Children need to be able to communicate appropriately in written form. Unfortunately this no longer means strictly pen on paper and so things such as writing and perfect penmanship are almost considered a thing of the past but this does not mean that your child should be allowed to scribble and work untidily. Writing requires concentration to form letters and keep them aligned, as well as needing the child to express their knowledge and monitor their spelling. Here are some suggestions on fun writing exercises for children.
- Practice writing skills by sending an email to friends weekly or even writing letters and you could purchase some fancy paper and envelopes for this.
- Cut words from a magazine and encourage your child to use them as part of a story. They can write part of the story and then stick in the words from the magazine to continue the story.
- Provide a variety of ideas for them to write about.
- Discuss story topics with your children and make up stories together so they have something to write about when they get to school if they need it.
- Remember to praise every effort they make and focus on what is right about what they’ve written rather than what is wrong.
- Draw or cut out cartoon pictures and post them on to a page and encourage your child to create the speech bubbles for each character.
- Provided steps for them to follow in terms of completing assignments such as the introduction, the body and the conclusion of the essay.
- Help them to create mind maps (there are many books available as well as Internet sites to give you this information), in order to allow them to plan what they want to say and not lose track of their thoughts.
- It’s never a bad idea for your child to write something out in rough, check through for errors (be very careful about how you help your child do this) and then write or type the work out neatly
