How to make reluctant kid write creatively

[tarana]

My 7 yr old dd hates writing journals, letters etc which needs thinking & creativity. She is a bad speller & was using that excuse last 2 years. Now she does't even try. She tries to finish the assignment in a sentence.

If you give a prompt "Other night there was a thief" - she will just add "the cops caught him." or "I was sleeping when he came."

 

How does one make such a child write?

Any online resource or a workbook with prompts & pictures?

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

You will find that the authors do not encourage you to have your child do any creative writing (as a part of writing instruction). Classical writing techniques begin with copywork and dictation. You will find very few parents on this board that use journals or expect creative writing during the grammar stage.

 

I encourage you to check The Well-Trained Mind out at your library or get a copy of "Writing without Fear" from Peace Hill Press.

 

hth,

K

[Peela]

In the classical or CM type of thinking, you wouldnt try and force a young child to write creatively unless they wre happy to. You just have them do copywork, dictation and narration. Its hard for many kids to think about what to write, at the same time as physically writing, and it can take competency at physically writing before it becomes easy to write imaginatively. YOu can read Charlotte Mason writings, or The Well Trained Mind, or Ruth Beechick, for more detailed info on this approach, but I am attest to the fact that this approach is very effective.

[katilac]

yes, definitely read what SWB has to say on the subject of creative writing. we all have to write competently, but we certainly don't all have to write creatively.

 

besides, there is really no way to 'make' a kid write creatively. you can make her complete the assignment, and you can even make her lengthen them a bit, but you can't make her be creative. and there's no harm done if she's not.

[katilac]

here's a brief article, fittingly titled "My Child Hates His Journal":

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/what-about-journaling-or-my-child-hates-his-journal/

 

that gives a bit of her reasoning, but read WTM or WWE or listen to the Writing without Fear talk for details.

[Haiku]

I agree with what the other posters have said. You can't "make" a kid write creatively. My seven year old is an extremely creative writer and has been since she was four. My six year old -- not so much!

 

Focus on copywork and dictation for now. She may grow into creative writing, but she may not.

 

Tara

[Testimony]

I know it has already been said. I agree that I think 7 years old is young to force a child to write creatively. I never agreed with the public school's and traditional approach of making a child write about their summer or keep a journal. You know that turns a lot of really good writers off because they start them that way.

 

I love the idea of a child doing copywork and copying good writing. 1. It shows them how to write. 2. It inspires the child to attempt it on their own because they have an idea of how good writing should look.

 

I know that Ben Franklin learned to write through copywork. He copied newspapers. In my writer's group, the leader of the group has published two books now. She said that she started off reading and then copying their style until she developed her own style of writing. There is something to copywork and dictation first.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[smrtmama]

I'm a big proponent of beginning creative writing early, but I don't think it should be free-writing or forced journaling. You don't want to make your child hate writing through forcing her, BUT you do want to encourage story crafting. Guided creative writing or story-telling through dictation could be excellent writing exercises and avoids the "stare at the page" phenomenon and resentment.

 

Does your child make up stories to tell orally? Encourage her to tell you stories while you take dictation. Have her read over the story you've written down for her. Discuss any additional details you could add to the story and have her retell it with one or two of those additional details while you write that down.

 

Guided creative writing is having them write a story within a template or style, or just having them create one small part of a story at a time. I teach a creative writing class at a homeschool co-op (supposedly ages 8-12, but I had several 7 year olds). We did NOT start with writing fiction stories. We started with non-fiction, specifically autobiographies, and we wrote about ourselves -- describing ourselves as the character. Most people like to talk about themselves, so it's easy to get the kids to descibe themselves. We wrote stories of situations that had really happened to us -- it's still creative writing (creative nonfiction is a booming genre), but it's much more comfortable because it really happened.

[tarana]

I think I should clarify. When I said creative writing, I don't expect her to write a whole page, but a few (2-3) whole sentences, instead of one partial sentence. Like one of you said "Competent writer"

I am sure she is capable of journalling things like what fun things she did during the weekend.

Like I said before she is a bad speller, so writing a few sentences may help her improve her sounding out the word.

 

I just need a way to motivate her better. I saw some books a long time ago, which has a writing prompt & few pictures to guide the child to write paragraphs. Can anyone point in that direction?

[calandalsmom]

IEW gave my reluctant writers a method which allowed them to really unlock their creativity.

 

Pudewa has the kids re-write fables from Aesop using key word outlines.

 

To spice these up you can allow the kids the opportunity to change the characters and the setting or any other detail. Suddenly the child has an original piece and there was no complaining!

 

I have a version of "Belling the cat" which is now an original piece about some pigs who were left alone by their farmer. A wolf attacked their sty and ate all but 3. a young pig suggests they build a wall but an older wiser pig reminds him they do not have opposeable thumbs. :lol::lol::lol:

 

 

IEW has shown me how creative my kids can be. Last year Id have said they were not capable of creative writing and probably wouldnt ever produce any.

[coralloyd]

If you are going to do cw, I would suggest drawing a shape/swiggly line and ask her to draw a picture around it. Then have her write something about her picture. I do this with my dd ever-so-often. She likes that she has a starting point. The shape sparks a picture idea the picture starts a story idea. However, I would not push if if she is still resitant.

