Writing help kids
How To Improve Writing Skills For Kids: 14 Easy Tips
Writing — it’s an important form of communication and a key part of education. But in today’s technology-driven world, kids aren’t given many opportunities to practise and improve their ability to write. This leaves many parents wondering how to improve their child’s writing skills.
It takes time to develop strong writing skills, and it can be a tough task to accomplish. Thankfully, there are many things that parents can do at home to help improve children’s writing skills.
From fun activities to daily reading and writing sessions, these tips on how to improve kids’ writing skills will help your child build his or her skills in no time.
Improve your child’s communication skills with these simple and fun kids’ writing activities.
14 Activities To Improve Kids’ Writing Skills
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Read Up
Regular reading is a stepping stone to better writing and helps kids’ strengthen their writing skills.
It helps expand children’s vocabulary and shows them different ways of using words. This also makes it easier for them to use these words in their own writing.
With younger children, make sure you’re reading together every day and encouraging their love of reading as they grow. Start reading early—many children who devour books grow up to become strong writers themselves. Tweet This
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Make it Fun!
Play games and activities that encourage writing. Crossword puzzles and word games are great for everyone. Little ones will especially like the “write the word” game: where they search for items and write down the word when they find each item.
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Create Writing Worksheets
For young children just learning to write, try creating a worksheet where they can trace letters and words. Write out letters and words, place another piece of paper on top, and have your child trace onto the blank piece of paper. You can also create a connect-the-dots game by having your child trace along dotted lines and then tell you which letter or word she or he finds.
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Try Different Materials
Switch it up by writing with something other than a pen or pencil. Sidewalk chalk on the driveway, finger painting, or a salt writing tray are all fun writing activities that will also help build kids’ writing skills.
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Write Letters
Today, writing letters is a bit of a lost art. Encourage your child to write letters to friends or family members. Distant family members will especially love receiving handwritten letters and it’s a great way to work on improving writing skills for kids.
Pen-pals are also a fun idea, or you can even write letters to each other and leave them around the house to find!
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Encourage Journalling
Keeping a journal is a great way to express thoughts and ideas while also working on improving children’s writing skills. Plan an outing to pick a fun journal with your child and encourage them to write in it as much as possible. Make it a part of his or her daily routine.
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Create a Writing Space
Set aside a little corner in your house that is completely devoted to writing. Having an area dedicated solely to writing will help free your child from distractions so he or she can focus on practicing writing skills.
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Invest Time
Make sure your child knows you’re available to help with spelling or proofreading whenever he or she needs it. When you make writing time a priority for you, it will make it easier for your child to improve his or her writing skills.
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Connect Their Interests
Think about your son or daughter’s favourite book series. Or maybe he or she is obsessed with dinosaurs. Whatever his or her interests, connect them to writing. Have your child write a new short story about his or her favourite characters, or let him or her create a story all about dinosaurs.
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Create Story Prompts
A fun way to improve kids’ creative writing skills is to have them write short stories.
Cut out pictures from a magazine with different characters or locations, or write down different words. Place these in a container or glue them to cards to use as writing prompts for creating a unique story. This also makes a fun activity for the whole family to join in.
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Model It
There’s no better way to learn something than to see someone else doing it. Let your children see you writing, often. When writing is a normal part of your daily life, it will come more naturally to them. Anything goes: a simple grocery list or letter to the teacher, holiday or thank you cards, or even a sweet note to your child.
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Use Technology to Your Advantage
There’s no getting around the fact that technology plays a huge part in our lives. Use it to your advantage by having your child create a blog. This can help your child work on improving his or her writing skills by encouraging frequent writing habits.
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Make it Part of Your Daily Routine
Make sure there’s time each day to do some writing in one way or another.
Whether it’s writing a grocery list, writing in a journal or composing a letter, practicing writing every day will go a long way to improving kids’ writing skills. -
Praise Their Work
Show lots of interest in your child’s writing and stories. Ask questions, celebrate when he or she brings home a good piece from school, and encourage his or her writing as much as possible.
Improving Writing Skills Can Be Fun
Writing is an important practical life skill. While developing great writing skills requires lots of time and patience, you can help your child with these simple writing exercises for kids.
