How Parents Can Help With Writing At Home
- Let your child write what she wants to write. She doesn’t even have to share it with you!
- Encourage your child to talk about what they will write about before they write it.
- Celebrate writing successes! Share stories about your child’s writing with friends and relatives.
- Give your child a pretty or decorative journal in which to write.
- Provide pencils, pens, markers, crayons, scissors, and different kinds of paper for your child to use in writing. Kids love to decorate what they have written too!
- Help your child make a simple book for a finished piece of writing. All you need is paper for the covers, and the story pages. Just staple them or bind them with string.
- Provide lots of different opportunities for writing. These could be letters to friends or relatives, crossword puzzles, songs or poetry, plays, shopping lists, or short sticky notes to people in the family.
- Let your child write in their own style. Let them be creative!
- Expect that spelling or punctuation that has been taught is correct. Help with handwriting that is not legible.
- Be careful when thinking about assigning writing for punishment. This may cause a child to associate writing with negative things.