[hscherger]

yes, definitely read what SWB has to say on the subject of creative writing. we all have to write competently, but we certainly don't all have to write creatively.

 

besides, there is really no way to 'make' a kid write creatively. you can make her complete the assignment, and you can even make her lengthen them a bit, but you can't make her be creative. and there's no harm done if she's not.

 

:iagree:

[tarana]

IEW gave my reluctant writers a method which allowed them to really unlock their creativity.

 

Pudewa has the kids re-write fables from Aesop using key word outlines.

 

To spice these up you can allow the kids the opportunity to change the characters and the setting or any other detail. Suddenly the child has an original piece and there was no complaining!

 

IEW has shown me how creative my kids can be. Last year Id have said they were not capable of creative writing and probably wouldnt ever produce any.

 

What does IEW stand for?

Changing characaters seems like a great idea. I will give it a try

 

If you are going to do cw, I would suggest drawing a shape/swiggly line and ask her to draw a picture around it. Then have her write something about her picture. I do this with my dd ever-so-often. She likes that she has a starting point. The shape sparks a picture idea the picture starts a story idea. However, I would not push if if she is still resitant.

I will definetly try drawing something. She will need me to decipher the picture, since I draw pretty badly.

Edited October 19, 2009 by tarana

[jonnia]

You have already gotten some good advice from other posters here. I want to add a little encouragement. My 7 yr-old son has always been an extremely reluctant writer. I have only required a bare minimum from him in the way of writing, though I will often dictate for him as he composes his own thoughts. Just within the past couple of weeks, he has suddenly developed a passion for writing and drawing - all on his own! I firmly believe that he just was not yet ready before - definitely not willing! Be patient. :)

[SilverMoon]

I don't expect my 7yos to write creatively. Copywork and narration are more than enough for that age. :)

[MerryAtHope]

I think I should clarify. When I said creative writing, I don't expect her to write a whole page, but a few (2-3) whole sentences, instead of one partial sentence. Like one of you said "Competent writer"

I am sure she is capable of journalling things like what fun things she did during the weekend.

Like I said before she is a bad speller, so writing a few sentences may help her improve her sounding out the word.

 

I just need a way to motivate her better. I saw some books a long time ago, which has a writing prompt & few pictures to guide the child to write paragraphs. Can anyone point in that direction?

 

I'd have her write orally instead. 7 is very young, and even a few sentences is a lot for many kids this age. They have to think about how to form letters, how to spell, how to form thoughts into ideas and sentences, grammar, capitalization, how to organize--and they really don't have the life experience to draw from that creative writing demands. All of this can seem really overwhelming to a child. If you want to work on story-telling skills, do that orally, and that work will translate into writing when she's older. If you want to work on spelling, handwriting, grammar etc..., I would separate those skills out from the writing process by doing copywork or dictation--which also builds stamina and good writing skills. While a few 7 yo's may be able to do what you want, many will struggle with it and just end up hating writing even if they are able to do it.

 

Merry :-)

[Haiku]

Three sentences on a given topic is no big deal to you but I think you are seeing that it is a big deal to her.

 

Exactly. The entire idea of Writing With Ease is that writing is composed of two separate skills that don't always come easily for a child. One skill is deciding what to say. That is why the child narrates and you copy it for her. The other skill is getting it on paper. That is why the child does copywork. The child is getting practice both in formulating what to say and in the conventions of writing. These skills are practice separately for the first year and become more integrated as the program progresses.

 

My seven year old, as I mentioned, is an avid creative writer, but she has still benefited enormously from WWE (she's on year 2). My son, as I mentioned, is not a creative writer and has struggled quite a bit with writing. WWE is designed for a kid like him and he is definitely benefiting from it. We are only on week 7 of year 1 and I can already see a huge difference in the quality of his narrations, and his handwriting is improving, as well.

 

As much as you want your dd to get those two or three sentences out, it sounds like she is showing exactly the types of problems that WWE was written to address.

 

Tara

[Ummto4]

I'm confused here. Do you mean just writing three original sentences ?

Or making up stories as in crafting stories ?

 

My son can summarize history and write his summary down (2-3 short original sentences max), e.g. Hammurabi was a good king. His people loved him. Or anything in that tune (KWIM?).

 

If I wanted to prompt him to craft a story (not write, craft), I would give him a prompt in forms of picture study. This boy has a wild imagination and he likes bizarre stories, so this activity delights him. I sometimes wrote them down, edit with him and asked him to copy.

 

I think part of the reason why he can readily make stories and telling them comfortably is because he's been exposed to different types of stories and also because we did a lot of narration for his first grade (and it still continues).

 

 

HTH.

[calandalsmom]

Public schooled first- second graders are expected to produce 3 sentences with a writing prompt. I was always shocked by that expectation.

 

I think narration would be a better idea as someone up thread said.

 

IEW is Institute for Excellence in Writing and I think 7 is probably a bit too young to even try it though next year you might like it.

[EKS]

I wouldn't try to get a reluctant 7yo to write creatively or in a journal.