Lots of reading, frequent writing time in a special writing area, and incorporating fun writing activities and games will all go a long way to giving writing skills a boost.
Need Extra Help?
If your child needs extra help improving his or her writing skills, Oxford Learning can help. Our English tutoring program helps develop kids’ writing and comprehension skills, from word recognition to paragraph writing.
Contact us today!
Related Resources
5 Reasons Writing By Hand Is Good For The Brain
Understanding Literacy & Your Child
5 Ways To Help Kids Learn At Home
Helping Young Children Develop Strong Writing Skills
On this page
- Why is writing important?
- What Can You Do?
- Ideas for Parents: How to Help Your Child Become a Stronger Writer
Note: This article was adapted from two articles written by the U.S. Department of Education and was compiled by Colorín Colorado.
Writing is an important part of our daily lives. It is, however, a difficult skill to learn and master. By getting a head start with some simple activities, you can help your child begin to develop her writing skills at an early age. By doing so you will be contributing to her future success as a student and as an adult while teaching her how to express herself.
In this article, we provide some reasons that writing is an important skill for people of all ages, as well as a list of suggestions that will help your child become a stronger writer.
Why is writing important?
Writing is practical.
Every day, we need to write in order to complete our tasks, whether we are filling out a form at the doctor's office or writing an important letter. These tasks require us to write clearly, and organize information effectively.
Writing is an important element of a student's education.
Whether students are writing by hand or on the computer, many assignments and exams require students to write short answers or longer essays as a way of assessing what they have learned. As students get older, they will be expected to show more sophisticated writing skills, and to complete more sophisticated tasks through their writing. In addition, many colleges and universities require students to write essays as part of their admissions application.
Writing can be an important element of an employee's job.
Employees in many kinds of jobs are required to write on a daily basis.
Perhaps they are taking phone messages and doing administrative work, or writing research reports and newspaper articles. Whatever the task, their ability to do their job well may depend on their ability to write. Many job applicants also must submit a resumé and a letter of application when applying to a new job.
Writing is an important form of communication.
Writing letters and emails is a common way of keeping in touch with our friends, relatives, and professional colleagues. Writing is frequently the final stage in communication when we want to leave no room for doubt, which is why we write and sign contracts, leases, and treaties when we make important decisions.
Writing can be an important outlet.
Many people find writing to be therapeutic, and a helpful way to express feelings that cannot be expressed so easily by speaking.
What Can You Do?
It's important to remember that writing can be as difficult a subject to teach and assess as it is to learn.
Many students have trouble writing with clarity, coherence, and organization, and this can discourage them from writing if they feel frustrated.
That's where parent involvement can make a big difference. Encouraging your child to develop strong writing skills at a young age, and to become a better writer as she gets older, can have a lifelong positive impact on her writing, and may make writing an easier and more enjoyable process for her
To get you started, the Department of Education offers a number of ideas of things you can do help your child become a stronger writer. While many of these ideas apply to younger children, they can be adapted for older children as well. To learn more about ways to support your children if they continue to struggle with writing in middle and high school, read Tips for Parents of Struggling Adolescent Writers.
Ideas for Parents: How to Help Your Child Become a Stronger Writer
What You Need
- Pencils, crayons, or markers
- Yarn or ribbon
- Writing paper or notebook
- Cardboard or heavy paper
- Construction paper
- Safety scissors
Before getting started
Provide a place
It's important for your child to have a good place to write, such as a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface.
It's also crucial to have good lighting.
Provide the materials
Provide plenty of paper (lined and unlined) and things to write with, including pencils, pens, and crayons.
Brainstorm
Talk with your child as much as possible about her ideas and impressions, and encourage her to describe people and events to you.
Activities for young children
Encourage the child to draw and to discuss her drawings
Ask your child questions about her drawings such as:
"What is the boy doing?"
"Does the house look like ours?"
"Can you tell a story about this picture?"
Show an interest in, and ask questions about, the things your child says, draws, and may try to write.
Ask your child to tell you simple stories as you write them down
Copy the story as your child tells it, without making changes.
Ask her to clarify anything you don't understand.
