Creative writing is a great way for children to improve their literacy and communication skills, and can be a fun, leisurely activity for them to take up. If you’re looking for a way to help your child improve the quality of their writing, it is definitely something you should try and explore at home. Below are a few activities recommended by a private school in Surrey that you can give a go.
Consider Whether They Need Prompts
Often the hardest part of writing is getting started and physically putting pen to paper. It’s a struggle many writers can relate to as they need a source of inspiration to get going. If you feel your child needs a hand, give them the option of a few starting points or themes they can talk about and discuss together.
Read More
Reading is like medicine for the mind. It keeps it active and healthy, whilst allowing you to learn new things. Children can explore the work of other authors, learn about how to structure their writing and gain inspiration. It’s also a way they can grow their vocabulary and enrich the writing they produce.
Look for a Way to Make It Enjoyable
If you find something that your child is genuinely interested in, they will have no problem writing about it and in fact, it can turn writing into something that’s quite enjoyable. That could be one of their hobbies like knitting for example. They could create a personal or public blog online talking about the various techniques they’ve mastered and the cool projects they have been working on.
Writing a Review
Children can also share their thoughts of things such as books they’ve enjoyed or disliked reading, or films they’ve watched by writing reviews. This can again be for the public domain or something they do themselves just for fun.
Expand Their Vocabulary
Going back to the previous point, you should try and expand your child’s vocabulary to help them convey what they want to say effectively. While the fastest way to grow their vocabulary would be reading, there are several things that you can do. For example, diversify your own vocabulary to introduce your child to new words, have set words of the day that they try to learn and play word games.
Writing a Screenplay of Their Favourite Show
If your child has a favourite TV show, they could have a go at screenwriting a plot and the details for an entire episode. To bring their ideas to life, they can even create a comic strip of what they want to see happen.
Encourage Them to Take Up Journaling
Journaling is a simple way that your child can make writing a part of their daily routine. They can write about pretty much anything, from the events of the day to the weird and wacky ideas they’ve been thinking about.
Mind Map Their Ideas
Structure is vital when it comes to any piece of writing as it offers the reader clarity and can help what you’re trying to say flow much better. So therefore, to help improve the quality of your child’s writing you will need to make a note of what they want to say and how to organise it into paragraphs or chapters. A mind map is a great way to do this.
Writing Techniques
Techniques such as similes and metaphors can add emphasis to points and improve the quality of your child’s writing. Other things to explore are connectives, and how they open their sentences.
These are just a few ways that you can explore creative writing with your child. The best activity is one that they will enjoy as this will keep them writing long after the work you do together and help create a love for writing.