 

I would use something very straightforward and gentle like WWE and later perhaps something like IEW.

[thowell]

I would have to agree with the other post. While we have not been able to afford WWE right now I have been able to piece things together myself. At the beginning I wanted dd to right a few sentences about what we had read. This was impossible so I moved to, write about anything you want. That too was impossible. So then I got on board. She has copywork I print up for her from really good books or poems. She has dictation I take from her Mcguffey readers and then when we read I have her narrate to me as I collect and write her thoughts in sentence format for her. She is always amazed at how her thoughts come together on paper but she is not able just yet to do this on her own. Maybe try some other options for awhile to get a break and explore this option when she is ready.

[Colleen in NS]

If you read this http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/media/downloads/pdfsamples/wwesample.pdf you will get all the info. on the previously recommended CD, plus more.

[tarana]

I'm confused here. Do you mean just writing three original sentences ?

Or making up stories as in crafting stories ?

 

My son can summarize history and write his summary down (2-3 short original sentences max), e.g. Hammurabi was a good king. His people loved him. Or anything in that tune (KWIM?).

 

If I wanted to prompt him to craft a story (not write, craft), I would give him a prompt in forms of picture study. This boy has a wild imagination and he likes bizarre stories, so this activity delights him. I sometimes wrote them down, edit with him and asked him to copy.

 

I think part of the reason why he can readily make stories and telling them comfortably is because he's been exposed to different types of stories and also because we did a lot of narration for his first grade (and it still continues).

 

 

HTH.

 

I will be happy with just 3 short sentences. I really don't care if they are not about the same subject. I am just asking for an effort.

She hates copying from a book. Says it is for Kindergarteners. Dictation, she won't even write a word. She is not intrested in oral story telling either and me writing - too babyish! But I will keep trying.

 

I know she is capable of much more than that, since this summer she has written atleast 1/2 dozen stories (each 1 page length - 25 lines) in a student notebook all by herself. Last year she used to write a journal 3-5 sentences with a picture, 3 times a week.

 

I feel she needs some way to make the effort again. Some different format than what we have used before. Maybe more prompts with pictures.

 

I will look at IEW & WWE to see what thay can offer.

[tarana]

If you read this http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/media/downloads/pdfsamples/wwesample.pdf you will get all the info. on the previously recommended CD, plus more.

 

Thankyou. I am checking this out.

I am waitlisted in the librarry for the book suggested by the other posters.

[plimsoll]

Before the age of 9, trying to make my son write was like pulling teeth. Once he hit 9, things took off and he did very well. So you may want to just wait.

 

Oral narrations at that age are a good preparation for writing, as is dictation. You may even let her do some copywork on the computer as a way to develop typing skills. Then when she's really ready to write, she'll be comfortable using the computer.

 

I believe that separating the development of handwriting skills from the development of composition skills was key to our later success. Once I let my son do his writing on the computer, he found it much easier.

 

Before the age of 9, the only thing we had any slight success with was writing from pictures. We used the pictures in Emma Serl's two books, Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons. We were doing other things for grammar, usage, and vocabulary, so this is all we really used these books for.

 

Once my son hit 9, he changed. Suddenly the writing part of his brain became functional. We breezed through CW Aesop and also did IEW's SWI-A. Both were very successful, in part because these programs eliminate the thorny problem for youngsters of trying to figure out what to write. At that age, not many kids are bursting with original writing ideas - programs based on imitation like IEW, CW Aesop, Writing Tales, and Imitation in Writing are ideal, IMO.

 

Hope this information is useful to you.

Edited October 20, 2009 by plimsoll

[plimsoll]

Oops - I just reread your post about her having written stories successfully before. So please take my comments about age 9 with a grain of salt - it may be your daughter has a flair for writing and just needs something to inspire her.

 

You may want to look at the writing from pictures exercises in Emma Serl's books and also the approach used by CW Aesop, Writing Tales, etc. You take some minimal notes on a good story (a single-level outline was all we ever did when my son was 9, i.e., a bunch of bullet points), then you rewrite the story in your own words. You can change the characters, add description, add dialogue, etc. to personalize it. You can revise to look for synonyms, replace words you'd like to never see used, and replace passive descriptions with action.

 

There is also a book called "Story Starters" that you may want to look at. It is geared towards an older audience, but you may be able to adapt some of it. The Emma Serl books I mentioned earlier also have "story starter" type exercises in them - if you can get them from the library to see if they'll work for you before buying them....

 

I would still suggest letting her use the computer for writing, since it's so much easier to make changes, add dialogue, change words, etc. on the computer.

[Colleen in NS]

While they overlap a lot the WWE stuff and the WWOF lecture are different and both very useful so I would still get the lecture, even if you are going to read WWE.

 

(slight sidetrack...) How do you see them as different? I've listened to the CD many times, taken notes on it, and then read the essay in WWE (then bought the book). When I read the essay, I asked SWB somewhere here if it was the CD fleshed out (because it seemed that way to me) and she said yes. I see the essay as filling in all the blanks of the CD. To me, the only thing different about the CD is that you hear her voice and the subtle nuances that come with that. Other than that, I think the essay says everything from the CD, plus more.