Encourage your child to write her name
Practice writing her name with her, and point out the letters in her name when you see them in other places (on signs, in stores, etc.). She may start by only writing the first few letters of her name, but soon the rest will follow.
Use games
There are numerous games and puzzles that help children with spelling while increasing their vocabulary. Some of these may include crossword puzzles, word games, anagrams, and cryptograms designed especially for children. Flash cards are fun to use too, and they're easy to make at home.
Turn your child's writing into books
Paste her drawings and writings on pieces of construction paper. For each book, make a cover out of heavier paper or cardboard, and add special art, a title, and her name as author. Punch holes in the pages and cover, and bind the book together with yarn or ribbon.
Day-to-Day Activities
Make sure your child sees you writing
She will learn about writing by watching you write. Talk with her about your writing so that she begins to understand why writing is important and the many ways it can be used.
Encourage your child to write, even if she's scribbling
Give your child opportunities to practice writing by helping her sign birthday cards, write stories, and make lists.
As your child gets older, write together
Have your child help you with the writing you do, including writing letters, shopping lists, and messages.
Suggest note-taking
Encourage your child to take notes on trips or outings, and to describe what she saw. This could include a description of nature walks, a boat ride, a car trip, or other events that lend themselves to note-taking.
Encourage copying
If your child likes a particular song, suggest that she learn the words by writing them down.
Also encourage copying favorite poems or quotations from books and plays.
Encourage your child to read her stories out loud
As your child gets older, ask her to share her stories with you. Listen carefully without interrupting, and give her positive feedback about her ideas and her writing!
Hang a family message board in the kitchen
Offer to write notes there for your child. Be sure that she finds notes left there for her.
Help your child write letters and emails to relatives and friends
These may include thank you notes or just a special note to say hello. Be sure to send your child a letter or card once in awhile too so that she is reminded of how special it is to get a letter in the mail. Consider finding a pen pal for your child.
Encourage keeping a journal
This is excellent writing practice as well as a good outlet for venting feelings. Encourage your child to write about things that happen at home and school, about people she likes or dislikes and why, and about things she wants to remember and do.
If she wants to share the journal with you, read the entries and discuss them together.
Things to remember
Allow time
Help your child spend time thinking about a writing project or exercise. Good writers often spend a lot of time thinking, preparing, and researching before starting to write. Your child may dawdle, sharpen a pencil, get papers ready, or look up the spelling of a word. Be patient — this may all be part of her preparation.
Respond to your child's writing
Respond to the ideas your child expresses verbally or in writing. Make it clear that you are interested in what the writing conveys, which means focusing on "what" the child has written rather than "how" it was written. It's usually wise to ignore minor errors, particularly at the stage when your child is just getting ideas together.
Praise your child's writing
Take a positive approach and find good things to say about your child's writing.
Is it accurate? Descriptive? Original? Creative? Thoughtful? Interesting?
Avoid writing for your child
Don't write a paper for your child that will be turned in as her work, and don't rewrite your child's work. Meeting a writing deadline, taking responsibility for the finished product, and feeling ownership of it are also important parts of the writing process.
Help your child with her writing as she gets older
Ask your child questions that will help her clarify the details of her stories and assignments as they get longer, and help her organize her thoughts. Talk about the objective of what she is writing.
Provide your child with spelling help when she's ready for it
When your child is just learning how to read and write, she may try different ways to write and spell. Our job is to encourage our children's writing so they will enjoy putting their thoughts and ideas on paper. At first, your child may begin to write words the way that she hears them.
For example, she might write "haf" instead of "have", "frn" instead of "friend", and "Frd" instead of "Fred." This actually is a positive step in developing her phonemic awareness. Keep practicing with her, and model the correct spelling of words when you write. As your child gets older and begins to ask more questions about letters and spelling, provide her with the help she needs.
Practice, practice, practice
Writing well takes lots of practice, so make sure your child doesn't get discouraged too easily. It's not easy! Give her plenty of opportunities to practice so that she has the opportunity to improve.
Read together
Reading and writing support each other. The more your child does of each, the better she will be at both. Reading can also stimulate your child to write about her own family or school life. If your child has a particular favorite story or author, ask her why she thinks that story or that person's writing is special.
