behind Writing
Does your child know why it’s important to be able to write? Does she realize how it can help her communicate, achieve her future career goals, or simply create a work of written art? If not, then explain the reasons why writing is so valuable. Knowing the purpose behind learning something can make it more appealing to learn.
Offer Choices
If you were given a choice between writing about a topic you like and one you don’t, you’d choose the one you like, wouldn’t you? You’d also prefer to have a choice rather than not having one, right? Well, the same is true for your child.
Choice is a motivating factor when it comes to writing, and while you can’t always offer choices for every assignment, it is good to offer them whenever you can. This isn’t so hard as you think. With a report, your child can choose the topic herself. It will probably be something that she is fascinated with like the pyramids of Egypt or horses and that’s wonderful! Encourage her to write on those things. When it comes to writing about a book, you can let her choose between writing a book report or a book review. Any little choice that you can offer will make writing more appealing to your child.
Variety is the Spice of Life
Remember the old days when schools made kids write book reports all of the time? I’m sure that kids got good at writing those, but I’m also sure that kids got really tired of them too. 😉 Having an assortment of activities can make writing a little less humdrum and one of the blessings of homeschooling is that you have the freedom to let your child write in a variety of genres.
There are numerous possibilities out there when it comes to writing something other than the good old reports and essays. There are creative projects such as plays, jokes, poems, and origin stories. There are also practical writing projects including thank you cards, letters, magazine articles, and newsletters. You can also use writing prompts to inspire your child to write. I have some thematic prompts on a variety of topics including the wild west, silly monsters, and pirates that you can use. See my complete collection of writing prompts here.
You may also try getting everyone involved in a fun family writing project. Your child will feel a little less alone and insecure about writing if she sees that others are doing it too.
Look for Natural Abilities and Interests
It’s good to take into consideration your child’s talents. Is there a particular genre that your child is particularly good at writing like fiction or journals? You might want to encourage her to write in that area frequently, even just for fun. Later you can build off of that enthusiasm when you encourage her to write in other areas.
Instill Confidence
Help your child feel confident about learning to write. Avoid giving her the impression that writing (or anything!) is hard. Instead, give her the idea that it is simply another skill to be learned and that she can do it! I’ve learned over the years that if I gave kids the impression that a lesson was going to be difficult, guess what, it was difficult for them to learn! However, if I did the opposite and suggested that it would be easy, they usually learned the lesson quickly. So just remember this: Positive expectations lead to positive results. If you believe that it is possible for your child to write and convey that belief to her through your words and actions, she will more than likely be able to do it.
Model a Positive Attitude
You may or may not like writing. If you like it, convey that to your child. If you don’t, don’t convey that to your child! Keep in mind that your child can sense your attitude towards a subject and she will more than likely imitate that. And, as you probably already know, it’s easier for a child to learn a subject when she has a positive attitude towards it as opposed to a negative one. So if you want to make the job of teaching your child to write easier for yourself, put on a happy face.
Point Out the Good
When looking over a child’s writing, it’s easy to get into the habit of looking only for things that need to be corrected. However, pointing out all the things that are wrong in an assignment can turn your child into a reluctant writer. Your child needs to know what is right with her work as well as what can be improved so that she can feel good about her writing. This will also serve as a catalyst for encouraging your child to repeat good writing practices. When you make a positive note in her writing about, let’s say, using quality, descriptive words to replace boring words like “good,” “said,” and “went,” your child will more than likely continue to do so in future assignments. So I recommend that you make notes of quality work and improvements in your child’s writing as well as what needs to be changed.
Practice Makes Perfect
Children are often reluctant to do an activity that they lack confidence in. So how can your child gain confidence in a skill such as writing? By learning how to do it through your instruction and/or a writing curriculum, and then by doing it. It isn’t enough to simply teach your child how to do something. Your child also has to practice it on a regular basis. Writing is like learning how to play a musical instrument or doing a sport. You have to practice it in order to get better at it.
If you’d like some helpful materials such as copywork, resource pages and fun writing prompts for your reluctant writer, check out the Language Arts section of my publishing company. It has lots of good stuff!
Many blessings,
