Writing ideas - what are some of the ways you get your little ones to write?

[parias1126]

I'm looking for different ideas on how to get my DD to write. I thought we could compile a list of different things we do with our kids that helps to bring out their creative side and gets them motivated to want to write. My 8 yr old DD really needs some more help with her spelling and I thought getting her to write outside of her curriculum or WWE might help.

[Homemama2]

I have my 8 yr. old pick one friend or relative to write a letter to once a month

[Mommyfaithe]

Not all kids are creative writers...some are naturally. That said...to get my kids writing, they need to be able to write fluently ad easily. They need to be able to think in full sentences, say those sentences and then put those sentences on paper.

 

It starts with copy work and narration.

Copywork starts with penmanship...letters.

Copy one or 2 words.

Copy a simple sentence

Copy a complex sentence

copy 2 sentences

copy several sentences or a paragraph, or a poem.

 

Narration. tell me one thing you remember.

Who was this passage about?

What did they do?

 

I write their sentence, they copy.

 

From there...dictation happens

 

From there imitation in writing...I find something interesting for child to read. One beautiful sentence. Child copies. We parse...talk about the structure...write one similar using our own words.

 

OR: We read, outline, re-write from outline.

 

Using this mode we can read and outline friendly letters, business letters, poems, essays etc. learning the structures of these forms of writing.

 

This brings us right up to 8th or 9th grade.

 

So, any type of creative writing you would like your child to do would begin with a really good example, then an imitation, then an original.

 

Does this help??

 

Faithe

[ourjourneys]

We have fairies that come to visit us every once in a while and leave notes for the kids. So, the kids in turn will write letters to them and ask them questions to answer. It is a lot of fun.

[Guest]

We are using WWE also and so I don't really worry too much about additional writing at this point. I liked an idea I got from TOG's Writing Aids about a "Draw and Caption" worksheet and so I use that idea. I use it for TOG, for science (BFSU) and whenever I get the chance. I just get Adrian to draw something about what he learned and then write about it. I am happy with that for this year so far. Adrian also loves using our Lauri letters to spell words and does that on his own all the time. We use Horizons for Phonics and ETC and so he has a lot of writing there also. Just yesterday he was asked to write a story using some words in a word list for Horizons Phonics. It is the main reason why I don't stress too much over it :).

[Wyndie]

We have fairies that come to visit us every once in a while and leave notes for the kids. So, the kids in turn will write letters to them and ask them questions to answer. It is a lot of fun.

 

This is exactly how it works in our house too. DD9 has a penpal that she is rather haphazard with; however she will write her fairy a letter every day. Plenty of opportunities there. :D

[FO4UR]

Not all kids are creative writers...some are naturally. That said...to get my kids writing, they need to be able to write fluently ad easily. They need to be able to think in full sentences, say those sentences and then put those sentences on paper.

 

It starts with copy work and narration.

Copywork starts with penmanship...letters.

Copy one or 2 words.

Copy a simple sentence

Copy a complex sentence

copy 2 sentences

copy several sentences or a paragraph, or a poem.

 

Narration. tell me one thing you remember.

Who was this passage about?

What did they do?

 

I write their sentence, they copy.

 

From there...dictation happens

 

From there imitation in writing...I find something interesting for child to read. One beautiful sentence. Child copies. We parse...talk about the structure...write one similar using our own words.

 

OR: We read, outline, re-write from outline.

 

Using this mode we can read and outline friendly letters, business letters, poems, essays etc. learning the structures of these forms of writing.

 

This brings us right up to 8th or 9th grade.

 

So, any type of creative writing you would like your child to do would begin with a really good example, then an imitation, then an original.

 

Does this help??

 

Faithe

 

 

 

This is my plan.:iagree:

 

We are in the copywork and narration stage. I find though, that my 7yo loves to draw and write about what he draws. I think he may be one of those natural creative writing lovers.

 

Sometimes I pull up a blank doc and type as fast as I can while he tells me stories. They are usually parts of books we've read mixed with his imaginative play scenarios. I go back through fixing grammar and spelling (b/c I have to type fast to keep up and I stink at typing). I put about a paragraph on a page and print it out for him to illustrate and staple together as a book. He loves this. I wouldn't require it, by any means...and it isn't technically "schoolwork."

 

If you want to hear a young child "writing," sit outside their door and listen to them playing alone. My dc use words very well (aka writing) when there is no pressure...the process quoted above is to help them take their words and get them on paper. No undue pressure. I like what SWB has to say on the subject. It makes so much sense.