As you read and write more with your child, you will be building an important foundation, and taking steps that will help your child to become a better reader, writer, and student. Your efforts now will make a difference — and it may be just the difference that your child needs to succeed!
References
U.S. Department of Education. Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Archived Information. "Help Your Child Learn to Write Well." http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Writing/index.html.
U.S. Department of Education. Parent Section: Helping Your Child Become a Reader. "Write On!" http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/part5.html#write.
Reprints
You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Colorín Colorado and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact [email protected].
Major support provided by our founding partner, the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
With generous support provided by the National Education Association.
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How to help your child write words correctly
Writing is a very complex process in which several higher mental functions are involved at once:
● First you need to mentally divide the word into sounds;
● You need to remember which letter corresponds to a particular sound;
● conjure up the image of a letter, that is, remember how it is written;
● The brain gives a command to the hand;
● apply the appropriate rule, and part of the spelling is based on the selection of a test word, that is, the memory is again included in the work.
If at some stage a failure occurs, then the child begins to write with errors, despite all the efforts of teachers and parents.
Errors in writing are divided into specific speech therapy and errors into learned and unlearned rules of the Russian language.
Dysgraphia is a partial violation of written speech caused by the lack of formation of higher mental functions. The child will repeat the same mistakes, even if he learns all the rules of the Russian language. He simply cannot apply them where necessary. According to a rough estimate, dysgraphia in one way or another is observed in almost a third of primary school students.
Not all schoolchildren, especially younger ones, clearly understand why they need literacy. Therefore, the parent should explain why it is important to write without errors. For example, a literate person makes a good impression on others, people have more confidence in his professional qualities, etc. Good motivation will allow the child to be more attentive in class and learn the rules more diligently.
And the result will not be long in coming.
Check your homework
To notice the mistake in time and work it out at home, check your homework. It is useful for the child to verbally formulate answers and explain by what rule he wrote this or that spelling. So the student will be able to notice mistakes and memorize the theory faster.
Get your child interested in reading
People have long understood that reading books improves literacy. For the development of literacy, scientists advise schoolchildren to read, first of all, classical literature. Therefore, make sure that the child does not ignore the reading of works of art according to the school curriculum and does not forget about books on weekends or during holidays.
Teach the student to understand the rules
We emphasize: I did not crammed, but taught with understanding.
When reading the rules, it is important to memorize a clear algorithm why a certain word is written according to one paragraph of the rule, and the second word is written differently. For this, the parent does not have to be a teacher. It is enough to take an example from the rule and disassemble it step by step, as is done in the explanation. Suppose it is difficult for a child to remember why it is necessary to write the letter O in the word “mountain”. To do this, the word must be checked by choosing a single root for it or putting it in another form so that the emphasis falls on O.
Write dictations at home
It is not necessary to force a child to write poems every day. It is enough to dictate 3-5 sentences a day and parse the words in which mistakes were made. Even such a half-hour practice trains literacy well. Of course, it is better to dictate not just any text, but one oriented specifically to the age of your child.
Dictation is a terrible word for many schoolchildren. It would seem that it can be difficult to write a dictation. It turns out that this little word hides probably the most difficult and frequently used type of literacy test for our students.
Dictation is not the most pleasant job, but you can't do without it. Starting from the first grade, schoolchildren write dictations. First alphabetic, then syllabic, and then many different types of dictations appear: selective, explanatory, educational, and control.
How to prepare a child for dictation and help him cope with the fear of this work? Unfortunately, it is impossible to prepare for the dictation in one day. Any dictation is the result of long work and training. Therefore, if you want your child to write dictations correctly, you need to prepare for long work. But don't worry. The wolf is not as scary as it seems. The work, of course, will be long, but not very difficult.
Regular reading of fiction
To begin with, it should be noted that the more a child reads, the better he copes with this type of work.
Therefore, it is necessary to start preparing for dictations by reading books. There are many different exercises that develop the spelling vigilance of a person, i.e. the ability to notice and remember how a word is spelled. A person with spelling vigilance writes words correctly, without thinking about the rules of the language, automatically. At the same time, visual memory is also of great importance, which can also be successfully developed by various game exercises.
The skill of writing under dictation must be developed and consolidated. And for this you need to write small dictations yourself at home more often. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to buy special collections of dictations; you can use a Russian textbook. Choose an exercise that the child has not yet passed or has passed for a long time and managed to forget. And dictate, and the child writes.
Why is it convenient to use a textbook? Because it uses words for the studied spellings and sentences of a certain level of complexity. You consolidate knowledge of spelling, vocabulary words and train your child in writing a dictation.
When writing a dictation, an adult first reads the entire text so that the child has an idea of what he will write. If you do not write a text, but simply separate sentences, then we read by sentence. Then we read one sentence and start writing. At the same time, for the 1st-beginning of the 2nd grade, it is better to focus the child's attention on each word: "The first word - Has come." When the child wrote, "The next word is cold." "The next word is winter. The sentence is over." So you draw the child's attention that the words are written separately and "remind" that a period must be put at the end of the sentence. In addition, when pronouncing words for first graders, you need to say them the way they are written, and not the way we speak. We will dictate: "The cow gives milk. The raven sat on the oak."
When the child has written down all the sentences, you need to check the dictation.
You dictate everything from the beginning, and the child checks each letter and word. In order for him to do this better, you can suggest that the child imagine that this is someone else's notebook and carefully check each letter.
For students in grades 2-4, it is no longer necessary to separate words, but it is desirable that the child count the words when you read. If there are prepositions and conjunctions, then it should be noted that there are small helper words.
It is important that when writing a dictation, the child needs to pronounce everything that he writes. Speaking writing helps to avoid many mistakes and teaches the child to control his work. In grades 2-4, when children are already learning the rules for writing words, it is necessary that the child explain the spelling of dubious letters and orally select test words.
Perhaps now it seems to you that it is long and difficult. It can be difficult the first 2-3 times. Then the child will learn, get used to it and it will become a habit, by the way, very useful.
Try writing dictations with comments and the results will not keep you waiting.
Literature:
1. How to teach a child to write without errors - URL:
https://adukar.by/news/kak-nauchit-rebyonka-pisat-bez-oshibok-sovety-prepodavatelya-adukar
Alimardonova Lyudmila Vladimirovna Toporova, teacher-speech therapist of the regional center for distance education of children with disabilities - a structural subdivision of the KGBOU "Altai Regional Pedagogical Lyceum-Boarding", Ph.D. ped. Sciences
How children remember the spelling of complex words
“How it sounds is how it is spelled” the principle of the Owl, and by the way it is not bad, because Winnie the Pooh was very upset by long and difficult words.
This is a very convenient principle, but, alas, it does not coincide with the laws of the Russian language.
What to do?
Remember. This is the only way to write competently "naughty" dictionary words to which none of the rules of the Russian language apply. You can help a child only by turning on interest.
5 games so that difficult vocabulary words do not upset kids!
Learn the Word
Learn the word by one consonant letter: krndsh, brz, Moscow, stkn, jrny, stlts.
Collect Words
Collect the word from scattered syllables: fe, kon, ta - candy; ko, lo, yab - an apple; neither, earth, ka, la - strawberries.
Shopping
Olya and Anya went shopping. Olya took vegetables and fruits with an unverifiable unstressed vowel O (cucumber, apple, carrot), Anya - with A (cabbage, orange, zucchini).
"Joke Questions-Riddles"
1) In what words does cancer live? (breakfast, rocket)
2) Which words contain notes? (tomato, guys, beans, road, lilac)
3) Name the words in which the numbers are hidden.
(Motherland, once, magpie, showcase)
4) All words are good, but where did the snakes hide? (dinner)
5) What words does the crow like? (potato, painting, pencil, pocket, carriage)
"Dictionary hide and seek"
Find vocabulary words in the text and write them down.
For example, an excerpt from the poem by S. Ya. Marshak "Night Page"
In front of you is the night page.
The capital is shrouded in darkness.
Trams go to rest,
Trolleybuses are rushing home...
By the 3rd grade, children must write 200 vocabulary words without errors. By the end of schooling, their number is in the thousands. You will find all vocabulary words that a child should know by the 4th grade in the manual by O. V. Uzorova and E. A. Nefyodova “Absolute literacy in 15 minutes. 1-4 grades»
11/21/2018 Authors
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