[boscopup]

After listening to SWB's audio lecture on teaching elementary writing, I feel comfortable with not assigning any creative writing and not worrying about creative writing at all. This was reinforced when my son's journal from school came home on his last day of school, and half the pages had the writing prompt written and nothing else. :lol:

 

I'm finding that as he does more spelling and more copywork, he is more willing to write his own thoughts onto paper, but he's only 6.5, and I am not pushing the "writing own thoughts" stuff. At this point, he should be doing copywork and narrations (that I write for him). We'll occasionally write a letter to a friend or write a thank you note to someone, but that's the only "creative" writing we'll do, and even that is usually done with him dictating to me what he wants to write, then him copying what I wrote. Or in the case of thank you notes, it's me thinking of what to say and him just copying it (the birthday thank you notes took forever last year... I'm glad I said "no gifts" on the party invites! It could have been so much worse!).

[mazakaal]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but my almost-7yo loves the rhyming game that I made up. I say a word, and he has to say a word that rhymes with it. Then he has to put the word he said into a sentence. Then I ask questions about his sentence to get him to improve it.

 

Here's an example of how it would work...

me: bat

ds: rat, The rat ran.

me: Where did the rat run?

ds: The rat ran through the field.

me: What kind of rat was it?

ds: The fat rat ran through the field.

me: When did it run?

ds: Yesterday the fat rat ran through the field.

me: Why did it run?

ds: Yesterday the fat rat ran through the field to try to catch the mouse.

me: What kind of mouse was it?

ds: Yesterday the fat rat ran through the field to try to catch the grey mouse.

 

He's gotten so good at it now that his initial sentence is usually pretty strong, and I just ask a couple of questions to add a bit of detail.

 

We do the whole thing orally, but you could have your dd write the final sentence.

[Farrar]

Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye has a lot of good ideas for this. There are a lot of little things for getting words on paper in creative ways for new writers in there.

[susankenny]

Dictation is wonderful. For creative writing, we created an email account for my daughter. She writes to her daddy, myself, and cousins, etc. It helps a lot.

 

Susan

[Poke Salad Annie]

We use the writing lessons in Sheldon's Primary Language Lessons. I start out the story on the dry-erase board, giving the first sentence, then my little guy adds to it. We each write a sentence going back and forth until we've reached the end. When we're finished, he copies it onto notebook paper--end of writing lesson for the day.

 

As we've progressed through these lessons, I've noticed that he doesn't need or want me to help any longer. Once we come up with the starter sentence, he's off and running with his writing.

[moonlight]

a couple of things we do...

 

we joined postcrossing.com and write postcards to people all over the world and in turn, you get postcards back from people everywhere. because we have moved overseas, we have also started being pen pals with friends back home to stay in touch...great way to stay in touch with grandparents or other family members too..

 

i've also made and decorated a journal jar that have fun journal prompts...sometimes that gets him interested enough to write about something...

 

hth,

seema

[Hedgehog]

We do WWE and R&S English so I think my DDs already do quite a bit of writing. I don't require them to do any creative writing for me, although I give them a lot of praise and interest if they choose to do something on their own. They free-write unless they ask for help with spellings etc. Recently DD11 wrote a short play version of the story of Esther, from the Bible. She also writes to her penpal around once every 3-4 weeks but again this is because she wants to do so. I don't think I'll be asking for any original, creative writing from any of them until around 8th grade.

[laughing lioness]

My 7 yo has penpals (dd's of Sunshine on this forum - HI FRIEND!) and the girls write back and forth. My dd loves getting snail mail and her older sis (20 yo) helps her write letters back. Very fun.

We've also used The 7 Sentence Story by Jenson.

We've also made books- my oldest was very into these. Basically re-writes of simple stories, fairy tales, etc. Staple or simply bind card stock together. Valerie Bendt (I think) has a whole book on how to make a book, but lots of paper craft books at the library have instructions for book binding and paper creations to decorate and write on.

Our older girls also enjoyed journaling in their photoalbums.

[2_girls_mommy]

I do a lot like Faithe above with my 1st grader, although we are not to dictation or outlining yet. Right now she does copywork and narration, writes personal letters to her penpal and thank you notes. She has a diary which every now and then she asks for help putting sentences in.

 

Once a year we do the PBS Go Writer's Contest (coming up soon.) This is a big writing and editing project.

 

My 3rd grader does the same as 1st grader, but writes her own longer narrations, letters, and has dictation now, etc. She does R&S 3, which includes writing. She does any writing projects in SOTW A.G. which she loves. She journals on her own in a diary on the back of her penmanship papers, though this is not assigned by me.

 

I once did some poetry writing assignments from What Your 2nd

Grader Needs to Know online lesson plans for a change of pace. She really enjoyed those, and still talks about the letter writing and poetry she learned from that unit.

[mcconnellboys]

When my kids were little, I often used creative writing prompts that followed the calendar (so lots of ideas were seasonal). There are a large variety of teacher calendars and workbooks that include such prompts.

[Tracy]

I recently came across a series of books called Making Books with Children with really cute ideas.

[JennyD]

I got some excellent ideas from Any Child Can Write, by Harvey Weiner.

[Little Nyssa]

Making labels-- even just one word-- for the pictures he draws.

Thank you notes.

Make a treasure map with labels/instructions.